Column extension for the 25 ltr Super Reflux model.....

by **Phantom** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 9:06 pm

As some of you know, this is what the original device looks like.

Original, unmodified setup
Now, I\'ve made an extension for it, that will sit between the lid of the boiler and the condenser head.
The extension looks
like this........
It\'s centre section is of 22mm copper pipe - which I have filled with copper mesh for reflux packing.
The top of it looks
like this........
As you can see, it\'s just the 22 mm centre section, that has a 22mm sleeve connector that\'s been soldered on and to a 22 to 15 mm reducer, which in turn has been soldered onto a short length of 15 mm pipe and that has been terminated with a 15 mm compression connector.
You may think that\'s a bit small, but the connector seems to be the same size and thread as the bottom of the reflux condenser - the only possible modification that might require is to make something to act as a washer - those of you who have one of these stills will know that the nut that connects the condenser to the boiler lid is a flanged nut, that has a piece of stainless pipe sweated into place inside the threaded/flanged section. Ergo, 15 mm is the ideal adaptor size.......... luckily!
The bottom of the extension
looks like this..........
That\'s basically the opposite of the top i.e. 22 mm pipe into 22 mm sleeve connector (those who have read up will see that it\'s a \"solder ring\" model - to ensure a bit of safety and common sense, it was heated up and the solder in the ring shaken out so I could ensure that the solder used was lead free) into a 22 to 15 mm reducer, followed by a short length of 15mm pipe which is terminated with a flanged boiler connection, which, also luckily/coincidentally, is the same size as the hole in the lid.
It\'s a pretty basic construction. The only thing I had to do first, before any soldering etc was to cut the pipe to length and then take the end of the copper mesh, roll it up, tie it with string and pull it through the 22 mm centre section gently, making sure that as the mesh was pulled through, it was rolled correctly so it expands slightly in the pipe and holds itself in place (no need to make up any blanking washers etc to keep it where it is - it\'s self supporting), then the sleeve\'s, reducers and short pieces of 15mm cut and prepared. The olives and compression connectors joined onto the 15 mm pipe, but then the actual connectores removed so only the olives and cap nuts remained in place.
I did get a couple of silver solder rods, but my blow torch, only being a cheapo butane/propane mix model would melt the rod but wouldn\'t get the copper hot enough to run (and the flux paste might have had something to do with that as well - I\'ll be investigating that more another time). So I had to revert to lead free plumbers solder, which should be Ok, it\'s designed to work with water, and as the boiler will only ever hit about 100 degrees C, shouldn\'t be a problem.
Now, what\'s the point of this ? Well, as the still is a \"coolant management\" model, it can be a bit of a bugger to keep the reflux head cooled to the correct temperature. With the water flow set to about the rate suggested in the paperwork, it will only run stable at about 82 degrees C, which is a little too warm (boiling point being 78.15 C if I remember correctly). So the extension removes the condenser to 1 metre above the boiler, hopefully creating extra reflux space (or that\'s the idea) and reduces the heat that transfer\'s from the boiler to the condenser through heat induction through the metal. So, in theory, it should also help to keep the water flow keeping the reflux head at the right temperature - plus a bit of work on the cooling pipe connections should allow me to increase the water flow to the condenser as well.
All things being equal, I hope to give it a trial run over the next week or so....
Oh, and I\'ll be replacing the \"ceramic saddles\" in the condenser head with \"proper\" raschig rings.
I\'ll post how I get on.....

by **Phantom** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 9:14 pm

Oh and if anyone knows how the hell I can post the pictures with tags so the pictures appear in the text, I\'d be much obliged if you\'d explain...

by **bluecap** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 4:50 pm

I use photobucket and just copy and paste the direct link lol i\'ll find out if it works on here now.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v380/ ... /pussy.jpg

by **bluecap** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 4:51 pm

well that didnt work, it does on other forums.

by **Electrif** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 9:39 pm

well that didnt work, it does on other forums.

Need to use the img code

by **Phantom** » Fri Jul 03, 2009 2:54 am

Anyway......... if anyone interested can see the pic\'s that\'ll have to do for now...
I\'m gonna do a test run this weekend, but with water and vinegar to flush it through and see if there\'s any leaks on the solder joints......
Obviously I\'ll post back....

by **goinbroke2** » Wed Jul 08, 2009 12:30 am

Weekends over......so? How did it go? LOL!

by **Phantom** » Thu Jul 09, 2009 1:15 am

Weekends over......so? How did it go? LOL!

