Cheap sight glass

Brewing on a budget is not all ways an easy task. I thought I would share my sight glass idea with the rest of you budget brewers, let me know what you think.
I used an old rigid pipe threader to thread the end of 3/4 od. 5/8 id polycarbonate tubing. I used dish soap to lube the cutter. It was pretty easy just make sure to keep the tubing square to the cutter. The tubing is slightly smaller than standard pipe but the tapered threads allow it to work just fine. I also used plenty of Teflon tape to ensure a good seal. The shield is made from a standard sanke dip tube, I drilled a hole into each end of the tube and cut the slot between them with an angle grinder. I cut the Bologna slice in the top so that i can put a screw through the tube into the rim of the keggle and it looks cool to. I got the polycarbonate from Granger, an 8' section cost $12.23 after tax. I also got about $3 bucks in stainless screws. So for about 15 bucks I got all three sight glasses. Not to shabby.

Looks great...nice work!

That looks great, awesome job with the tube as well as the protective sheath.

Chromados

Very nice job! That slot looks like you did it with a mill. Pretty good work for an angle grinder!

sanch - you did a very nice job on that site glass. Very cool!

That's bad-ass! Love it.

Wow...awesome. Make me three please.

Your keg looks SWEET! Must have taken a long time to polish it out that nice. Very nice work on the sight glass, does it get enough light to easily see the level of the liquid?

What did you use to connect it on the inside? Any pictures of that?

Nice!

very impressed.(slightly aroused)

How is the stainless shroud attached to the 90 elbow

The stainless tube "Sanke dip tube" is not attached to the elbow i just put an o ring i believe a size r14 on the top and bottom of the polycarbonate to keep it centered in the shield i plan to have it welded next time i am at my welder friends house. thanks for all the kind words.

Looks good budday! When are we gonna brew our next batch and test that bad boy out?

Uh you commented on my stand build so I stalked you..

phuk man. the "good job" from you means a lot.

Excellent work!

sanch said:

The stainless tube "Sanke dip tube" is not attached to the elbow i just put an o ring i believe a size r14 on the top and bottom of the polycarbonate to keep it centered in the shield i plan to have it welded next time i am at my welder friends house. thanks for all the kind words.

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How secure is it with just the o-rings holding it?

If you have it welded to the elbow, are you doing to have problems taking the polycarb tube out for cleaning on occasion?

Also, how much do you want to build one of these? PM me.

I like it a lot.

Great job!!! Have you brewed with it yet? How does it hold up to t he heat from the burners?

awesome, great Idea

Any report on how this set up is working out? Have the sight glass tubes held up to the heat?

I have been finishing up the gas manifold on my rig. have not brewed with it yet, I did boil 10 gal for a couple of hours and had no problems. I beilive bobby m makes his this way I saw one in someones build thread the outher day. I dont know what size tubing he uses. I decided not to weld the shield to the elbow, after i screwed the shield to the rim of the keg it was very sturdy.

Polycarbonate is generally strong enough (and gives enough) that you don't need the shroud. It's just gravy on this build and looks really cool. I use 1/2" OD x 1/4" ID so the wall thickness is a little more suited the threading than 1/16 wall. If anything fails in this build, it will likely be right where the threads are.

It would be sweet if someone made 3/4 OD x 1/2" ID polycarb but I've yet to find it.

Bobby_M said:

It would be sweet if someone made 3/4 OD x 1/2" ID polycarb but I've yet to find it.

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I found some 3/4 OD 1/2 ID poly carbonate a while back but it was very spendy unless you ordered a whole run, 500' thats like 300 sight glasses!!!

Could you elaborate on what exactly you used to attache the elbow to the keg. I am thinking of setting mine up how you show and was probably just going to use a 1/2" X 3/4" bushing, but was just curious how you set yours up.

Any pics from inside the keggle?

Thanks,

John

I had a friend of a friend weld in a close pipe nipple and then screwed the elbow on to that. sorry for the late reply, I have been preoccupied with life lately.

I did the same style sight glass. I had a 1/2” half coupling welded in and used a street elbow. I would guess you could use a hex bushing a regular elbow some o rings and washers for weldless