Modified corny keg lid with post no longer fitting

[JimBob’s Brewskis]

Hey all. This is deeply frustrating and I’m hoping somebody out there has encountered this and knows the right path!

I’ve drilled out a hole to fit a post for a floating dip tube in one of my keg lids (only one so far ). This part went well, all seems solid.

The problem I have now is that the height of the post, coupled with the depth of the mid length dip tube means that I can’t get the lid back on the f’ing keg.

Seems I have 2 options (aside from chucking the thing in the bin):

A) Shorten the dip tube by about an inch and see if it’ll go back on (need to buy pipe cutter).

B) Remove the mid length dip tube and instead used it as the gas in port, fitting the floating tube to the existing gas port instead.

Not sure which is the better option, but I’m leaning towards B as I don’t really want to go doing any more cutting.

The posts I bought are these:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/38764362...6E9yXegRFq&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

They’re liquid posts. I now wonder if I’ll need to put my gas post on it for option B, and whether it would fit

 

[mac_1103]

Nothing wrong with shortening the steel diptube. It only needs to be long enough to attach the flexible tubing. But have you tried taking the post off (leaving the diptube on) and putting the post back on after the lid is in place?

 

[JimBob’s Brewskis]

Nothing wrong with shortening the steel diptube. It only needs to be long enough to attach the flexible tubing. But have you tried taking the post off (leaving the diptube on) and putting the post back on after the lid is in place?

I hadn’t considered that, in my blood rage! Though I think the female outside of the post is actually holding the assembly together. Worried it’ll just fall through. I’ll take a look tho

 

[JimBob’s Brewskis]

I hadn’t considered that, in my blood rage! Though I think the female outside of the post is actually holding the assembly together. Worried it’ll just fall through. I’ll take a look tho

Suppose I could hold it on with a peg or something while I’m putting the lid on…

 

[JimBob’s Brewskis]

No, unfortunately the post top holds the whole thing on, so screwing out on after closing the lid seems like a no-go

 

[mashdar]

You don't cut the top off; you need the flare. Cut the bottom of the dip tube.

edit: Oh, I thought you were getting ready to cut the wrong end lol.

Mac meant pull the dip tube out without the coupling on to get the lid on.

 

[mashdar]

Is that a 1 pc threaded dip tube? Strange.

 

[pers]

Is that a 1 pc threaded dip tube? Strange.

It's 2 pieces, I have a similar one. The top part where the male quick disconnect is screws into the circular part right below it. The circular part creates a stop for the diptube. There is a nut on the inside not shown in pics that secures everything. You can see the threads right above silicon diptube.

As mac_1103 said just cut the steel diptube down. Mine is less than 1/2 inch and works fine.

Out of curiosity why did OP add an extra post through lid? Could have just replaced the long steel diptube with short one and attached silicone tube to that.

 

[mac_1103]

unfortunately the post top holds the whole thing on, so screwing out on after closing the lid seems like a no-go

Not sure I understand what you're saying here. You need to remove just the keg post and leave the threaded piece, dip tube and o-ring in place. That nut on the inside should not get loosened. If the piece that the post threads onto falls through, then it probably wouldn't have sealed anyway.

 

[JimBob’s Brewskis]

Is that a 1 pc threaded dip tube? Strange.

It has a male threaded barrel that goes through the hole in the lid which is secured with a nut and O-ring on the inside-keg side.

There’s a bushing on the outside, so I guess it won’t fall through, but to secure it properly you need to tighten down the post top whilst holding the nut and barrel still to prevent it slipping - not possible when the lids on.

 

[JimBob’s Brewskis]

It's 2 pieces, I have a similar one. The top part where the male quick disconnect is screws into the circular part right below it. The circular part creates a stop for the diptube. There is a nut on the inside not shown in pics that secures everything. You can see the threads right above silicon diptube.

As mac_1103 said just cut the steel diptube down. Mine is less than 1/2 inch and works fine.

Out of curiosity why did OP add an extra post through lid? Could have just replaced the long steel diptube with short one and attached silicone tube to that.

I wanted to keep the long dip tube intact and use it as a filling port for closed transfers

Edit: also for output when doing liquid Co2 purge with gas from fermentation. I don’t think you can quite manage that fully without an intact full length dip tube

 

[sibelman]

Careful hacksaw work should suffice - no absolute need for a specialized tool. That said, I love an excuse to buy a new tool!

 

[JimBob’s Brewskis]

I’ll try putting a standard gas post length dip tube on it and see if I can at least close it with that on before doing anything else

 

[JimBob’s Brewskis]

Careful hacksaw work should suffice - no absolute need for a specialized tool. That said, I love an excuse to buy a new tool!

