StillSmart

As promised this is the start of our custom head.

So far we have managed the Parrot and The Condenser. The top pipe on the condenser will be cut to length once we marry it to the column.

Comments welcome.


Regards Opus

Parrot


Condenser

Nice work Opus, the parrot is in my opinion a piece of kit that makes life a hell of a lot easier. What type of head are you building ?, I will be watching your progress with interest.

This is going to be a very basic reflux that hopefully if we remove the packing will also serve as a Pot.

The condensers got a 22mm core with a 35mm jacket. Water feed and outputs are 12mm.

Column will be 54mm X 1000mm.

Packing will be copper rings but if they don't work I have a load of pure copper scrubbers to try.

Finished head will sit on the existing super reflux boiler.

Having said all that we're now collecting stainless steel components to make a 4" bubble plate head. Plates obviously to be copper.

Once the simple reflux heads finished we're planning on running a corn mash through to have a shot at our own bourbon.

Regards Opus

That should work a treat a nice sized column like that,how are you going to fit it to the lid Opus, is it going to be a case of using reducers on the bottom to fit the existing 22mm hole in the lid or enlarge it to 54mm to take the column directly.
I will be interested to see the finished column plus cost of materials. Don't know what's occurring with mine running using the same method that you where using with the standard super reflux column, the ABV seems to go up and down like a yoyo and the column often floods sometimes it just produces without any problems at all. Usually results in me removing one of the 3 stainless scrubbies to stop it, all very weird so I would really like something that is easier and more consistent to run, I cant justify spending the money on a T500.

Plan is to enlarge the hole in the still lid to 42mm. We're putting a 54 to 42 mm reducer on the bottom of the column and fitting a 75mm flange to the reducer. That size gives us a reasonably level area on the middle of the lid. The flange then to be bolted to the lid.
Hope that makes sense.

Opus

That's a good idea Opus, like you say the actual flat area in the middle of the lid is minimal so that will make everything firm and rock solidly stable. Please keep us updated with the build progress.

Optic

Nearly finished the column (picture soon) but now need some info as to what we should put through it for a thorough clean. Do we just distil water through or should we put something in the water? Any suggestions appreciated.

Opus

As promised quick update of progress to date, with original head as a reference.



Regards Opus

Nice work Opus , am I right in thinking that a 50/50 white vinegar and water run first followed by a sacrificial spirit run.
Any chance of a list of the items used for the build please Opus.

Optic, I will put parts list and costing later although a couple of bits have been machined by us from scrap materials including the packing in the picture below. There's about 1600 ml of packing not sure if its enough until we put it in.

Regards Opus

First run wasn't as expected in as much that to get sufficient cooling to the condenser we almost had 100% reflux i.e. nothing coming out.

Subsequently it was back to the drawing board for a re-design. The result of the remodelling is evident in the following photo's.

Basically what we have done is separate the cooling feed to the condenser and the column. The valve you can see is in the feed to the column. The feed to the condenser is constant once water is turned on, we will however put an in line tap to the outlet pipe of the condenser in order to create a restriction should we need it. initial runs for flushing though hasn't shown a need.

We're running without any control on the element so it's at 1400 watts. Just running water through it we're able to regulate output from virtual pot still mode to total reflux.

While it's not going to run in true pot still mode with no cooling, because of the amount of packing (17 meters of 10 mm copper tube) we still used it as a bench mark to determine max output.
From this (250ml in 8 mins) we can workout a reflux ratio (60+ ml in 8 mins = 3:1) which is apparently a good start point.

As for the photos, I think there mostly self explanatory. however two points to clarify. The short stubs above the lower cooling feed on the column are plugs as son drilled the tube in the wrong place.

The empty bush at the top of the column is for the temperature gauge when it finally arrives.

The only remaining task is to fit the parrot and fittings for this are in progress.

I think that's about it now but will post the results of the first run when our cornflake wash is ready.

Opus

Looking good, nice build quality, :-)

For Optic or anyone interested these are the costs for our build
Odd bits and pieces like the hoselock type fittings we turned from scrap we had in the workshop.
Hope this is useful info
Opus

Copper Pipe Length Cost

54mm Pipe 1m £24.00
35mm Pipe 1m £24.36
22mm Pipe 1m £10.65

10mm Pipe plumbing
3m £5.55

10mm Pipe Packing
17m £31.45


Fittiings Qty Cost

54 x 42 F/F Coupler 1 £2.42
22mm Elbow 1 £1.25
22 x 28 F/F Coupler 2 £1.98
54mm Stop end 1 £5.19

Copper plate for bottom flange 75mm x 75mm x 3mm £4.15

Total £111.00
Awaiting delivery of temperature gauge at a cost of £25.00 (This will bring the total to £136.00)

A very nice piece of work Opus, good idea about separating the water feeds to the column and condenser I have separated the supplies on my super reflux and its made it simpler to control the column temp.
Thanks for the breakdown of the parts used and the cost.

Fitted the parrot today and cut some spirit I had and ran it through all works a treat but found I had to drop the power to a 1000 watts to control it. With water to column off 200ml in 2 mins 15 seconds. With cooling to the column 200ml in 6mins 30 seconds. could of cooled the column more but was happy with that setting. Just waiting for temp gauge now and will post final photo.

Opus