Chris's Worthington Brewery Pump

[PaulR]

You should try pumping some beer for fun, just to see what sort of head it conjures up! (But flush the pump thoroughly if you're going to drink it afterwards otherwise it might flush you through  )

Can't wait to see it in action 

[crueby]

You should try pumping some beer for fun, just to see what sort of head it conjures up! (But flush the pump thoroughly if you're going to drink it afterwards otherwise it might flush you through  )

Can't wait to see it in action 

Well, some American  light beers are pretty indistinguishable  from tap water, and tap water is cheaper to test with!   




The barrel finished print8ng and has had the hoops masked off (silvery gray filament  is close to galvanized steel so masked them) then painted a brown woody color. Thats setting up now... will have to see how watertight it is, sometimes 3d prints have tiny gaps where it changes direction. Worst case, a spray of clear on the inside to seal it up.

[cnr6400]

  Looks fantastic Chris! great colour too. 

[internal_fire]

Looks perfect for pumping Blue Moon beer.

Gene

[crueby]

Thanks  guys!




Gene, Blue Moon... sounds like a crack about the wrong end of a Smurf...      

[crueby]

Elfric and Bahb here, we jist got our new hott tubb paintted an instaallled...

HEY! You elves get away from the keyboard! I warned you about this! Its NOT your hot tub!       Mine! Mine!

Ahem.

So, this morning I got the mash tun unmasked and water tested, then started in on making the hose fittings. The hose itself is normal plastic clear tubing, but covered with a woven cover that I found at McMaster (available lots of other places too) that expands out to fit a range of sizes, looks a lot like those finger trap toys but a much finer weave. Gives the tubing a look more like a canvas hose. The ends are clamped with a single ear crimp fitting, to give it a nice finished look. So far have the inlet hose made, still need to make the outlet hose and a couple of fittings for the outer end - one with a curved tube end to hook onto the top of the barrel, another couple of different sized nozzles to see if it will work like a fire hose and see what distance it gets. Thats assuming it develops the volume/pressure that I am hoping - will find out once water testing starts soon!

[cnr6400]

  The tank looks like a tun of fun! 

Yep the elves on the keyboard could be a real dangerous thing - don't leave your browser open to McMaster Carr or one of the tool places - or the surf shop...

Look forward to the water testing / shop spraydown...    

[crueby]

The tank looks like a tun of fun! 

Yep the elves on the keyboard could be a real dangerous thing - don't leave your browser open to McMaster Carr or one of the tool places - or the surf shop...

Look forward to the water testing / shop spraydown...

Thanks Jeff!
And you are slipping, missed the pun setup from my 'crack' about the smurfs...   

[Michael S.]

Hi Chris,
The beer barrel looks really good.
Unfortunately, it's illegal to send you a few bottles of beer in the US. Perhaps your workshop elves can lay a slightly longer hose across the ocean.

Greetings and cheers  🍻, Michael

[crueby]

Hi Chris,
The beer barrel looks really good.
Unfortunately, it's illegal to send you a few bottles of beer in the US. Perhaps your workshop elves can lay a slightly longer hose across the ocean.

Greetings and cheers  🍻, Michael

I am going to need a MUCH longer hose to reach there!  Fortunately there are stores here that specialize in the European import beers so we don't need to get a transatlantic beer cable installed!   

[crueby]

I got the other hose made up, like the first one but with a couple of tips for the outer end:

One has a curved tube to hook over the top of the barrel when recirculating the water being pumped:

Also made a firehose type tip to try and squirt a narrow stream for distance

The elves should have fun with that to chase the nieghbor cats or the squirrels. Though my bet is they will be flying around at the end of the hose!

I'd give it a water test today, but the blue paint on the pump section is not quite cured up and I don't want to mess it up with a lot of handling. That also gives me time to coat the inside of the barrel. The artists paint I use for my carvings is a water based acrylic from Liquitex, and I have matte and gloss versions of their 'medium', which is the carrier for the paints but with no pigment so it dries clear. They intend it for use as a topcoat varnish and to make thin washes of other colors. So, I thinned some of the matte version with water and gave the inside of the barrel a couple brushed on coats to make sure it is fully sealed up.

Tomorrow I should be ready to give the pump its first water pumping tests!   

[cnr6400]

  Lifting Larry manning / elf-ing the hose looks like he's ready for takeoff! Let the games begin...

Yes you're right I missed the Smurf crack opening...er....let me rephrase that....

Gotta be quick in this chat to not miss the pun opportunities! 

[crueby]

Lifting Larry manning / elf-ing the hose looks like he's ready for takeoff! Let the games begin...

Yes you're right I missed the Smurf crack opening...er....let me rephrase that....

Gotta be quick in this chat to not miss the pun opportunities! 

[crueby]

Testing day!

So, fired up the compressor and ran the pumping engine, no water in the tank, to see if I could feel it moving air. Since I didn't put in valve springs, I was not surprised that I didn't feel any air moving in the hoses, figure that it needs a little more resistance from the water to make the valves seal well. Then poured water in the tank and started it up again. Almost immediately there was water shooting out the outlet hose.      

But, also shooting out a few places around the perimeter seals on the pump housing!      Tightened down the screws, and reduced/eliminated a number of them, but still a couple bad leaks around the perimeter seals.

So, three steps forward, two back? Got the water drained out, and what I am going to do next is make a plug for one of the hoses and a connection to the compressor for the other one, and pressurize the housing through the inlet hose so I can work on the leaks without making a mess in the shop. It may be that I need to switch from the harder fiber gaskets to some thin viton sheet gaskets on some - around the top cover the screws are widely spaced, which is fine for a large cast iron piece, but for a small brass cover it could be flexing. There may be a small leak on some of the soldered seams too? And the piston rod gland on the left side needs to be tightened down more. With the compressed air, I can go around with a cotton swap dipped in water and look for air bubbles to spot and mark all the leaks, and test for getting them fixed. Should not be hard to get it sealed up.
Great news is, it pumps! With the curved tube on the outlet hose, it was shooting out pretty hard, so overall things are working.     No video from this test, did not want to run it long since one leak on the top cover was shooting past the drip pan I had the pump in. More later!

[cnr6400]

  Congratulations on the pump test squirtage! Good luck with the leak detection and fixes.