Stilldragon Dash 1 Experience

jonno

Hey all,

As per my other thread I decided to buy myself a Dash 1. The minister of finance allowed this to happen for my birthday this year. CHEER!!

Purpose of this thread is well to show her off but also let others know my experiences/thoughts of the Stilldragon Dash 1 upon unwrapping and using.

I was pretty excited when the wife sent me a text message letting me know my package arrived today!! I just got home and this is what i found sitting on the pool table. I'll post more upon opening :D

jonno

Just quickly, from looking at photos of other peoples dashes I'm quite surprised at the size of the boxes :)) From looking at photos of other peoples dashes and the size of them i thought the boxes would be alot bigger. Guess i'm about to find out!!

punkin

How excitment!

You see how easy it is to fit the whole thing in the dishwasher now.

Gotta be happy with 2 day delivery too.

punkin

Please list your experience from go to whoa, Johnno. I'm copping a bit of flack from the copycat site about my customer service and my product. Needless to say i've never copped flack about either from my customers :))

I'll be interested to know your true feelings about it, specially as you were set to buy from the other guy.

jonno

Alright so I can now see how this gear fits into two medium sized sorta boxes :)) Things are relatively well packed, i even had the chance to check out a foxtel package :)) Guess you dont like your foxtel down there punkin lol

punkin

Don't forget to look inside the tees and the reducers and every little hidy hole. Don't throw the packaging away till you've put it all together for a test fit. :-j

punkin

Don't remember putting those tennis balls in there, but check inside them just in case

jonno

Lol, you didn't put any tennis balls in there. Those two boxes are good for storing all that paper and bubble wrap for now :):)

Another money shot

Philter

@punkin said: I'm copping a bit of flack from the copycat site about my customer service and my product. Needless to say i've never copped flack about either from my customers :))

I've NEVER had any problems with your customer service or SD products. Let the dickheads try to compete. As they say, jealousy is a curse :))

jonno

Put together my first bubble plate. Quite like the design. Did see a burr or two in one or two of the risers i was installing in the first plate which made the riser need a little more of push then the others to get through but hopefully no biggy.

Definately correct in reading the guide with tightening of the screws. Only finger tight, could easily see something becoming threaded :))

jonno

Isn't that a pretty site...

jonno

This is probably one suggestion i could make unless i haven't found it yet :))

It would be real good if the SD user manual came with the complete dash or any of the sd stills actually. Now i know it was pretty straight forward to put the plates together but i still had to come over to the pc and find the manual bla bla bla.

If i could find my tablet it would be fine but not everybody has one of those.

Moonshine

Of course you have to have a tablet, how else would you stay in touch while working on your still? :D

Great discussion, I just love such unpacking and assembling events, it's like those famous unpacking videos on YouTube.

punkin

@jonno said: This is probably one suggestion i could make unless i haven't found it yet :))

It would be real good if the SD user manual came with the complete dash or any of the sd stills actually. Now i know it was pretty straight forward to put the plates together but i still had to come over to the pc and find the manual bla bla bla.

If i could find my tablet it would be fine but not everybody has one of those.

It's a good idea Johnno i could put it on a disc and put it in a box with each shipment of a full unit, but then you'd have to have your tablet with you anyway i guess.

You could always print it in anticipation though?

jonno

Oh i know i could print it but the amount of times i use the bloody printer is never. It never has bloody ink in it :))

I think i want to put the thing back into the boxes and do one of those videos :))

jonno

Looking good :)) Not 100% sure if there's supposed to be a slight gap around thou, some of it tightens up flush and others dont

jonno

Geez, that took a while. Got them all together. Not 100% sure i've got them sitting perfectly but i'll see when i give it a leak test tomorrow or friday :)>-

punkin

Not helping you now. But i found it good to cut the allen key off to a driver with a cutting wheel or hacksaw and put it in the cordless at a very soft clutch setting. made things much quicker and easier.

jonno

All good, i was using a Tbar allen key so it wasn't to bad. By the time i would of cut something off like that i woulda finished anyway lol.

Here's the progress so far, i've kinda stalled because i'm missing a 4" tri clamp :(( Hopefully punkin can get it up here or my weekend is ruined

211

Looking good! You must be dying to fire it up!

jonno

Mate, im dying to get it running. Tomorrow night i plan on putting everything into the laundry tub and giving it a soak. Friday night i plan on filling up me boiler with some 2nd gen UJ and then Saturday morning fire this bad boy up. Will run 3 plates but hopefully punkin can get this missing tri clamp upto me before then so i can run 4 plates :)>-

I was hoping i just missed it in the box somewhere but had 2 others scrounge through everything to see if i was missing something but no :((

Shoot me a pm punkin before you send it up, i might have some other things for ya to throw in the bag if possible lol

jonno

Oh and the misses actually really likes the look of it, she says i can brew in the house if i can guarantee that i won't be leaking anything anywhere. So my next job is to make sure all the water connections are nice and tight and off we go :\">

Its quite a nice thing to sit in the bar to show off :D

FullySilenced

That's an awesome set up... Congrats Looks like its ready to run right now... B-)

punkin

Apologies about the clamp. I'll fix it up. Packed three Dashes last week, hope i haven't made the same mistake on all of them, one went to NZ.

jonno

Gave everything a clean in the laundry tub, just washing detergent and warm water. Cleaned up some of the carbon build up in some of the ferrules.

Everything looking real good :)>-

Hopefully this clamp arrives tomorrow so the plan for a run on saturday morning will be on track :)

Lloyd

Love the bar.

fadge

Looks a lot like my recent purchase...after a few emails and prices I went for a Dash 1 , less 2 bubble tee's, for a hybrid setup. I will be using one or two 4" copper extension sections for packing one is 500mm the other 1000mm.

I also ordered a 4 x 4 x2 for a future VM rig, plus 2 x 3600w elements, guards, ferules, extra gaskets, extra tri-clamps, thermotee's, filter plates, 2" glass and other bits and pieces.

All 4" from bottom to top, 2" from bend downwards.

And I was surprised on how compact the delivery box was, first thought was half is missing, until I unpacked stuff and found bits buried inside every nook and cranny, well packed and protected.

Yet to clean or put together as I'm waiting on a keg conversion. I will post pics as well, when its all ready to show off.

Can everything including the copper plates go into the dishwasher?

I mean if I assemble the tee's with the sight-glass kit, are they ok for the dishwasher or will it damage the o rings or the brass ?

Does everyone assemble the units starting from the keg working up, or build it first then attach to a boiler connection, thinking its got a bit of weight, and mine will be fairly tall as well?

A few pics of my gear sitting ready

One of a cooling tank setup showing a couple of washes ready to run.

Cheers,
Fadge

rossco

Unreal choice blokes. My rig has been fantastic and really flexible. Excellent quality, great service.

Please list your experience from go to whoa, Johnno. I'm copping a bit of flack from the copycat site about my customer service and my product. Needless to say i've never copped flack about either from my customers

I have to admit its been an interesting read. When you blokes bung on a blue you don't fuck around, I gotta give you that Punkin :))

jonno

After i receive me final tri clamp and give this bad boy a run i'll give my thoughts on the customer service B-)

jonno

oh and fadge i wish i had a shed like yours mate... im jealous!!

jonno

I know fellas use the dishwasher but what i did was just put the Tee's together and just soaked it in the warm water and used a sponge to give everything a good wipe.

And i think i found last night when i was putting it together how i'll stick her together.

Mount 2x4" to keg. Put together bubble tees and plates. mount onto 2x4". Mount deflag. Put together the rest on a bench and try mount it in one piece.

Hopefully that'll work