Deliveries to the UK

Myles

Well I have to say that I can't find fault with USPS.

My parcel of flanges and clamps was picked up on May 28 and arrived in the UK on June 2nd. From there things are not so good. 10 days to make its way through customs and get to my local depot.

Now I have to wait for them to send me a letter telling me how much tax I have to pay, and THEN they will deliver it. I can't wait to get my hands on some nice brass flanges to build the 3" column that has been ordered. Just wish the mail service was not so slow on this end.

harley

This is to deliver - import from outside the EU to the inside of the EU takes a long time and is costly as a lot of paperwork to fill in. .. Hope it gets better when SD Europe will start and can deliver within the EU where the products are already in the eu's duties and limits and then will go really fast and you should avoid any customs fees, VAT, etc. hopefully ... so this will be good for us living in the EU ...

Cheers :ar!

Myles

I agree Harley, I expect to be using a lot more SD components in the future, so am glad there is a European distributor in the system now.

SDeurope

Hi @Myles & @harley,

Yes, it definitely will get better once we are up and running. Nowadays most times it's just not worth it any more to have a small delivery shipped from outside the EU, as parcels hardly pass customs without extensive inspection with no way around customs duty and VAT plus sometimes a huge delay in processing (especially if the transport papers are not in order).

USPS is the cheapest service if organizing small parcels from the U.S. to Europe, and they are usually quite fast as well. Transportation within Europe may or may not be cheaper and/or faster depending on the shipper. For example express services like UPS, DHL or Fedex charge a fortune definitely no worth it. We'll be using Austrian Post for parcels up to 32,5 kg and most likely Gebrueder Weiss as shipper for larger items like boilers, both of which we had great experiences in the past.

I just wish we could start shipping out right away, unfortunately we are facing extensive lead time for getting everything in place. But I'm confident it will be worth it. ;)

Greetings,
Michael

harley

Myles, Do you live in England!

If I'm not wrong, it is legal to possession of distillation equipment to manufacture E85 to their car in the UK and it's even legal to sell distillation plants for personal use for destilling car fuel-E85, or am I wrong ...

Cheers

punkin

Sounds much the same as Oz. Three weeks and $300 to get 8cbm from China to Port here, 10 days and many thousands of dollars to get off boat and from Port 5 hours by road to my place.

FullySilenced

jeez punkin just most closer to the port...

Moonshine

@punkin said: Sounds much the same as Oz. Three weeks and $300 to get 8cbm from China to Port here, 10 days and many thousands of dollars to get off boat and from Port 5 hours by road to my place.

Time for own truck!

Myles

Harley I am sure that is wrong. There is no such thing in the UK as a fuel ethanol permit.

Whilst it is true that you are allowed to blend denatured alcohol to mix with petrol (up to 2500 litres of bio-fuel per year) you are not allowed to produce the ethanol without a full distillers licence. If you have a distillers licence you then need to apply for a separate licence to produce the denatured alcohol. You then need another licence to distribute the denatured alcohol and it has to be denatured to a specific UK formula.

You even need to be registered to USE 2 of the 3 approved types of denatured alcohol.

Same for recovery of alcohol - you need to be registered as a producer.

SDeurope

@Myles & @harley, can you take a look what the exact legal situation on distilling is in your countries or point me to an online source where I can take a look?

I'm planning a series of articles on that topic for the different countries in the European Union.

Myles

Here you go:

Spirit production in the UK

Bio-fuels in the UK

Just as a starting point.

harley

Perfect, i shall fix this for you . Cheers

harley

Alkohollag (2010:1622)

harley

Sorry but this is only in Swedish and a didnt find it in English, maybe you can translate it... But this is the complet alcohol law direct from from the Goverment-Riksdagen in Sweden...

Cheers :ar!

Myles

Thanks SD, the bits finally made it through the UK system. Those brass flanges are just what I wanted, should have ordered some more for my own rig whilst I was at it.

The client asked for a "Carlos Fandango" vodka rig, don't want to disappoint him so I am putting a 1.4" full bore gate valve into the VM head, the brass flanges as going to be a nice touch too. :))

Smaug

Did you see our 2" butterfly valve Myles?

bentstick

@Myles said: Thanks SD, the bits finally made it through the UK system. Those brass flanges are just what I wanted, should have ordered some more for my own rig whilst I was at it.

The client asked for a "Carlos Fandango" vodka rig, don't want to disappoint him so I am putting a 1.4" full bore gate valve into the VM head, the brass flanges as going to be a nice touch too. :))

you will enjoy those pieces and parts Myles! Have fun :D

Myles

Yes the valve looks good.

This VM / LM head is reduced from the 3" column to 2", then the vapour path reduces to 1.4" to increase the vapour speed. Into a 1.4" T, with both the ports into the reflux condenser and VM branch being 1.4".

Went for a 1.4" valve to give a theoretical minimum reflux ratio of 50:50. Hope to start building the head today.

SDeurope

@Myles & @harley

Thanks for the links, will take a look when I have some time. Alcohol Laws are usually very comprehensive and dry reading material, I just want to summarize the possibilities / legal situation for private and commercial distilling in the various countries within the EU.

FullySilenced

MYLESs Who is or was Carlos Fandango ... other than a few dancers can't find anything about the name or the still type?

Myles

To be honest with you that was a slight dig at myself.

I tend to over engineer things, (an early career in military engineering tends to instil those sort of traits) and in some circles the Carlos Fandango reference is interpreted as "something that looks impressive but is impractical or dysfunctional" aka 12" wide wheel rims on a small compact car.

It was just a bit tongue in cheek, because I like shiny copper and brass - but you don't need it. Any reflux column will still work even with all the flame marks in place.

I know that I don't need a big VM valve, but the valve weight will help balance the column, so to me it makes sense.

I know it was a bit OTT, but on this earlier variation I actually weighed the reflux condenser to try and work out the balance points for the head.

I have since returned to a much more basic version, I just don't have the head height available for a heads column. If I did though, I would definitely include 500 mm of packing ABOVE the VM port.

For me though a column reduction into an equal T with equal branches to the reflux condenser and VM valve is a good option.