I've decided to forgo the Amcyl and I too also went with Concord and plan on doing the same thing as Fosaisu plans on doing with his. I went with the 15 gallon as I mainly do 5 gallon batches, but wanted the option for a few 10 gallon batches that will be for the common beers my cousin and me like to brew.
So I drilled my pot out last night. Started with a
center punch to mark the hole (could have made a better divot to start with but better than just trying to hold the drill bit steady on a curved SS surface). Then, using my 18v cordless drill set to high torque and low speed, drilled a hole with the 1/8" bit and then enlarged with the 1/4" bit, both sprayed with cooking spray first. Those holes went through very easily. Next up was the step bit, with stops every step or two to reapply cooking spray. That too went pretty smoothly. Per Bobby M's instruction video, I drilled the last step out from inside the pot to minimize burrs on the interior where the gasket seal goes.
Pretty easy going all around -- there was never a time when I was worried about the drill bit binding up or hardening the SS, except for the very first hole when I accidentally grabbed on old, extremely dull bit that was spinning out on me and actually snapped off! Once I swapped in a new bit (regular old black oxide, nothing particularly exciting) it cut through like a charm.
I stopped briefly at 13/16" but the bulkhead wouldn't quite fit, so I pushed harder and hit 7/8" (the largest step on my step bit). In hindsight I probably should have stopped at 13/16" and then slowly removed additional material with the drill or a grinding stone or file to get a perfect fit. But the 7/8" hole works, and once I cleaned it up with the
grinding stone on my Dremel (you can also just use a
file) I had a smooth, pretty hole to work with.
By far the most time spent was in getting the bulkhead and ball valve installed without leaks. My own fault there, didn't follow the advice on Bargain Fittings and Bobby M's sites and forgot to put Teflon tape on the outer threads before installing the ball valve, which then proceeded to slow leak. Once I got everything remove and properly taped and reinstalled, no more leaks (though I did end up needing 2 washers on the outside since my ball valve wouldn't sit far enough up on the bulk head -- luckily I had spares from another project).
Overall a fun little project, absolutely within reach of anyone that owns a decent cordless drill and is willing to pick up a step bit and futz around with the ball valve a bit to get a perfect seal (you should be able to do this the first time if you can bring yourself to follow the advice of the experts!) Can't wait to give it a test run brewing in a week or two!
And thanks again to everyone that weighed in on my original question.
