Cheap source for large SS tubing

[Owly055]

I'm building an "in bag circulator" which will consist of a vertical pipe that extends downward in the center of my brew bag to near the bottom. It will contain an impeller near the bottom, and will have slots or holes near the surface. A motor on top will drive the impeller creating a torroidal circulation so I can use bottom heating and maintain a uniform temp.

I've been stymied about where to get 3" or so dia stainless steel tubing until today. I stumbled upon a "free" source in the form of a pile of old submersible pumps. The pump housing is 3.25" ID stainless, fairly thin gauge...... perfect for my purposes. I simply whacked both ends off and pushed the shaft and stack of impellers out leaving me with a beautiful piece of stainless steel for my purposes.

Just thought I'd share that discovery for anybody who needs stainless of that kind of dimensions cheap for a project.

H.W.

 

[jsmsmk]

I would use caution unless you can verify what those pumps were used for. We used those kind of pumps for ground water that was contaminated with some pretty nasty chemicals and worse.

 

[Owly055]

I would use caution unless you can verify what those pumps were used for. We used those kind of pumps for ground water that was contaminated with some pretty nasty chemicals and worse.

These pumps all came out of good wells right here where there is no such concern. Drinking water wells. Even if they had been in contaminated ground water, stainless steel is easy to clean and unreactive. It will be cleaned WITH "nasty chemicals" before I use it.

H.W.