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New Ace of Hearts - Configuration Questions

Ethan_OlicEthan_Olic
edited February 2015 in Beginner's Talk

Hi All

Just taken delivery of a 4 plate Baby Dragon which will be mounted on my T500 boiler.

I'm not really very well up on bubble plate/cap theory and operation. I have seen in the SD store a ProCap36 Downcomer Extension and seen a uTube vid of them in use on an ACE. I sort of know what they do, in that they seem to load the plates deeper I think. I don't know however why you would want to do this or what it achieves. The fact that they are separate items that you can either use or not makes me think they are maybe only useful in certain circumstances.

Also is the little deflector plate on the ProCap36 to stop reflux dropping straight down the downcomer and is there any specific way it should be set, ie touching or not the glass wall ??

Regards Ethan

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Comments

  • FullySilenced
    edited February 2015

    Touching the glass is the way mine is set up...

    I have my extensions set about 3/8" above the pro caps... Wrap them with teflon tape so that they fit snuggly inside the pro cap...

    Your about to embark on a truly new journey with the Ace... Learning to drive it is where the fun is... enjoy the ride...

    Happy Stillin,

    FS

  • LloydLloyd

    I set my extensions to ~ 3/8" also. It about doubles the height of the fluid bed.
    Deflectors are also touching the glass. It gives a nice visual of the amount of reflux against the glass.
    Extensions are not absolutely necessary. They were part of the original design but took far longer to produce than expected and were released after the ProCaps.
    The deflectors are necessary on the Ace or else the reflux will drain straight through the column and bypass the plates.

    After a run or two, you'll be hooked on how easy it is to operate your Baby Dragon.

  • starkid101starkid101

    I have 2 downcomers extensions in my Ace as well .makes bubble liquid higher visually much better .

    does it change product,I don't know but it looks good..

    As I do each run I learn more and taste is getting better

    only problem bourbon takes so long to make , but I bet will be worth the wait

  • AnavrinAnavrin

    I'm hoping get my baby crystal dragon next week, my boiler is homemade from a 50lt cooking pot, I've only ordered 3 plates to start with but I have a torpedo bubble section so I will still have 4 plates to pay with, I wanted the downcomer extensions but missed them off my order, my mistake :-(

    I will get some in my next order though, the advantage I see is a higher level of liquid in each section means it takes the vapour a little longer to pass through the liquid, this should make the separation of water from ethanol a little more efficient.

  • AnavrinAnavrin

    Does anyone know the length of the threaded rods required for the baby crystal dragons with different numbers of crystal sections?

    Is there some recommended lengths depending on the configuration?

  • SunshineSunshine
    edited March 2015

    The distance from end-piece to end-piece on the outside for 3 bubble sections is 282 mm. Without additional length for the nuts.

    For 4 bubble sections it is 370 mm. I have added 12 mm for the nuts, so with 4 plates I have 382 mm length for the rods. If you want to go for fancy and use some other than the plain nuts, you can look how many mm more you need.

    StillDragon Europe - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Europe & the surrounding area

  • AnavrinAnavrin

    Thanks @Sunshine, now I can go out and get some rods and nuts, I can get them in 1m lengths so it's nice to know for my 3 plates I'll get 3 rods from one length :-)

  • AnavrinAnavrin
    edited March 2015

    Ok so I've just been playing with my new Baby/Ace CD, I'm running 3 crystal sections with a torpedo underneath, so 4 plates in total, also using the big baby dephlagmator.

    I've just stripped a wash on my pot setup and decided while the boiler was full of hot backset, it would be a good opportunity for a cleaning/test run, so I poured about 4-5 litres of mainly heads from my fients keg into the hot backset and set it up for a test run.

    I ended up with more questions than answers! After a little tinkering, I ran it with 2350W power and only had the valve for the dephlagmator cooling open 1 turn from closed, my measured vapour temp was 83.6°c and I was collecting at a rate of 1680ml/hr @ 88%

    Obviously that's just playing around and I'm certainly not going to be drinking any of it, but it got me thinking a little info from guys with some experiance with it would be very helpfull for someone like me who's new to running one.

