DIY False Bottom from a stainless steel plate

[Thanks_Yeasties]

I was bouncing around the idea of using a stainless steel dinner plate as a false bottom for my 10 gallon cooler mash tun. Basic premise is drill a large amount of small holes all over the plate, which is domed already and then drill a center hole for the out-flow connection.

Anyone have any experience with this or have any concerns/issues they see with this approach???

 

[beersk]

I think it'd work. It'd work even better if you did that and used a grain bag in the cooler in conjunction with it.

 

[Thanks_Yeasties]

Thats not a bad idea. Do you think I would have to worry about exposing new metal where I drill potentially causing a rust problem?

 

[Ski12568]

If the plate is made of stainless there shouldn't be any rust. If it is coated in stainless when the metal the stainless is coating can rust after you drill through it

 

[beersk]

I think you should just use a 12" braided hose setup and a grain bag in the mashtun. You'll have no problems with stuck runoff and won't really even need to vorlauf. I don't vorlauf anymore. It's awesome. Plus cleaning up the grains is easier with the bag.

 

[acidrain]

I've drilled my own false bottom... over 1000 3/32" holes in a .1000 SS sheet. I made the mistake of center punching every hole, which by the time I was done, warped the flat plate into a dish shape.
I bought 3 cobalt drill bits for this purpose knowing that I would dull or break at least one... maybe two. Hopefully I would make it through all 1000+ holes.
Made it with just that one bit, and was as sharp as when I started when finished.
I used that FB for quite awhile until I sold it with one of my original keggles, which was one that I cut just below the handles to use as a BIAB keggle.
It worked well, and only took a full evening to make it.

 

[Thanks_Yeasties]

Thanks for the input, think I'm going to give the steel plate a try, now to find a local store that carries a 10-12 inch plate, or wait on amazon shipping.