first ever 3 inch vm run

[shanksy]

recently aquired my new vm, thanks to mcstill,must say anyone looking for a quality build, you wont go wrong with mcstill, great quality build and works exceptionaly well, im stoked with it!!! :handgestures-thumbupleft: thanks again mac
ok so i read and reread and read again kiwis vm operating guide and followed it ,and hey presto, it works!
40l of tpw low wines in the boiler.powered with a three ring burner,approx hour and a half heat up on full power,
one hour of equalising the column,
bled off 750 ml of foreshots at low heat, approx 1l/hr
closed take off valve and upped the heat to full on,
5 mins equalisation
opened valve fully and collected 16 750 ml bottles of 95% at 2.8 l/hour
temp jumped .1 deg so closed take off to bring it back down to where it sat throughout the main part of the run
collected another 750ml at 95% carefully watching temp and closing take off to maintain it, by the end of this bottle the flow was down to 500 ml/hr so shut down.
probably could have got a bit more but i figure why be greedy when coming into tails?
left to air over night
next morning diluted a sample from each bottle to 40%in a shot glass, starting from the middle bottle and worked my way out toward the tails end,not being greedy at the end of the run paid off here as there was little to no tails at all that my sense of taste and smell could detect, so all good there.
working from center toward the heads end was allmost as good with only one bottle not making the hearts cut, i put this down to the fact that im ruthless when taking foreshots whilst stripping and also on spirit run,i take 750 ml on each so probably got rid of a lot of heads then.
all in all i was very impressed with the outcome and will now upgrade my burner to see how hard i can push this rig while still maintaining 95%
any suggestion for a burner greatly appreciated, other 3 inch vm owners out there what kind of burner do you guys run?
congrats on a great site to all.
cheers shanksy
i will try and post some pics soon so all you copper lovers can check it out :laughing-rolling:

[Frank]

Heres my suggestion about your burner etc ;-) (re 40l of tpw low wines in the boiler.powered with a three ring burner,approx hour and a half heat up on full power,)
http://www.aussiedistiller.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1477
and apologies if this is already a part of your design etc....
great post BTW, reads like you are havin fun :dance: what are you gonna do with all the neutral??

[shanksy]

hey frank, thats a great idea, had thought about that but didnt think it would make that much differece, will definatly give it a try. :handgestures-thumbupleft:
with the neutral, ive been experimenting with various hbs flavours but i dont mind it with coke on its own :laughing-rolling:
will post some of my findings regarding flavours in the flavouring section at a later date.
cheers shanksy

[R-sole]

I found that my 3" column would flood with a 3 ring burner on full. I use the outside ring and the inside ring turned down to about 3/4 volume.
Best thing i found was to listen at the top of the column. You can hear the flooding start to happen and it starts moving closer to your ear.
Turning the heat down at this stage till the bubbling is way in the distance will get my column about right.

I can pull off near 4l an hour without dragging too much tails through.

[wombat]

Gday Shanksy,

I to am a proud owner of a mcstill 3' VM/pot, endorse what have said about quality.
Its just sitting in the shed waiting for me to get the boiler built.
Looking at putting 2 - 2400w elements in a 18 gal keg, with a Panda voltage control ( coming ).
Was wondering whether I should use those elements that all ya got do is drill a hole in the keg or 2 cut holes and weld bolts to keg to hold elements in.
I like the first idea.
Cant put a 3600w element as I don't have a 15 amp circuit in the shed

Be interested as you continue ya journey with mcstills 3" bazooka, will add my goings on once up and running.

Comments please.

wombat

[shanksy]

Hi 5Star,your burner must be a lot hotter than mine,on full power I only get 2.8l per hour, are you using a hp reg ?I'm only using standard lp reg, was wondering if I should get a hp reg and will it work ok with my burner ?

[shanksy]

Hey wombat, I can't run more than a 2200w element cos my shed is wired to a light and power circuit in the house so if the missus puts the kettle on it trips the breaker, so I'm only using gas.

[R-sole]

Hi 5Star,your burner must be a lot hotter than mine,on full power I only get 2.8l per hour, are you using a hp reg ?I'm only using standard lp reg, was wondering if I should get a hp reg and will it work ok with my burner ?

I have a hp reg now mate, but i didn't before and it always ran well.

[shanksy]

Hey 5Star , my burner is one of those three ring Aussie disposals type, it works ok just thinking more heat would be nice , just to speed things up a bit cos I'm an impatient prick :laughing-rolling: