NathanSPowell
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- Nov 18, 2012
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Hello all. I'm new to the forum and Home Brewing. I've decided to jump into building a couple electric keggles for BK and HLT.
My intention is to silver solder unions for a bottom drain valve, sight glass, thermowell, and heating element.
The question is this. I'll be making a variety of hole sizes here, just looking at the ID of the fittings I have 1/4" for sight glass, 1/2" for valve, 1" for element. It certainly seems that the majority of opinions support dimpling the hole for solder applications. And I've looked in depth at "The Tool". However, I can't find a consistent answer for building "A Tool" or "Tools" that will cover the various size of dimples I need to produce. I really don't want to pay $100 bucks for three different reducing couplers to dimple all the holes. Has anyone else come across this and found a compromise solution?
Also, one other question. When looking at McMaster and the various NPT couplers they have I can't find the OD anywhere. Does anyone know where I can find this info, or is there a rule of thumb such as ID + X = OD? Seems important when trying to select the proper reducing coupler for dimpling.
Thanks for looking and replying. Hope I put this in the right place and wasn't too noob!
-Nathan
EDIT: Ok, I've actually found answers to both. Took some more in depth reading of the soldering stainless threadzilla and found the CAD link on McMaster. Sorry for posting questions that had been answered.
My intention is to silver solder unions for a bottom drain valve, sight glass, thermowell, and heating element.
The question is this. I'll be making a variety of hole sizes here, just looking at the ID of the fittings I have 1/4" for sight glass, 1/2" for valve, 1" for element. It certainly seems that the majority of opinions support dimpling the hole for solder applications. And I've looked in depth at "The Tool". However, I can't find a consistent answer for building "A Tool" or "Tools" that will cover the various size of dimples I need to produce. I really don't want to pay $100 bucks for three different reducing couplers to dimple all the holes. Has anyone else come across this and found a compromise solution?
Also, one other question. When looking at McMaster and the various NPT couplers they have I can't find the OD anywhere. Does anyone know where I can find this info, or is there a rule of thumb such as ID + X = OD? Seems important when trying to select the proper reducing coupler for dimpling.
Thanks for looking and replying. Hope I put this in the right place and wasn't too noob!
-Nathan
EDIT: Ok, I've actually found answers to both. Took some more in depth reading of the soldering stainless threadzilla and found the CAD link on McMaster. Sorry for posting questions that had been answered.
