Wine Carboy Pump Bracket

I purchased an electric pump for transferring wine from one container to another (a “Self Priming Anti-Gravity Transfer Pump” - link below). It works well but it can be tedious to hold the pump, move hoses, and watch progress at the same time. This bracket holds a pump, and easily slips over the top of a standard 6 gallon / 24 liter glass carboy. Then you only need to flip the pump switch and watch the progress. The pump and bracket can be used to move liquid from a primary bucket to a carboy, from carboy to carboy (for clearing or other preparation), and even from carboy to bottles using just a hose, without the need for an awkward “filling cane”.

Pump “kits” include hoses and a metal “J”-shaped cane. With the included design files you could modify the design to fit other pumps / mounting-screw patterns. The cane and one hose are connected to the input side of the pump; the cane makes it easy to transfer liquid from the bottom of the carboy. The other hose goes to the destination container(s). You can even fill bottles by just turning the pump on for about 10 seconds to fill a standard 750 ml bottle. Then turn off the switch, move the hose, and fill the next. You can fill 30 bottles in about 6 minutes, much better than waiting for a “suction cane”, and with a lot less mess, especially if you're working alone. And there's no need to lift a heavy carboy.

I created a separate model for a two-part bung that makes it easy to slip the metal J-cane into a carboy, holding the working end about 1 inch / 25 mm above the lees / sediment. At this height, there is little or no agitation of the sediment, and you can easily slip out the “catch” portion of the bung to allow manually lowering the cane a bit further, for example, into the lees when moving from primary fermentation to secondary (at which time you want to keep some of the lees). I'll post the 2-part bung model on Printables separately, but you can see it inserted into a carboy in one of the photos.

When you install screws to hold the pump, put the head of the screw on the side near the glass  to avoid contact of the screw threads against glass. Use metal screw since the pump screw holes are rather small, and the pump is somewhat heavy. Plastic washers should be used on both sides.

There's some vibration of the base plate against the carboy when the pump is running. You can attach the “hook” side of a Velcro strip to the base plate on the side near the glass - the hooks act like tiny shock absorbers. Or glue on a bit of felt.

I've included the FreeCAD file if you want to modify the design.

Print with the pump mounting “plate” on the print bed. Slicer settings are not critical, but you'll want to turn on Organic Supports in Prusa Slicer - you'll see the results in one of the images below. Settings summary:

Filament: PLA (better near food, however, there should be no contact with the wine). I printed the test version with 3-D Fuel “Refuel” recycled PLA, and the final with Atomic Pro PLA. A test version was printed in PETG and worked well, but see the note about use near food.

Nozzle: 0.4 mm

Quality: 0.2 mm Quality, but 0.2 mm Speed also works well

Infill: 25% (can be less with PETG since it's a bit more flexible, but don't go below 15%)

The pump: https://www.midwestsupplies.com/products/anti-gravity-transfer-pump