Round copper manifold question

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esp

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I just bought my 5gal round cooler to start building my all grain set up. I have a bunch of leftover soft copper tubing from some projects I've done around the house. What I can't seem to figure out is how to bend the copper tubing into a circle to fit into the bottom of the cooler. Tubing benders are great for 45's and 90's but they aren't great at making circles. The spring-like tubing protectors work well at keeping kinks out, but it's hard to bend the copper when it's only a few inches long.

Has anyone built a circular manifold? Is there any benefit to circular over square?
 
I have had both. one plus to square is you can make it in pieces for easy cleaning.

As far as bending wrap it around a corny keg or a round object of sort.. i used a keg when i did mine...O and i used 1/2" copper
 
While I haven't built one, I think bending one big coil the correct diameter. Then you cut it into sections. I think that is probably how i would try to build one
 
esp said:
I just bought my 5gal round cooler to start building my all grain set up. I have a bunch of leftover soft copper tubing from some projects I've done around the house. What I can't seem to figure out is how to bend the copper tubing into a circle to fit into the bottom of the cooler. Tubing benders are great for 45's and 90's but they aren't great at making circles. The spring-like tubing protectors work well at keeping kinks out, but it's hard to bend the copper when it's only a few inches long.

Has anyone built a circular manifold? Is there any benefit to circular over square?
Click to expand...

Not sure if there is a big difference between the circular vs square manifold. I build a 5gal MLT and try bending some copper (failed miserably!) but end up building a semi square manifold. It works great and easy to maintain.

Here is rendition for your consideration. For the record, I like to follow the design rule, "form follows function". Meaning, it should work first, then you can make it pretty!

Copper_Manifold.jpg


Hope this helps.

Cheers! :tank:
 
If you want to use a bender, I would not worry about whether it's "round" or not. Just bend the corners. It would be sort of square with rounded corners. The grain won't mind.
 
dstar, how is your efficiency with the soft copper tubing? I was thinking of a similar manifold, but it looks so small in your pic I am wondering how it draws...
 
When I was using that cooler I was double batch sparging and efficiency was 80-90% depending on the recipe. I also used it to inject steam for step mashing and to bring single infusions up to mash-out. There were (44) 1/8" dia holes in the manifold drilled along the ID of the ring pointing in. 1/16" holes were too small.
 
dstar, that manifold could be used for fly sparging too, right? Is that efficiency percentage your mash efficiency or overall brewhouse? Thanks - sorry if it's a n00b question, I have one all grain batch under my belt.
 
I just created one of the round soft copper manifolds, but I can't figure out how to deburr the inside of the tubing. How did you guys end up doing it?

Thanks,
Bob
 

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