copper manifold

I am thinking of building a copper manifold for my keg any one have any measurements/plans for building one? I have seen the one in how to brew but how is the manifold attached to the bulk head. I want to be able to direct fire the mash tun for step mashing/mash out.
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Eithe a welded bung, or weldless fittings.

 

I think I want to go weldless

 

I use a nipple and a compression fitting with an olive.

 

do you have any pics orfy? what is an olive?

 

olive? a big screen?

 

Im thinking of buying a torch to try and get this thing started. any suggestions for a first time welder?

 

You mean soldering right? Clean the parts with a wire brush/emory cloth/sandpaper. Don't let finger oil on the joints. Apply flux liberally, heat joint, remove flame, run solder on the joint.

 

Soldering is easy! GO for it! The only thing I'd add here is that I made mine such that the manifold is in a ring shape and wraps arount the bottom of the keg about an inch from the side-walls. I ran copper tubing from the SS nipple welded through the keg across the bottom and connected the manifold on the opposite side... That seeems to prevent any possibility of channeling, and I leave almost no wort in there- great for efficiency.

I know a picture's worth a thousand words, but I don't know how to do that stuff.

cheers, -p

 

Here's a picture of the one I made the other day before drilling the holes. I used copper pipe (1/2") and don't plan on soldering. That way I will be able to disassemble and clean as needed. It's not for a keg, but I'm sure you could adapt the size as needed.

 

yea soldering srry

thomcatt did you just buy a long piece of copper and cut it to length and fit joints? I was looking to do the same thing but Im leaning towards soldering the end pieces and leaving the middle loose for cleaning

 

Yeah I bought three 2' sections I believe.

 

I made mine for a 48qt cooler but it's probably not much different.

I have a shank going through the cooler wall, with a valve on the outside and a nut with olive on the inside.

A couple of pics of mine are here but you can't see too much detail. All up it was pretty easy, you need to have a pipe cutter though, makes life easier - http://denimbrauhaus.blogspot.com/2007/11/couple-of-new-additions-to-brewquipment.html

If you get the hard copy of how to brew there's a diagram of what you need for the bulkhead deal-eo.

 

did you solder that denimg?

 

Think about cutting slices rather than driling holes. I've found the very thin slices work better and let less solids through... on the bottom of the manifold of course

 

The only solder is on the 'T' that connects to the 45degree elbow that goes into the nut. Only because I had a female-female there and the elbow was a little too long so I needed to cut it down.

I just gave the 'male' fittings a tiny squeeze in the vice to oval them a little, makes them stay together pretty well but still comes apart for cleaning.

I was going to cut slices but I didn't have the cutting disc for the dremel, and I couldn't be bothered using a hack saw. I've used the manifold once and it seems to be fine, I'm happy with it.

 

With all this talk of soldering I have not heard any talk of removing the spent flux.
I just soldered up a couple of fittings for adding steam to my mlt.
I think it is going to work fine. But there is a crevice or two that I can't get at to clean off.
I don't like the idea of a flux sheen floating on my pale ale.
Any magic elixar to nuke this stuff away? Blast with boiling water a few times??
r

 

I usually just run the wire brush over my welds or use the wire wheel on the grinder. Comes up nice and pretty and I'm not dead yet...

 

if you used the right flux, its water soluable food grade. Use a stiff brush (toothbrush) and soapy water. Should come right off. What miniscule amount is left won't matter

 

White distilled vinegar will clean the copper and silver solder very well. If you don't dilute it, you can stand there and wait for it to get clean and scrub with an old toothbrush, then rinse like your life depends on it. Shouldn't take more than 10 minutes.

 

My manifold is only soldiered on two ends so the sloted parts can be removed for cleaning. The manifold is connected to the mash tun with a small section of vinyl tubing, so everything can be cleaned. Here's a link to the pic.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/gallery/showimage.php?i=143&c=1&userid=1766