Weldless TC Bulkheads

[harrij4]

Has anyone made a weldless TC bulkhead out of one of these?

 

[sandyeggoxj]

That is pretty slick. It does kind of contradict the concept of sanitary fittings, but you could build a whole system with triclamps and then upgrade your kettles to true sanitary fittings at a later date.

 

[harrij4]

Exactly. I'm having a tough time finding someone I trust to weld on my kettle who is actually willing to take on such a small job. This way I can get setup with TCs and upgrade to true sanitary with some inexpensive ferrules later. Plus, a butterfly valve would be a vast improvement over the sludge traps that are ball valves.

 

[sandyeggoxj]

Haha, sludge traps. I just got some stout kettles and I'm kicking myself for not upgrading to butterfly valves! Dumb!

Where are you in the country? Maybe I can hell you find somewhere to get some ferrules tig'd on? Also, bobby, aka brew hardware.com, has some.ferrules that are silver soldered on. Something to think about. Also, if you are going electric go with 2" triclamp ferrules. It with be much easier...

 

[harrij4]

I'm in Milwaukee. I was going to check with my local Northern Brewer to see if they know of anyone. I've checked three dairy and brewing supply houses and they won't take the job. I always worry about small "job shops" unless I've got good references for them. I looked. At the Brewhardware solder TCs but they're out of stock until April.

 

[sandyeggoxj]

Well good luck! I've found that homebrew shops are hit or miss for references to good welding places. I would think that they would be good references because of the need to build brew stands and weld fittings into kettles.

On a side note, I think spike brewing is up in your neighborhood, you could ask him where he would recommend.

 

[harrij4]

I emailed Spike and he couldn't recommend anyone.

 

[sandyeggoxj]

I would recommending joining weldingweb.com and asking around there. Next place would be millerwelds forum. Lots of good folks around those places and they have helped me out a ton!

 

[Bobby_M]

I'm in Milwaukee. I was going to check with my local Northern Brewer to see if they know of anyone. I've checked three dairy and brewing supply houses and they won't take the job. I always worry about small "job shops" unless I've got good references for them. I looked. At the Brewhardware solder TCs but they're out of stock until April.

Haha, you posted this on March 31st. It's April now and they are in stock.

We have both radius and flat solder flanges in both 1.5 and 2" TC.

 

[harrij4]

Haha, you posted this on March 31st. It's April now and they are in stock.

We have both radius and flat solder flanges in both 1.5 and 2" TC.

Have you had pretty good luck with the solder flanges? How's the long term durability?

 

[Bobby_M]

I have no reason to believe that the solder joint will fail unless the surfaces were poorly prepped or the solder job was questionable.

 

[snackson]

Bobby's solder on triclover's are the tits. I love those things. Did I read that right though, you now have 2" ones available?

[EDIT] Just found them on your site. I might just have to order a few of the 2" ones. Well, I need some other stuff anyways.