today i did some shopping around as i couldn't find a blowtorch for a reasonable price for a small bit of work with some copper piping... then i stumbled on this little beauty for £10 in wickes!:
that particular flux lets you get away with not doing a very good job of cleaning joints, and the solder brought the total expense to about £15
so then i got to work! first thing on the agenda was replacing the compression fit tee's on my IC cos they leak occasionally and i would rather it not leak into the wort :nono:
I've never used a blowtorch or done plumbing to this level, so i was quite impressed when without any practise (but watching a few youtube vids to teach myself) i came up with this:
then it was onto a plumbing apparatus for the business end of the brewery.. before today, i had john guest fittings on the ends of the hoses for the sparger, MT and LT... i had to disconnect them on the pump side, to pump liquor/wort different ways, causing spills and the occasional burn and a very wet garage floor! so i made this:
with this aparatus i can now pump liquor into the tun, and recirculate wort around the MT with just a turn of a valve. the red valve is there so i can disconnect the hose from the mash tun to collect runnings in fermenters, but still send liquor through the pump to the sparger to do my fly sparge :thumb:
when finished the aparatus can be dropped lower than the pump to completely drain out.
it's also took away the problem i had of the john guest fittings leaking air into the line and causing pump problems... here's the sparger doing it's thing
works alot better now!
oh and before i packed up tools, i decided to do something i've not had chance to get around to doing until today.... fitting my Blichmann Brewmometer!
i'm not bothered that it's in Fahrenheit... i've made a laminated temperature quick conversion chart to keep handy if i need to convert temperatures :thumb:
a good day's work i reckon :party:
that particular flux lets you get away with not doing a very good job of cleaning joints, and the solder brought the total expense to about £15
so then i got to work! first thing on the agenda was replacing the compression fit tee's on my IC cos they leak occasionally and i would rather it not leak into the wort :nono:
I've never used a blowtorch or done plumbing to this level, so i was quite impressed when without any practise (but watching a few youtube vids to teach myself) i came up with this:
then it was onto a plumbing apparatus for the business end of the brewery.. before today, i had john guest fittings on the ends of the hoses for the sparger, MT and LT... i had to disconnect them on the pump side, to pump liquor/wort different ways, causing spills and the occasional burn and a very wet garage floor! so i made this:
with this aparatus i can now pump liquor into the tun, and recirculate wort around the MT with just a turn of a valve. the red valve is there so i can disconnect the hose from the mash tun to collect runnings in fermenters, but still send liquor through the pump to the sparger to do my fly sparge :thumb:
when finished the aparatus can be dropped lower than the pump to completely drain out.
it's also took away the problem i had of the john guest fittings leaking air into the line and causing pump problems... here's the sparger doing it's thing
works alot better now!
oh and before i packed up tools, i decided to do something i've not had chance to get around to doing until today.... fitting my Blichmann Brewmometer!
i'm not bothered that it's in Fahrenheit... i've made a laminated temperature quick conversion chart to keep handy if i need to convert temperatures :thumb:
a good day's work i reckon :party:
:lol:
