Knock-out punch for 3mm stainless

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It looks like greenlee might make a 10 gauge punch, but i'm sure it's hella expensive. That should do up to 3.4mm. Thoughts?

Background on why I'm asking, so I don't do something unnecessarily stupid:

I have a 55 gallon stainless steel brewery transfer tank that's about 3 mil (maybe 4 at the bottom). I'm looking at turning it into a mash tun. The NHC has inspired me to try experimenting, so i want to do "design of experiments" style brewing. I'd do a single large mash (25-30 gallons) and then vary the kettle hops, the yeast, and/or fermentation temperatures.

To do this, I first need to cut a hole in the bottom and attach fittings.

Side note - I thought about using this tank as an fermenter, but there is some pitting in the bottom, so it definitely won't work for that. I'd also have to make 50 gallons of the same beer...and I'm way too ADD for that (I've never made 50 gallons of the same recipe, let alone 50 gallons of the same thing in a sitting).
 
will_rouse said:
Why can't you use a drill?

From other builds, drill on metal has lead to a jagged mess, and takes forever. I'd rather avoid it if I can. Most of the eBrew builds (e.g. kal clone builds) recommend a knockout punch for a perfect hole with minimum effort.
 
Agreed. Drilling really sucks IMO. Knockout is the way to go. A knockout is going to be expensive. You can try one of the cheaper ones but I don't know if they'll punch through 3mm of SS; that's pretty damn thick! I've seen them recommending up to 10ga thickness before but usually that's in Al and steel. Couldn't hurt to call and see what they recommend.
 
How big a hole are we talking? Couldn't you just use a step bit and a drill?
 
How big a hole are we talking? Couldn't you just use a step bit and a drill?

It's not so much the size of the hole as the thickness of the steel, and the need for an accurate size. A good quality step drill could work, but it'd be like trying to hunt an elephant with a .308. It'll work if you're amazingly accurate, but something's bound to get F***** if you're not perfectly aligned.
 
If I didn't want to buy a punch I would use a hole saw or a step drill and plenty of lubricant. The key to a nice clean hole in metal are slow speeds and lots of lubricant.
 
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