building a mash tun and have a question

im knee deep in my mash tun creation i have a spacing of 2.25 inches in between each pipe. using 1/2 uinch copper pipe have it all slotted with my dremel and it fits with a spacing of 1 inch to the wall. Now i cleaned it all out with soap and water to remove the copper powder from cutting the slots in the pipe.. There are some serious pieces of copper hanging inside the pipe line though.. i need a suggestion or 3 how to cheaply clean out these copper pieces hanging from the slots. a wire brush would work well BUT the pipe is 16 to 17 inches long. please advise.

 

Push a wooden dowel through it...stiff heavy wire w/ a piece of sandpaper attached. Just think what m'gyver would do.

 

hahaha yeah for sure thanx man that helps. another question.. I have plumbers epoxy i want to use to fuse to pieces togehter and it sez it is safe to use with potable water pipes. does that mean it is safe to use inside my mash tun?

 

I used my gun cleaning kit to clean the burrs out of my manifold pipes. it had a rod with a stiff brass brush on it. Worked great.

 

If you are using copper, why not just solder the joints?

As far as th left over copper pieces, I used hot water with a lot of pressure. Also, After I soldered evrything together, I let my manifold sit in a Bleach/Water solution for a couple of hours, then thoroughly rinse. Good luck and let us know how it comes out. Pics would be great!

 

I actually just made a mashtun using 1/2" copper piping I slotted with a hacksaw (quite the laborious task). I just dry fitted all the pieces together, I figured that since there were all those slots already the small spaces in between fittings weren't going to cause a problem. All the fittings for my spout are brass so they just seal together with some tightening. It makes for easier cleaning as I can just remove my manifold to wash it out. Just have to be careful when stirring my mash, though I didn't have any problems with that for my first batch with it.

 

Why solder the joints at all unless it's falling apart? It should stay together fine, then you can take it apart for cleaning.
Edit: l3agel beat me to it. Agreed.

 

im going to crimp the ends a bit so i can stoll take it apart. I soldiered the first one and then realized i wanted to be able to take it apart. i will keep you updated since it should be finished today

 

ok took the maiden voyage with it. I cant post picks yet but i will be joining soon so ill post them then. It was not as successful as i would have liked. I solved my sealent problems and designed the rig to not use any caulk or sealents!! i used rubber seals and a rubber grommet (thanks to tattooing for this one). i used the grommet to set my thermometer into the cooler wall. the problem came in with the side vent. i had to run some vinyl tube from my copper drainage system through the spiket i installed in the side of the unit. the problem is because of the coolers design there is a recess inside the cooler to the spiket. IE they are on 2 difrent elevations. so i had to run the hose in a loop and it pinched itself off during the mash.. so i had to snag it out and set up a siphon to it temp. to finish the mash. it is all water tight so that is good. but i need to either shorten up my drain leaving a large space where waer wont be evenly drawn from or i need to redesign the drain a bit to acomidate the new problem.. i think i have an idea what to do. the next post will be my makeshift diagram.

 

----T-----)
I I
D -T-----T
I I
----T-----)

D= drain T= t section fitting )= elbow fitting

This will allow the pipe to draw water from the dead spot that would be left with the amount of space i have to cut the drainage system back to get a straight line to the drain. I will probably work this out tommorrow.. so any advice before then would be great maybe my fix is much simpler than i am making it.

 

Where can I find a copper union so I can disassemble the lines between my equipment for cleaning?