Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Built a steam boiler setup for doing stripping runs. Soldered the ferrules after hole saw cutting the openings. Wanted to share a couple ideas that helped.

A four inch hole saw is a challenge to hand drill through the keg top. Two inch round aluminium fits into the top of the kegs with two notches in the opening lip and retaining ring. This allowed the hole saw to be centred over original keg opening. It will not fit in Euro style kegs as sown that have threaded openings but could be turned down or threaded. It cane used repeatedly and is easy to make.

When a four inch hole was cut beside keg opening the hole saw wobbled enough to make the gap difficult to solder. The edge of the ferrule was peened to flare it slightly. A ball peen hammer and anvil were used. Then forced the ferrule into hole and pulled it up into place with a cross bar and fulcrum. Checked figment and soldered. This didn’t solder as nicely but did seal up well.

If you have a hole in a keg that is to big for pilot bit on hole saw put in a bolt with two nuts and large enough washers to cover the hole. Now you can drill through bolt assembly and will centre the hole saw. Just make sure it is all tight and won’t move.

Pull through ferrules and fittings. There is a Brew hardware supplier in USA that makes kits to do this. They work real well. The fittings can be pulled through and a valve attached then the fitting rotated prior to soldering to orient the valve correctly... Had to learn that. The two inch ferrules pull through a keg with some difficulty but pull through a AVIL Brew pot real easy

Although I have both MIG an TIG silver solder was chosen for a couple reasons. 1) It’s new to me and wanted to learn it. 2) fittings and ferrules can be removed or changed easily.

Two kegs. One is boiler one is still pot. Four inch ferrules made it possible to get tools inside for pull through fittings and pick up tubes. The one with offset four inch ferrule is the still pot.

Did you use staybrite solder for this?

bluc wrote:Did you use staybrite solder for this?

Hey bluc, yes. Staybrite solder and liquid flux.

Also with the ferrule did you dimple in or out. Follow the recomended or the not recomended instructions?
With an outward dimple i reakon a bottom drain would drain dry...
Interesting

I dimpled in. Easier to lay solder in the dimple if it points in. Otherwise you lay solder while reaching into keg through the four inch ferrule. If you make a ring of solder it would be easy enough to do. To dimple the two inch ferrule out you have to pull it in, then remove it and pull it out from inside without damaging the dimple. Keg is pretty thick and took a lot of effort to pull through. The valves will get drain tubes that go to bottom of the sump so should drain well.

My plan is to use the keg pot for cleared wash only and use my Anvil brew pot for distilling on grain. Just to make cleanup easier

Dancing4dan wrote:

bluc wrote:Did you use staybrite solder for this?

Hey bluc, yes. Staybrite solder and liquid flux.

Hey mate looks good

Is this the stuff you used?

https://www.jaycar.com.au/stay-brite-si ... t/p/NS3045

cheers

This flux.
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B001HW ... UTF8&psc=1

This solder
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0799N ... UTF8&psc=1

Pricey stuff but I use it for other things.

Ahh, thanks mate. Yeah very exxy!
Cheers