How to put hole in for tap on Bottling bucket

I bought a Brewers' Best Deluxe starter kit that came with all the stuff you'd expect. The 6 gallon fermenting/bottling bucket has a dedicated and threaded spot for the spigot. Trouble is that it is not drilled open to the container. These buckets are billed as fermenter/bottling buckets it seems because in the basic kit you get two buckets where as my kit came with a bucket and a glass carboy.

My question is "What is the best method to place the hole in plastic so I can actually use the spigot?"

From all my reading my concerns are leaving any rough plastic that could harbor bacteria.

 

I used a drill with a step bit. No problems.

 

Hmmm... I don't have one of those. Guess I'm Home Depot bound.

 

Since I have a dremel with router bits,etc,I took a sharpie & the threaded part of the spigot & marked the diameter of the hole where I wanted it on my bottling bucket. I used a cylinder shaped router bit To cut out the hole close to the marked circle. Switche dto a drum sander at lower speed to finish the hole then tested it with the spigot. fits so tight it has to be screwed in a little to get it going. Trimmed the flash with an exacto knife. Never leaks.

 

Thanks. No concerns with sanding that the rough edge will harbor bacteria Uniondr?

 

That's what the seals are for,basically. What little gets in that area (very little) gets cleaned & sanitized every time after being used & before the next use. Not to mention that I cut the hole tight enough where the spigot has to be threaded in. I clean the spigots,lock nut,etc with PBW & aquarium lift tube brushes from Petsmart. Rinse well,soak in Starsan breifly & re-assemble wet. Never a problem. The white & red Italian spigots are my favorite,as they have a step on the end of the spout to fit 3/8"ID tubing.

 

The step bit it the clear way to go. You get a perfectly round hole of any size in just a couple seconds.

Wort should never touch the hole anyway, so no need to worry about sanding etc. The rubber washers are what create the seal.

 

There are a couple pictures here in a thread I started a few weeks back about the same subject.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/bottling-closed-system-homemade-fermenter-spigot-428255/

It works great, I'm not sure why more people don't make their own, 17 bucks plus shipping from internet homebrew supply seems pricey for a bucket, especially when I can get one from Wal-Mart made by the exact same plastics company for $2.58.

 

I built my bottling bucket with the Italian spigot for $13 from JWDover. It's allegedly 7.9G. I'm thinking 7.2G maybe...

 

I been looking for some larger buckets, can't seem to find any for reasonable price.