As fate would have it, I have one more bolt drilled and ready to go from my original project. If you email me your address I will throw it in the mail and send it to you. You will have to trim it to the appropriate length as I did in the article. Mail may take a few days to get from Ohio to Vancouver.

Cannonfodder - that would be very neighbourly of you.

I will email you my address.

My buddy with the drill press actually attempted to bore out the screw last night, but claims his bit was dull, and could not get through the stainless steel.

They are hard to drill. You have to have a sharp bit and use cutting oil as you drill otherwise you will burn up your bit. I got my dad (part time wood worker) a bit sharpener a couple of Christmases ago. I just have him sharpen them for me. He is a retired police officer, it gives him something to do.

I finally have a shiny stainless bolt with a hole in it today.

I just finished bonding the TC to the bolt using JB Weld and the next 15 hours (curing time for the metal epoxy) will be excruciating.

FYI - I have been updating my "thermal obsession" page here:

http://strugs.ca/thermal_obsession.htm

I found two design flaws in my fre61nkenstein project:

1) the lock washers I used to effectively shorten the length of the bolt did not allow a proper seal between the bolt and the group. I tried different amounts of teflon tape and also tried teflon pipe sealant (basically liquid teflon tape). No matter what I did, the bolt would always leak a few drops during the shot or when running the pump with a blind filter.

2) the part of the TC wire that exits out of the head-end of the bolt is too flimsy. The heat of the bolt coupled with the multiple insertions of the bolt while trying to rectify design flaw #1 resulted in the insulation breaking down and exposing the separate TC wires. The exposed wires made contact at the bolt head, which means that the TC was now measuring the temp of the bolt at the head, rather than the probe at the end of the bolt.

I think that both of these issues are easily resolved (using copper washers instead of stainless would probably allow me to get a proper seal, and the TC could be inserted inside a stainless sheath like what Cannonfodder did with his thermo-probe), but I have decided to take Greg's advice and probe the group further down the water stream.

After I receive the parts, I will update my web page with pics as I (gulp) drill a hole in the group.

Careful with that one friend. Drill bits like to slide on hard shiny chrome. I would suggest you use a center punch to dimple where you want the center of the hole to be. That will create a well for the drill bit tip to sit in. It will even skate if you use a drill press.

I am surprised that you cannot get a seal using Teflon tape. The top of my bolt is a solid ¼ inch above the bolthole. There is no seal between the GH and bolt on my machine. The tape provides the seal.

Did you ever get the bolt I sent up? It is longer than the one you originally used.

Thanks for the drilling tips. I will definitely take my time doing this - although the WEGA group is behind sheet a metal case, I still don't want to mangle it too badly.

I also found it strange that I could not get a good seal. It is possible that I stripped the threads on the group when I was torquing the bolt into place. It looks ok, and the bolt (and the oem bolt that I have put back in place while I wait for the next mod) both slide in with no problems.

Still have not received that bolt you sent me in the mail. It probably got stopped at the border to ensure it was not some sort of terrorist device...

Who knows, I did send it. It looks to be a bit longer (almost twice) as long as the one in you photos. There is a short shield that will fit the hole I drilled in the bolt as well. I cut my original to short for the project. It is long enough to braze in place and insert a TC wire into it, but to short to put a display on the end of.

cannonfodder wrote:I have two metric omegalock fittings on order, but I do not expect them to fit, but figured I would give it a try. I may even go as far as machining the GH and tap an opening into the chamber like the photos Dan posted.

Sorry to reply to a thread that is almost a year old, but I didn't see any other posts from you regarding those omegaloks you ordered. Based on your later posts about drilling bolts I guess it's probably safe to assume they didn't work out.

I guess it would also be futile to start looking for something like this myself. Did anyone ever find a ready made solution?

What about purchasing the adapter that Eric S. had made and drilling it out to 1/8" to accept a thermometer?

Monitoring Brew Temperature - E61 & Silvia

I know it's not as accurate as a thermocouple, but I'd like to do something cheaper and prefer the idea of a small digital thermometer attached directly to the group head to act as a guideline.

Thanks,

Andrew

arossphoto wrote:I know it's not as accurate as a thermocouple, but I'd like to do something cheaper and prefer the idea of a small digital thermometer attached directly to the group head to act as a guideline.

the response time on those thermometers is so slow that what you propose really isn't worth the effort. really.


think about it: if it was, wouldn't we all have installed them at some point?