show me your homemade bulkhead fittings!

Hi everyone,
I have been lurking for months and decided to join. Anyways, I recently became the owner of 2 kegs, one stainless and one aluminum and am in the process of converting them on the "ultra cheap". So I am just wondering what kind of hardware store miracles you guys have put together to create your own bulkhead fittings. Lets see your creations!

Dan

Dan
It's hard to beat pre assembled tried and true kits from places like http://www.greatbargain.net/order/index.html
I know this is a DIY forum but I pressed the easy button. Most hardware stores will not have exactly the sized nipple washer etc that you are looking for. By all means take a look at his kits and use it as a guide.

Yeah man. I built a bulkhead for my MLT cooler conversion and even though I now know how to make one, I'll never make one myself again. You can buy it from a place like bargain fittings for roughly the same price without the headache of making it yourself.

bendavanza said:

Dan
It's hard to beat pre assembled tried and true kits from places like http://www.greatbargain.net/order/index.html
I know this is a DIY forum but I pressed the easy button. Most hardware stores will not have exactly the sized nipple washer etc that you are looking for. By all means take a look at his kits and use it as a guide.

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Oooh! Thanks for the link. I've been searching for weldless fittings.

I like the challenge of DIYing. I'm building a MLT in a square cooler right now with ideas from these forums. I found all of the parts to build my own bulkhead for about the same price as the greatbargains.com site mentioned above. The only thing I can't figure out is a good way to connect the 1/2" copper pipe of the manifold to the bulkhead on the inside of the cooler. I want something that can be disconnected easily in order to clean it. How have others done this? TIA.

You can use either a compression fitting or a "union".

I used a copper 1/2" threaded to sweat fitting, but I did not sweat it, it fits in ok. You could sweat it as long as you can rotate it freely. bargain fittings sells a pre-made one but that's simple hardware store parts.

bendavanza said:

I used a copper 1/2" threaded to sweat fitting, but I did not sweat it, it fits in ok. You could sweat it as long as you can rotate it freely. bargain fittings sells a pre-made one but that's simple hardware store parts.

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Wow. Thanks for the quick replies. I was looking for exactly this piece at my local Home Depot. They did not have it (or at least I didn't find it after looking for an hour. I'll try another hardware store today. Thanks for letting me know that such a piece exists.

I used the 1/2 threaded to sweat fitting as well - and an electric conduit 1/2" locknut on the other end (no fluid contact). Found a pack of nice fat o-rings in the faucet repair section. 2 brews in and no problems.

I used straight compression fittings. Just remove the olive ring and cut the lip of the compression nut. Add silicone and stainless washers for the modified side and that's that. total cost per fitting R16.00 ZAR converted to dollars $2.10