Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

You gotta be shittn me...I cant draw a circle with a compass, let alone trace one with with those! :crying-blue:

MacStill wrote:Just trying to help out, been a few guys asking me lately how I build mine so doing this post should help me to stop answering the same questions over n over.

I'll add more when I build the PC for my new rig, it'll be a bit more for the experienced builder though ;-)

I love this thread. :text-thankyoublue: Did you ever get a chance to post the PC build? I know things have been busy with the new business start up

MacStill wrote:Before you solder the tubes in drill the holes for your coolant connections, if you dont do this and your bit is sharp it will fuck your whole day by piercing inner tubes

:text-+1: yep. Day officially fucked. Killed 2 tubes in my PC today doing exactly that. Very newbie error. Pays to stop and think sometimes :violence-stickwhack: :violence-stickwhack:
Great tutorial Mac. Many thanks

So I have never soldered or worked with copper before so don't be too harsh on me.
I had a go at a shotgun condenser today. It's 2.5" with 6 1/2" tubes and is 500mm long.

How do you get neat solders like in Macs post. Is it experience or did I do something wrong?
Here is mine


Was I supposed to solder it vertically or horizontal? I done it vertical and wasted a bit of solder that went inside the condenser through the small gap between plate and pipe. Was a pain to get out and think there is still a little left.
Was fun building this. Only one hole from all the soldering to fix and a clean up.

Did u drill the holes for the water inlet and outlet before u welded it up

And answer to ur other question its because mac is the bomb

Yea holes were drilled for 1/2 inch water before the tubes went in.
Made sure of that from reading this thread about 5 times :)

Nicely done mate :handgestures-thumbupleft: I knew you could do it!

What solder/gas did you use? :think:

Good stuff mate, welldone :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Don't worry about the mess a flap sanding disc will clean that up. Even mac uses one of those :laughing-rolling:

We will need to know what solder you used before i can help with flow problems etc.
Is it just the photo or is that solder a yellowy color?

Cheers guys. It was fun learning.
I used tradeflame flux and solder and gas was propane.
Tradeflame was the only one I could find that stated it was lead free.
I think it's the pic that makes it look yellow. It is silver. :)

All good then mate. I'm not sure on the solder but there is a thread somewhere on different solders etc not sure where it is sorry.

The key to soft solder is clean, clean , clean and when you think it's clean clean it again. Fine sandpapper or steel wool seems to work well. Don't over heat it too much, direct the flame on the pipe above/below the weld area and keep the flame moving. You only need to melt the solder.

The flux is crucial aswell if there's no flux theres no solder, the solder follows the flux. Don't over heat that either, if it turns black reaply it. You can do that while it's hot if you want. I dab at holes with the flux brush to fill them up, works a treat.

Good luck, if you need help just yell out :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Cheers woodduck. Maybe I put too much flux on then!
I put it on the whole top plate so maybe if I had of just outlined the pipes it would have been neater. Oh well I don't mind what it looks like. Nobody is ever going to see it ince it's in place and smashing out the best home brew I have made :D

Nah your right i covered my whole plate aswell.Mine was the same mate, don't worry like you said no one will see it.