Building 2" VM from Boka

[Carpe Diem]

Hi Everyone,

Ahoy from Canada! Okanagan valley to be exact...

I'm currently in the process of converting my existing 2" boka into a VM, after having completed a couple of runs on the Boka it was obvious that the level of attention required to keep a constant equilibrium was beyond my attention span, with a my two year old son running around my efforts were only exacerbated :-D

I do have a few questions however:

1. Given that I have already gone through the effort of building a boka I'm wondering if there is additional benefit to keeping the slant plates intact whilst installing my VM take off? My thought was to cut the column in between the two plates and install my take off via a 2 x 2 x 1 Tee.

2. My take-off will be 1" with a 1" SS ball valve mounted in the horizontal and then reducing to 1/2" through the bend, will this provide a reasonalbe take-off rate? Additionally, I've seen many variations of this design with the valve mounted in the vertical instead, is there a preferrence or benefit? I'm able to entertain both options at this point.

3. My product condenser will be a liebig probably close to 2.5' and will be a 1/2" inside a 3/4", will this be a sufficient amount of cooling? I'm planning and spiraling some wire inside the jacket and inserting a spiraled wire in the 1/2" as well to help distribute the vapor flow.

4. Current setup is a 50L keg boiler heated with 2 x 1500 watt elements, both running during initial heat up and then just the single element on during my run, is this a manageable amount of heat? My coil condenser inserted in the column is more than able to knock down the vapor I just want to make sure that I won't be smearing my cuts too bad.

As soon as I have pictures I will post, I'm really looking foward to doing a run in a couple of weeks. I have a plain sugar wash enriched with tomato paste and a bit of apple juice on the go which I can't wait to distill.

Cheers!

[eminiM]

You've got a couple issues that need to be addressed.
1) your column will run fine on 1500 watts but that's too much heat for heads concentration. 500 watts would be more appropriate for that.
2) A one inch takeoff won't be very effective for takeoff without some kind of restriction at the reflux condenser.
Here's an alternative you could add just above your bok plates.
from one canuck to another
Click the pic for full size

[Carpe Diem]

If I install the take off in between the Boka plates will the first plate not give me enough restriction? It covers more than 50% of the diameter.

Just curious.

About the heat, what's the simplest way to control the current to the element, I've seen plans for variacs and the like but they seem complicated... at least to my limited electrical knowledge.

Thanks again

[R-sole]

You don't want the condensate splashing into your takeoff.

[eminiM]

About the heat, what's the simplest way to control the current to the element, I've seen plans for variacs and the like but they seem complicated...

If you can't handle this controller build you're in the wrong hobby.
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