I really lost my rag when I discovered that the pipe cutter I already had was actually broken!

 

[FogHTX]

I wanted to keep the long dip tube intact and use it as a filling port for closed transfers

I do closed transfers from floating dip tube (fermenter) to floating dip tube (keg) all the time - never an issue. I'm using FLOTit 2.0 everywhere.

 

[mac_1103]

There’s a bushing on the outside, so I guess it won’t fall through, but to secure it properly you need to tighten down the post top whilst holding the nut and barrel still to prevent it slipping - not possible when the lids on.

Not exactly the same installation as yours, but a very similar post. I can easily remove just the post itself without loosening the inside nut at all.

I wanted to keep the long dip tube intact and use it as a filling port for closed transfers

He means to cut the short dip tube that the floating dip tube attaches to. But FWIW, lots of people fill their kegs through floating dip tubes.

 

[mashdar]

Careful hacksaw work should suffice - no absolute need for a specialized tool. That said, I love an excuse to buy a new tool!

Nothing beats the feeling when you need a very specific tool, and realize you bought one 10 years ago and it's in the big box o' tools.

edit: E.g. every time I need to pull a faucet cartridge I do a little dance.

 

[JimBob’s Brewskis]

Not exactly the same installation as yours, but a very similar post. I can easily remove just the post itself without loosening the inside nut at all.

View attachment 872485View attachment 872486

He means to cut the short dip tube that the floating dip tube attaches to. But FWIW, lots of people fill their kegs through floating dip tubes.

Edited that: long dip tube also intact to exhaust Starsan when purging kegs with fermentation gas - but I take your point regarding the but not losing…I just don’t trust it and would be a bitch to fix it if it leaked on me

 

[mac_1103]

Nothing beats the feeling when you need a very specific tool, and realize you bought one 10 years ago and it's in the big box o' tools.

Certainly beats the feeling when you spend two days looking for the tool you know you have somewhere, finally give up and buy another one, open it and use it to do the ten second job you needed it for, and then find the old one the next day (exactly where it should have been).

 

[mac_1103]

long dip tube also intact to exhaust Starsan when purging kegs with fermentation gas

Lots of people also liquid purge their kegs through floating dip tubes. There really isn't anything that a rigid dip tube does that a floating dip tube can't. Personally, I don't do a liquid purge when using fermentation gas.

 

[mashdar]

If you're purging with fermentation gas, you generally don't need to fill with star san first.

 

[FogHTX]

Edited that: long dip tube also intact to exhaust Starsan when purging kegs with fermentation gas - but I take your point regarding the but not losing…I just don’t trust it and would be a bitch to fix it if it leaked on me

Purging the Starsan works fine through floating dip tubes. I've checked by opening and also by inverting and pulling the PRV and there is no significant liquid left.

 

[JimBob’s Brewskis]

Nope, still won’t close even with standard gas dip tube. I think this is where I give up and stick with the standard 2 post, floating dip tube in place of standard one and just go with the experience shared here that it’ll purge properly.

Just another failed HB project. Scratch one keg lid

 

[JimBob’s Brewskis]

Glad I fully tested this out before drilling all my lids at least! My arms still sore after the first one.

Maybe it’s an issue with the specific edition of “Safer” brand kegs I have, so I guess this is a cautionary tale for anyone thinking of putting a post on their keg lid - good chance you’re wasting your time, effort and money

 

[mashdar]

If you want an off the shelf solution with a welded post, Bobby sells one:
https://www.brewhardware.com/product_p/cornylidfloating.htm

 

[JimBob’s Brewskis]

If you want an off the shelf solution with a welded post, Bobby sells one:
https://www.brewhardware.com/product_p/cornylidfloating.htm

I’ve seen them. Thought id DIY it, didn’t work out. Not throwing any more money at it now. If the post was just about a centimetre lower it’d fit.

At least it’s not as big a disaster as my DIY counterflow chiller was

 

[giraffeman]

I have the same post and was going to do the same thing , just never got to drill out my lid.
Don't know if it just the type if post connector but it looks like it is just a bit to long to fit
you may want to try this one https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256803614372007.html?
it seems to be a bit shorter.
I may just purchase it myself as it's cheep

EDIT: I just looked and I don't have the one with the "extra ring" it looks like the one I listed.(strange as my purchase history seems to be the larger style)
Guess I'll be drilling out a lid and giving this a try (hopefully this weekend)
Will update with my findings

 

[szap]

It's 2 pieces, I have a similar one. The top part where the male quick disconnect is screws into the circular part right below it. The circular part creates a stop for the diptube. There is a nut on the inside not shown in pics that secures everything. You can see the threads right above silicon diptube.

