DIY 7-Tap 3" Black Pipe Draft Tower

[Bigs166]

Hey all. What have you been doing to your black iron pipe system to deal with rust??? I’ve been fighting mine with a wire brush then apply mineral oil. Many suggestions?

 

[user 208089]

I let mine patina then cleared over it with a satin finish.

 

[Bigs166]

I let mine patina then cleared over it with a satin finish.

I’m thinking about doing this.... can you send a pic?

 

[BrewinSoldier]

Just curious but how are you guys dealing with insulation? Are you lines staying cold and not foaming? Any condensation?

I'm just finishing mine up but with how I made it, there is no way I'm going to tear it all apart to get to the lines. I bought good lines so hopefully with good maintenance I should be able to have them for quite a while. I ended up using all copper tubing inside of mine and then wrapped that with the black foam insulation. The copper pipe ends up going down into the lid of the keezer and then I will mount a fan that blows up through the copper tubing.

Here's where I'm at right now.

 

[Calfj60]

Lookin sweet

 

[Harry482]

Wow!

 

[Bigs166]

Just curious but how are you guys dealing with insulation? Are you lines staying cold and not foaming? Any condensation?

I'm just finishing mine up but with how I made it, there is no way I'm going to tear it all apart to get to the lines. I bought good lines so hopefully with good maintenance I should be able to have them for quite a while. I ended up using all copper tubing inside of mine and then wrapped that with the black foam insulation. The copper pipe ends up going down into the lid of the keezer and then I will mount a fan that blows up through the copper tubing.

Here's where I'm at right now.View attachment 587198 View attachment 587199 View attachment 587200

Love the design. You did copper coming off of each tap then just attached whatever vinyl beer tubing to the ends of those? Sounds interesting. Mine is air cooled and I don’t have any issue with foam. I did 2 fan boxes though. One blows air up into the piping and another pulls it out of the other side. Summer months give me some condensation and it has begun to get some rust pits. Not a big deal. Adds some character I guess. I’ve used mineral oil on it to control it but it’s inevitable. Planning on letting it patina all the way then I’ll probably urethane.

 

[BrewinSoldier]

Love the design. You did copper coming off of each tap then just attached whatever vinyl beer tubing to the ends of those? Sounds interesting. Mine is air cooled and I don’t have any issue with foam. I did 2 fan boxes though. One blows air up into the piping and another pulls it out of the other side. Summer months give me some condensation and it has begun to get some rust pits. Not a big deal. Adds some character I guess. I’ve used mineral oil on it to control it but it’s inevitable. Planning on letting it patina all the way then I’ll probably urethane.

Thanks man! Yeah so basically I ran two straight pieces of 1.25" copper tubing that go about an inch into the keezer, up to the elbow, then connect to a copper elbow, the straight pieces and tees for every tap. Then to another elbow and back down to the other side of the keezer. I wrapped the copper all with the foam 3/8" wall pipe insulation. The lines run on the inside of the copper tubing. 2 lines coming in from the right side and three coming in from left side. Then on the side with 2 lines, I was able to fit one of these

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KC070SI/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

I was hoping that it would blow air through one side of the copper and out the other chilling the lines. Since copper is a great conductor, and since I wrapped it in foam, I am hoping that it keeps the lines cold. I plugged the fan in today but I'm not feeling any air coming out the other side so I don't know if it's gonna work.

 

[Brian_Koo]

Awesome~~~~ copy right away! LOL

 

[Manu Hola]

I've been planning this for some time. I really like the tappedbeer.com towers, but just didn't want to pay their prices. Though their work is awesome, and their prices reasonable for what you get, I am just a cheap bastard and I was pretty sure I could do it myself.

I didn't underestimate the type and caliber of work required, and there was no way I was going to undertake the metalshop work. I have neither the tools or the skills. So, like most of my DIY projects, there was a portion that I subbed out.

I did all the design (to be clear - stole all the design ideas from tappedbeer) and prepared the shop drawings and, after talking to a few people, found the right metal shop with a guy who was willing to do the work cheaply, but who was obsessively fixated on precision and quality. And it shows. The work he did was crazy. Suited me perfectly.

Here's a before shot of the pieces that I assembled, followed by after shots showing the work.

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I know is been a while but, have you found any issues with foamign beer because of the lack of cool air inside the pipes?