Should I build a Samohon's "The Easy Pot Still"

[Panda]

Seeing as this is "The friendly distillers community", I'm hoping I can ask this without getting growled at and pointed towards the 1000s of unorganized, cluttered threads to learn.

I currently have a little 25/30liter brew shop boiler and pot head that I have done a couple of stripping runs with. I'm looking at building Samohon's "The Easy Pot Still" (http://homedistiller.org/forum/download/file.php?id=8418) with a 2 inch riser connected to a 50 liter keg with a tri clover and running a 3600w element. I mainly want to make UJSSM and similar and do stripping and spirit runs with this still and a parrot, then later when I have a better understanding and tools build one of the fancy ones and use this to strip.

questions;
1. is this a poor idea and should I stick with the smaller still untill I build something better? (will I get considerably more or better whiskey from this setup then my little still?)
2. will I be happy with the quality of shine this makes
3. should I build a thumper for it now?
4. Is 3600w a big enough element?
5. should I build it with a (pickled) brass union setup so I can mess with the pitch of the condenser?

Thank you in advance for any help or advice.

[MacStill]

I reckon they're a pretty decent design, I'd say go for it :thumbup:

Here's one similar I built for a member, I've built at least 6 for people here and havnt got any bad feedback..... so they must be good :dance:

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=956&p=10743#p10743

QLDAndy has one with a brass nut to attach to his T500 boiler, it works great.

Hold off on the thumper until you get a good feel for running it as is, if you want your output proofier you can always double run anyway.

Everything else you ask I'd say yes too ;)

[Jimmy1]

Hi Panda,
I am one of the purchasers of one of Macs fine stills and I am completely happy with it. (as amatter of fact I am sipping on some underaged rum and its better than any rum I've had to date)
Easy to run, easy looking to build (time permitting) and a full stipping run takes less than three hours from heat up to clean up :D. So its worth looking at this style of still in my opinion.

[Panda]

Thank you for your insight kind Sirs.

[SBB]

should I build it with a (pickled) brass union setup so I can mess with the pitch of the condenser?

Id forget the brass union and buy a stainless one.

[8-ball]

i built one of these pot stills very easy but i connected it to a keg and run gas atm

[MacStill]

Seeing as this is "The friendly distillers community", I'm hoping I can ask this without getting growled at and pointed towards the 1000s of unorganized, cluttered threads to learn.

And that is part of the very reason this forum was started, you wont get bitten for asking reasonable questions here :thumbup:

[R-sole]

I've built a fair few 2' pot stills (before i'd ever heard of somohan :laughing-rolling: ) and i think it's better to reduce after the 45 degree bend, There's a lot of pressure and weight to carry on that short piece of annealed copper up the top and i think that design could bend, especially with a union.

I like the way i'm doing them now with a stainless union allowing adjustment of the collection height.

potstil1.jpg

[Panda]

As not to clutter the forum with useless threads I am going to carry on in here with my build.
After a bit more poking around and taking on board SSB's & 5Star's advice I have a clearer vision of my still to be. Please guide me back on path if my design is lacking and let me know if any of it sets alarm bells ringing.

based loosely off the above PDF, I will have a 50 liter keg (with a 3600w element) tri clovered to a 500mm 2 inch stainless column, then a 90 degree elbow union'd to another stainless 90 degree elbow (to set pitch) then coned down to a 1 inch clover that will connect the stainless to my copper condenser.
The (copper) condensor will step down from 1 inch to a 800mm length of 15mm wrapped in 600mm length of 20mm.

PICCIES so far.

Keg with a short length with clover fitting at each end. I will cut this in half, use one half as the start of my column and keep the other piece for future projects.


Condensor, honed out the 3way fittings so the 15mm is continuous throughout without joins.



2.5" - 1" stainless reducer. I will be cutting this up just for the cone to go from 2" to 1". 2" end will be welded to elbow and 1" welded to clover end.


second hand element


This is all very exciting for me, I apologize if you don't share my enthusiasm. As said before, please pull me up if my build is going wrong somewhere.

[stubbydrainer]

G'day Panda
Ya build looks good so far mate , but I have a question for ya . If I read this right you are building ya rig outta stainless with a copper Liebig,
Are ya gunna pack the column with copper scrubbers/structured mesh ? So the copper can knock out the nasties that a copper rig would

Cheers
Stubs

[Panda]

G'day Panda
Ya build looks good so far mate , but I have a question for ya . If I read this right you are building ya rig outta stainless with a copper Liebig,
Are ya gunna pack the column with copper scrubbers/structured mesh ? So the copper can knock out the nasties that a copper rig would

Cheers
Stubs

I wasn't intending to. Time for some more reading I guess :p

Edit: Maybe I can give the column a copper sleeve

[stubbydrainer]

5Star told me this once
Copper converts some nasties in the distillate via chemical reaction. It is important to have some copper in the vapour path somewhere, your column can be stainless with copper packing and will perform just as good.

In my opinion lining the column with copper would be more difficult than making the column in copper from the get go

[R-sole]

You can put copper in the boiler as well i think.

It's to do with converting sulphides

[devotus]

Wouldn't the copper Liebig be enough? It's getting both vapour and liquid, warm and cold so conversion of sulphides should take place or?

[R-sole]

Try it both ways and tell us the difference.

[devotus]

so from a quick snoop around, the general theme is that the copper needs to be in the vapour path. Is the Liebig condenser considered part of the vapour path? It's definitely vapour when it reaches the condenser so, I'm gonna take a stab and say yep. I also gather from my 5 minutes of intensive study that throwing copper in the boiler would not work.

Disclaimer....I know jack shit.

[Al Qaemist]

I run an all stainless rig. It seems to make the most difference on the strip, If I forget to put my scrap copper off-cuts in the strip head and I'm running rum it's got a real eggy sulfur smell. Doesn't seem to be such a problem if running a very clear neutral wash.

I think you may be okay just with the copper condenser - if I've forgotten to add the copper, even the output running though my copper parrot seems to clean up the smell that I get a wiff of comming off the condenser.

I have had some real vile smelling rum come off when missing the copper - I just added bits of copper to the DJ, and it went black in a few days - and the smell was gone.
You still had the black bits of flake floating about, but as it was strip and was going to be redistilled, it was fine.


Al

[MacStill]

From my understanding copper in the boiler works quite well, copper in the the column even better, and copper in the condenser is ok.

Basically you want as much of the vapor as possible coming into contact with copper, a simple copper mesh scrubber in your column is the most effective way of removing sulphides..... just ask the VM guru's around the traps ;-)

[SBB]

From my understanding , and Ive done a fair bit of reading on this, copper in the boiler makes a lot of difference. I use a handfull of 1/2 inch off cuts in mine cut into very short lenghts.

[Sam.]

Dont know about anyone else but every time I have emptied my backset from a sugar wash it has had a strong "sulfur" smell about it. The product does not and my current still is all copper so it definitely does something. Would be an interesting experiment to run an all stainless rig with just some copper off cuts in the boiler.... :think: