Copper thoughts?
bobdrob
pkg of soft-drawn tubing around a sonortube and never got around to
stabilizing the coil. It's really starting to get floppy. The best thing to
do would be to sweat solder the coils into a nice, neat helix, but have
heard that solder & wort don't mix. So plan B is to use some copper wire
and try to stabilize this hot mess. 2 kinds of wire are available to me.
I've got uninsulated copper ground wire from home depot left over from a
household upgrade project, but maybe not enough. I also have an entire spool
of magnet wrapping wire , used to rebuild electric motors, which I got from
a clean out job. The magnet wrap is old & looks like it has a mahogany
patina. The question (for there is always a question : ) Can I presume that
the Magnet wrap is simply old, untreated & safe to use in hot wort, or go
with the ground wire, and break into the piggy bank to buy all that I'd
need. Cheapness vs. Sanitantion & safety... discuss....
Ecnerwal
"bobdrob" <drob...@verizonSPAMMY.net> wrote:
The magnet wire has a coating on it - I would not put that in hot wort.
I fail to see what the problem with a loose coil is, having used one for
16 years... if you compress the coils to touch each other, you reduce
the efficiency of transferring heat from the wort to the water.
--
Cats, coffee, chocolate...vices to live by
bobdrob
"Ecnerwal" <MyName...@ReplaceWithMyVices.Com.invalid> wrote in message
news:MyNameForward-F18...@feeder.eternal-september.org...
well, they're collapsed upon one another as it is now. I thought that if I
could aalign them w/ a little space between each loop, it might be a little
more efficient. Plus, it looks like hell, which bugs the crap out of me.
Scott
I used stainless steel "aircraft safety wire" to space my coils so there
is approximately one tubing diameter (~3/8") of empty space between
turns. Improved my cooling dramatically.
Ace
Ben Crowell
> The best thing to
> do would be to sweat solder the coils into a nice, neat helix, but have
> heard that solder & wort don't mix.
I'm skeptical. Wort isn't anywhere near the melting point of lead. I
doubt that you'd get any lead in your wort.
Scott
Well, I'm not so sure about that. Plumbers use lead free solder on
copper water pipes in houses and John Palmer recommends soaking brass
parts in an acid bath to leach off the lead, so it would appear that
traces of lead can come off at any temperature...it doesn't have to
melt. So, if one uses lead free "plumber's solder" you should be OK.
Scott
Joel
>Ben Crowell wrote:
>> I'm skeptical. Wort isn't anywhere near the melting point of lead. I
>> doubt that you'd get any lead in your wort.
>
>Well, I'm not so sure about that. Plumbers use lead free solder on
>copper water pipes in houses and John Palmer recommends soaking brass
>parts in an acid bath to leach off the lead, so it would appear that
>traces of lead can come off at any temperature...it doesn't have to
>melt.
Melting is not the only physical process in the universe.
Even a mildly acidic wort will cause a chemical reaction in
the right circumstances. Ever see a tarnished penny?
--
Joel Plutchak
"New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any
other reason but because they are not already common." - John Locke
Doug Freyburger
1) Solder made form a mixture of metals melts lower than either metal
individually.
2) Dissolving matters with both lead and tin that is used in solders.
3) Corrosion matters even more with either lead or tin. It is not
metalic lead that is deadly but its reduced form in minerals.
Ideally I'd rather see the pipes brazed than soldered. Okay, okay, I
can hear my wife saying it now - I am using the issue as an excuse to
buy a new welding set!
bobdrob
"Scott" <acepilo...@bloomer.net> wrote in message
news:pcqdncL0TZy0BRnW...@bright.net...
This is what I was thinking of! If the s/s wire is hard to find, and the
magnet wrap is coated, then I'm back to the uninsulated copper grounding
wire that I own. Any thoughts on the uninsulated wire? Bueller? Anyone?
Bueller?...
bobdrob
"Doug Freyburger" <dfre...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:hm3ksj$r76$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
Ben, Scott, Joel, Doug, & lurkers everywhere: What about "leadfree" silver
solder (Oatley brand, which I own & regularly use? Any thoughts ?
Anyone? Bueller? Anyone? ...
Doug Freyburger
> "Doug Freyburger" <dfre...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> Ideally I'd rather see the pipes brazed than soldered. Okay, okay, I
>> can hear my wife saying it now - I am using the issue as an excuse to
>> buy a new welding set!
Hey if I'm going to dream may as well dream big. Stainless steel piping
needs to be arc welded. So here I am standing in Hardbor Freight Tools
gazing at a brand new arc welding set. Suddenly my wife appears and
pulls me away - No way are you getting an arc welding set either! Ah
but reality even invades some dreams, ;^)
> Ben, Scott, Joel, Doug, & lurkers everywhere: What about "leadfree" silver
> solder (Oatley brand, which I own & regularly use? Any thoughts ?
Lead free silver solder is standard in the hot water pipes in homes. I
have no clue what happens it it gets hotter thant the 120%F maximum that
home pipes ever get. Ah dunno. Can't be as bad as lead and tin.
Scott
Yes, silver solder (no lead, aka plumber's solder) should be fine.
Scott
Scott
Cue up the super hero theme music DUN Dun DAH....
http://www.wicksaircraft.com/catalog/product_detail.php/pid=5821~subid=8787/index.html
This is what you want. Put the first wrap on the bottom coil and twist
the wire together at about a rate of about 8 turns per inch, so twist 4
or 5 times, then put the next turn of the coil there and wrap the wire
around it and twist again. Continue this until all the coils have been
spaced with the wire, then go around the coil 180 degrees and repeat
this all over again. Works great, last long time!
Scott
alebrewer
> bobdrob wrote:
> > "Doug Freyburger" <dfrey...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
I used plumber's solder on mine and I haven't had any problem in over
10 years. It contains no lead. Tin/Antimony. There are similar
solders that contain a very small amount of silver (like 0.2%) used in
electronics, but they have a higher cost and still contain Antimony
and Tin. The silver is to improve strength. In plumbing
applications, strength is generally not an issue. All of these
solders can take boiling wort temperatures (mp of above 400 F)
Silver solders that have a high sliver content (50% or more) are known
as hard solders and have melting points of over 1200F. This is close
to the temperature range of brazing and (IMO) is called solder only
because of its color. Hard solder is generally not used on copper.
ab
Bob F
> Scott <acepilo...@bloomer.net> wrote:
>> Ben Crowell wrote:
>>> I'm skeptical. Wort isn't anywhere near the melting point of lead. I
>>> doubt that you'd get any lead in your wort.
>>
>> Well, I'm not so sure about that. Plumbers use lead free solder on
>> copper water pipes in houses and John Palmer recommends soaking brass
>> parts in an acid bath to leach off the lead, so it would appear that
>> traces of lead can come off at any temperature...it doesn't have to
>> melt.
>
> Melting is not the only physical process in the universe.
> Even a mildly acidic wort will cause a chemical reaction in
> the right circumstances. Ever see a tarnished penny?
Ever see what happens to one if you throw it in your boil. Or when you throw an
oxidized cooling coil into it.
bobdrob
many thanks for all the input! Doug: i hope you get yer welding rig
someday...
"bobdrob" <drob...@verizonSPAMMY.net> wrote in message
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