Next, I can’t find copper fittings for a tri-clamp rig – just stainless (got a great catalog for SS). That doesn’t mean they don’t exist, just that I can’t find them.
I’m using a 5 gallon SS stock pot for a boiler at the moment, and I just removed the lid’s handle and cut a 2 ¼” hole through the center and, with a through-hull threaded copper fitting soldered on the base of the column, screwed it tight to the lid. I used a pair of “washers” hand cut from an HDPP bucket lid for a tight seal. Works great. I planned on using a wide rimmed SS bowl held down by fender washers bolted down on threaded studs and nuts (all SS) around a big opening cut into the top of the keg like some of the older books suggested, but with a wide HDPP “washer” as a seal instead of sheet cork that needs replacing fairly often.
Looking at the Sankey fitting on the keg, I don’t see a very wide flange. In fact, the flange is rounded and relatively short. It reminded me of a thread I’d read more than a year ago about someone soldering copper electrical wire around the end of a 2” copper pipe to use with a tri-clamp. If I remember wire size correctly, the resulting flange would be almost the same size as the one on the keg.
Is this something so well known that no one bothers to talk about it? Or is it something so rarely done that no one bothers to talk about it? Or did I simply misread (or misremember) the whole thing. Seems like a good idea… and I think I’ll try it as soon as I can locate a 2” tri-clamp.
I feel like I’m wandering around lost out here in left field. Does anyone have any information?