    I would like to know what experianced users find the best power to run at during a spirit run and what product collection rate I should be aiming for when producing a neutral from a 30% low wine?

    Also as I'm new to the world of dephlagmators and CM control, what should I be aiming for when adjusting the cooling flow? vapour temperature / product collection rate or a combination of both?

    All my still before now have been LM/VM so totally different, any info and experiance you guys could pass on would be very helpfull for when o get round to my first proper spirit run.

  • LloydLloyd

    Hi @Anavrin, producing a neutral in one pass from 4 bubble plates on a 30% low wines charge is a lofty goal. You may need a packed section on top (hybrid) to achieve that in just run.
    I've been running my 4 plate Ace on about 2000 watts or less and collecting at about 1.25 to 1.5 liters per hour. 88 to 91% with 4 plates sounds about right though.
    For me to get closer to a neutral, I strip (produces low wines), then First run (produces a great flavored product), then Second run the heads and hearts again (removes almost all flavors).
    I rarely do it, but one more time through (Third run) produces a neutral so clean and smooth it is almost like sipping water.
    A packed column, hybrid or a column with many (12 or more) plates is more efficient than a 4 plate bubble column to produce a neutral. A 4 plate column is, in my opinion, a flavor still - brandies, whisk(e)y, etc. It takes more than one pass through a 4 plater to get the clean vodka out and leave everything else in the boiler.

    Vapor temps can be misleading for a variety of reasons including accuracy of the thermometer and your elevation. Remember to record or remember the numbers once you get her dialed in but they are just reference numbers to help you repeat a successful run. My numbers will probably not match yours.

    I typically keep a center collection jar on First run for my immediate sipping needs (I'm no angel but I get my share), the rest goes to Third run if I'm wanting to make vodka.
    Any feints that I want to recycle are introduced into either the stripping or the First run.

  • AnavrinAnavrin

    Thanks Lloyd, that's the sort of info I was looking for, I always strip my wash's and I do have a 510mm packed section for a hybrid setup, it was just empty on my experimental test run, my old setup used a torpedo under 900mm packed section with a VM takeoff, I'm hoping 4 plates and a 510mm packed section will give better results, each time I make a new batch of neutral, all leftovers from my last batch, get stored in a keg, one day I'll have enough for tgat 3rd ryn :-)

  • AnavrinAnavrin

    That 3rd Run even :-)

  • FullySilenced
    edited March 2015

    @Anavrin make up up a section of tubing about 4 ft long put lava rock or scoria in it about the size of your thumbnail or smaller, pack it in tightly... stack it on top or your setup and run it ... you will be amazed at the results

  • AnavrinAnavrin

    I've never used Lava Rock or Scoria, in my old column I used stainless pan scrubbers or 6mm ceramic raschig rings, both seemed to give similar results, the SS scrubbers may have performed slightly better in my opinion, does lava rock work better than SS Scrubbers and Raschig rings? I did read once that you needed at least a 3" column to get the best from 6mm raschig rings, it was at that point I tried the scrubbers. SPP would be ideal but it's dificult to get hold of and quite expensive here in the UK.

  • punkinpunkin
    edited March 2015

    Spiral Prismatic Packing (SPP)

    Manu makes and ships worldwide.

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • FullySilenced
    edited March 2015

    Polish Spp maybe found here i think...

  • FullySilenced
    edited March 2015

    @Anavrin scoria is cheap find it at landscape shops or use the lava rocks used in bbq pits... just process it down to the small sizes and pack the column as tight as you can...

    Running scoria is a no brainer.. you will have it down in no time...

    happy stillin,
    FS

    Here is the wiki link so you can see photo's of what i looks like and what it is...
    Scoria @ Wikipedia

    Landscaping scoria cost me $5.00 US for 50 pounds so its cheap as chips and i just hammered it to small size then washed the grit off and ran it...

    Hell even Punkin could do this... :))

  • AnavrinAnavrin

    @FullySilenced That Polish SPP looks good, and cheap, I'm working with a guy tomorrow who can read it, so I'll get him to look over the site, the delivery should be fairly quick from Poland to the UK

  • FullySilenced

    Scoria is less expensive ... by a large ammount ....

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