Cleaning Copper the Easy Way

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Cleaning Copper the Easy Way

Postby kingy » Sat Jun 15, 2013 4:07 pm

Probly a silly question but would it be bad if you soaked the inside of tower/condenser with clr to get it shiny as well?
Make up a weak solution maybe.
I want the inside of mine as shiny as the outside.
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Re: Cleaning Copper the Easy Way

Postby ozybottler » Sat Jun 15, 2013 6:41 pm

good old tomato sause works great just spreed all over it leave for 12-15 min and wipe of and wash
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Cleaning Copper the Easy Way

Postby kingy » Sat Jun 15, 2013 7:12 pm

I'm looking to clean the inside so it's a shiny as the outside.is this where the vinegar wash is used.
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Re: Cleaning Copper the Easy Way

Postby ozybottler » Sat Jun 15, 2013 7:19 pm

i have seen one on youtube
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Cleaning Copper the Easy Way

Postby Sam. » Sat Jun 15, 2013 7:25 pm

Fill your column up with an acidic solution ie citric acid and hot water and let soak.

Clean as a whistle
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Cleaning Copper the Easy Way

Postby kingy » Sun Jun 16, 2013 1:10 pm

Well so I used CLR On the outside then done the citric acid on the inside. Rinsed out really well. Stripped my bwko and after the run noticed silver specs like solder sitting in the parrot.
Then I found a trail of it in the tower so obviously it's in the condenser and most probably in the dunder.
Got me fucked where its come from or what it is. But my stripped stuff is like a weak bourbon colour. And now I have no backset. FML. Should of left the fucker dirty.
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Re: Cleaning Copper the Easy Way

Postby Cane Toad » Sun Jun 16, 2013 1:20 pm

What do you mean,no backset? What's wrong with the backset from the stripped wash? Just coz it's got a few floaties in it don't mean it's no good,it'll just be a bit of scale or sum such shit from inside the still,fuck it,I'd still use it :handgestures-thumbupleft:
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Re: Cleaning Copper the Easy Way

Postby Cane Toad » Sun Jun 16, 2013 1:24 pm

I'll rephrase that,I have used it like that,and don't worry about the stripped BWKO,run the two that are slightly off colour together,I've had some of my stripped washes slightly brown to dark piss yellow and they came out alright in the spirit run :handgestures-thumbupleft: :handgestures-thumbupleft:
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Cleaning Copper the Easy Way

Postby kingy » Sun Jun 16, 2013 1:28 pm

Serious? The silver shit looks like silver grease? Do you reckon it won't kill me yeah? Lol. Just continue on as usual. Spose it wouldn't hurt. At the end of the day it's only the stripped stuff ay. Still gotta get through the spirit run yet. Still would've self cleaned itself by then lol. I could call it silver spirit if it gets through lol
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Re: Cleaning Copper the Easy Way

Postby Cane Toad » Sun Jun 16, 2013 1:39 pm

Can't be any worse than the gunge I've got floating around in my small boiler :puke-huge: :laughing-rolling: And it ain't killed me,and if it is shit off your soldering and you pour it into your boiler, it sure as fuck ain't gunna be able to magically levitate to get into your still is it :snooty: :snooty:
These are just my thoughts mate,you do what you want :handgestures-thumbupleft: :handgestures-thumbupleft:
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Cleaning Copper the Easy Way

Postby Dominator » Tue Jul 23, 2013 10:05 pm

I got some copper from the scrap yard today and I wanna give it a clean up. I know a lot of people say to use a acid bath but how much citric acid should I use to say 1L of water?


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Re: Cleaning Copper the Easy Way

Postby Yummyrum » Tue Jul 23, 2013 10:34 pm

1 or 2 teaspoons of citric acid per liter .

