StillSmart

About 15 months ago I built a parrot, and most of a shotgun condenser.
About this time I bought some big copper bits that in the meantime if you had the misfortune of staying in my spare room, you would have the pleasure of sharing a room with. Since then they have done nothing except gather dust and provide a plush apartment for some spiders.

Well in the past week, I've got my arse in gear, put some washes down, and set about burning and cutting my hands to bits. This spur of activity is in no way related to the fact that I'm down to my last gal of gin, honest gov

So a proportional splitting VM head is the aim - all going on on top of 1.3M of 67mm copper. This should let me push 3kw in on the hearts, and significantly increase my output on the hearts run. I don't have the watts available to run a 3" so 2.5" will have to do for now.


Heres the half done parrot


the inside on the shotty - 4x10mm inner tubes


RLM for heads removal, this is the trap


VM splitter


putting it together




I'll get the reflux condenser and finish the RLM section in the next week (or sometime in the next 24 months) and post up the results.
Fingers crossed it all works as expected.

Nice one Capt.
That's one tall girl that you have there.
I'll have to re-visit the pics in the morning to appreciate your work,but the write up is sending me to bed with a large smile on my face.

Robert.

That's does look impressive Capt... as ED said she's tall..you could put a hatch in the ceiling... ...I think the missus would be ok with that idea??..don't you??

Sent PM..

I've had a few questions about the RLM section.

On to the brass connector at the bottom of the splitter pic, goes a needle valve (I have this somewhere, I've just misplaced it for the moment ). I'm going to use teflon tubing between the horizontal reflux condenser (as a visual indicator of the liquid level), and the tubing that will be at the other side of the needle valve.

There will also be a bit of 10mm tube that goes up vertically above the hight of the trap. When the valve is open the liquid flows freely and is the same height in the tubing as the height of the trap. Close the valve a little and the restriction causes the liquid the back up and over flow out the 10mm tube, this is how the heads will be removed. It will make more sense when its finished and I can take a pic.

Easydrinker wrote:That's one tall girl that you have there.

Yeah, when I looking in to getting my first VM a fews ago now, I looked at getting 3", but realised I did not have the head room or the amps available to run it. You could probably get away with a shorter one these days, if using an efficient packing like SPP.
This is 67mm tube, so should let me run my 3kw flat out on the hearts - The idea was to build something that I can make the most of the power I have available.

I had thought about putting the valves off to the side but I was worried about pooling when one was closed. I'll prove the design works before messing about with it to make the head shorter.
I've spoke to Harry over at AD who thinks the 1/4 turn valves will be nigh on impossible to dial in with this sort of still. I'd rather try and fail first before redesigning.

Should be able to do a cleaning run some time in the next fortnight.

Capt-Cudellez wrote:

I've spoke to Harry over at AD who thinks the 1/4 turn valves will be nigh on impossible to dial in with this sort of still. I'd rather try and fail first before redesigning.

Just a suggestion,but fitting much longer levers may make fine tuning easier here.

Robert.

The gears give quite good resistance and give a nice visual indication of the movements. I think I will be able to make quite fine adjustments. Whether it is fine enough, only a test will tell.

I do hope you're gonna explain this a bit more CC cos as I'm sure a few might agree on this site I'm elfin baffled

That said it looks 'awesome' whatever the f*** it is

Did a little bit on the RLM side (reverse liquid management) I'm short of a few fittings so heres a mock up while I wait on them and the silicon tube arriving

btw, you can click any of the thumbnails in this post for a larger image.





The idea is unlike a VM which relies on the fact that alcohol vapour is heaver than air to work (if you do a water run to check your soldering often nothing will come out the product arm)

This type of still chokes off the reflux section forcing vapour to the product condenser.
So you can go from 100% reflux, or change to zero reflux turning it into a pot still if you like. Or any setting in between.
So say you like your white rum to come off at 92% rather than azeotrope you "should" be able to dial in a setting to achieve that, where you are refluxing less and pushing more into the product arm, compared to running for ultra pure neutral.
(when I say "anything" inbetween, this is obviously anything between the ABV boiling off the still boiler and azeotrope)

I've added an RLM section to this for heads removal, this should work by having the main section in full reflux (product arm closed off). By slowly closing the needle valve it should cause a restriction causing the reflux to "back up" above the height of the trap, and eventually spill over the "loop" of 10mm copper.

There will be a bit of transparent platinum cured silicon tube between the 15mm fitting near the loop and the nipple coming out the reflux condenser, this should act as a sort of sight glass to help me fine tune the how much I turn the needle valve.

I'm going to seal the main bit of the head with self fusing tape to give me access to fine tune the height of the trap, I can turn the threaded fittings to adjust the height of the loop. Once I have it figured out, I'll solder.

I've just been trying to do a little research on this type of still, the penny hasn't dropped yet but from what I've read, you adjust the valve to give a constant product takeoff which is less than the reflux return liquid going back down the column, then as the % of alcohol in the wash reduces, the reflux ratio in the column increases and you still maintain product at the same ABV and take off rate?

Is that what's supposed to happen? I still don't get how it works lol

That doesn't sound right Anavrin, If you increase the RR on any still and the output drops. The RR is a % of the vapour being returned back down the column, so if this increases the output has to drop. For a traditional VM - 9/1 is a suggested RR. 9 parts returned back down the column for every 1 part taken off. You have to calculate how much vapour is produced for the power you are putting in, and allow for inefficiency (heat loss), lots of variables yadda yadda yadda.

I think it is going to be more like what some folks refer to detuning - some remove packing, some drive harder (quicker takeoff). I've had success with the first, but running quicker often drags tails into the product. Hoping this will let me take off 95.6% neutral at a fair lick, but also let me produce slightly lower ABV product when I want to pull some flavour from the wash when running grains or molasses, which an efficient column can sometime undo some of the nice notes you got into the brew.

but all bets are off, I'm often very very wrong with my expectations

Last post was my 1000th Should have said something cool.

Mate,when I have sobered up enough to understand what you are trying to say,I believe that it may indeed be the coolest 1000th thread that I have read here.
But after a bitch of a day spent in snow and sleet,I felt that I needed something to help me chillax.
maybe a little too much.
Anyway,evening rounds after this,and then bed.
Just looked again,definitely need to read this post again tomorrow.
Sláinte.

Robert.

Happy 1000'th to you
Happy 1000'th to you
Happy 1000'th to Capt C
Happy 1000'th to you :-)

I was reading this trying to understand how RLM works

http://www.artisan-distiller.net/phpBB3 ... 26a20ce6b7

Still confused lol

Capt-Cudellez wrote:Last post was my 1000th Should have said something cool.

Congratulations CC you've just joined the elite club of two but the gloss wears off pretty quickly around here.

AM

Got a wee while to finish the head today. You can click for a bigger pic.



Unfortunately the shotgun leaks - I had a concern when sealing the outer shell that I had put too much heat in and desoldered the internal 22mm tube that went into the 4x10mm manifold, in retrospect I should have filled the internal tubes with water to stop that happening.

It will be easily fixed but not today. I'll sort it out during the week, or knock something else up to let me do the cleaning run.

The almost horizontal condenser has a double wound coil with loads of knock down power, I'll be able to push the full 3kw I have without issue.