Any ideas for a bulkhead for this kettle?

Evening all. Thought this might be a case where someone might have an idea/solution for my problem.

I have a large steam jacketed kettle sometimes used for a mashtun, and up til now I've used a silicon fda gasket material, with a thin ss sheet, finished off with lots of fda silicone around the edges.

For the bulkhead, I had a 90 brass elbow with 1/2" pipe thread & bazooka screens above, and a barb below with tube below (I know, should have taken a pic before I took it apart ;?).

I've attached pics and hope someone might suggest some type of bulkhead/drain system that will be removeable and/or cleanable, non-leaking, food grade, etc.

I've considered soldering, thin strips, etc., but hard to bend to fit, and don't want to do permanent damage if possible.

Thanks in advance for any ideas.

Dan F.
LAGERS/ FOSSILS

kydan47 said:

Evening all. Thought this might be a case where someone might have an idea/solution for my problem.

I have a large steam jacketed kettle sometimes used for a mashtun, and up til now I've used a silicon fda gasket material, with a thin ss sheet, finished off with lots of fda silicone around the edges.

For the bulkhead, I had a 90 brass elbow with 1/2" pipe thread & bazooka screens above, and a barb below with tube below (I know, should have taken a pic before I took it apart ;?).

I've attached pics and hope someone might suggest some type of bulkhead/drain system that will be removeable and/or cleanable, non-leaking, food grade, etc.

I've considered soldering, thin strips, etc., but hard to bend to fit, and don't want to do permanent damage if possible.

Thanks in advance for any ideas.

Dan F.
LAGERS/ FOSSILS

Click to expand...

I wish you had better pictures. Does the threaded portion of the fitting you have on the vessel, face forward forward or down. If it faces forward I would adapt to a compression male, insert a piece of tubing through the fitting on the kettle and secure the tubing with a compression nut and ferrule. On the unside I would secure the screen to the tube you inserted with a Swagelock to compression fitting. I don't know if this would work because the pictures don't really show the bulkhead fitting on the kettle.

Hey Sawdust,

I uploaded some pics to my member gallery which shows more of what I've got.

I've got it figured out that I need a bung with a 1/2" nipple, or nipple & hose thru the middle of the bung that can be pulled from the inside thru the pipe to the outside. Hope that makes sense.

Similar to a stopper with the tubing thru the middle pulled from the inside of a Gott type cooler - kind of wedged in from the inside to outside.

I could then attach the piping and bazooka screens on the inside, and a hose to drain to the outside. Just got to figure out how to make a bung that will fit snugly inside that pipe/drain.

Any ideas?

Silicone stopper and a flat washer, with the largest tube you can fit through the hole in the stopper.


B

Hey Coffee,

What is the flat washer for?

I'd like to run at least a 1/2" ID hose so probably need a hole of about 3/4" figuring 1/8" walls.

Need to take a measurement of the drain pipe for the size of the OD for the stopper, but that should be easy.

Could probably modify a universal drilled stopper.

Any leads for silicone stoppers with holes?

Thanks for the idea. Probably the way I'll go.

Dan F.