Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

I thought I saw copper compression fittings at bunnings, but they might have been brass. Would rather not have the regular maintenance of pickling, but I'll see what I can come up with.

you can get the same compression fitting from a decent brewing supplies store in stainless steel, they're not real cheap but they're bloody good :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Not sure if my local home brew shop is decent or not. I'll check tomorrow.

redcane wrote:Not sure if my local home brew shop is decent or not. I'll check tomorrow.

Search Gryphon brewing if you get stuck, or midway, sirlings, geordie for online purchase... I'm not recommending TWOC on here anymore as that old cunt is a rip off.

Thanks for the tip!

MacStill wrote:

redcane wrote:Not sure if my local home brew shop is decent or not. I'll check tomorrow.

Search Gryphon brewing if you get stuck, or midway, sirlings, geordie for online purchase... I'm not recommending TWOC on here anymore as that old cunt is a rip off.

:scared-eek: Not The Worlds Oldest C...t?

Well this has been a long time coming. No excuse really, but I've been busy brewing beer!

So I've ordered element, ferrules clamps etc from 5star. Got a mapp torch from the local welding shop - and boy it is a lot better than what I had been using, especially in terms of heating the far side of a pipe.

So I cut some rings for easy flanges and silver soldered one (before being interrupted).


It looks like it might be easiest to put the VM Gate valve in place with tri-clamps - which also allows the liebig to be clamped directly to the pot head. So I was looking at these handy little items:
http://www.5stardistilling.net/1-5-x-1-2-bsp/

There doesn't seem to be any matching sized ferrules at 5star though? I guess I can easy flange some 1.5" pipe instead, but 1.5" seems an odd size?

Contacted 5 star - they do have 1.5" ferrules, just not listed up on the site.

I'm also considering the stainless steel unions. I suppose these give the same ability to adjust angles and take the rig apart, but then you need another fitting to adapt the pipe to the union. Easier up front I guess is to go for the brass unions at Bunings and then pickle them occasionally... I've sifted through a bunch of threads but I'm not the wiser on a good way to do this.

Careful not to make those rings too tight. When ya smack em flat, the ID and OD increases. Best to have a lttle bit of space in the rings before you start :handgestures-thumbupleft:

And another tip is to make sure you clean up the rings real good, if there's a little bit of black shit on them they don't seem to solder well. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Bummer, I think I might have cut them a bit tight... After I solder the three other rings they will likely be tighter and they are already a pretty tight fix. How much of a gap is good? How much can I fix with a hammer?

I'll have to run over the join with a file before I make the flange.

Redcane...I made this mistake on some 2" flange rings and they were too tight.So instead of bashing them flat and trying to solder them on after (which would not have worked because they wouldnt have fit over the pipe ) .I stood the ring on the pipe on the anvil and slowly flattened the ring in place .It quickly tigjtened on the pipe and then by going round and round with the hammer it flattened out very well.Also got a nice tapered effect which aided clamping.

redcane wrote: How much can I fix with a hammer?

Hi Red,

Everything can be fixed with a hammer!

I think I recall someone mentioning a problem with sealing up the rings before flattening them due to air trapped inside. Can't remember who or when but at a guess it was about 2 months ago?

Cheers,

Richard

5 o'clock wrote:

redcane wrote: How much can I fix with a hammer?

I think I recall someone mentioning a problem with sealing up the rings before flattening them due to air trapped inside. Can't remember who or when but at a guess it was about 2 months ago?
Richard

It was me Here.I had brazed the ends of the rings and when I flattened them ,it compressed the air inside . When I heated up for brazing ,as the ring got red hot, the air expanded inside and it bulged like a pillow. The trick was to drill a small hole to let the air out .....or don't braze the rings on ...use soft solder

Yummyrum wrote:I stood the ring on the pipe on the anvil and slowly flattened the ring in place .It quickly tigjtened on the pipe and then by going round and round with the hammer it flattened out very well.

Sounds like the method I'll use given where I am at this point.

Was planning to soft solder the rings on - Is there any reason not to?

Also received my 5star package of bubble wrap today, so it looks like I might soon be in business.


Time to take to the keg with an angle grinder and start soldering.

I've changed my mind on the way I'll connect the gate valve for the VM head though, and this also affects the pot head setup. I'm going with 2" tri-clamps, with the reducer attached to the liebig instead. It means I've needed to order some more clamps and some other pieces (and I'll be doing a few extra easy flanges). But the end result is a little more modular I guess. Gives the option of getting a larger diameter shotgun condenser clamped on later.

redcane wrote:

Yummyrum wrote:I stood the ring on the pipe on the anvil and slowly flattened the ring in place .It quickly tigjtened on the pipe and then by going round and round with the hammer it flattened out very well.

I got pretty sick of the hammering very quickly (deafness) and used my vice to pull them flat
Two advantages are NO NOISE and consistently accurate
And as you flatten you can/will square the flange to the pipe. Check by standing back to look after each rotation
Do a little each squeeze measured by the angle of the vice handle.
Don't be impatient, take your time.
Round and round and round and round (don't forget to make a mark so you know where the start is)
Very quick
No hammer marks on the pipe
No hammer marks on the flange
No noise

Sweet tip! Thanks!

So a little more progress over the weekend, I've now got the electrical side of things done and dusted, with the element guard wired to a 15amp plug that can go either straight into the power point or via the power supply.
Internal wiring:


Finished product:


I've measured the resistance from the guard (and element surface) to building ground at 1.5 ohms, which is higher than I'd be happy with. So then I measured the resistance just across the multimeter probes and it's 1.5ohms.... Time for a new multimeter I think.

I think I'll tackle the liebig next, then fashion an easy flange bending tool (viewtopic.php?f=36&t=3001&p=44675&hilit=flange+tool#p44675), and start cutting up the keg. Still hoping to be drinking my own rum by Christmas, but I'll need to pick up the (snails) pace.

So I built my "flanging" tool with a 6mm notch:


It seemed like the flare was not as large as I thought it should be because the bend radius pulled it in a bit. I decided to proceed anyway, and it looked a lot better once the ring was squashed on (used the vice technique).

(apologies for variable picture quality there).

The soldering seemed to go really well at first. Applied a bit of heat after fluxing it, dabbed the solder on and it raced around the gap.

woodduck wrote:And another tip is to make sure you clean up the rings real good, if there's a little bit of black shit on them they don't seem to solder well. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Unfortunately I forgot this bit of advice on the first attempt, and the solder just would not flow into the joint in the ring. I ended up just covering it with solder with none of it actually going in the gap:


The second flange I cleaned up really thoroughly, but the same problem - the solder would not flow to the joint in the ring:

The only other common factor was that the joint was facing too me, and maybe I was heating it too much and burning off the flux. Adding more flux didn't seem to help. I suppose it's still going to work, but I'd like to figure it out before I do more..

Also collected a few more plumbing parts. I think I have everything, although I'm considering getting a reducer that fits a ferrule union I have to clamp a parrot onto.
Basic pot head:


Basics of VM head:


Pot head and lie big that will clamp together:

Good job,
looks like it's coming along nicely.

My guess on the soldering is, it looks like it might be a bit too hot. If the flux goes black it's too much heat. Try less direct heat, heat the pipe above instead and heat right around the pipe to start with so the whole pipe is warm, this should help.also did you flux both sides of the ring and pipe?

Good luck :handgestures-thumbupleft: