jekeane
Well-Known Member
I decided to purchase a panel and finally use the custom kettles I had welded for their intended set up. Since I purchased them I started doing a lot of smaller batches in between larger batches and my 20g boil kettle was not going to work for that job. Awhile back I came across a 10g kettle that had been punched for a 1 1/4" weldess element bulkhead. I figured adding a Triclamp to the kettle to so I could easily swap out kettles would be a simple affair but then found out that the 1 1/4" hole needed to be 1 5/8". After a bit of searching the only tool i could find for the job was the 1 5/8" green lee punch to the tune of $100. Not really an amount of money i wanted to spend for 1 punch that I wasn't even sure it could do without a proper pilot hole.
Enter the greatness of this community! I found a member who graciously let me borrow his punch for the price of shipping. He too wasn't sure if the punch would work for what I was intending but thankfully it did.
You can indeed engage a punch hole and quite easily in fact. When doing this the key is to take your time and make sure everything is centered well. Hand tighten the punch until the teeth are set well then check again to may sure you are centered. I put the pot over my head to look at the bottom to make sure it was centered, this would be more easily accomplished by slipping your phone camera in there something I realized after my wife walked in and asked me what I was doing... Once you are centered take it slow and let the punch do its job. If you go to fast I am sure that the ring you are making will bend and you will get a wonky hole. I could bend the resulting ring by hand after it was punched out.
Here are some pics. I primarily posted this to let the search engine no it can be done and to give a shout out to the community for coming through and saving me $80 on a 1 time use tool!
The TC bulkhead came from Brewhardware and works great.
Enter the greatness of this community! I found a member who graciously let me borrow his punch for the price of shipping. He too wasn't sure if the punch would work for what I was intending but thankfully it did.
You can indeed engage a punch hole and quite easily in fact. When doing this the key is to take your time and make sure everything is centered well. Hand tighten the punch until the teeth are set well then check again to may sure you are centered. I put the pot over my head to look at the bottom to make sure it was centered, this would be more easily accomplished by slipping your phone camera in there something I realized after my wife walked in and asked me what I was doing... Once you are centered take it slow and let the punch do its job. If you go to fast I am sure that the ring you are making will bend and you will get a wonky hole. I could bend the resulting ring by hand after it was punched out.
Here are some pics. I primarily posted this to let the search engine no it can be done and to give a shout out to the community for coming through and saving me $80 on a 1 time use tool!
The TC bulkhead came from Brewhardware and works great.
