StillSmart

Hi all..

Heres my version of the bok 2". I know its not perfect, ive got basic engineering skills but what ive built seems quite acceptable at extracting the alcohol from the mash.
Ill post in stages as its a nightmare on the phone..
Any advice or comments please do so...

The beginning. The condensor.
This was make or break for me..if i couldnt achieve this, i knew the project was off. Id already brought the stuff so there was going to be no failing..






it was a whopper. Altogether 12 inches end to end but after 3 attempts at the salt filled coil..i took the money. The cold finger was 22mil and i had to use elbows to connect at bottom as the pipe needed such a severe bend to go straight into the finger...it was kinking.

A word of advice...trying to shake the salt out of the pipe proved labourious but made much worse by trying to flush the salt out with water..i wouldnt do this again. Id just keep tapping until it was all out then flush with water after. It caused the salt to clump and made it difficult to get out.
Oh well...with the condensor built, i had the dimensions where to cut the slant plates...




Nervy times cutting the slant plates freehand to markings from an online template. I annealed the bottom plate so it was easy to bend the tab...then i soldered the top plate in. The takeoff tube was done the same time as the bottom plate. I made sure i got the end of the tube just through the pipe wall...checking by looking down the pipe.

Once the plates were in. I put the condenser in the top. I couldnt get a copper cap at a reasonable price so used a ss car exhaust pipe clamp as a guide and way of centering the condensor. It seems to work well. Its not tight just tight enough to not move on its own. The top of the condensor was a disk of copper i machined at work...we use copper sheet and i program cncs so this helped :-)

So...the buisness end was getting there and after some sanding and cleaning up...i shifted my focus to the other end - the burco.
It was a 20litre jobbie i brought from a guy off ebay - that lived 2miles away!. Because of the locallity i could go more on the overall price if it looked like a bargain. I won the boiler for £31.
Im happy with that.
So when i got it home, i cleaned it up even more with some white vinegar.
I brought a brass tank compression fitting from an ebay shop and cut a hole in the lid with a dremmel and carbide routing bit. This was done freehand and starting from the screwhole in the centre spirraling out to get a feel....nervy times incase it snatched but with clamping the lid to the work bench...it was a doddle.





The brass fitting was pickled. I tried the vinegar and peroxide mix and was not happy. In the end i left the fitting for 8 hours in white vinegar which turned it buttery yellow so was happy with this.

Straight away, i could see an issue with the flat lid. It looked crap, it was weak as the pipe swayed all over the place, there was an airvent in the lid which was bothering me, and the fitment of lid to boiler was generally poor (it wasnt designed to be a tight fit).
I saw somewhere that a stainless bowl had been used which had solved all the above issues. I wanted to explore this. I drew round the lid on some paper and cut it out and kept the paper in my wallet. I went shopping in places where bowls were sold...morrisons, asda, jtf..everywhere. Eventually i found the ideal candidate in the range store in tamworth. £3.99 job done!




So i cut out the hole and fitted my tank connector. Earlier in the day i had been to the hb megastore in brownhills and the owner had let me try a proper lid and clamp. The problem was the lid was meant for a t500 or something - the pipe and the hole was smaller. There was no flat land left to open it out either. Just for interest i tried the lid and ringclamp on my burco - it fitted lovely!. I decided to keep the ring clamp at £7.95 but not buy the brewshop lid. The clamp and the bowl worked well and with some ptfe tape wrapped round the boiler rim a few times...its solid

Eventually i will get a better more lasting gasket as suggested by another kind member here.




The tap i used was a stainless steel needle valve from valves online....it has ptfe seals so suitable for use. It was just over a tenner but another 17 for delivery so 27quid all in - not bad!

So next i made a simple liebig...not huge..just enought to cool a bit. I wanted a simple plumbing job for the water circulation so inline i didnt want too much hot water going into the condensor from the liebig. I feel this is the correct way round as once the water exits the condensor its quite warm and im not sure it would do much cooling to a leibig after that stage.

I found that the blue jubilee clips used to seal the water pipes didnt seal....8mm copper and 10mm pvc pipe was too small for the smallest jubilee clips i could find. In the end i used car fuel line clamps...10mm from the range - 99p for a pack of two.

I acquired some two inch inner diameter lagging so cable tied that to the bottom half of the column.

I used a cheap ebay thermometer for the time being..it works its ok...ill get a better one next month when ive got some wages again ! Xmas has put paid to that at the moment lol

The water circulation.

This is a problem...i initialy brought a fleabay pump that claimed to displace 600 litres per hour...
What i didnt realise is that if it has to pump upwards...this is dramaticly reduced

I tested the output, lifted the pipe 6inches and the flow stopped ! Bahhhhh.
Luckily i was able to return it for my money back.

So i used a much heavier duty garden pond filter pump. This is supposed to displace 3000litres per hour!. With the upward pumping and the 8mm micro bore and some iffy plumbing...im getting just under 3litres per minute through the system..hmmm. Need some help here any suggestions?.
I want the unit to be portable and self sufficient hence a 30 litre bin for water to recirculate.

Overall its up and running and im happy. It works and in its and my infancy into the project i can see changes been made. Im waiting for a relay and pot for the element control but at moment its performing well. If i stop the water itll hiss out the top vent if i put water on it cools and knocks everything down (which for that monster youd probably expect).
Im just going to do a stripping run now - hope you enjoyed my thread.

Rich

Nice job, you must be really pleased.
Out of interest, what power element is the boiler, and what are you packing the column with?

3L a min is a ton of cooling, my VM runs a fraction of that putting 1900w in. I run to waste but I don't image that 30L would stay cool for long, are you planning on adding ice packs or something?

Thanks Capt-Cudellez,

I absolutely love it...and very pleased with the build ..to see it churning out distillate in potstill mode at a steady slow run pales the old airstill into insignificance...
This is all ive done as im waiting on the power controller to turn the element down...which is 3kw...

I know what you are saying with the cooling capacity...i had been running in the kitchen and replenishing the water every so ofter using the sink to open my drain tap into on the bin and hosing into the top....i think when i move opperations into the shed, im going to still have to do this....people that have never done it before like myself dont realise how hot the exit water gets!.

Im going to use essensia copper packing from hb store...i brought a pack of 3 for 8quid...pack these at top and 4-5 ss underneath...next month ill buy another 3.
I did try running in reflux with no element control and like an idiot scorched the packing and put a coating of something on it making me think they wasnt copper but theyve cleaned up in vinegar.
Theres a lot to learn for newbies like myself. Im just greatfull to places like here that can help.
Thanks
Rich

That looks a smart bit of kit. I am sure you will get good results with it.

How did you manage to tighten up the 2" compression fitting? or did you solder it?

I know you've done it now but I filled the pipe with water when I made my coils.

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=28908

Hi Brian...

My brother had some big f-off stilsons lying round and with the gasket i made from cardboard and ptfe...it tightened and conformed fine....i held the outside of the bowl and yanked it !
So far, the column nut has not came undone. It did initially before i realised i had to give it some welly!

Thankyou MrCat for your link. As i said im always looking to improve and refine and already thinking of my next build.
Great link actually...

Rich