Weird beer faucet tower

[BandonBrewingCo]

Hi everyone,

so this genius here bought a second hand beer tower online without asking or thinking of the fitting underneath...

you can't see from there but the tower comes down nearly flush with the base so drilling some holes in the base would only be possible with very small (probably too small) holes or holes at an angle (I'm a diy n00b but can't imagine that's a good idea)

Anyway, now I'm in three minds... do I:

a) buy a new tower

b) somehow find a large tube that will screw into that and if so... where do I even start looking? I have no friends in metal work so getting it done in a shop would be way too expensive. Unless these things are standard and exist pre-made?

c) skip the tower, don't worry about tower cooling and just go through the fridge door. if so, can I just go to my local DIY store and get some sort of tube to extend the shank so it goes all the way through the door?

Bearing in mind (rawwwrrrrr) the two faucets and tower cost €40, I'm not too pushed about throwing out the tower.

What say ye?

 

[Homercidal]

My advice is to take it to a plumbing shop and see if they have any advice. There may just be a common thread size/pitch to that thing and they would best know what commonly available fittings would work to secure it to whatever you are mounting it on.

Might be like a sink drain fitting, for example, or a threaded flange of some sort. A machine shop could certainly determine the thread size/pitch and weld a flange on a threaded pipe piece. Unless you are paying them in beer, it's probably not worth the labor cost, though.

 

[processhead]

Looks like a commercial tower. It may be a common nipple and locking nut used with European beverage dispensing systems.
If you ask around, you may be able to find a local beverage dispensing service company in Innsbruck that that serves the local pubs and restaurants.
I can't believe it would be too hard to find the missing hardware, and as mentioned a plumbing shop is also a good resource.

 

[V-Fib]

In a perfect world one of the big box stores would have a threaded fitting the would thread into the tower and also a giant nut (ha) or a flange that you could lock it down without screws or bolts.

As far as tower cooling, I'm not really sure it'd be an issue. Im pretty sure mine just has a rubber gasket where it meets the fridge and a piece of foam in the top to help.

 

[mirthfuldragon]

Is the bottom flush, or do the threads stick out a little? It is hard to tell from the picture.

I expect the thread is standard galvanized pipe thread, so I would bet that any decent plumbing supply will be able to find something that fits. I imagine it is designed to screw into an existing male pipe nipple coming out of the bar. That probably does not help you though. If that is the case, then you could mount a female flange on the underside of the kegerator, thread a nipple into that flange from the back of the flange, and then thread your tower into that. You need to go female to female.

You could also mount the flange on top of the kegerator, use a short piece of male-male pipe nipple, and then thread everything together that way. It might look kinda odd though. You could use some wood to hide it.

Or get a metal or wood ring and expoy that tower to the ring, using the ring as an adapter. So tower attaches to adapter ring (which is 1" bigger in outside diameter and with a similar inside diameter as the inside of the tower), and then attach the adapter ring to the top of your kegerator in the traditional way.

 

[processhead]

It looks like what we would call fine threads over here. The OP is in Austria, so it is almost certainly metric if he got it locally.

 

[BandonBrewingCo]

Is the bottom flush, or do the threads stick out a little? It is hard to tell from the picture.

I expect the thread is standard galvanized pipe thread, so I would bet that any decent plumbing supply will be able to find something that fits. I imagine it is designed to screw into an existing male pipe nipple coming out of the bar. That probably does not help you though. If that is the case, then you could mount a female flange on the underside of the kegerator, thread a nipple into that flange from the back of the flange, and then thread your tower into that. You need to go female to female.

You could also mount the flange on top of the kegerator, use a short piece of male-male pipe nipple, and then thread everything together that way. It might look kinda odd though. You could use some wood to hide it.

Or get a metal or wood ring and expoy that tower to the ring, using the ring as an adapter. So tower attaches to adapter ring (which is 1" bigger in outside diameter and with a similar inside diameter as the inside of the tower), and then attach the adapter ring to the top of your kegerator in the traditional way.

Firstly: heh heh heh

It's flush underneath (those are inner grooves) so I really like ideal number 2. So the wooden ring I'm guessing should be as tall as the tower base right?

 

[BandonBrewingCo]

In a perfect world one of the big box stores would have a threaded fitting the would thread into the tower and also a giant nut (ha) or a flange that you could lock it down without screws or bolts.

As far as tower cooling, I'm not really sure it'd be an issue. Im pretty sure mine just has a rubber gasket where it meets the fridge and a piece of foam in the top to help.

Some friendly Germans over on a german brewing site advised me to search for a "Doppelnippel" and it looks like I can get quite large ones, even in PVC so looks like I've being making a mountain out of a mole hill!

I'll take the tower down to the local diy and see what size I need and hopefully they'll have what I need.

Thanks for all your help everyone!

 

[mirthfuldragon]

Firstly: heh heh heh

It's flush underneath (those are inner grooves) so I really like ideal number 2. So the wooden ring I'm guessing should be as tall as the tower base right?

The adapter ring could be any depth - the adapter ring is epoxied to the tower and then the ring is connect to the kegerator.

Assuming the hole in the tower is 2" (inside diameter) and the tower itself is 3" wide (outside diameter). Then get or make a ring 4" in diameter with a 2" hole in the middle. The hole in the ring and the hole in the tower line up to pass the lines through. The ring is epoxied to the tower. The ring is then bolted or screwed to the top of the kegerator.

You could just epoxy the tower to the top of the kegerator, but then you can never take it apart, so that is not really an option. The ring acts as a mounting flange.