Hi All,
I'm just starting out in the hobby and made the mistake of acting impulsively one day and bought a T500 from the local. I usually research the heck out of every decision, but not this time, unfortunately. So anyway I've decided to try to make the best out of the situation and attempt a relatively inexpensive mod to remove what most seem to state as the biggest problems with the humble T500. Eventually, I'll upgrade to something bigger and better, but for now, I have to watch the budget. I was able to justify the spend based on me making hand sanitiser and spray cleaner :-) but an immediate upgrade won't fly in "these uncertain times".
Surprisingly, there's not a lot in the way of "guides" to show the newcomer how to upgrade a T500, so I figured I'll post some pics and thoughts up here in the hope that those with more experience than me can help out with some suggestions/improvements to my attempt at a guide. I had the 2" tri-clamp and end cap already from when I accidentally ordered the wrong size for my SS Brewtech Unitank, so all up I'm out of pocket $35 ($5.50 for a Stainless ferrule and $29.81 for the copper socket) so it's no great loss if I'm heading down the wrong path. The TC bits I had cost about $10, so the whole upgrade could be done for less than $50 using easily sourceable materials. I can also put everything back to the way it was out of the box.
So without further ado, here's the project to date. I'm at a point now where I need to bring the top part of the condenser into the main column and I'm wondering if the spirit collection tube (sorry about the terminology) so the main question I have right now is if the 6mm tube absolutely needs to be at the very top of the column, or can I make the hole right in the middle of the copper socket as in the picture below (words the bottom of the post).
I started by removing the top plastic parts
This is the stainless ferrule and copper socket. Fitting the ferrule into the socket is so tight I needed to bang it in good and hard with a rubber mallet, so it ain't going anywhere and probably has quite a good seal already
The fit between the copper socket and the T500 column is very good, but not quite watertight. I'm open to suggestions, but I had the thought that even just some silicone wrapping tape (the kind that bonds to itself) would do for now. Whatever I use, won't come anywhere near the product inside, so I would think even something as crude as muffler bandage would be quick and simple. I'm not sure how silver solder would go in this situation (pretty sure that column isn't actually copper), but I'd prefer to try to find some way of completing this whole upgrade without requiring much skill in case others want to follow suit.
This is a bit of the silicone wrap to hold it all together. I can't see why this wouldn't do the trick (and keep the whole project "reversible"). If this is the way I go, I'd use a bit more and make it a bit neater looking.
I did find at this point, the top of the condenser coil wasn't high enough, so I pulled it up a bit. The coil isn't quite as tightly coiled now, but let's face it, it's pretty average to start with. I started by trying to use pliers, but in the end, a zip tie did the trick. The looped zip tie allowed me to get down to the lower coils and redistribute the coils a bit more evenly.
The little black mark near the top of the coil shows the point where the top of the column was originally
I wrapped one of the packing saddles around the coil to centre the coil in the column. I could probably think of a better way to do this, but it does the trick for now.
I marked a spot 15mm from the edge of the TC end cap to drill a hole for the end of the cooling coil to protrude. I'll mention at this point, my preference for going this way than something more permanent like soldering a straight copper end cap on is so that I can remove the end for cleaning.
A 6mm drill bit was just too small, and 6.5mm just too big. So this means it's not a perfect seal at this point. I'm open to suggestions about how to deal with this. One thought I had was to get some sort of grommet, but that somewhat defeats the purpose of removing the original plastic. Choosing the correct heat and solvent resistant material for the grommet would be a giant improvement over the original design (I assume) because there would be such small amount of product in contact with the grommet, but I'm not entirely sure what's suitable and available. I've come across some EPDM grommets which might work? Other than that, the gap is really so small, I would think that just about any food-safe, heat resistant sealer would do the trick. The pic below is on macro setting, and the angle makes the gap look bigger than it is. Properly centred, it's about 0.2mm. The goal here is to keep the end cap removable, so no permanent welding if possible, but I wouldn't be opposed to running a bit of silicone or putty-like compound around the gap each time I've broken it down to clean.
Which leads me to where I'm at now. I somehow need to get the spirit collection tub into the main column. I'd appreciate suggestion before I drill the hole. This will also need to be well sealed, but because it doesn't affect the ability to remove the end cap, whatever I do here can be a permanent solution (like solder for example). Sticking with the goal of making this an approachable project for anyone to do very easily, a tight-fitting grommet would be great, but I thinking practically, it might not be the best solution, so I'm keen to hear thoughts. It also brings me back to the first question about where the hole needs to go. Could it go where I placed it in the pic, or does it only work if it's right at the top of the column? I've marked off an area to show what I was suggesting about cutting the tub at an angle to make a bigger surface area for the spirit to drop onto. That's probably a dumb noob idea - thoughts?
I've got some small diameter copper tube coming next week which I hope I might be able to squeeze onto the outlet pipe to replace the supplied plastic hose. Until that comes, my current solution is based on other posts on this forum using some 1/2" copper pipe and a bit of the plastic hose as packing. The only other thing I did was open up the black plastic a bit so the 1/2" copper pipe can sit in it to give a bit more support (if that makes sense). It's actually still a tiny bit wobbly, so my preference is to find something that fits tightly. Fingers crossed what I ordered works.
So there you have it. I'd love to get some constructive feedback and suggestion for improvements. I have a few spare bits and pieces (TC end caps, copper pipe, etc) so it wouldn't be out of the question to redo most of what I've done already if anyone suggests a better way of doing something. This was mainly intended to be a conversation starter.
Hopefully, I'm sort of on the right track, and myself and others with a T500 can have a cheap and cheerful upgrade to make it more useful and safe. As it stands, I'd be happy to just use the T500 as it comes for neutral spirits, but I'd really like the flexibility to be able to detune it to do stripping runs etc. Other than that, I just generally feel like the plastic bits have to go. If I need to make some of the mods more permanent, so be it, but I think it would be awesome if we could collectively come up with a reasonably foolproof process that's easy to follow, using a standard bill of materials that could be supplied by site sponsors as a kit so anyone else with a T500 can deal with what is arguably one of its most contentious design aspects.