bergland stockpot thickness

[chris2012]

Hi

I'm wondering, does anyone know the thickness of the metal on the sides of the bergland stockpots?

cheers

Chris

[Kev888]

My 70L version is 0.7mm thick. The 100L one seemed about the same, though I didn't measure it so can't be fully certain its identical.

[chris2012]

Ah cheers! I thought they might have been 1mm. Is 0.7mm thick enough for someone to TIG on triclamp ferrules etc. do you know?

[Kev888]

It can be done, but isn't trivial - a lot would come down to the skill of the welder and probably how much weight you want to hang off it in terms of valves and hoses (similarly for dimpling and soldering).

Are you aware that Brewbuilder does a couple of pots/tanks with triclamp bulkheads already welded? The TC Tanks and also Flat Bottomed FVs.

[chris2012]

Gotcha thanks for the heads up. I will have to talk to a local welder then. There would be a fair bit of weight I guess as the tri-clamp valves I've got are pretty heavy (1.5" tri-clamp full bore).

Yeah the BrewBuilder ones look really nice, I will strongly contemplate them.

I was wondering if I could get someone to fab bottom drains on the stockpots. So essentially I'd have a 1.5" tri-clamp ferrule in the middle of the bottom, then get them to weld legs onto the side of the pot.

However bottom drain could be way overkill.

[Kev888]

I like bottom drains myself, too - aside from cases where dead-space can be reduced, it makes rinsing and flushing easier, especially once tanks get over a certain size. I'd normally use a mechanically fixed flange or skin/deck fitting, but that often adds to the disassembly/cleaning needed if it is a fermenter so I'd be interested to hear how you get on with the welded investigations.

[Fil]

soldering triclamp ferrules onto bergland pots is Very do-able, just posted details elswhere so am repeating myself a bit but




I used mapp gass, 55% silver solder with a liquid acid flux that i applied from a ss needle nosed squeezy bottle.

ONLY HEAT THE FLANGE of the triclamp ferrule with the torch flame, dont let it lick the ss skin as it will encourage it to warp very easily.

it can seem like an age but just keep the flame on the SS flange, the ferrule is Big and heavy enough to need a lot of heat input but when its hot enough it will also have enough mass to transfer the heat to the thin skin in contact with it to form a good solder..

the joint is robust enough that folk using it to connect to a 50l keg can swing the keg about by the joint with no problems..

[Fil]

btw the above was in a lid and i punched the hole tru after the soldering,

I then attempted to solder a 6" ss strengthening ring around the ferrule and made a complete pigs ear of it as the lid warped as soon as the flame licked it.. even tho i tried i couldnt cut it all out of the above pic..


and the acid flux will de-pasify your ss however a scrub back with bar keepers friend and air exposure sorted out the rust issues for me..

[chris2012]

Cheers Fil, I remember you mentioning before about silver soldering, I'm very worried I'd manage to mess that up though, which is why I'm thinking
about getting someone to TIG pots, if I get some. But it's very interesting to see it's possible!