Pot, kettle, tap?

[NPi]

I've recently acquired a 50l stainless steel pot and am looking at installing a tap. Some how lifting the loaded pot off the hob doesn't fill me with confidence.

I've bought this tap:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1-2-Stai...1?pageci=b999359f-445f-48ad-b45b-2bd1cb8d055fand was hoping to use a Qmax cutter.

Having measured to treaded pipe it looks to be 20mm, however most cutters are 21mm. Does it sound sensible to cut the 20mm hole and file it as needed?

Finally, any advice on location or installation of the tap? I really don't want to mess this up

Cheers, Nick

 

[UKSkydiver]

I cut a 21mm hole with a QMax and it was perfect for 1/2" nipple / tap combo.

 

[Buffers brewery]

Regarding position, depends if you’re a “tilt it to get the last drop out” or not. I’m in the latter group so, to make things complicated as is my want, I fitted a stainless steel elbow on the inside end of the parallel nipple and positioned the tap so that the free end of the elbow was pointing down and about 5mm from the base of the kettle. This acts as a syphon when draining and gets down to the dregs without having to tilt anything.

 

[Buffers brewery]

Yes, not easy. I used a method I saw on youtube. Apply a piece of masking tape where you want the hole. Use a centre punch to ding the spot. Drill a pilot hole (3 mm diameter). Use cutting fluid (I used Ambersil Tufcut). Enlarge hole to 8 mm. Use 21 mm diameter Q-Max metal punch (available from Angel Homebrew) to make the hole for 1/2 bsp fitting. Debur before you run your finger around the nice new razor sharp hole

Just in case.

 

[NPi]

Many thanks @Buffers brewery, the elbow sounds like a good idea, can you a link for the one you use? Any advice on where to locate the hole (as in height wise). Longer term I'd love to get a thermo well or sight glass fitted, but they are just nice to haves for the time being.

Cheers, Nick

 

[Buffers brewery]

So, I used one of these

https://www.pipedreamfittings.com/product/street-elbow-90-stainless-steel/
But I notice you have a female thread on the inside so you'll need one of these as well

https://www.pipedreamfittings.com/product/parallel-nipple-bspp-stainless-steel/
to get the elbow and tap in the right position.

As for position, if you put everything together you can measure the distance from the centre of your tap to the end of the elbow. Add whatever clearance you want at the bottom, I opted for 5mm, add another 1or 2 mm for the thickness of the kettle bottom and that's the distance on the outside from the bottom of the kettle to the tap centre. Hope that's not too confusing.

This is what mine looks like inside. Note, I filed/ground the male thread off to make it a bit easier to keep clean.