As mac_1103 said just cut the steel diptube down. Mine is less than 1/2 inch and works fine.

Out of curiosity why did OP add an extra post through lid? Could have just replaced the long steel diptube with short one and attached silicone tube to that.

I had the same question. I use dip tubes in about all my kegs and just use a shorter dip metal tube from the keg liquid post to attached the dip tube hose. I think all of the floating dip tubes I have purchased come with a short metal dip tubes to attach the hose to.

 

[mac_1103]

still won’t close even with standard gas dip tube

So how long is your "standard gas dip tube" compared to the one that came with the post? Based on your photos it looks like you need to make the whole assembly about an inch shorter. So if you cut a full inch off the steel part of the floating dip tube would you have enough left to attach the flexible tubing?

Another thing you could do is to try a different type of post - something with hex nuts on both the inside and outside that can be as tight as you want it to be without the keg post itself attached.

 

[mac_1103]

Maybe it’s an issue with the specific edition of “Safer” brand kegs I have...

Hard to say for sure from the photos, but I think the issue may be that you just needed to drill the hole closer to the center of the lid.

One other possibility - turn the lid post into your gas post (cut a dip tube short enough so that it doesn't protrude beyond the threads on the inside); then put the floating dip tube where the gas post used to be. If it works it gets you a keg with both rigid and floating dip tubes, which is what you wanted in the first place.

 

[Broken Crow]

This is deeply frustrating

This is well meant and please consider giving it a try:
On the surface it sounds like you're trying to re-invent the wheel. As per your previous thread; https://www.homebrewtalk.com/thread...-bending-or-using-a-floating-dip-tube.735221/ you were finally sold on using a floating diptube and also in that thread, @mac_1103 put you on to using fermentation gas to purge your kegs which you adopted...kudos!
What you seem not to have tried yet, is the well-tested and time-proven simple practice of taking your original liquid diptube out and putting it in storage, and using a floating diptube in the time-tested manner. You expressed concern about getting all the Star San out when purging with a floating diptube. As others and myself can attest: As long as your standard float ball silicone diptube is long enough to reach the bottom of the keg, you will purge the same as using the original steel diptube. Residual Star San is truly no big deal anyway but like many others it sounds like you are still uneasy with it so I propose you do yourself a big favour and pour a pint of beer and then pour about a half an ounce of Star San into it and drink it...this is less than the amount that will remain in the bottom of your keg no matter which diptube you purge out of. You won't notice it and there are no detrimental effects whatsoever.
Just try one batch with an ordinary lid and a floating diptube in place of the original steel one.

 

[mac_1103]

As per your previous thread...

Seems like the guy who is always talking about his brain damage has a much better memory than I do. Or maybe just better search skills?

 

[Broken Crow]

Seems like the guy who is always talking about his brain damage has a much better memory than I do. Or maybe just better search skills?

Thank You!!! You just made my week!
I don't wanna hijack this thread but just to respond: I hate mentioning the brain-damage but for most of my life I put safety first and with the limited working-memory, I too often miss something that should be obvious to a healthy brain so I include it as a kind of 'Warning Label' becuase hey; this is the internet and I'm just 'some guy on the internet who says "you can do this.." and I don't want people to mess up or hurt themselves on my potentially incomplete word. About 99.9% of my 'life' is in my home now, leaving only for groceries or absolutely necessary. This site is the whole of my 'social-media' and 95% of my social life. (after the injury I was gonna terminate myself so I 'disappeared' myself from my friends lives to cusion the blow..that never happened, but I still limit my contact because I know they are deeply depressed to see what has become of me but being a highly social animal, I have to socialize somewhere so I chose this site because it overlaps with recovering the lost skill-set as well as providing intellectual exercises to encourage axonal regrowth. On that note: Your above post is one of the very rare 'outside objective observations' that informs me that my chosen course is working and my memory is improving; Thank You so much!!!

 

[JimBob’s Brewskis]

The length of a gas post dip tube that’s installed on a keg, 1.5” I guess. It doesn’t protrude beyond the internal thread at all - would work as a gas post as per option B in my original post.

The problem is confirmed as the height of the post from the surface of the lid, with it have a bushing ring adding to the height.

I couldn’t drill it any closer to the center as there’s a roughly 1mm deep ridge there that would interfere to properly tighten the nut against the o-ring. Almost Guaranteed it would leak if I put the hole there.

 

[JimBob’s Brewskis]

I’ve gone and bought one of these. I’ll report back either way. This is literally the only one of this kind I could find

 

[JimBob’s Brewskis]

This is well meant and please consider giving it a try:
On the surface it sounds like you're trying to re-invent the wheel. As per your previous thread; https://www.homebrewtalk.com/thread...-bending-or-using-a-floating-dip-tube.735221/ you were finally sold on using a floating diptube and also in that thread, @mac_1103 put you on to using fermentation gas to purge your kegs which you adopted...kudos!
What you seem not to have tried yet, is the well-tested and time-proven simple practice of taking your original liquid diptube out and putting it in storage, and using a floating diptube in the time-tested manner. You expressed concern about getting all the Star San out when purging with a floating diptube. As others and myself can attest: As long as your standard float ball silicone diptube is long enough to reach the bottom of the keg, you will purge the same as using the original steel diptube. Residual Star San is truly no big deal anyway but like many others it sounds like you are still uneasy with it so I propose you do yourself a big favour and pour a pint of beer and then pour about a half an ounce of Star San into it and drink it...this is less than the amount that will remain in the bottom of your keg no matter which diptube you purge out of. You won't notice it and there are no detrimental effects whatsoever.
Just try one batch with an ordinary lid and a floating diptube in place of the original steel one.

Yeah appreciate this, and you’re assumption based on your research of my forum activity is correct .

I guess the option of having the extra post just appealed to me. I like options.

I don’t brew often, usually quite a big investment in time and organisation with kids, busy life yada yada. It seems I try something new with each session/batch, and often this leads me down to overthinking my methods/system

 

[bwible]

I know they sell these with a gas post and a diffusion stone. So why would this work, but not what you did?

https://www.kegworks.com/keg-lid-fo...MInvTByvvBjAMVzE9HAR14ghX7EAQYByABEgKyrfD_BwE

 

[giraffeman]

So after digging through all my parts I remembered why I never did this.
1) Did not like all the threaded parts on the inside of the keg lid that could collect/harbor bacteria
2) As others stated it is easer to just replace the diptube and purge water/starsan through the floating dip tube.
But for testing purposes I drilled a old lid and tried to make this work.
using the post with the hex nuts that I mentioned above

you may want to try this one https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256803614372007.html?
it seems to be a bit shorter.

Note: the standard dip tube that came with the floating dip tube was not long enough to stick out of the threaded part inside the lid .
I was able to get it in the keg but like mac_1103 said

but I think the issue may be that you just needed to drill the hole closer to the center of the lid.

I bet it would have been easer if it was placed closer to the center as it would give the lid little bit extra room to drop down in the keg

I had a hell of a time getting it to pull up and seat so I could lock the lid closed. After a bunch of fiddling and cursing I did get it to close


So you "could" get it to work with the hex nut type style post if you
1> were able to drill close to the center of the lid. (I know you said there’s a roughly 1mm deep ridge there), so it depends on the lid.
2> can get a longer dip tube (or cut one down) to stick out just enough to attach the hose
3)> don't mind having the threaded parts on the inside of the keg
4)> or

turn the lid post into your gas post (cut a dip tube short enough so that it doesn't protrude beyond the threads on the inside); then put the floating dip tube where the gas post used to be. If it works it gets you a keg with both rigid and floating dip tubes, which is what you wanted in the first place.

I may try swapping the gas line out but most likely I'll never use this setup. hope it helps some one else looking to try this

 

[JimBob’s Brewskis]

I got the shorter post, and it seems it’s still a no go as the thread on the hex nipple that came with this one (left) is ever so slightly larger in diameter than the hole I drilled for the first (right). ****.

So I tried fitting the lid on with just the original nipple with hex nut and o-ring and then fitting the post on after closing. Good news, lid went on. Bad news it leaked like a bastard

Gas bubbles galore when doing a wet test on the lid. Whether this was down to the nut coming slightly loose on the inside or that stupid ridge in the lid pushing against the oring - I can’t tell. But, it’s not worth pursuing. Doesn’t work with my keg lids.

I’m not about to fork out to replace 4 keg lids with flat surfaced ones just to make it work. That’s a bad use of time and money!

Can’t say I didn’t try I suppose. Now I wonder if I can blank the hold in the lid instead of buying a replacement.

 

[JimBob’s Brewskis]

Anyway, one decided all is not lost - I’m gonna go with standard floating dip tube config as suggested, but I’ll take the long liquid dip tube, get me some https://www.rubbersmart.co.uk/produ...ynSXfzESr_geMZJxkC4GeNrLMPCpzZt9HzColomUUaGmG 2 hole bungs and use these 4 new posts as vent out/siphon out posts on my Carboy.

Hopefully not another dead end this time anyone built something similar with rubber bung?