Thought how can this shit work but it does :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Infact ,heres some I just soaked this morning :laughing-rolling:

Adjustable RC 022.jpg
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Cleaning Copper the Easy Way

Postby Dominator » Wed Jul 24, 2013 6:55 am

Thanks yummy. The copper is hell manky so I am gonna soak it in hot dunder from my rum, then if it needs it, I will give it an acid bath.


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Re: Cleaning Copper the Easy Way

Postby whiskeyshiner » Thu Sep 04, 2014 8:26 pm

Been giving old pot a clean up in some citric acid since i read macs thread on sulphites. Has anyone had there copper go clean then if ya leave it for another day its goes dark grey i think its the acid breaking down the tin solder but i just wanted to check in case they accidently label some lead solder as aquasafe when i built my still :laughing-rolling:
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Re: Cleaning Copper the Easy Way

Postby Rush006 » Thu Oct 09, 2014 9:14 am

Did a few feature walls on a house with copper panels. We used vinegar and salt to clean the panels
Worked well for us. Can't see why it wouldn't work in this application
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Re: Cleaning Copper the Easy Way

Postby VARocketry » Thu Oct 09, 2014 11:19 pm

I didnt have very good results with the vinegar and salt thing. Could be technique.... also I wonder if the presence of the stainless steel tri-clamps affected performance.

I heated up 5 qts of white vinegar and 4 qts water on the stove and poured that into triple (three) stacked heavy trash bags and added the copper head component to be cleaned. I used masking tape to wrap the tube loosely so it would conform to the component and hope fully cover it. Left it 24 hours. Lots of green staining but it didnt come out clean like the pictures above.

Very disappointed in this effort. And the damn bags leaked.....
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Re: Cleaning Copper the Easy Way

Postby rlmisso » Sat Apr 20, 2019 9:41 pm

Doing this now!

:music-deathmetal: :music-deathmetal:
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Re: Cleaning Copper the Easy Way

Postby Chriss » Wed Aug 12, 2020 3:28 pm

The power of lemon.

We are surprised how far we can take the humble lemon. 1,2,3,4,5 uses.

Number four use was to boil the spent skin, the white skins with some rind where the pectin is. With one litre of water, the pH is 2.0 and second boil is pH 2.0 - 2.5.

The only change we will reduce the water quantity to 1/2 a litre to check the pH, hopefully it is stronger for the stubborn sulphur compounds.
Diggers CLR, straight is pH 2.5
McKenzie's citric acid (made in china) (75g $2.50 from W/H/W pH 0.9. One flat teaspoon granules, one teaspoon of hot water to mix. Cooled and pH tested.
1kg of citric acid. $25 from wesfarmers retail mob.

Free lemons in the bush and backyard. Or hunt at green grocers. Too many flowers to count at ours, so we got another lots of lemon, meyer hybrid.

We used that straight off the stove to clean the annoying t500 copper saddles and other copper additions. Then to see how it will stretch, still at pH 2.5.
At ph 2.0 - 2.5 to test the power of spent lemon citric acid, it takes burnt copper that had paint, plastics, silicone and strips it to the shiny stuff, water is black as spent engine oil. Lastly the double spent citric acid is good toilet bowl cleaner.

Currently we place it in the boiler, leave it boiling in the boiler for a few minutes so the plastic does not melt or degrade and soak it overnight.
If anyone knows if it is advisable to remove the copper coil from the t500 coil, please chime in?

Happy cleaning.
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Re: Cleaning Copper the Easy Way

Postby chipboy » Wed Aug 12, 2020 4:44 pm

Weak Phosphoric acid in cheap rust converter if you think its missing in the CLR, add to CLR and spray bottle, but at the end of the day Citric is cheap and effective.
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Re: Cleaning Copper the Easy Way

Postby Tesla101 » Wed Aug 12, 2020 7:37 pm

Chriss wrote:If anyone knows if it is advisable to remove the copper coil from the t500 coil, please chime in?


Not advisable, without ruining it. I just do an overnight citric bath every couple of months
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