StillSmart

Thanks for the link...looks like some good stuff on there...pity they don't price the items.
May drop them a email about a 50 lts pot.

It just gets better!

Cannot think for one minute why you even considered a T500 boiler.

I think this is 6 months too early or too late for you, which ever way you look at it, but it may be of interest to others reading this post in the future. Stilldragon are talking about making a production run and stocking these in 2" size which would save you having to weld the ferrule to the lid, a couple of SS backing nuts and the jobs done.

Anavrin wrote:Here's the link

http://www.mapacontainers.co.uk/stainle ... _drums.php

Bloody hell, I'm crying.

That tri clamp ferrel looks perfect, I was considering one similar to it from china on ebay but I was put off by the possibility of it being a poor quality thread, it's only costing me £20 to have my ferrel welded to my boiler lid and the other ferrel braised into the end of my column.

I've still not decided how to do the plates and join my condenser section, I'm thinking about cutting the ends of my column and condenser section at 30 degrees with my jig, then clamping them all together with the plates inside a straight coupling section with a small middle section to separate the plates, the straight coupling joint it have is a solder ring type and I'm thinking so long as it's all clean I can just place everything together and heat it up!!

Got my lid and column back from the welding place, it needs the ends cleaning up but looks like it'll do the job










Also got a mesh gasket to stop my column filling falling into the boiler



And I figured out how to get my pictures the right way up :-)

Your on your way mate....it's all coming together now...I'm watching with ionterest...

Here's the final assault on the Boka, I decided I'd been thinking about it for too long now and it was time to get on with it :-)

First I cut my slot in the column, 30mm from the end and at. 30degrees


I've got a thin sheet of copper I'm using to make my slant plates it's 0.5mm thick, just perfect for a single hacksaw blade


I then had to cut another bit off my copper pipe for the cooling section, I had 187cm left on my unused copper pipe, so I took 43cm to leave enough pipe left over for a second one!


After making another slot in the cooling section, just like before, I can slide the copper plate in to see it goes over half way


I then made my slant plates fit tightly into the slots, bending a triangle down on the lower one to guide any overflowing liquid down the centre of the column






Then I pushed on the inline solder ring joint to hold the slant plate in place and drilled an 8mm hole for my output tube




I then did the same with the other end for the cooling section this time I drilled a 6mm hole for a smaller tube, I crushed the end of the small tube to seal it, this will be where my temp probe goes




Here's the complete column before soldering


And now after!!


Here's a few pics of the job lot on the boiler








Time to start thinking about making my first wash and doing a vinegar cleaning run!!

Can't wait lol :-)

It appears my two pics about before and after soldering have go mixed up by the post image thing, I guess you can see that anyway, just thought I'd mention it first

Just FWIW, those 3 joints in your column I'm guessing are all a tight slide fit?
On my still they're sealed by a wide 'rubber' bands so column can be broken down easily for cleaning and removal/insertion of scrubber packing.
It's obviously not rubber - but something black, stretchy and impervious to alcohol and heat.

Your bulid looks great tho' keen to hear of how she runs.

Well thought out, beatifully executed, elegant, cant think of anything else to say - Awsome!

Anavrin your almost there..starting to look like the dogs do dars.

..well done sir. Thanks for the photos, keep us upto date on your first run.

Thanks for the good reports guys, everything was a really tight fit in the coupling and even though the coupling had a solder ring included I fed some more in from the ends while I had the torch on it, so everything should be pretty solid with no gaps, I hope!!

I was dreading the soldering part, not something I've done before and it's do or die if you make a mess but it seemed to go ok.

As for cleaning, what concentration of malt vinegar should I run through it and how long for?

I've got an out of date 23% turbo that I'll make up with 5kg of sugar for the first alcohol cleaning run, hope fully will work

Anavrin wrote:
As for cleaning, what concentration of malt vinegar should I run through it and how long for?

I've got an out of date 23% turbo that I'll make up with 5kg of sugar for the first alcohol cleaning run, hope fully will work

I've asked the same Q a while back..The A was a 50% 50% vinegar/water...
but also....A couple of tablespoons citric acid in 10 litres water is ample.

I used 50/50 water vinegar.

Sainsbury,s and Aldi,s do vinegar for about 20p for 0.5litres.

Buy 12 botles for 2.40 and you have your cleaning run and 12 bottles for makIng your cuts.

There is nothing magical about a cleaning run, the still will be clean when it is clean.

Keep putting water through it until the distilate looks clean and there is no scum on.

Pur some clean water in the boiler, add the vinegar which will bing more scum out.

When that appears clean it is tme for the junkahol, you may have to put it through more than once.

It may seem a chore, but it is worth it, to save thowing out the early batches that tase of flux, I have made most of the beginners mistakes including this one.

Good luck

Brianj

Just another thought, is there an ideal distance between the top plate and the bottom of the cooling coil?

I cut my top bit of 54mm pipe quite long at 43cm, I've got about an 8cm gap at the moment, is it worth shortening to make it 5cm?