StillDragon North America Bulletin Board

Tunstal

@Smaug said: Prolly not gonna have a drop of whiskey left in the hoose when it's all over though...

Might know someone who can help you restock...

Tunstal

@CothermanDistilling said: Thanks to smaug and his great team, I got the tracking number for my 2 rifled 2" x 1M HX's, can't wait to play with them! Might test them out on the 8" 26 plate vodka rig this weekend instead of the 8" PC and see how many L/hr they can handle in series.. then off to do another round of continuous testing with them....

Did you get them yet? I bet they are pretty!

Smaug

@Tunstal said: We have a building set to withstand 230 mph winds with a restaurant/bar on the first floor if you can't make it all the way to CothermanDistilling

Whoa!

punkin

Offers are getting better and better. Only a matter of time before someone offers a happy ending.

DonMateo

To all the guys in Florida take care with the Hurricane. If you have to die then open your finest bottle of booze and go out in a blaze of glory.
My twin brother was in a place called Dampier up in the northwest of West Australia when a Category 5 cyclone went right over his apartment block which was 3 stories high and he was on the top floor. When the wind was over 200kph and you couldnt hear shit he got his best bottle of whiskey and started to get plastered. The eye went over and it was quiet for 20 mins then it got loud again. The next day the apartment block was still standing and it was a great ride so he said.
Anyway take care guys and gals and your families.

richard

bragging rights :)

DonMateo

No mate but an interesting story. I was in South America at the time I thought he was going to be killed. Amazing fotos afterwards. Steel power line supports twisted like spaghetti.

FloridaCracker

You guys really shouldn't worry about @Smaug. During the last hurricane in his area, his neighbor caught some video of him.

punkin

'Merica

Smaug

Waiting.....

Kapea

She’s sitting out there grinding the Bahamas. I think she’s waiting for that high pressure ridge that’s supposed to come down and push her off of the coast.

Kapea

This is my one. It makes me happy when it looks this way:

Smaug

Yep. Best when just plain ole blue.

I feel so bad for the Bahamas. They are the frog in the blender at the moment. :(

crozdog

haha i'd forgotten about this Frog in a Blender - Joe Cartoon

Smaug

Hahaha. That was always fun.

Cept,,,, that is indeed what is happening in the Bahamas. Poor island is in the meat grinder.

CothermanDistilling

I feel for the folks that are in non-standard housing in the bahamas, all the legit, real permit and code approved stuff is probably keeping folks alive, but 90% of the people seem to live in 'aww.. that is good enough', I slipped the official some money and he overlooked our building lightweight timber on a concrete block structure at sea-level...

Smaug

Soon to be tested.

punkin

yippee!

They've all been asking for it and here it is.

grim

Cute!

Smaug

@grim said: Cute!

Have an even cuter stripped down version without the skid, smaller HXs, and bare bones control system. Right around half the cost.

Should know processing speed for that one soonish.

Looking forward to learning about the processing speed on this one here.

jbierling

:x

FloridaCracker

Alas, if only that was a picture of my garage.........................

FC

Fiji_Spirits

@Smaug said:

Go ahead and have that stripped down one drop shipped to Fiji and I’ll test it out for ya. Lol

Tunstal

I can't wait to hear the results of testing!

grim

The cylinder on the left - reboiler or steam generator?

Smaug

@grim said: The cylinder on the left - reboiler or steam generator?

This model is a jacketed 50L re-boiler. 5/ 8kw elements in the reservoir.

3 Liquid level indicators positioned at about 25L. The highest position calls for a faster pump down speed. The middle position calls for a slow pump down speed. And the lowest position shuts the pump down.

The column bottoms HX is positioned up stream at about where the liquid level indicators are on the re-boiler. So I'm hopeful it behaves like Stumpy's and drains without needing to be pumped down once everything is brought to temp. He only needs to run the bottoms pump when he fires up. As soon as his system is hot there is enough pressure to force bottoms out and even push it through the bottoms HX that is oriented 12" higher than his bottoms discharge elevation.

crozdog

that looks great!! I want one.

Fiji_Spirits

Larry, will the components be available separately or in modules?

Smaug

@Fiji_Spirits , I wish I had enough working capital to fund enough options.

But yes, I hope so.

Just need a bit more R&D to make a decision on a few things.

Desired tee height being one of the things. 6 in is way too small to get good hydraulic behavior. I believe 8" tall is too small also. So its 10" or 12" to choose from (though taller would be better). On the micro scale most people don't have a whole lot of ceiling height to play with. So there's the rub there. Ceiling height vs optimal speed.

Then sizing the HXs to give the customer enough price options. So far it's either the 2 x 40 or the 4 x 48.

Then there is the steam generator or the reboiler decision. Though I think the steam generator is the best price point because it's a single wall vessel.

Out of the gate I can definitely order what the customer wants. But I probably won't stock anything as a standard inventory item until we get more data and feedback from the community

Fiji_Spirits

I’ve been messing with variable plate spacing in my rig this week. I’m trying to optimize for the newly added packed section. I’ve got some 4” spools down low, some 6” windows, then the 600mm copper mesh with these modified plates on top of the packing and below the packing (mostly to keep flow centered in column and prevent wall flow).

The reason I bring this up is i wonder if maybe having different plate spacing along the column would be beneficial. Larger spacing where foaming is worst and smaller where it’s not.

Edit: I note now that this pic was before we rearranged the 4” and 6” sections.