I would like to cut out a hole/slot in a stainless steel lid for a 1/1 and 1/2 size food container.
Would anyone be able to give me some advice on how to best do this?
What is the best position on the lid (corner? Short or Long side middle?
What tools and methods would you recommend?
l2o, first, are those standard Gastronome pan sizes and are they deep enough?
You may decide to use insulated containers if you do many long cooks.
And foam injected plastic lids are much easier to modify.
Position doesn’t matter as you can adjust the direction of water circulation by rotating your Anova. Moving water is a very efficient means of heat transfer throughout the container.
You couldn’t buy enough can openers for the job. S/S requires specialized metal cutting equipment. Mark the hole locations with a sharp felt tip pen and take your lids to a metalworking shop or fabricator. Someone who installs commercial kitchen equipment could easily do the job.
If your 1/1 and 1/2 are standard gastronorm pans do you really truly need stainless lids?
If polycarbonate will do then one can buy Lipavi lids-only pre-cut for various Anova products from Amazon.
C20 is gastronorm 1/1 - for example see here
from memory C10 is gastronorm 1/2
Can’t be 100%sure they will be a perfect fit for all manufacturers’ gastronorm containers - but here they work just fine with any we have used.
They are indeed standard gastronom sizes.
After chewing owner the pros and cons I decided to go with stainless steel as the polycarbonate is not BPA and phthalate free (I realise this may be a moot point since the food is cooked in bags anyway). The lipavi containers are prohibitively expensive for me to obtain in Australia.
I am hoping to use s regular hole saw and jig saw to cut out the relevant hole. Paying someone a couple of hundred dollars to cut out the holes again does not make financial sense.
Just wondering whether anyone has made the same cut and could offer tips…
To each their own of course but the strong preference here is for transparent sous vide containers - for the ease of visually checking all is as expected, that no packs have partially risen above water level and so on. Polycarbonate is widely used in food industries. ‘Food safe’, whatever that mens, polycarbonate products do exist,
Seriously doubt this to be a job for a hole cutter and jigsaw. At best it would be a hydraulic punch supplemented by a steady hand on a stainless capable nibbler.
Alternatively, for dimensions load the image of the lipavi lid from the amazon site, scale it to full size in software capable of exporting as an .eps file, double check the measurements in the file against your Anova.
Supply the lid and the file to a workshop with an appropriate CNC cutter - there are plenty of enthusiasts with small almost desktop CNC machines, some which may be capable of cutting stainless of pan thickness, who would do it for next to nothing for bragging rights.
Perhaps post the job on AirTasker?
Good luck.
Sounds like a job for a chassis punch, have a look at [Knockout punch - Wikipedia] to see how they work. most engineering supply shops stock them, or, maybe Bunnings?
Hello, another easy way is to buy an insulated plastic cooler with lid (Coleman, Rubermaid, whatever). Then use a regular hole saw to pierce the lid. Another benefit of those cooler is that being insulated, you have a lot less heat loss than using a polycarbonate or stainless container. And don’t worry, they will not melt down 
Hi. Not directly answering your question but I’d like to add my 2 cents for how to cover sous vide container. I don’t have a special container. I use my kettles and sauce pans (sitting on a trivet) depending on the amount and size of packages. I put together one cover and it works on everything… and provides great insulation for overnight cooking. It’s not transparent but I just lift a corner and look in or fold it over to refill on a longer cook. I’m including a picture because it’s hard to explain.
Here’s a link to one such item. Amazon.com
I left it big so I can use it on just about everything. I’ve used 10 qt low pots, 12 qt tall pots, 2 qt saucepans. It surprised me that it never condenses on the side or drips on the table.
Sorry the picture is sideways. Don’t know how to fix that.
Maha, that’s very clever! The warmer the silicone, the better it will drape and cling to the rim of the container. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks everyone. I actually found just using alu foil works as well, however the convenience of having the removable lid would be preferable.
I can see Al foil stopping evaporation, but it is a terrible insulator and will not help with energy loss.
I was hoping just to break down the tomatoes, rather than dehydrate them.
Agree on the insulation part, but I did find evaporation to be a major contributor to temp reduction.