Baby Dragon - Ace of Hearts

crystal_skull

Just to help @Lloyd remember ;)

Chalmer

@mlobarr The T500 boilers in the us are 1800 watts and use 120v. The one I had would pull 1400 watts when i had it on a meter. So a little less power then the European model.

Lloyd

@crystal_skull said: Just to help Lloyd remember ;)

Ha! Thanks @crystal_skull. SS wool it was. Anyone using the stuff should wear gloves as its really hard to get the splinters out of your hands.

albtraum

@Chalmer said: mlobarr The T500 boilers in the us are 1800 watts and use 120v. The one I had would pull 1400 watts when i had it on a meter. So a little less power then the European model.

There are two versions of these. One with an exposed coil and a newer one with a spigot. Is this for the newer one?

Lloyd

Setup my Ace with 4 plates on a T500 with an extra section that holds one liter of small porous ceramic balls. We post run results and pictures soon.
I have to go to Hong Kong tomorrow but hopefully the next day the pumice stones will arrive for testing.
Not really sure Mama is interested in hybrid but I'll document my findings just in case.

Lloyd

It was a failure.
The porous ceramic balls had almost no effect on the ABV. I was getting 92.5% and could have done that without the ceramic ball section.

punkin

I'm getting quite a few enquiries for custom Aces. Seems a lot of people have a very specific idea of what the perfect unit is for their operation.

Lloyd

Ain't nothing going right today, haha, the pumice rock arrived but instead of about 10mm chunks I got closer to 2mm (what looks like big sand).
Its off to Hong Kong for me tomorrow to get my passport stamped so I'll tinker with my Baby Dragon after then.
During the long trip I'll probably talk myself into running the pumice sand :-@

grim

That's pretty odd Lloyd, at a worst case I'd imagine sub-par performance, but certainly not "almost no effect".

How much liquid did you see running down the outer walls/periphery? That's the only thing I can think of that would so severely short-circuit the packed column. Do you run any kind of fluid distributor over the packed section? Maybe something like a triclamp screen gasket or similar to introduce a more random drip distribution?

Chalmer

@albtraum yes the newer one with the spigot.

Lloyd

@grim, you are correct. There was lots of reflux channeling down the side instead of the center.

Lloyd

A bit better... the lava rock arrived and the size looks better compared to the much finer pumice on the right.
I should run the ceramic balls again with a reflux centerer on top just to be fair.

CothermanDistilling

might be interesting to note, after you put the centering device in, if somewhere down the column the reflux is fully back to the outside and would need to be 're-centered'...

punkin

Choke washer for the GB4 would work well in a 2" column as a centering ring. A plate with or without procap would work for a 2.5".

CothermanDistilling

stamp it with a 'dimple die' and it would be perfect...

Dimple Die 3/4 0.75 Inch Fabrication Tool Offroad, 4x4, Prerunner, Hot Rod Buggy @ eBay

FullySilenced

Putting a centering ring in the middle of the beads will create an umbrella effect making some of the beads ineffective.. that's why in Hookline's column drawings it always shows a gap between the centering rings and the restart of the packing...

Just refreshing your memory and pointing this fact out..

Even in Odins video footage of his glass column using spp it seemed so show some fluid movement down the column...

Happy Stillin

FS

Lloyd

Its probably critical to have the column as plumb as possible but the T500 lid is a bit flimsy and its difficult to get it perfectly straight.
Good catch Punkin, I had a baby dragon plate, without the cap, ready to use as the centerer.

captainshooch

Built a copper condenser and parrot for the baby yesterday, sorry pics are not the best

captainshooch

The parrot is an old one I had, just modified it so it can be attached with TC clamps, and added a valve at the bottom. Sac run tomorrow, then is on to trial runs.

punkin

Looks great mate.

CothermanDistilling

nice!

punkin

My new rig...

captainshooch

Sweet @punkin Yours or Mommas? =D>

punkin

Mine, she does everything after ageing, but before that it's my job.

Like the 4" CD i have, putting it together for photos was the fatal mistake. Can't bear to part with it now.

captainshooch

Sound just like the story I tell my missus, " ah isn't it a pretty still, gonna have to keep it and bling it out a bit" . pretty soon your shed will be like full blown SD display room with all the bells and whistles... not that I would know :D :-\"

Smaug

@punkin said: Mine, she does everything after ageing, but before that it's my job.

Like the 4" CD i have, putting it together for photos was the fatal mistake. Can't bear to part with it now.

Just a really good looking, handy set up. 5 or 6 years ago this rig would have easily been mind blowing for the community at large.

Never could figure why Decoy didn't expound further?

captainshooch

@punkin said "Mine, she does everything after ageing, but before that it's my job.

Ha ha ha, all she's got do to is enjoy it, is up to you to make it and from what I gather you make a fine drop :D

Lloyd

Serious man-points if you can turn that around.

Edit: So far, no man-points racked up for me. SHE has no interest in the actual distilling except to constantly ask about the ABV and if under 92% SHE tells me to fix the problem :))

captainshooch

Let Momma do the cooking and I'll do the brewing. I'm good with that :))

Lloyd

@Lloyd said: It was a failure.
The porous ceramic balls had almost no effect on the ABV. I was getting 92.5% and could have done that without the ceramic ball section.

After carefully bringing the same setup into plumb and adding a very simple reflux centerer, a Baby Dragon pro-plate without the ProCap placed under the dephlegmator, my results changed dramatically.
Heads logged in at an astonishing 94% which has never happened to me before, its usually a point or two less.
Hearts are being collected now, with a DIY controller at about 85% power, and I'm pulling very real vodka tasting hearts at 93.5% ABV @ 13.5C which is 95.15 ABV @ 20C, temperature corrected. This has been repeated over several collection jars.
Production is 1.33 liters per hour at this purity and the setup could certainly be tweaked for higher quantity or ABV but I doubt both but who knows? Tweaking the packed column could maybe improve both ABV and collection speed but more trials would need to be preformed.
This setup would give Mama 3.16 liters of finished 40% vodka per hour during the hearts collection. Certainly not a commercial operation but considering the size of the still and the investment I'd think the old girl would be happy. Lord knows she can't drink all of that in jello shots at bingo this Saturday night and still wobble home with her winnings.

What's good about the porous ceramic beads is they are maintenance free and will last a lifetime as they are super hard to break and are completely inert. They are clean, exact in size, pretty and do not degrade like copper mesh, look like mud like lava rock, don't embed metal splinters like SS wool into your fingers and are more uniformly spread than scrubbies as packing material.
Being man-made, uniform in size and of known chemical composition has its advantages over lava rock but I'd still like to test lava rock only because I've never done so.

_Only two small changes were made to achieve these spectacular results. A simple reflux centerer and bringing the packed section of the column into plumb. The results went from failure to very good vodka. _

A bit more testing and a few more improvements could result in Mama getting a gallon of finished vodka per hour during the hearts run, though I know that's just an arbitrary goal. This is The Baby Dragon and many thousands of folks will someday be running it.