It didn\'t, yet........
A couple of things I forgot, like with the extension on the boiler, it\'s the best part of 2 metres tall, so I\'ve got to work out where I can run it (in the shed if necessary), plus I need to get some longer piping for the condenser head to it will reach the tap and drain.
I did get as far as getting the vinegar though, plus I managed to scrounge a piece of plastic electrical conduit pipe so I can stir/de-gas the 50 litres of wash (nothing else will reach down far enough into the 54 litre carboy)........
Typical piss poor planning on my part.... because we\'re up north next weekend (Wigan Vs Catalans @ JJB). Least ways I\'ll have a good few days to let the fining do it\'s clearing thing.......
And yes I\'ll post back when I\'ve run a test and hopefully a batch of wash......

by **Phantom** » Sun Aug 09, 2009 12:09 am

Well I finally managed to get my finger out my arse today.
I got the spanners out and fitted the extension to the SS super reflux. I didn\'t run wash, I just put about 10 litres of vinegar/water mix and fired it up. This was basically to make sure about any possible leaks, and that the acidic nature of the liquid would have removed any possible traces of flux etc that might have made it\'s way in through the joints during the soldering process. Plus it also proves the vapour path is ok.
I put it on, then about 20 minutes later, I checked it and it (the boiler) was still cool enough to touch... we went to the chinky to get some food and when we got back it was venting steam just nicely through the condenser etc (I hadn\'t connected any cooling and there was nothing in the reflux chamber) the thermometer was sitting nicely at about 92 C. So I\'m hoping that when I \"run it in anger\" tomorrow, it will have given me enough additional cooling control to get it over 90% in one run. Which will be handy.
Next I need to work out a design for a \"parrot\" so I can continuously monitor the strength of the output distillate. The parrot will need to hold about 100 mls so that I can just leave the hydrometer in it as the still discharges, and when it drops below whatever point I decided I can then just change the collecting jar to get the tails...
I\'ll post again how I get on when it\'s been run with wash......
p.s. and the only real PITA is that with the extension fitted it\'s just over 2 metres tall so I can\'t just plug it in, fill it up and put it on top of the washing machine to do it\'s thing.........

by **Phantom** » Sat Aug 15, 2009 4:10 pm

This is what it looks like when running.
It\'s still heating up at the moment, you can see that the output is into a graduated testing jar, as I\'m gonna bin the first 25 to 50mls as heads - I don\'t think that\'s necessary as it\'s a reasonably pure sugar wash, but it won\'t do any harm.
Once the heads are removed, I\'ll take 100mls and measure that to see what it\'s coming out strength-wise. I\'m hoping for 90% + on that.
Yes, the column extension is filled with copper mesh, and the actual reflux head/condenser is filled with rashig rings. It tends to take about an hour and a half to start normally and I\'d have thought that it might take a little longer with the extension as the reflux ratio will have increased, how quickly it actually runs will take time to work out. Normally with just the head on top of the boiler it takes about 6 or 7 hours to run a whole 25 litre batch of wash.
It\'s not the most steady of contraptions but it\'s certainly not dangerously flexible, as long as I don\'t wobble it deliberately it seems to stand there reasonably well even when the water is connected/running.

by **Phantom** » Sat Aug 15, 2009 7:42 pm

Well I don\'t know if I was \"driving\" it wrongly, or whether it\'s not worth the effort to try this mod.......
The temperature sat nicely between 78 and 80 degree\'s C, but it was just chucking out clear distillate at about 70 or so % ABV
Now I know that I can normally get between 80 and 85% ABV with just the condenser head directly on top of the boiler.
So for the moment, it looks like I\'ll scrap the idea of making an extention like that (damn things too tall anyway.....).
I\'m now thinking of looking into seeing if I can try to make a \"mini-bokabob\" (details over at homedistiller) column and then connect it in the same way to the top of the SS boiler. Though before I go for it, I need to see about getting a heat source to silver solder - plus I know that I can find 54mm copper pipe, but if it needs anything larger, then I might have problems. Plus there\'s the issue of the connectors to scale the bore of the pipe down to 15mm (that being the size of the hole in the SS boiler lid....).
So not all is lost, it\'s just part of the learning process...... as I\'m convinced that there must be a way where I can make something that will reflux and produce 90+ % ABV in \"one pass\"..... rather than having to run multiple distillations to achieve that level of purity.....
Hey ho!
p.s. Oh and I knew that something wasn\'t quite right as it seemed to produce the distillate at about 1.5 litres per hour, so it\'s quick, just not as efficient as I\'d hoped.....

by **Opus 27** » Wed Mar 10, 2010 3:30 am

Optic pointed me in the direction of this thread as I\'ve considered building an extended column on my Super Reflux. But No.1 son asked me tonight (He would probably get the job of building it for me) what would I get out of it that I was\'nt getting now. The answer is probably 90% ABV instead of 86% ABV.

So now the question is; is 4% ABV worth the work? Altrnatively why not play with the actual process more and experiment more with the packing. has to be worth thinking about does\'nt it.
Opus