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In this Discussion
- emptyglass June 2013
- FullySilenced June 2013
- harley June 2013
- Law_Of_Ohms June 2013
- Lloyd June 2013
- minime June 2013
- Moonshine June 2013
- moscca June 2013
- Myles June 2013
- Philter June 2013
- punkin June 2013
- RedDoorDistillery June 2013
- Smaug June 2013
Comments
Hi Moscca, I know your question was directed at Punkin but I have a question or two about your comment.
Are you asking for a custom made gasket that will fit inside a glass or SS tube?
The glass and the SS have different ODs, and more importantly, IDs. If so on the glass, because this thread is about a glass column, you would need a custom made plate, custom made gasket and a custom made 8" glass tube so they would all fit together precisely. That's a lot of mould fees for a non-modular glass section.
Maybe I mistook your meaning?
"and no ring for the height" I don't understand. Please explain.
Thanks Lloyd, It is a bit confusing. I'm talking about a 8" SS pipe. When I look at the picture it seems that the plate and the slot fit inside the gass column. If this would be also the case for a 8" SS pipe I thought putting a plate inside the slot real tight and machining it that way so it will fit tight in a SS 8" pipe. I found some 8" SS used pipe here in great shape and am thinking to make the column myself to safe some $. If the seal would work good I would need no ring around the plate to hold the liquid an no threaded bars to hold the plates.
M.
The plates and seals are design to fit ferrules mate. They are too large to fit pipe.
StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand
Might be getting off topic, but I use no cups on the upper plates, only the bottom plate has a "J". All the other plates drain and with no cups, there is no liquid hold up other than the bottom. I tried a 1mm weep hole, and the plate wouldn't charge. Since the system relies on the bottom cup providing a fluid lock, it stuffed the whole show. When I do a stem up, I do it for about 2 mins, thats not enough to get it hot.
If you were to use a short stainless section between the Crystal Dragon and the boiler you could do this.
Closing the valve activates the vapour lock, and open it for cleaning. The plates are just symbolic - don't know if you are using plates secured by the flange clamps.
Off course the other option - which would save height - is just to ensure that the downcommer on the lowest plate is a lot longer. That way it reaches lower than the minimum level in the boiler. No J cup at all.
That's actually very clever, Myles.
A few parts arrived today so the 8" Crystal Dragon is getting close to release.
The 8x3 bowl shape reducer and plate cups arrived and the pipe downcomers will ship to me tomorrow.
The connecting rods arrived but something got fouled up - I received SS allthread.
That really is something. Can I assume that the stainless rods are going to be shouldered so it is not possible to compress 1 side more than another and upset the stability.
It does look nice without the clamps between each glass section. Is the intention to bond the glass into the gaskets? A semi-permanent fit that could be disassembled if required?
Myles, I asked that question a while back, but they will be double nutted... nut on top of the flange nut on the bottom that way you can adjust if you have a minor seep at a silicone gasket or flange area...
Lloyd you could send the unit out with the all thread then replace it when the production is corrected...
How long will the threads be on each rod end ...76mm or so?
I love a double nutted still.
The seals are very forgiving because they are so thick. The intent is to protect the glass from too much torque but that is up to the user (surely someone will wrench it down so damn tight the glass breaks but that will be their fault - I cannot safeguard against that because the Crystal Dragon will be available in different diameters and heights). Discretion while tightening the rods is advised. It does not take much bolt pressure to secure a firm seal. This is designed to not leak while providing the distiller a 360 degree view of the inner workings of the still.
It takes very little more than hand tightening on the nuts to secure a firm seal.
Excessive wrenching beyond that is just silly and the hope is that people that can buy 8" stuff are not likely to over torque the nuts.
It does not take much tightening on the nuts. The custom oversized silicone gaskets are very good at sealing the column.
So basically as the Stack is assembled you will just measure to have the flanges equally distanced around the perimeter? spaced apart with the inside nuts and the outside nuts will lock the flanges to the nuts.... Should the inside nuts be nylocks to restrict their ease of movement? or is that making it too complex... the rods might require wrench flats .. so the nylocked nuts could be adjusted to the correct spacing...
You are overthinking it. The thick gaskets will stop any leaks.
The nuts on the underside of the flange are to keep excess pressure from the weight of the condensers from affecting the pressure on the glass which should be kept to a minimum. Everything is designed to exert a bit of pressure on the gaskets to insure a good seal while minimizing stress on the glass.
Hey Fester Wonderful picture, it would be interesting to see a picture of your "base" with 2 "side exit at the top and with a side connection to the product cooler and even see-measure how many centimeters that you are saving in - if you save anything in the height, with this change... applicants solution for some people chasing centimeters and want maximum number of plates on a low ceiling ...
Cheers
Overthinking it is easy when you haven't seen or had your mitts on one.. i guess is a great looking assembly though... there are 2 different style plates the ones at or in the flanges are center drain?
Hello FS, What I mean is that this is very beautiful and builds very a little on the height, but IF you can get it to build even smaller, and if so, how much do you earn in on this change and am wery intressed allso how it shall looks with this change , ;-) Cheers ps, a have many 8" colums... ;-)
All the plates are the same. The ones located in the flanges just need different gaskets cut from the normal ones. The bottom plate in the picture would still have a DC pipe but with a cup connected to the DC as there is no plate below it to hold the cup.
I was looking at the photo and the reflection in the photo looked like it was center drain...
i went back and looked on my 42" monitor and i could see it was just a reflection not center drain...is there going to be a plate between the two columns when they are stacked...
Yes. Kind of. It will be at the top of the last glass section of the lower column section. And the next plate will be at the bottom below the 1st glass section of the upper section. There will not be a plate at the TriClamp that holds the 2 sections together.