Fester's Corner

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I've seen cows with those when I did some work at a dairy research place, it looks bloody horrible!

punkin

A nice brass sight glass kit would spruce it up.

CothermanDistilling

don't they have 7 stomachs? I want a 7 windowed cow!

punkin

I thought it was 4, but anyway top idea!

What about a smaller one for a dog or cat? 1" SGK?

applepie

I saw my first one of those over 40 years ago. Believe it or not. You get to see the stomach working

jbierling

@Lloyd said: To make a 8" Dash or Crystal Dragon into a table mounted column:

Not having followed this thread, what's the state of these 8" parts?

Does this really allow much extra headroom other than allowing a second column? From what I understand columns shouldn't be lower than the liquid level. So with this you could add a second column of equal height to the first. Is that right? Plus I think you want that condensed 3/4" output to head back to the boiler which on the current stock boilers also means starting above the 2" ports.

Is there any version of this in a 3" bolt flange incorporating a 1.5" reducer? That would be great for mounting the vapor downside/condenser and/or mash condenser.

punkin

I have a development for Festers corner mate. A customer has just got a custom welding piece from my welders atm. He wants to put a 4" x 510mm packing extension on top of his rig but has some height issues.

This would make a very simple mod to have a VM instead of CM Dash or CD operating in neutral mode. It's simple, elegant and neat and consists of a 2" long ferrule for a take off below the reflux condensor. A valve would be needed for heads stabilisation as in any VM if that was required.

I think it would make a handy stock item and would order half a dozen to see if they are popular.

Lloyd

Is the 2" the optimum take off size? 1.5" valves would be a lot cheaper.

TheMechWarrior

1.5" would be ample. That's a tiny VM column or is it a perspective issue?

Lloyd

I figured it was the top section with perhaps 2 more sections under it.
Topped with a 4" super dephlem?

brewsmith

If that is just the top section, a short 4x2x4 would retrofit any existing 4" packed column

Lloyd

Very true @brewsmith. Its a constant struggle to NOT make more custom parts when just adding another modular bit will do, but its sometimes hard to resist eliminating a fitting, gasket and clamp by simply adding a ferrule.
Easy enough to produce a few and see if there is enough demand to add it to our lineup.

Lloyd

@Lloyd said: Is the 2" the optimum take off size? 1.5" valves would be a lot cheaper.

Nope, it still works out better to use a 2" valve because you'd need an extra reducer, clamp and gasket to go from the 1.5" valve to the 2" condenser.

Myles

Lloyd just remember one thing though. In this basic style VM the maximum product speed is determined by the area of the product branch relative to the area of the entry into the reflux condenser chamber. To maximise the potential take off speed you might consider adding in an orrifice plate into the gasket for the condenser with a hole the same diameter as the take off branch.

Lloyd

A new SD 4" dephlem has 9 pipes with ~16mm diameter for a total of ~1808 sq. mm.
The 2" ferrule has an opening of ~47mm for a total of ~1734 sq. mm.

The problem would be the restriction of the valve itself as the hole in the ball appears to be about 33 to 34mm diameter for a total of ~900 sq. mm (assuming the 2" TC ball valve I don't have in stock to measure has the same ball opening of the 2" 3-way TC valve that I can measure).
I usually pack a few strands of SS scrubby in the dephlem holes so maybe that would help? That would be really hard to calculate.

A 4" SD copper bubble cap plate has ~400 to 422 sq. mm for the standard and ProCap plates respectively.

TheMechWarrior

You wouldn't use a ball valve for a VM builds. You use a gate valve.

My 2" VM with 2" offtake fed into a 1.5" gate valve that needed to be 90% closed for a decent neutral run.

jonno

ofcourse you can use a ball valve, just gotta be very mindful of how you adjust

Lloyd

I can put together a TC gate valve with threaded TC adapters but so far I've never been able to get my hands on a natural TC gate valve (maybe because they are not considered "sanitary"?). I prefer the finer control of a gate valve but the adapters would cost about as much as the valve.

TheMechWarrior

My gate valves are all threaded, so I have a TC end cap modified with a threaded section. I couldn't find anything standard either. The single most expensive part of the VM build = gate valve + connection to column. At least it was for me.

Myles

This might be off topic but this was precisely why I looked at the option of simmulating a VM. If you put a T at the top of the column to create 2 branches you might be able to use a secondary dephlegmator in one branch to behave like a vapour control valve.

In reality this would be Coolant controled VM. You are still using vapour management, just replacing the physical valve with a dephlegmator.

I am still not convinced that a VM on a plated column offers any significant benefit over the usual CM option though.

Without significant modification you can't incorporate the other enhancements like the offset condenser and external reflux return to below the vapour splitting section.

punkin

The customer is using this approach to mange height issues (the ceiling, not himself). As guessed it's just the top 510mm section of a column.

JettFuel

@Lloyd said: To make a keg into a conical fermenter:

To make a 8" Dash or Crystal Dragon into a table mounted column:

Are these Keg conical kits available? Cheers, Jettfuel

punkin

I've sold all the stock i had and had no more enquiries, but your distributor can certainly order them in for you.

We did them in both 2" branch and 3/4" branch if i recall.

TheMechWarrior

Table mount columns... =P~

Lloyd

This is 3/8" thread by 4mm push connect fitting.
I carefully drilled the back to 4.5mm so the probe would go through the fitting.

Now I can use a longer probe or even use a different fitting for a different diameter probe. 3/8" x 6mm is also easy to get.

punkin

Members, there has been a parting of the ways between Lloyd and StillDragon in recent days. This has been something that has developed over recent months as Lloyd has wished to return from full time work to something part time, while SD has grown to a level that things cannot be done in China by one man. The whole team regrets that these changes became urgent and while we wish it were otherwise we recognise that there needed to be a resolution

At this stage Lloyd will not be posting on the forum for a while or responding to personal messages.

We wish him all the best in his new endeavors.

Unsensibel

That's sad to hear...

@Lloyd - Best of luck!

Ak49er

My that sure is , hopefully it works out . I will miss his wisdom.... Good luck @Lloyd !

FloridaCracker

WTF?

Wow, Lloyd hope you can enjoy life a little.

luckyliqueur

WTF x2

This is definitely a time to pause and reflect.

It's a pain in the ass when a hobby becomes a burden.

In time I hope we can meet-up online again.