by warramungas » Fri May 05, 2017 10:48 am
I looked at 12" to adapt my thumper (cause it was 12") into a small short plated column but gave up on that idea without a gas turbine and a 10000 liter boiler to feed and power the thing. I was looking at a bit over $200 for a single set of 2 ferrules, clamp and a gasket. That would be $800+ for 4 plates which I would still have to make and didn't have that much dish at the time. Luckily something came up for me.
But
it would sure look cool!
Has anyone considered getting a boiler 'threaded'?
I.e. Get your keg top cut off and put a coarse male thread on one side and the female on the other and make the top screw on with maybe a bit of thread tap to seal it properly?
Problems I can see would be it getting stuck (hence the coarse thread to try prevent it), a fitter and turner/boily would need to get the keg in round and thread it on a lathe and even if the keg is thick enough to do it. Plus unless you know someone it would probably cost big bickies (probably less than making a 16" ferrule) due to the size of lathe to spin the keg. I'm not a metal worker just assuming you'd need a decent sized lathe. I've seen fine large threads like that on gear before just can't remember where. I remember it was a very fine thread and a pita to get started.
Probably easier and cheaper to get an open top drum.