MLT bulk head Idea for rectangular cooler

[Red04]

I have been thinking about a concept to use a typical bulkhead that you can tighten down on a kettle for a cooler. You can't tighten a normal bulkhead because it will crush the cooler walls and they don't have enough threads for the thickness of the cooler wall.

1. My thought is drill a 1.5" hole all the way through the cooler.

2. Epoxy an approximately 10"x10"x1/2" thick piece of plastic (acrylic?) on the inside over the whole.

3. Order a bulkhead meant for a kettle and tighten the snot out of it. You are tightening against both sides of a solid 1/2" thick piece of plastic and the 10"x10" coverage against the inside cooler walls will distribute any of the forces from banging and bumping the valve around.

I'm not sure about what type of epoxy or plastic sheet to use, but this seems cheaper, easier, and more reliable. The last one I built, I had 4 trips to home depot and finally got it to quit dripping.

Has anyone attempted this? Anyone have recs on epoxy or plastic sheeting?

 

[Bobby_M]

Don't do that. You'll be introducing a bunch of extra stuff inside the cooler. Acrylic doesn't like hot temps and epoxy really won't stick to the Polypropylene liner very well.

You can stop the two walls from crushing by removing a little extra foam insulation surrounding your through hole and packing in some epoxy putty. That fills the immediate area with something solid that won't crush.

Another trick is to make the hole in the inside wall just big enough for your bulkhead nipple, then make the hole in the outside large enough to slide a 3/4" PVC coupling in. Insert the coupling through the wall and mark a line flush with the outside of the cooler. Trim the coupling. Now when you do the squeeze, the coupling supports all the force and pushes against the inside wall. If the fit is relatively tight inside the outer wall hole, you'll also get some lateral support for when you operate the valve.

Lately I've been way more keen on the idea of insulated the heck out of a metal kettle if you really want to have a passive solution. The inside liner of a cooler gets pretty warped and nasty quick.