I know there are a ton of ball valve how to's on the site, but for the life of me, I couldn't find a definitive one for a 3/8" valve on an aluminum kettle, so here goes.
Here's the equipment I used:
I used 3/8" brass because for some reason, in this area of Connecticut, stainless steel is non existant, and 1/2" fittings are outrageously expensive. It was quite a jump in price from 3/8" to 1/2".
The I.D. of everything is 3/8", and the O.D. of all the fittings are 5/8" Which means the orings I.D. is 5/8". I got 50 of them (Size 016) from oringsandmore.com for a whopping $4.20 shipping included.
Now here was the tricky part for me. I couldn't get any brass locknuts locally. The kind that have an o-ring groove in them. They, as well, don't exist in this part of the country (Not even the specialty plumbing shops in the area said they could get them for me, for whatever reason.), and I wasn't going to order two $.79 nuts and pay $6.00 shipping. So I made my own from compression nuts. Just took a hacksaw to them and deburred them. I threaded them onto a junk 3/8" fitting to make sure the threads were kosher, and bingo. Two locknuts. In restrospect, I might have sprung for the locknuts with the groove, because I experienced a drip that might not have happened had the grooves been in the nuts.
So with everything set to go, I pickled the brass as per John Palmer's instructions in How to Brew.
So, onto the construction.
Step 1: Cut hole in kettle.
I was a little concerned with drilling the hole with a spade bit, but the aluminum is so soft, it cut through like butter. I actually pushed the bit against the wall and it made a pilot hole. That's how soft the aluminum is. I deburred the hole using my chainsaw file. Worked a treat.
I made the hole too low in the kettle, and as a result, will have to cut a chunk out of the ring of the burner stand. Whoops.
Step 2: Wrap teflon tape around all the threads.
Step 3. Assemble the valve.
It should look like this. (Yes a pic would be nice, but I forgot to take one with the parts disassembled in the order they should go. Sorry.)
barb fitting>valve>nipple>locknut>oring>kettle wall>oring>locknut
Thread one locknut onto one side of the nipple and then an o-ring. Thread the nipple into the valve. The close nipple was a tight fit, and it threaded itself through the kettle wall.
Slip on another oring inside the kettle and the other locknut. Tighten just over hand tight and you should have a brand spankin' new valve on your kettle.
What I learned during the process:
1: Don't drill the hole too close to bottom of the kettle. The bottom of my hole just hit the top of the curve on the bottom. This caused a leak. (Or the lack of the oring grooves in the nuts, I'm not sure) If the hole was a little higher, it would have been completely flat. As I mentioned before, this also caused me to have to cut a notch out of my burner stand bacuse the kettle actually sits in the burner stand.
2. Because of the leak, I ended up having to use a little silicone caulk (Food grade) to seal the whole thing up. I let it cure overnight, and no leaks.:rockin:
*edit* I meant to have the images inline with the text, but for some reason, it wasn't showing the links, so I just attached them to the bottom. Sorry.
Here's the equipment I used:
I used 3/8" brass because for some reason, in this area of Connecticut, stainless steel is non existant, and 1/2" fittings are outrageously expensive. It was quite a jump in price from 3/8" to 1/2".
The I.D. of everything is 3/8", and the O.D. of all the fittings are 5/8" Which means the orings I.D. is 5/8". I got 50 of them (Size 016) from oringsandmore.com for a whopping $4.20 shipping included.
Now here was the tricky part for me. I couldn't get any brass locknuts locally. The kind that have an o-ring groove in them. They, as well, don't exist in this part of the country (Not even the specialty plumbing shops in the area said they could get them for me, for whatever reason.), and I wasn't going to order two $.79 nuts and pay $6.00 shipping. So I made my own from compression nuts. Just took a hacksaw to them and deburred them. I threaded them onto a junk 3/8" fitting to make sure the threads were kosher, and bingo. Two locknuts. In restrospect, I might have sprung for the locknuts with the groove, because I experienced a drip that might not have happened had the grooves been in the nuts.
So with everything set to go, I pickled the brass as per John Palmer's instructions in How to Brew.
So, onto the construction.
Step 1: Cut hole in kettle.
I was a little concerned with drilling the hole with a spade bit, but the aluminum is so soft, it cut through like butter. I actually pushed the bit against the wall and it made a pilot hole. That's how soft the aluminum is. I deburred the hole using my chainsaw file. Worked a treat.
I made the hole too low in the kettle, and as a result, will have to cut a chunk out of the ring of the burner stand. Whoops.
Step 2: Wrap teflon tape around all the threads.
Step 3. Assemble the valve.
It should look like this. (Yes a pic would be nice, but I forgot to take one with the parts disassembled in the order they should go. Sorry.)
barb fitting>valve>nipple>locknut>oring>kettle wall>oring>locknut
Thread one locknut onto one side of the nipple and then an o-ring. Thread the nipple into the valve. The close nipple was a tight fit, and it threaded itself through the kettle wall.
Slip on another oring inside the kettle and the other locknut. Tighten just over hand tight and you should have a brand spankin' new valve on your kettle.
What I learned during the process:
1: Don't drill the hole too close to bottom of the kettle. The bottom of my hole just hit the top of the curve on the bottom. This caused a leak. (Or the lack of the oring grooves in the nuts, I'm not sure) If the hole was a little higher, it would have been completely flat. As I mentioned before, this also caused me to have to cut a notch out of my burner stand bacuse the kettle actually sits in the burner stand.
2. Because of the leak, I ended up having to use a little silicone caulk (Food grade) to seal the whole thing up. I let it cure overnight, and no leaks.:rockin:
*edit* I meant to have the images inline with the text, but for some reason, it wasn't showing the links, so I just attached them to the bottom. Sorry.
