Fester's Corner

Duck0fDeath

I would love the conical with 2 inch pull's :)

Lloyd

@harley, I can not make the 12" flange in copper.

Law_Of_Ohms

@harley, - if you want something very custom. PM me, I can help design it...

harley

Thanks Loo.

Myles

Harley is there any reason you can't put a stainless 12" flange over the copper tube and then fabricate a flare in the end of the tube? All copper to copper joint but using stainless bolted flanges to compress the joint - a sort of compromise. The stainless sections would be a lot more hard wearing for the bolts than a copper flange.

harley

Hi Myles, No a can use ss bolted flanges like all the bigger manufactures is doing, but then a need to hard silver solder copper to ss and i think that it was easier to only use "plumber hard copper lod" to it all...

But ss 12" bolted flange should be much cheaper than it shall be in copper... so i think that a shall have 12" bolted flange in ss anyway.

I relly must build a 12" vodka column ( 20pc hight) with only 1pc big bubbelcaps in this winter( and try it and compar speed and taste), but first a shall make my 12" 3pc plate whisky column with many. many sd bubbels on, this a shall be alone with and a relly think that this shall give me maximum of taste transfer for my whisky.

The way you are talking of, then a need no silversolder to ss becouse this ss flange is "loose" and copper to copper with a seal betven and then ss flange over this. i think that Forsynth in scottland is doing like this and allso vendome copper what a can se from there foto.

Germans are all of them silver solder or tig welder copper to ss.

Cheers

Myles

With the loose flange rings they don't even need to be single piece, they can be overlapped. 4 half circle arcs positioned so that each joint is fully supported. Shouldn't be that difficult to fabricate the flange in the end of the 12" copper tube.

In smaller sizes these copper flanges with mild steel backing rings are standard items, for pipeline work, but you probably want heavier wall copper. See Copamate.

awesome

Harley will you roll your 12" tube or will you use standard copper tube I have been looking at rolling a copper ring to make a flange say 2" wide 3/8 -1/2" thick then tig or mig weld it together I have been working on some 8" disc in 10mm copper to use as end plates and machine in a lathe this is when I thought that we may be able to roll rings and weld them up and machine them what do you think?

harley

I roll all my column from a 1,5mm thick coppar sheet( i have 2mm thick-fat allso) so a can get any size that a want. I brass them together with hard copper solder with about 2% silver in it and it go wery fast but it take a lot of gas..... I rely dont think that a can roll rings in this size that am going for...but a can hard solder kopper to ss with pure hard silversolder.

Cheers

Lloyd

Totally forgot about this old thread.
I'll pick it back up when I return from Hong Kong in a day or two.

Lloyd

Got my visa stamps like clock work yesterday. Airplane delays of 1 hour both ways is so normal I don't stress about it anymore.

This thread was meant to keep you guys updated on my goings-on but the Loony Bin thread and by breaking new products development into different threads seems to have worked better than just dumping it all in here.

In a month or hopefully less we will release some cool new stuff that should make everyone here glad to be part of StillDragon.

We have @CothermanDistilling to thank for requesting flex pipe and that has been added to the lineup. I couldn't possibly list all the "thank you's" for the many clever ideas that members here have helped us to bring to life but THANK YOU - your contributions are appreciated by anyone that needs that cool little bit to help tie it all together.

Some items just seem to get stuck. I wanted to produce 4" sight glass lenses a couple of years ago but didn't because 4" SGKs are just so terribly expensive to produce.
I don't want to pay for the gawdaweful expensive molds to produce them. Recently @FullySilenced requested some 4" lenses and I know in my distilling heart that it is a useful item so I ordered a small quantity to the made. Since he will use clamps it relieves me from having to deal with 4" SGKs. The guy is just full of good ideas.
I'm sure he doesn't need 100 pieces so if you have a personal interest for a few please ask your distributor.
They can also be used for covering your mornings' bowl of rice porridge for a few hours before throwing that crap away. See? Multipurpose product.

jonno

Should have a list of misc. things you've got laying around @Lloyd so we know what our distributors are able to access. Sometimes you dont realize you want it until you've seen someone come up with the idea

Lloyd

Right you are @jonno. I'll try to publish a list and keep it somewhat updated as so many items (400 or so and counting) are in the master SD lineup. Some items are used in some countries but no one country stocks all items. Some items are slow sellers and eventually get removed from the list to make room for new items.
I cannot post prices because each distributor has different import costs and weights are typical but will vary a little from batch to batch.
We are really good at sourcing the best deals for SD customers and so far we have been able to resist passing on increased raw material and labor costs. Our main product is stainless steel and it has seen a 30% increase since last year because of the escalating price of nickle but our increased buying power has, so far, been able to keep the prices the same. Shipping, however, is starting to hurt a bit. Increased energy costs have driven express shipments to strange new heights and sea freight shipments have also risen - though not nearly as much.

