Making an Esky Tun

[BrewHaus]

Hi all,

I've used Kevins (and a few off YouTubes) ideas to cobble up an Esky based Lauter Tun.

It was all going well till I had to cut the stainless steel braided hose...how do you cut this stuff without it going madly stringy and spiking you like hundreds of little blood seeking needles?

I tried wire cutters and tin snips (which made a flattened mess)...and then I had to resort to the trusty though blunt instrument hack saw...which was naturally pretty messy!

I then trimmed it up 'reasonably' with the snips but it was a bit of an average end to my masterpiece (ok big exageration here, but it looks ok and has a nice brass tap on it).

I'm waiting for the silicone to dry (to stop leeks - is this dangerous for my beer and my health? I couldn't stop the leeks without it) and then have a go at my first AG...which will be a big challenge but I'm looking forward to it.

Is there a tool that will make this stainless braid cutting easier (for future reference)? Was the use of silicone ok as well?

Cheers,
BrewHaus

[Clean Brewer]

Angle grinder with thin cutting blade..

What kind of silicone was it? Shouldnt need silicone, did you gut a larger hole than needed? What did you use for everything?

[Kevnlis]

I wrapped electrical tape around the hose a few times at each end. Then put it in the vice and hack sawed through the middle of the tape, which was flush with the side of the vice. Got a nice clean cut.

[warra48]

I don't use mine any longer, but from memory, I just whacked mine with a cold chisel and a hammer on some concrete.

[drsmurto]

Beerbelly False Bottom - for tool retards like me! If i attempted to use an angle grinder i would be armless.....

No affiliation (altho he does sell DrSmurto's Golden Ale packs for AG brewers ).

[BrewHaus]

Ah, if I need to do it again, I'll try the tape, chisel or angle grinder rather than the saw!

I once had to cut braided wire for a balcony without a decent cutter and the grinder did the trick really well.

Ok...the problem...I just realised that the silicone sealant wasn't food safe...dolt...

I'll go and try to get some food safe/aquarium safe sealant...but will having a little residue cause me any health issues from the non food safe sealant?

I won't use any silicone 'removers' as they are libel to be more damaging than the existing silicone, but I'll try to carefully remove the existing stuff with a spatula and some elbow grease and maybe some very light sand paper. I guess as long as the new stuff stops it getting through my first seal, it won't touch to old sealant that would have oozed between the esky walls (into the foam cavity) which will be impossible to remove.

For the tun, I used a 1/2 inch sprinkler fitting (plastic) to fit onto the braided host with a clamp and then onto a plastic 20mm threaded tube which when screws 'together' to clamp both the sides of the esky and allows me to also screw a brass tap onto it.

The hole was slightly bigger than the 20mm threaded tube...it has seals on the side but when I tried it without sealant (even though it was screwed tightly enough to bow in the side of the esky, it still leaked with hot water.

I couldn't find any stainless or brass fittings that matched for this setup...will the plastic (black - prob PVC) also be a health issue? Just realised it may have been easier and cheaper to go buy a real tun!

[BrewHaus]

I think I've opened a can of worms here as I can't seem to find a 'food safe' silicone sealant.

Quite a few are ok for 'incidental' food contact (not I'm imagining hour long 70 degree sessions) or seem to be ok for aquariums (but don't like polyethelene or polypropeline which I beleive eskys are made from) but I can't seem to locate the right stuff which I can go and purchase (i.e. from bunnings etc).

Does anyone know of a sealant that is not going to make me sick and won't desolve my esky?

[Trough Lolly]

My De Walt angle grinder is the ducks guts! Perfect for this job....as for silicon sealant you aren't boiling in the mashtun so it _should_ be ok....

Next time, cut a smaller hole and use a round file to carefully make the fit perfect. High temp grade O-rings from the plumbing supplier are your friend. They were used to keep a watertight seal between my 10 Gallon Rubbermaid mashtun's wall and the locknuts for the outflow and Mashmaster temp controller below...


Cheers,
TL