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In this Discussion
- bentstick October 2013
- captainshooch October 2013
- CatfishJim December 2013
- cooperville October 2013
- crozdog May 2013
- crystal_skull November 2013
- FullySilenced July 2013
- Lloyd December 2013
- moscca July 2013
- Myles December 2013
- Philter July 2013
- punkin November 2013
- Smaug October 2013
Comments
It will be the same basic design as the one I currently use (mine has a horizontal coil instead) so I am substituting an end cap on each end for the coolant connection. I currently have a T at 1 end for the coil connections.
Very nicy Myles !!! All this nice pics makes myself wanting to start building [-(
1 step closer, just need to fit the coolant connectors to the end caps and then fit them. The condenser body is complete.
And no that is not a mistake. The reflux output is deliberately slightly offset so that when the condenser body is tilted slightly off horizontal (to the drain end), the reflux output is vertical. There is 5.7 meters of 8 mm tube in there.
Although the tubes seem to have a very small vapour gap between them, they are actually spaced with 2 mm between each tube. It is just that the tubes are not perfectly straight.
Next time I think I would leave a slightly bigger gap, possibly 3 mm. Will clean it up when the end caps are in place
Well it is getting closer. I fitted one of the 2" brass ferrules to the pot still - and it looks good. Brass ferrules is going to be my standard option now.
That is a 1 to 3 bar pressure safety valve and the gate valve is going to be topped with a funnel for refill use.
The pot still now has a 7 tube shotgun product condenser.
Sorry about the pics, I need more light in there. This is just me working out positions so I can finish the column to be as long as possible.
The bends mean the product condenser can be rotated forwards to get the end a bit higher for convenience.
The Mrs. said I should name it "Tin Man"...Always wanted a small rig for testing small 3-5 gal wash recipies. I have a turkey fryer pot with a funnel, and the rest is components from the dash. Plan on stuffing some copper scrubbers on the 2" 180 and maybe 2 45 degree bend to relocate the parrot a bit higher. Will be testing sometime next week.
Myles thanks so much for sharing these images with us your work is very impressive keeping a close eye on the progress
Thought you might like to see how the VM / LM head turned out.
3" column into 2" connector into a 1.4" vapour splitter with full bore VM valve and entry into the reflux condensers. These 2" brass ferrules really work with copper tube IMO.
And the polished up VM valve.
Just need to add a valve to the LM side and she is good to go. :)
Very nice Myles shiny as shit.
Is that a SS valve or polished brass?
StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand
B-)
It is what you make it!
Shiny clean
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tidy
Just a common or garden brass gate valve. If you sand off the casting marks the brass will polish up well. These brass valves (in the UK) are now all rated for drinking water use and there is no longer a lead issue.
I have said it before and it now applies to this build too :))
The height of a pot still is of no consequence in the scale we build. Just make it fit for your convenience. Well this build evolved - as they do sometimes - and when I put it together yesterday I just wasn't happy. On the pot still I have added a big 3 way valve after the pre-condenser, and when it was all configured with the thumper attached, the pot still product condenser was too low for convenient use.
So drastic measures were called for. The pot still is now about the same height as the reflux column. That gives me sufficient room to set it up so the new owner is not sitting on a box to change product containers. Just need to clean her up and try again.
Quick preview.
Top outlet of the 3 way valve is for the thumper, bottom one is for the pot still product condenser.
Will see if I can fix it so both product condensers can use the same parrot. Just a flick of the 3 way (and some coolant valves) to switch from pot still to Vodka column.
Another stage closer. The vapour path for the thumper is in the acid bath. It will run down parallel to the column.
For convenience both condensers are shifted a few inches forwards of the centre line of the kegs. I think I will build a parrot that is either attached to or supported by one of the product condensers.
A few more pictures for you. Basically done now so I can start building the controller. I still need to build 2 funnels but that is no problem.
