Bender The Bubbler Build Thread

[Milky]

Looks great. Are you going to try keep it shiny like others have done with a type of clear coating?

I haven't clear coated it yet. I wanted to run it to see if it leaked at all between the modules. I don't think it will but I didn't want to take the chance of polishing and clear coating it only to have to solder or weld rings onto the flanges to make the triclover clamps seal it all up like I have seen on some other builds.

So after this weekend I will be stripping it all down and polishing it as close to mirror finish as I can and clear coating it next Friday on my day off.

Thanks all for the kind words. I want to make a packed section too busy swapped my last length of 4" copper for another keg so I can start a mush tun build. So I have to go back to the scrappers to get more. May even build a Carter head as Linny has inspired me.

[woodduck]

Beautiful build mate, that looks sweet.
Well done :handgestures-thumbupleft: :clap: :clap: :clap:

[Milky]

So last night I did a cleaning & sacrificial run on bender.
1. All modules sealed and did not leak between plates.
2. The water line welds on the RC leaked (even though it didn't leak when I made it and filled it with water) so I'll have to chop them and off and make/weld them again.
3. The sight glasses leaked profusely! They weren't done up really tight as I didn't want to CRACK the glass but I did them up tighter & it still leaked, and vapour huffing out one of them too. Any help on how to seal the sight glasses better? I currently have the copper flange, then a MacStill flat sided epdm seal (bead side towards the glass) then the sight glass and done up in a clamp.

[Muppet]

I've had issues with my sight glasses before, fixed it by flat facing the flanges, rub the flange flat over sandpaper on a flat surface or use a 5" cutting disc flat across the hole. If your not used to using a grinder this way the sandpaper on a flat surface will be safer. Within a rub or two it will show up the low and high spots.

[rumdidlydum]

:text-+1: on the grinder method. But be careful.
Can you try a seal on the glass with no bead? It might be contributing to the issue :think:
Great work keep the pics coming :D

[Milky]

So this is how I have my sight glass seals now. Bead is still on the seal. I had a look and found that I must have knocked some of the flanges as they were not as flat as I thought which would have contributed to the leaking.

Seal 2.JPG

And I think you are all right. Upon closer inspection my Copper flanges on the modules were no longer flat. So I think I'll take the safe route and sand them with wet and dry and then try this seal set up after cutting the beads of each seal and using 2, rather than one and maybe a backing ring to give the thickness the clamp needs to hold it all.

Seal.JPG

[woodduck]

I would try "dry fitting" with a ss ferrel if you have one or a reasonably thick flat disc. Tighten the clamp up pretty tight without a seal that is then undo slide around and retighten then repeat. This will bring your flanges out flat. A few of my easy flanges leaked until I did this. I recon you would be best cutting the rib off one side of your seal and putting that toward your glass, the bigger serface area seems to help it seal. I would leave the rib on the otherside to give you a bit more thickness and it might take up any variables. Good luck I hope she seals up for ya :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Milky]

Thanks for the speedy reply Woodduck. I really appreciate it.

Yeah today I managed to flatten the flange back in the pan brake blade like how I manufactured them at the start and sanded one with some wet & dry on a flat surface plate. I cut off the bead on 2 seals and cut a Cooper backing ring (this was really quick & rough) and it seemed to stay sealed for 4hrs with water in it. I'll post pictures after I get our 6month gremlin in bed in the next hour. I have tonnes of pics from today show what I did and how I did it.

[Milky]

I started by clamping the flange in the pan brake blade then I got some 600 grit wet & dry paper on a flat surface plate and went around in circles until it came out flat. Didn't take too long at all.

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I then cut the bead off the 2 seals I was going to use, whereas before, I only used one.

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[Milky]

For my copper backing ring I have left over 2.5" pipe. So I annealed it with the oxy, flattened it with a leadshot hammer and then marked out the ring with the metal dividers (I'll show this in a later post) and used the step guillo to cut out the outer circle and used the turrent punch from before to cut the inner out. I cleaned it up with the linishal and the same tooling I used to clean up the inside of the sight glass in the module. Smoothed it all up and did a test assemble of it all.

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[Milky]

I assembled it all and then put water in it for 4hrs. No leaks at all. We may have a winner. And I marked the copper because it is so soft so thats why it looks damaged.

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You can see in the side view that with the thickness of the glass combined with the seals that the clamp seats it all evenly.

[WalterWhite]

Absolutely amazing work mate ^:)^ :text-coolphotos:

[Milky]

I thought I might change it up and see what it would look like with a stainless steel backing ring. I had the thought that over time, stainless wouldn't change colour like copper oxidises so if the backing rings were all copper and my bubbler is all shiny, the copper rings would be all poey brown.

So I got some scrap 321 Annealed SS sheet (about 1.5mm thick, same thickness as the copper ring I used) out of the scrap skip at work and made up 4 rings. One is finished and 3 need cleaning up on the inside which I will do tomorrow. Sorry there are no pictures of cutting the centre out with the turrent punch and the linishaling. Just didn't have the time, Will try later in the week.

Here are some pics of how I did it.

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[Milky]

So what do you all prefer?

Copper?

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Or stainless?

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AS I'm going to polish it up, I think stainless is my personal preference.

[rumdidlydum]

:text-+1: on the staino
Looking sweet i wish i had access to the shop your in ^:)^ :laughing-rolling:

[Linny]

Good to see your sorting the problems out :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Milky]

:text-+1: on the staino
Looking sweet i wish i had access to the shop your in ^:)^ :laughing-rolling:

Thanks heaps. It does help a lot!

[Milky]

Good to see your sorting the problems out :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Thanks Linny. You know I wouldn't be where I am with this without your help, hey. Forever greatful!

[Milky]

I got the remaining stainless rings cut out, cleaned up and polished for fitment, along with sanding the other 3 modules and cutting the rest of the seals during.

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Next step is re doing the water lines to the RC. I want to get this done before saturday so I can assemble and give it another run with a wash I put down for a sacraficial to test the sightglasses and RC leaks again. More tommorrow

[rumdidlydum]

:text-coolphotos:
Is that a old fire supression botle as your boiler :dance: