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Hi all I'm currently building my keg pot still and would like to do it all myself. I've built the condenser and modified my keg with 2" hole for ferrule and heater and 4" cleaning port at the top.
Now I've never welded anything so me doing it is out the question but I can solder and I've read silver soldering may be ok (staybrite .
I'd like everyone's opinions if you don't mind on the pros and cons of using this silver solder on stainless to stainless and also stainless to copper
There is an intermediate option which I am exploring, silver brazing. The limitation of silver solder is it is not designed to fill gaps, so your hole to ferrule fit needs to be tight to solder. As I said, I am still exploring but will let you know what I find out. It may be a bit though as I will not have time to start building for at least 6 weeks.
As I understand it, silver brazing means work the stainless much hotter and close to the point at which you start to get migration and it stops being stainless. I too would be happier brazing (I've built bike frames using phosphor-bronze fillet brazing which stand up to use without any issues) but this was the second issue that stopped me going down that road... The first was the extremely high cost of silver brazing rod.
"I have a potstill that smears like a fresh plowed coon on the highway" - Jimbo
subbrew wrote: ↑Thu May 27, 2021 9:31 am
There is an intermediate option which I am exploring, silver brazing. The limitation of silver solder is it is not designed to fill gaps, so your hole to ferrule fit needs to be tight to solder. As I said, I am still exploring but will let you know what I find out. It may be a bit though as I will not have time to start building for at least 6 weeks.
Yeah let me know how you get on please. I'm in no rush I just wanna get it right
Stabrite8 will work fine for both stainless to stainless and copper to stainless. I've done 2 inch spools, a keg boiler with element and drain ports, and a keg electric boil kettle with element and drain ports. Make sure you get the stayclean liquid flux. I wish I could tig, but I'm cheap.
Tig is a whole rabbit hole unto itself
If your going to have other uses for it then grab one and be prepared to spend a lot of time practising before welding something you want to keep
If not, pay someone else and save the $$ and time
My problem with TIG is that I know that if I go down that road, I'm going to want to be able to use it on everything. Which means a decent quality AC/DC system. Which means big €€€€€. I can just about afford a simple inverter with scratch TIG but that's just going to leave me disappointed in the (near) future.
That said, the local fabricator here wanted 240€ to stick weld two ferrules onto a keg. And I was providing the keg and ferrules. Thus far I'm happy with my soldered joints although you do want to get the a good tight fit. With a decent torch and a little practice you can fill some holes but you don't want to be doing lots.
"I have a potstill that smears like a fresh plowed coon on the highway" - Jimbo
If you want the keg tigged and you aren't a welder you are simply better off outsourcing the job. Silver Brazing is a home jobbers tool and will meet your need completely. If you have to buy tooling to braze there isn't much of a price difference having a pro do it
Last edited by tiramisu on Fri May 28, 2021 9:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
When I did the mental math on buying a keg, all the ferrules, clamps, caps, and ball valve drain I wanted then added the cost of farming out the weld job, it was comparable to the cost of a milk can boiler.
If you can't tig, silver solder will be fine for our use if you're committed on a keg build. Just make sure your joints are tight, your surfaces are clean and well scuffed, and you have plenty of acid flux.
Fear and ridicule are the tactics of weak-minded cowards and tyrants who have no other leadership talent from which to draw in order to persuade.
A stick that you can use to drip / smear additional flux on once it's hot has proven to be useful on more than one occasion for me. As has gently preheating with a low-powered torch before applying liquid flux so that it "cooks" in place and doesn't run all over the curved surfaces of your keg.
If you're cutting off part of the top rim (handles) then that gives you some raw material to practise with if you've never done anything like this.
tiramisu wrote: ↑Fri May 28, 2021 6:53 am
If you want the keg tigged and you aren't a welder you are simply better off outsourcing the job. Silver Brazing is a home jobbers tool and will meet your need completely. If you have to buy tooling to braze there isn't much of a price difference having a pro do it
I agree entirely with the caveat of "if this is the only piece of equipment you will ever need to build". I understand that I get very enthusiastic about my hobbies, but my original plan of "add one 2" drain and one 4" filling port" rapidly progressed to "add a 2" port for an electric element, and hey... what about adding a ferrule to a saucepan lid to make a gin still, and that's a nice looking length of 2" copper, if I put some ferrules in that I've got a column for my CCVM build and ooooh I could do this.... and that...."
OK! That might say more about how my brain works than anything, but the second job that you have to take to the fabricator starts to make the upfront tool costs look more interesting, and may prevent questions about what it is you're building anyway.
"I have a potstill that smears like a fresh plowed coon on the highway" - Jimbo
I have a tig machine because I wanted to teach myself to weld and this seemed the most flexible. It's not easy but I'm getting better. I'm not up to welding still components reliably yet.
However, if you want to get the kit, there is another technique that might be more suitable - Tig brazing. You use lower powers on the Tig machine and don't melt the base metals but get hot enough to melt the braze wire.
I considered saving up for the tig as a "Well everyone needs a tig" and "oh look, another hobby" but I would like to get this one up and producing before committing to metalworking as a new hobby because if I have a tig then I will need a mini-lathe and a milling-machine and then I will have to automate a router so I can have a desktop CNC machine and then 10 years from now I might work my way back to the still. None of this is bad, but my current driver is Limoncello for Christmas, followed closely by rum and a nice "Irish" whiskey. Once I have a few small barrels aging and this process down to the mechanics I still have a car that needs to be reassembled in my garage.
Alcophile wrote: ↑Fri May 28, 2021 10:42 am
However, if you want to get the kit, there is another technique that might be more suitable - Tig brazing. You use lower powers on the Tig machine and don't melt the base metals but get hot enough to melt the braze wire.
I looked into this, but TIG brazing is not actually brazing. You get adherence but you don't get the flow that you get with proper brazing, so the filler doesn't flow via capillary action into the joint. TIG brazing just gets you the fillet of a fillet braze.
"I have a potstill that smears like a fresh plowed coon on the highway" - Jimbo
Tummydoc wrote: ↑Thu May 27, 2021 10:12 pm
Stabrite8 will work fine for both stainless to stainless and copper to stainless. I've done 2 inch spools, a keg boiler with element and drain ports, and a keg electric boil kettle with element and drain ports. Make sure you get the stayclean liquid flux. I wish I could tig, but I'm cheap.
^^^ This. Staybrite 8 has a difference between it's solid and liquid state temperatures that regular staybrite doesn't. You can move your torch on and off to hold it there and fill small gaps or build a bit of a pool. ONLY use the liquid flux, not the paste!
I’d have to suggest that you only pursue the TIG option if you have a genuine commitment to learning at greater than hobby level. The materials of kegs and pots and such is very thin and difficult to work with even with a good deal of training and experience. Kitchen ware is even worse. And it goes way beyond just buying a welder setup.
I have a pretty basic AC/DC machine at home that I simply cannot use for this sort of stuff because it just won’t turn down far enough. I either borrow a smaller one from work or take my projects in as an after-hours thing. I also have access to other tooling necessary to do decent fitting and purging. Without all of the necessary skills, tooling, and other elements it would just be a hack job.
Paying someone to do it correctly isn’t necessarily a poor return, but heavily investing just to butcher it yourself isn’t really a good value, either.
The best of all worlds, if you don’t have the wherewithal to DIY, is to find a friend who can and will and maybe work out a little exchange.
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