StillSmart

As I'm about to start building a bigger/better column I made a point of reading about packing.

We all know about copper scrubber and stainless ones...then the rings that come with the T500. Then you have SPP....don't forget some guys use glass marbles.

I watch Mrs Ice baking yesterday...blind baking a tart case. I've know about the ceramic beads that she fills the pastry case with for years. This is when it hit me...could you use them as packing???

I surfed the net and found an item written by Odin where he has used lava rock..with very good results...if not better than dare I say SPP

I found this 3kg box for a £5.....Here just wondering if you guys have tried it??

Lots of guys on the SD forum use lava rocks, but never tried them myself as I couldn't find them over here.

I use pummice myself.

http://www.specialistaggregates.com

Light weight aggregates section. They have scoria also. 1 bag will do many column fills. If I was at home I would just send you some for the postage.

I put mine through a 10 mm garden sieve and filled the column with the bits that passed through.

WARNING: Learning curve time again....

What's SPP??

S4BB.

Spirits4BB wrote:WARNING: Learning curve time again....

What's SPP??

S4BB.

Its spiral prismatic packing and it looks a bit like.....

If your stilling for neutral John you use a packed column....SPP is the "in thing of late" but it's bloody expensive..so I'm looking at giving lava rock a go.

Hi Guys
I use SPP and I can vouch for its credability I get 95% plus every run with it. May be a wee bit pricey but well worth the investment.
regards
RM

I'm going to use my SPP for the first time this weekend, I'll let you guys know how I get on

Here is a post as useful as a Chocolate fireguard...
I know that on some home stilling forum somewhere, I have seen baking beads referenced for column packing.
But I can't remember where...

Robert

Some baking beans are ceramic but others are aluminium.

What would you use to clean stainless steel saddles? Soak in citric acid maybe? And how strong would the citric acid solution need to be if it's the right thing to use?

Some guys do soak in a mild citric acid...I do to etch the surface of SS.

Cheers Ice. Will give that a go.

Seagull wrote:What would you use to clean stainless steel saddles? Soak in citric acid maybe? And how strong would the citric acid solution need to be if it's the right thing to use?

You can use anything really. It's just that you have to make sure that you can get all of the chems used for cleaning off.

People often think of bleach but it takes a lot of rinsing to remove all traces of it.

Your idea of using citric solution is good, if you soak stuff overnight, it should rinse off easily. Citric acid is what's suggested for cleaning staining and scale build up if you use an air still for water.

I've only used ss scubbers and lava, have been using lava for the past few years now as I prefer it. Make sure you use small thumbnail sizes, larger sizes tend to create some channeling.