CM Modification

[Anavrin]

Hi Guys

I've decided I'm going to fit a CM coil just below the VM takeoff on my column, I have a 6mm single wound coil that I made years ago when I first thought about building a still but never got round to it, I've bent the two tails outward and cut them short so they can be squeezed together to go inside the column, here's what I have.




The plan is to precisely drill two 6mm holes in the sides of the column, push it in and allow the ends to spring out the holes before a minor soldering job on the outside to seal the gap, just can't decide on the exact place to put it or which way up to mount it,





I don't mind if it points out the top of the column or if it's fitted in the VM section pointing down into the column, I don't want it all in the column as I don't want to loose too much packing space, any ideas what might be best?

[Runningman]

Hey Anvarin
What do you want to do that for. Cant see the benefit of that there
Regards
Runningman

[Anavrin]

Hi Runningman

The idea is to be able to either run my still like a T500 by controlling the water flow with it setup as pictured (with a cap on top)

Or

When I have my boka section fitted on top, I will have two cooling coils, above and below my take off's, the idea is to be able to seperate heads by firstly running both coils to get full reflux, then slowly reduce the water flow to the new CM coil, slowly increasing the temperature at my boka output until it reaches 78°c and holding it there until the output stops, in theory this will be when most of not all the heads removed.

[YHB]

I don't understand the "slowly increasing the temperature at my boka output until it reaches 78°c" part.

From what I can see, the temperature at the Bok will be the same whatever you do at the CM coil.The CM coil will condense some of the vapour, the balance of the vapour will continue up the column at the same temperature.

If I am missing something, please let me know.

Brian

[Anavrin]

Hi Brian

I'm not even sure if this will even work but hopefully I can knock down all the vapour with the new CM coil so that nothing reaches the coil in the boka, then slowly allow vapour to pass by reducing the CM cooling, anything that does get past will be condensed and collected via the slant plates.

So if I can allow vapour through the CM coil but control the maximum vapour temp to just below the boiling point of ethanol, all the most volatile vapours will be separated off and collected, a fores/heads separation run.

I'm my mind it works at least! The reality might be somewhat different, one useful side effect of this mod is it will allow me to use my torpedo for stripping runs in pot still mode.

[YHB]

I think that collecting everything that passes the CM coil with the BOK slant plates will be the same as collecting everything that passes the CM coil by diverting through the product condenser. Time will tell.

The valve on your VM take off worries me somewhat, if not for you then for any beginners reading this thread in the future. In the event that the valve is closed, the cap at the top of the column should not be fixed or you need a safety device on your boiler.

[Anavrin]

Yeah, point taken about the valve, I deliberately went for a ball valve to I can see by the position of the handle if it's open or closed, it's never closed unless I have the boka fitted which does have holes in the cap.

I'm hoping that not only will I be able to seperate heads on a seperate takeoff leaving my main take off clean but I will be able to quantify the amount more accurately, maybe find wash recipes that produce less.

If it is possible to control the boka temp to 78°c and hold it there, the output from the boka should stop just before the hearts collection, I can then measure how much I've got before starting the hearts collection.

For the hearts I would close the boka output, turn off the CM cooling and reduce the boka cooling, once I'm happy the column has stabilised I'll open the VM takeoff for my hearts collection.

If I can perfect the above, (which might be easier said than done) then I can reduce the amount of cuts I need to take