StillDragon fitting prices have been quite stable because of our our sourcing efforts but boiler prices are what they are and if you have not already placed a deposit then I'm sure you'll be paying a bit more for them now. We can order 500 or even 2000 SGKs to be produced but we only have 20 to 50 boilers made at a time so we're not a big fish that can influence those prices very much. The push for us is to get the best boiler quality possible at the most reasonable price and its getting harder to do.

I'll ask the Admin to carve out a spot for me to post the list.

Moonshine

@Lloyd, how about your very own category: SD Headquarters

Lloyd

Wow, my OWN category?
@Law_Of_Ohms gets a thread, I get a category!

I'm going to have fun with that :D

Lloyd

Can you move this entire thread, Fester's Corner, into the new SD Headquarters category, @Moonshine?

Moonshine

Done. Just tell if anything else needs moving.

Lloyd

Fast as that? So cool, I'll have to think what else could go here.
Probably something amazing but that's usually in another category and written by someone else :))

punkin

We could move the Hodor thread there seeing as you like it so much?

FullySilenced

poor LOO has some kind of attraction to gay Hodor and his hanging tool....

Law_Of_Ohms

more like poor Hodor!

FullySilenced

Hodor came out of the closet a couple months ago LOO thought you knew... and he wants to meet up with you as well... or so the story goes.... ;)

Lloyd

For the build-it-yourselfers we now have 4" lenses. Made to fit a 4" ferrule and clamp, you can use an O-ring or a regular 4" silicone gasket if you slice off one of the ridges.

If interested please contact your distributor and he'll stock a few for you.

Lloyd

Also just received some of these. From left to right, and all in 3/4" TC

• 3/8" MPT (male pipe thread)
• 1/2" MPT
• 3/8" FPT (female pipe thread)
• 3/4" MPT - useful for making my 3/4" electric valve into a TriClamp valve
• And the older model 3/8" FPT without the spanner grips (or wrench nut?)

Lloyd

All of these new products, including the 4" lenses and darn near everything SD vends, are custom made. It is painfully difficult to get custom distillation equipment parts produced in small (less than 10,000 pieces) but we are getting good at it. The trick is to get them made at an attractive price, in relatively low quantities, and though we can dream up all kinds of cool things it ultimately boils down to our Tan's sourcing ability.
Not me, not you, not anyone that I know can work with a China factory to get what we want and need at a good price without pissing them off. Its her gift that we capitalize on. I am Lloyd. I am StillDragon. Tan is also StillDragon. But no Tan, no StillDragon great deals. No Punkin no Australia SD. No SDeurope no EU SD. No Smaug no USA SD.
No LoO as our designer no way to produce the production drawings for new items. StillDragon is not any single person. StillDragon is a team. I am StillDragon. Punkin, Smaug, SDeurope, Tan and Law of Ohms is also StillDragon.
Most important is that YOU are StillDragon.

You, the forum member (and perhaps even a customer), tell us what you need and want and that makes you StillDragon too.

StillDragon has THE GOOD STUFF only because of all of us working together and that means the SD core (Tan, Larry, Garry, Dan, Micheal and me) and the many members here that contribute ideas.

I am StillDragon. They are StillDragon. You are StillDragon. Together we are an incredible team. We have built 4" bubble columns together but we have built so much more, together. Hundreds of parts for distiller's use and so much more on the horizon to come.

I've enjoyed the ride so far and I can't help but think its just the tip of the iceberg.

punkin

Well said mate.

I coulda used those adaptors had they been in BSP. @-)

punkin

So apt. Reminds me of the way some others run a business.

punkin

How about StillDragon cows?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsbd4AwqQY4

Smaug

I don't get it?

punkin

SightGlass Kit on a cow, what more could you need in a cow?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ban6fHArBU