Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Do you fellas reakon two of macs 2" bubble caps on a 6" plate would work for an inline thumper for a 4" bubbler? Or should i build something with deeper bath?

You'll want something with a much deeper bath... You need it to hold about 5L, ideally.

Ok thanks cheers

Zac is spot on mate you wanna be able to hold your whole or close to refined boiler charge at once . Trust me its worth it. :music-deathmetal:

Awesome thanks :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Mine will hold up to aprox 25 liters as I want to try and use it like a doubler in a pot still run for bourbon as well as for botanicals and flavours like honey. It'll be a more traditional and lower volume inline thumper when I get my bubbler.
It has a 1/4" external needle valve drain on it (or will have) for emptying most of it at the end of the run but I estimate there will still be a liter or two of liquid left in the bottom of it below the point of the drain.
Has anyone got a way of allowing that to drain out back to the boiler when I'm done as it'll make a hell of a mess on the floor when I pull the thing apart. :handgestures-thumbdown:
I'm a little cautious when it comes to stories of weep holes as I've heard some people have trouble with them on their plates and as the hydraulic pressure will probably be higher then most inlines when in pot mode it might just weep all the time.
How do others drain theirs when the runs finished? A metal plug on a chain maybe??

My thumper mounts to a 8inch ferrule on top of the boiler and the 4inch bubble cap mounts to a 4inch ferrule also on top of the boiler,I drilled a 3/4inch hole between the two and a 3/4hole into the side of the boiler, then tiged an elbow section of 3/4tube between them( inside the boiler) and added a 1/2inch valve on the end of that after it exits the boiler,works a treat compared ta haveing to syphon it dry from the view port befor removeing it or reloading,otherwise the last couple of liters would piss everywere when I undid the 8inch ferrule.sorry the pic is befor the mod but should give ya the idaer.cheers hillzabilly

Yea i love your boiler/thumper setup hilzabilly :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Hey warra have seen people put a small hole in the thumper plate that drains it at the end of the run..

bluc wrote:Hey warra have seen people put a small hole in the thumper plate that drains it at the end of the run..

Yep. That's called a weep hole. Not confident with that.

I'm going to use a 1" copper U bend as a downcomer trap with ends big enough to slot in various 1" tube lengths so I can adjust depth and volume as required. Maybe if I hard solder it level with the plate I can just pull out the tube after I remove the top and allow it to drain through the u tube. Was going to have it above by an inch or so just so I could use it as another plate if I wanted but I suppose I could put a short length of tube there instead.

One of these in 1" is 75 mm across so just enough room to fit under the 4" plate. I'll run the other end into the riser if need be.
Hopefully less mucking around than building my own 1" downcomers and cups plus its already got the right size coupling on it for me to be able to adjust the height.

Few pics of the guts.cheers hillzabilly ;-)

And let there be more .hillzabilly :laughing-rolling:

Mine wont be that purty. Think the u bend removable downcomer might have to be the go. I don't have the tig skills you do.

Hillza that is damn fine work mate, and I don't even understand half of what I'm seeing!
What's the parrot looking part?

Seriously impressive hillz :shock: :music-deathmetal:

Hey hillza awesome work there.. the copper mesh wrapped around the cap.. Is that just to get a bit more copper in the system?

Yep amazing work also bit confused as to how it works will have to take a closer look :-B

Doubleuj wrote:Hillza that is damn fine work mate, and I don't even understand half of what I'm seeing!
What's the parrot looking part?

As I run 4plates above thumper, it collects the liquid from the first plates down comer and directs it to the furthest point from the thumper's downcomer,kinda like how ya put the downcomers at opposite sides ,as ya go up,but the big diameter of the thumper compared to the 4inch still led me to doing that to maintain good cross flow ,for product processing and you donot want the high ABV comeing from your first plate flowing straight down the thumpers downcomer,leaving ya thumper less efficient at building and holding the ABV ,wich with a larger volume or diameter thumper may be more important than a smaller one,in my opinion.Yes copper mesh is there for the usual reasons Taste Taste and taste,I have to confess to getting a qualifyed welder to do all my TIG work ,I do all cutting and prep work often after sorceing SS bits from him or 5Star ,and Iam only 5mins from his owner operater workshop,its great relationship wich took 5years to develope from the first awrkward g-day mate can ya weld some stuff to my beer keg fa cash.Also could not have pulled it off without Macs and the forums inspiration and advice. cheers with a lovely double shot of rum. hillzabilly :D