If I were to buy one of these sight glass tubes from Bargainfittings can I slide it down inside a SS Street elbow with an ID of 1/2" and have a snug liquid tight fit, or will I need to add something else? Could I buy a SS cap to fit the elbow and drill it to allow the 1/2" tubing through and slide it down over the sight glass with a silicone washer and thread onto the street elbow (if just putting it inside the fitting will not work)? I realize that they sell the entire kit for $25, but the sight glass is only $6 and I can buy the other SS parts local for around $6 to build it myself.
Check out the products from Bobby M. I bought two sight glasses from his website. Reasonable (to me) prices, great service, fantastic products. Seriously. Edit 1: Brewhardware.com is his site. He's a very active user on HBT. Edit 2: http://brewhardware.com/wlsightglass
you still need to get the bulkhead fittings so not sure how you could put it together for $6. I got mine from bargainfittings but that was just because they had other parts I needed when i was putting my system together. Now I see what you're saying...sounding kinda ghetto and I seriously doubt it would be liquid tight. Not saying you couldn't make it happen, but would be shocked if you could.
I don't see how this would work without some serious trail and error. The easy part is inserting the tube to the elbow. But how will you make the connection waterproof? A smooth polycarbonate tube mated to ss threads is not going to work. Same with a cap, easy to drill and insert tube, but it must be watertight, food grade, and able to stand repeated boiling temps. A silicone washer will only work if you have some threaded connection on both sides to apply compression (i.e. locking nut/coupler). There are some wonderful adhesives out there, not saying it can't be done, but this will take some experimenting and the connection is vital to the brew process. Even if you solve this problem, you will still need the elbow, flat washer, silicone washer and locking nut or coupler for the interior as a minimum. My sight gauge was from Bobby M and the polycarbonate came attached to the elbow. To the best of my knowledge, it is not intended to be taken apart. You will also need an ultra-skinny bristle brush to scrub the tube. I'm a fairly serious DIY'er, but deferred in this case. BTW, I do recommend a sight gauge . . . makes the job easier and looks impressive to the uninitiated.
?? I have a 2-tier and find a sight glass on all my vessels to be helpful...HLT for strike & sparge water volumes, MLT least useful, but still reference it during lautering since I keep the lid on the MLT on, BK is most useful since it will tell me volume of wort.
Really? Sight glass on my HLT (2nd kettle) and BK are extremely desirable. On the HLT I know when I have the strike and sparge volumes I want. On the BK I know when I have my pre-boil volume, can keep tabs on my progress (am I evaporating at a higher rate than usual today?), and know my post-boil volumes for efficiency purposes. I will know exactly how much wort I have before racking and in my fermenter. I realize that I can just mark a wooden dowel but then I have to find it when I need it, need multiples since my new 49/70/90 qt kettles are not all the same size, and run the risk of infecting batches from dipping the wood into unboiled wort with lots of lacto and other stuff in it, then dipping it back into chilled wort prior to fermentation (I have sour mashed by dropping the mash temp to 120*F from the mash temp of 150*F w/o new grains, enough bacteria can survive and keep multiplying over time as you keep adding more each brew day).
I may just go with the basic one I have on my keggle now, 90* street elbow and 1/2" ID silicone tubing. Toss a 1/2" to 3/8" SS hex bushing on the inside.
Definitely understand. I have one on my current keggle (welded NPT with brass elbow and barb) that has worked great for the 2 years I have had it. No infections from it (boiling wort in there as well as the heat transfer that low on the kettle) so far. I shoot water in from the open top after every brew to clean it free from any debri/trub/hops. Thanks for the input though, things to consider.