Decided to use flexible stainless braided hoses as the joining section onto the condensers, these terminate in 1/2" compression fittings to go onto either rigid copper coolant lines or hoses terminated with a stub of copper tube.
I am not a big fan of the LM method, but just in case the new owner wishes to try it I added in an air cooled coil condenser after the needle valve.
And the new Parrot for the pot still and the VM product condenser. Attached to the pot still but the second collection cup acts as the air vent / surge preventer.
Sorry @Lloyd the only SD parts in this are the excellent ferrules - that head sits there without the clamp - which makes assembly real easy. I will be using more of your stuff in my own builds though - (any chance of small stainless spray balls?).
I hope that the vent cup is higer than the top of the parrot.. Gues it is just an ilusion :-??
:)) Haven't adjusted that yet. I knew someone would spot it. The reservoir is too long and needs to be trimmed.
Ok. That woud't be like you to do simpel mistakes like that! Very nice build! :)>-
Yes, that stood out like dogs balls, i figured also that it was camera angle. Nice work as always Myles.
StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand
Just wiring up a simple PSR-40 controller for this build. Have put it into a 200 x 200 x 150 wall box. In the end though I took the fan out of the box and mounted it on the outside. It does fit inside the box, but you would need to take out the controller circuit to change the fan. OOPS!!.
This is the simple circuit (240v Single Phase UK style).
It will be a clean and uncluttered control front panel. Rotary 3 pole isolator, the calibrated pot and a Fan PSU, fuse and indicator only.
I finally got the box completed and did a vapour test of the still today. I added in two copper funnels as fill ports, each is above a gate valve. For the steam test I connected up the condenser and reflux condenser air vent to a garden hose to run the steam to outside.
Now this 6 kW element has 2 elements in the same body so I wired them in parallel. On my supply (220 v) they actually produce 5 kW max. Doing the maths suggests that on a 240 v supply they would actually pull 24 Amps equating to 5.7 kW, fairly close to the advertised 6 kW.
Interestingly with this module the up and down trigger points are so close together that there is no conduction below the up trigger. On my own component based circuit, once it is switched on it can be backed off to lower than the trigger point.
This was the linearity of the controller.
I charged the boiler with 50 litres of water. Time to boil from cold was 65 minutes. The keg is significantly hot in use so insulation would be a good idea to reduce warm up time. There were no leaks so I just blasted steam through the pot still at full power for 10 minutes and then switched over to the thumper.
Initial noise was disconcerting - almost like a chainsaw in use. However after 5 minutes the small charge that I had put in the thumper heated up and the noise dropped to a barely audible murmur. The diffuser that is fitted to the end of the vapour tube clearly works as intended. Another 5 minutes had the packing heated through with steam exiting the reflux condenser. Again there were no leaks and the thermowells I have fitted work fine. After 10 minutes of blowing steam through the packing I switched off and opened both refill ports. Will drain her down tomorrow.
I forgot to mention that the middle cable gland on the controller is there as the exhaust air vent. There was a steady stream of cool air exiting the controller throughout the run. The fan is quite powerful - 58 cu.m/hr and maintains the temperature of the controller just fine.
It must take a lot of work to polish everything to such a high gloss.
Its all so beautiful.
6" bench grinder with a sisal wheel and a stitched cotton wheel - but it does take time. :))
@Myles, where did you get the legs for you still "or did I miss it" Thanks, Catfish
The brackets are Heavy Duty Baseboard brackets from a supplier of castors and levelling feet. For the boiler I drilled out the holes and fitted bigger coach bolts with nuts to share the load onto both the top and bottom shelf of the bracket.
For the thumper I just replaced the levelling feet with longer coach bolts.
These are fine for STATIC boiler / thumper's that have refill ports and drains. The load is vertical down the bolt. I would not use these if I was routinely moving the boiler around.
Just had ports welded on bottom and a 2" on top for filling and cleaning. Thanks for the help!