Making A Slotted Manifold by c..d pritchard 
Revisions
2/03 - first posted

I used the exterior stainless steel mesh removed from plumbing connectors for making a manifold for an earlier RIMS mash tun which used a 6.5 gal. palastic buckets.  I think they make the best material for manifolds but  the stuff behaves much like a snake when trying to secure it inside a larger mash tun like the new one (a 50 qt. rectangular picnic cooler).  So, I resorted to using slotted 1/2" copper tubing instead.

Here's a photo of the bottom of the manifold and a closeup of the slotting:
Manifold photo- bottom view    Closeup of slotting

Sawing Slots in the Manifold
The slots were sawn with a hacksaw with a fine toothed blade (32 TPI).  It's a real tedious to saw all of those slots- especially if one wants them to come out looking half-way uniform, so, a jig was used.  Here's a drawing that should explain making and using a jig:

Note in the photo above that the slots are at a bit of an angle to the tubing.  That is because the hole in the jig I make was a tad bigger than the OD of the copper tubing.  When sawing the slots, I pulled the tubing at a bit of an angle to the jig to better hold it in place while sawing.
 

Comments, Questions, ect...
If you've questions or suggestions I'd really like to hear them! Please email me here:cdp@chattanooga.net

Legal Mumbo-Jumbo:
Use any/all of the above info for your own use for FREE, but, if you use the orginal stuff to make money, I want some of it!
Use any/all of the above info at your own risk. Please don't attempt things your not comfortable with.