Food grade epoxy?

[Bill Black]

I am thinking about playing around with a HDPE conical that uses a bunch of weldless fittings. You can get them pretty tight with some tools. BUT I am curious about whether this thing could take some pressure as well, as the walls are petty thick.

I want to use some some epoxy on the inside of the fermenter around the fittings. If done right, this should seal off any spaces where bugs could live. I could do it on the outside, but that wouldnt do as good of a job sealing off the inside.

1) Has anyone done this?
2) What epoxy have they used --- I of COURSE dont want anything leeching into the beer.

Thanks!

 

[bucketnative]

HDPE is not the easiest material to bond to others, especially with curved surfaces. You would need a flexible adhesive, too, because the material will flex.

I would check out Henkel's site (makers of Loc-Tite) and look for a medical device grade adhesive that specifies PE.

If it were me, I would go with bulkhead fittings with rubber gaskets. These would need to be removed, cleaned, and sanitized with each use.

 

[Robert65]

[QUOTE="bucketnative, post: 8716190, member:
If it were me, I would go with bulkhead fittings with rubber gaskets. These would need to be removed, cleaned, and sanitized with each use.[/QUOTE]

One reason I had a very, very short romance with HDPE for a fermenter (Speidel.) But still no doubt the preferred route should you choose to go with HDPE.

 

[Bill Black]

HDPE is not the easiest material to bond to others, especially with curved surfaces. You would need a flexible adhesive, too, because the material will flex.

I would check out Henkel's site (makers of Loc-Tite) and look for a medical device grade adhesive that specifies PE.

If it were me, I would go with bulkhead fittings with rubber gaskets. These would need to be removed, cleaned, and sanitized with each use.

Thanks! The bulkhead do have rubber washers - I havent tried to load it up to pressure, but wasnt sure if the gaskets would provide enough of a seal.

 

[day_trippr]

If a compression fitting through the proper size hole and using the appropriate gaskets can't hold pressure I'd be surprised epoxy will help.
I agree epoxy is unlikely to stick to polyethylene anyway...

Cheers!

 

[Bill Black]

WOW. Gotta admit folks, I didnt know that there was anything that epoxy wouldnt stick to. Mildly shocked...

 

[augiedoggy]

not that it helps here but jb weld is a food safe epoxy..