Hi from Bondi

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Hi from Bondi

Postby Wozza » Sun Oct 13, 2019 6:19 pm

Hey guys. Been lurking off and on for some time. Now retired so time on my hands and I thought I'd get back into brewing and try my hand at distilling as well.

To that end, I've rumaged around in the basement and dug out an old 20 L stainless steel tea urn I've had for years (originally intended for brewing). Think it's about a 2.0kw heater. I had a 2.0m length of 40mm copper tube so I thought I could make a simple pot still.

So far I have made a simple copper flange for a 250mm length of the tube and fixed it to the lid. I've got a tee off that into 10mm copper pipe which will connect to a condenser coil (about ten coils) which fits into a 25L plastic bucket with cooling water inlet and outlet.

The 40mm pipe connection to the lid has a diy ptfe tape gasket. I'm thinking of doing the same type of gasket for the boiler lid (about 300mm dia). I'm going to fix 6 screw clamps to the lid to get a good seal there. The s/s steel bolts that fix the riser off the lid are using fibre washers. Not sure if I should change them for stainless.

All pretty simple and all I've spent so far was a few bucks for the 10mm tubing for the condenser and some for the soldering materials (I think the tea urn cost me a case when cases were about $25). The idea being to use this as a test rig, keeping costs to a minimum and see if I want to take this further. Then it'll be on to kegs and something a lot more substantial. I'll probably post some piccies tomorrow.

Any and all comments gratefully received...
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Re: Hi from Bondi

Postby The Stig » Sun Oct 13, 2019 6:42 pm

Welcome to the forums . All the info you need is here, if you wish to accept that info is up to you .
If I remember correctly those old urns use a thermostat otherwise they would just boil away and end up dry as a bone, if that’s the case it’s useless
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Re: Hi from Bondi

Postby Wozza » Sun Oct 13, 2019 7:21 pm

The Stig wrote:Welcome to the forums . All the info you need is here, if you wish to accept that info is up to you .
If I remember correctly those old urns use a thermostat otherwise they would just boil away and end up dry as a bone, if that’s the case it’s useless


I used to use a similar one for heating up sparge water. The heater control gives five stages of heating and from memory if I turned it to 5 it would boil away quite happily until I turned it down. I've only run it to warm some water up to check it's working. I might take it to a boil tomorrow and let it run for a while to make sure it doesn't cut out.
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Re: Hi from Bondi

Postby The Stig » Sun Oct 13, 2019 7:38 pm

Good move before doing too much more work :handgestures-thumbupleft:
We need a constant rolling boil
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Re: Hi from Bondi

Postby db1979 » Sun Oct 13, 2019 8:14 pm

Welcome mate.

Get rid of those fibre washers. Just wrap a heap of plumbers tape around the thread of the stainless bolts where they go through the lid and it should seal up no worries.

For your larger gasket, google everlasting gasket. It's basically a cardboard ring with a heap of plumbers tape wrapped around. I think 7 layers is a good start. Just don't use the pink tape. In my experience it worked best if made a bit oversize as they shrink a little.

I think you'll want wider than 10 mm off your tee, especially if it's going a long distance. I think you'd want no thinner than 3/4".

We like photos :handgestures-thumbupleft:
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Re: Hi from Bondi

Postby Wozza » Sun Oct 13, 2019 9:14 pm

db1979 wrote:Welcome mate.

Get rid of those fibre washers. Just wrap a heap of plumbers tape around the thread of the stainless bolts where they go through the lid and it should seal up no worries.

For your larger gasket, google everlasting gasket. It's basically a cardboard ring with a heap of plumbers tape wrapped around. I think 7 layers is a good start. Just don't use the pink tape. In my experience it worked best if made a bit oversize as they shrink a little.

I think you'll want wider than 10 mm off your tee, especially if it's going a long distance. I think you'd want no thinner than 3/4".

We like photos :handgestures-thumbupleft:


Roger that re the washers. And yeah, the everlasting gasket is what I meant by the diy ptfe gasket. So off to Bunnies tomorrow for the tape. And maybe the local bottlo for a case so I have some cardboard as well. And the T-off measures 12mm. If it doesn't work as well as it could then I'll live with that at this stage.

The Stig wrote:Good move before doing too much more work :handgestures-thumbupleft:
We need a constant rolling boil


A gap between games in the rugby so I splashed a few litres into the boiler and plugged her in. And we soon had a rolling boil that went on for ten minutes or so until I switched off. So I think we're ok. My son is a sparky so I'll get him to check the electrics during the week as well.
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Re: Hi from Bondi

Postby RC Al » Wed Oct 16, 2019 10:03 am

Welcome mate
I havent tried it, but i have seen suggested to just turn the element to max and the use a power controller on it - you will need one to run the pot effectively, especially spirit runs

5 Star sell a good controller for about $43
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