Need some advice - Stainless Brew Pot

[andy77]

My two cents is that weldless is better than bad welds. It doesn't really matter having rough welds inside the boil kettle as far as sanitation is concerned, but you'll roll your eyes every time you see them.

As far as cost, when you're considering stepping up to larger batches there are other associated costs. Consider extra fermemters, extra cleaning solution for those fermenters each time, and most important: the extra space in you fermentatino fridge if you do temp controlled fermentations.

[fulkrum78]

kk. getting the welding done on Tuesday I believe. All the ball valves and whatnot have been ordered and are on the way. Loking forward to giving this sucker a shot....

[fulkrum78]

Alright: just got the pot back. Nice looking job, with one slight hitch... Rather than having the coupler poke out a lil inside, they welded it more to the outside which is fine. Downside is, the bead is preventing me from screwing the intake tube to the inside of the coupler. Almost there but not quite...

Dremel it a lil to get it in or...? Thoughts?

Pics:

[customfab]

You paid somebody to do those? Take it back and have them grind out the interfering weld. Personally when I weld fittings into kettles for home use I weld them from the outside and shoot for full penetration. Having a little gap in the joint pre boil isn't going to hurt anything. I also stick the fitting inside the vessel so the valves and thermometer aren't hanging out there to get beat around.

[Brewdouche]

You paid somebody to do those? Take it back and have them grind out the interfering weld. Personally when I weld fittings into kettles for home use I weld them from the outside and shoot for full penetration. Having a little gap in the joint pre boil isn't going to hurt anything. I also stick the fitting inside the vessel so the valves and thermometer aren't hanging out there to get beat around.

Your the new guy bicycle/fab guy huh?

You know what, when I first saw this I thought the same thing. I needed somebody to do my aluminum kettle, and was blessed by a guy who could be paid in beer. I told him the better job he did the better and more frequent my beer would be. He did an excelent job, to which I thought, I could never do that good with no experience, and would hate to have to pay somebody, cause I would be hard to please over cash.

[customfab]

Your the new guy bicycle/fab guy huh?

You know what, when I first saw this I thought the same thing. I needed somebody to do my aluminum kettle, and was blessed by a guy who could be paid in beer. I told him the better job he did the better and more frequent my beer would be. He did an excelent job, to which I thought, I could never do that good with no experience, and would hate to have to pay somebody, cause I would be hard to please over cash.[/quote]

I am that guy. I'll post some pics soon of what a welded fitting should look like. Looking through threads I haven't seen a good one yet.

[calpyro]

Hello!

My brewing partner has been gifted with a rather good size (30gl?) heavy duty stainless steel pot. It has handles, and needs a good scrubbing, but otherwise is in excellent condition. At present, we're using a 10gl Polarware pot.

My question is, what would it take/cost to get this new pot drilled/welded for a thermometer and for a ball valve? Just a ballpark figure would be great - no clue what welding/drilling costs for this sort of thing...

Or do I just need to get it drilled and go weldless?

Thanks in advance!

(I'll post a picture of the pot once I get one!)

Edit: Pot dimensions: Diameter is 18" on the bottom. The top is a little oval shape 17-18.5" . Height is just shy of 28" from bottom to top inside. Just shy of 30" on the outside height.

I may be a little late in offering advice for your current project, but if you need any future work done, I have a good tip.

Adding a stainless steel fitting can easily be fitted to a kettle with a high-quality silver solder.

I found a good explanation here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpMFQFi6 ... plpp_video

I used a lead and cadmium free 45% silver, silver-solder rated at 3500PSI and it went on nicely.

The fitting to produce a the dimpled flare on the kettle cost me +/- $35 from McMaster Carr and my local ACE. Each stainless coupling is around $2.50 from: http://www.brewhardware.com/index.php?o ... &Itemid=75

The resulting fitting is strong and sanitary. Give it a try.