DIY Sight Glass - Looking for ideas

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JoeRags

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Looking for ideas here to put a sight glass into my HLT. I've seem some info here on using a racking cane for the sight tube, but I dont like that idea. I want a glass tube or something more durable .

Any ideas? Would glass tube stock hold in a typicall compression fitting?

Thanks
 
Why the adversion to a racking cane. The commercial sight glass setup I bought comes with that except it's slightly thicker-walled tubing. I would be afraid of glass getting hit and breaking. Then you've got a real mess on your hands.
 
Not too worried about the glass breaking. My sculpture is large enough that it will not move much, and HLT will rarely, if ever, move from its perch.

McMaster P/N 3724K22 - is 5/8" OD with 3/32" wall thickness borosilicate gauge glass, 18" in length. This would be perfect, but not sure what sort of compression fitting this would fit in.

The setup will be welded to the keggle.
 
Use teflon, nylon or plastic compression fittings. You can just use those type of ferrules in metal fittings as well. Strongly consider an isolation valve for you sight glass. If you break it, you're f'kd if you don't have one...

1/2" O.D. is more than adequate.
 
mr x said:
Use teflon, nylon or plastic compression fittings. You can just use those type of ferrules in metal fittings as well. Strongly consider an isolation valve for you sight glass. If you break it, you're f'kd if you don't have one...

1/2" O.D. is more than adequate.
Click to expand...

Good call... McMaster has a PVDF compression fitting, P/N: 5533K666 - 90 degree compression fitting for 1/2" tube, and male 1/2" NPT. FDA compliant, and up to 275 deg. F

I've got a spare valve for isolation, and I plan on building some sort of protector.

Thanks
 
I have in the past made sight glasses with cut-off lab burets (the graduated type). The glass O.D. was too small for a standard compression fitting, but a short piece of standard O.D. teflon tubing fit real snug over the glass. I used that in a metal compression fitting, but I didn't torque it too heavy.
 
I went with borosilicate tubes I picked up on eBay. I come out of my kettles with a 1/2" copper pipe and a 90 degree elbow pointing up.

I thought I would be smart and skip the valve and use some tubing to attach the glass to the copper elbow. I figured that if it got bumped, it would (most likely) just sway and not break. That theory held true, but I ran into a little heat issue when I got my inagural batch over to the boil kettle. My tubing couldn't handle the heat and became so flimsy that my sight glass fell over and shattered on the floor right there in front of me and proceeded to dump about 2 gallons of boiling wort onto the garage floor before I could get another one moved over to take it's place.

I wound up buying valves after that, but they were so big that I decided not to use them. I came to the conclusion that they were putting the glass even further out into the danger zone of getting bumped, so I backed off that idea. I did buy a small length of thick, high-temp silicone hose off of McMaster-Carr (pn: 5157K46) to replace my first attempt. It still leaves a pretty good bit of shock absorbtion when the glass is touched, but doesn't have the heat issues that the first attempt did. I also started using a ghetto heat shield of aluminum foil between it and the heat coming up the side of the pot, so that helped tremendously too.

Anyway, I'd probably still advise on working a valve into your setup if possible. It's no fun watching your work spew onto the floor while you're standing there unprepared for such a disaster and trying to figure out how to stop it!

If you wind up with the tubes and they aren't the right length, I had to poke around a little to figure out how to cut them. I bought a couple of spares figuring I'd eventually break one and that I'd need to practice cutting one. You simply score the glass where you want it to break with about a 1/4" long groove (perpendicular to the length of the glass, of course) made by either a triangle file or the corner of a regular flat file. Put on some leather gloves just in case and hold the glass on either side of the score with your thumbs extended towards the score. Press with your thumbs into the glass at the same time that you are trying to pull your hands away from one another. It will make a nice crisp "snap" sound and the break will pretty cleanly, circling the tube along the line that you started with your small score. Rotate the freshly broken end in a torch flame for a few minutes to round the sharp edges (also adds strength back to that edge of the glass).

Good luck!
 
Thanks for your input... always good to hear good/bad experiences. The spilled wort, well, I'd cry. Fortunatley, I am only putting a sight glass on my HLT so no worry about spilling wort. I miiiiight put one on the mash tun, but have not decided yet. I'll see how the first few batches go then decide. Since I already have an extra stainless valve around, I'll surely put it in. I also plan on welding on some protective rods. I'll incorporate measured out graduations on these supports so I can accuratley measure.

Thanks again.
 
I use a compression fitting for mine. If I remember right, it is a polycarbonate tube. It is on the valve the goes to my CFC, so I put a stopper on the top when I drain the kettle. It runs through an eye screw at the top to keep it stable. I ran some tape up the side which I marked in quart increments.

3205-BrewingJuly2007002.jpg
 
JoeRags said:
Thanks for your input... always good to hear good/bad experiences. The spilled wort, well, I'd cry. Fortunatley, I am only putting a sight glass on my HLT so no worry about spilling wort. I miiiiight put one on the mash tun, but have not decided yet. I'll see how the first few batches go then decide. Since I already have an extra stainless valve around, I'll surely put it in. I also plan on welding on some protective rods. I'll incorporate measured out graduations on these supports so I can accuratley measure.

Thanks again.
Click to expand...

If you put a sight glass on your kettle, you can measure your pre- and post-boil volumes.
 
I'm thinking of getting out the old dremmell and cutting a few slits up length ways on a 1/2' compression fitted SS pipe. Have a 90* elbow fitting it to the kettle at the bottom and buying a glass tube and finding some high temp o rings to keep the seal between the glass and the compression fit tube with the slits in it that runs up the length of my kettles. How does this idea sound? also, can you get pyrex tubes?
 

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