copper shavings in mash/lauter tun

[medic23]

I made a mash/lauter tun the way palmer, mosher, and others described with a copper manifold fit into a cooler and slits made a quarter inch apart with a hacksaw. It came out nice but its pretty jagged at the cuts and I dont want jagged pieces of metal in my beer. I think I got rid of most of the loose stuff with a toothbrush and by boiling the pieces of copper but Im still skeptical about jagged metal pieces of copper being in my beer, possibly to small to spot with the naked eye. Any advice on what to do about making sure this doesnt happen would be greatly appreaciated.

 

[disaffected]

Rub the outer surface with 150 grit sandpaper. Use a small fingernail file to sand down the inner edges of each slit. Copper tubing is soft and ductile. It won't take much to debur the edges.

 

[Monster Mash]

Copper is heavier then grain, hops and trub. Since you don't get that in your beer the chances of getting copper in it is pretty slim. You really should sand it and wash it before you use it anyways.

 

[mastro]

I am new to all grain but I like the idea of not using plastic for the lauter tun. Does anyone have a link to a movie or a tutorial on how to make a copper or SS tun?

 

[BrewBeemer]

Before you solder it together depending on the diameter use a brass bore brush or shotgun bore brush and rotate it to break off any hanging metal chips. Take a piece or wood dowel and cut a slot at the end and wrap sandpaper thru and around the slot then use a power drill to clean out any burs inside the copper tubing. It's not to good on the seal of a ball valve if a copper chip gets caught and cuts the seal lip on the ball as you'll end up with a leaking ball valve if it does not pass thru.
A jewelers hacksaw will have a narrower curf besides finer tooth blade with less chips and bur problems when slotting the tube. Even a Dremel with a cut off wheel will leave less of a bur or chips hanging inside the tubing.

 

[smakudwn]

What i did was just take a long Flathead screwdriver and took out as much of the copper burrs out of the inside of the pipe, and all the stuff that got pushed back out of the slits from doing this i hit the slits with the dremmel tool again. Ive had no problems with mine.

 

[springer]

hit the inside with a round bastard file knocks the burs off real easy . Sandpaper the outside

 

[OMJ]

hit the inside with a round bastard file knocks the burs off real easy . Sandpaper the outside

+1 I did the same.