Well, it turns out that the sealant gel stuff does not actually bond well to either the plastic of the Rubbermaid container or the brass fittings. My next step was a couple of neat rubber washers held on with Krazy Glue, but that didn't bond to the plastic either. Design failures no. 2 and 3.
So, faced with the fact that nothing bonds to cylindrical coolers, I got a #5½ drilled stopper and experimented with that. Unfortunately, my brass and stainless steel fittings were just too heavy, it seemed, and tended to pull the stopper at a downward angle and cause leaks. Failure no. 4.
Yesterday, I went to my LHBS to see if they had perhaps a better-fitting stopper, which they did not. They did, however, have these little plastic ball valves with 3/8" hose barbs on each end. Aha! This fit perfectly into the stopper, so I stopped at Home Depot and got a 3/8" brass hose barb splicer, clamped my hose braid onto it, and stuck it in the other end of the stopper. Tested it, and though it did leak a little at first, it apparently eventually sealed itself. It lost maybe an ounce or so of water in 90 minutes, so really not bad.
So now I have 30 or 40 bucks' worth of brass and stainless pipe nipples, hose barbs, couplers and ball valves, and $6 of plumbing parts actually in use in the tun. Frankly, I'm just glad to be at the end of that adventure. Can't wait to brew this weekend with it!
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