I managed to get some work done on the mash tun over the weekend. My first task was to get the tank connector fitted, get the siphon pipe installed, and to make sure it’s all watertight.
The connector came with a nice washer so I was able to use the inside of that as a template for the hole I had to cut, which needed to be the diameter of the thread on it. I had a spade bit for my drill which was almost the right size and made short work of cutting a nice neat hole in the bottom of my fermenter. The hole was a couple of mm too narrow so I set to work with a small file and a wood drill bit to gouge and smooth out the rest of it. It wasn’t super-neat, but it did the job.
My not-so-neat hole in the bottom of the mash tun.
I left it a little small so it would have a good, tight fit.
Once the connector was in I left it in loose to measure up for pipe. Some people put a 90-degree elbow straight down on the back of the connector, but I’m following the advice in the Instructable this build is based on which says to use a length of pipe to help act as support for the inner drum once it’s full of water and grain. I measured the pipe up and used the natty little pipe-cutter to cut it to length.
Outside of the tank connector with pipe fitted. I’ve actually cut another 3/4″ off of this since.
Once I was happy with the fit and the length of the pipe there was only a couple of things left to do for this stage of the build. First up, adding the 90-degree elbow to the end of the pipe that’s inside the tun. This is really only there to give a little extra depth to the siphon action. Without it, the siphon would stop once the level inside reached the top of the pipe. With the elbow added it should continue siphoning until the level reaches the bottom of the tun.
With that added, the last thing was to tighten everything up. The fittings I used are compression ones which have a small brass O-ring (called an olive) inside the nuts. Once they’re tightened really well with a spanner or wrench, the olive presses around the pipe and gives a watertight seal. I tightened the nut on the elbow, the one on the back of the tank connector, and finally the two for the connector itself.
The inside of the tun with the compression elbow attached.
I’ve not added the ball valve for the tap on the outside yet, because the next job is insulating it all, and the less bits I’ve got sticking out, the better.
So far, so good!