Ebay "Copper_man_stills" Reflux column

[mitcho89]

Hi guys,

Just curious to know who has purchased one of these condensers and who has had great or poor results with it. For the price I'm very tempted to buy one!

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/REFLUX-ALCOH ... 1c294a9e8c

[MacStill]

Steer clear, do not buy that piece of shit!!

:angry-banghead:

[kiwikeg]

dude i hope you are not joking search cranky on this forum.... I have no personal experiance of these stills but no doubt some customers will be along shortly to um.... comment

[Trustme imdrunk]

Myself and a mate went halves. . . I'm drinking the results as I type!


Fact: If i'd seen this site before purchasing, I would have second thoughts.
Fact2: I didn't see this sight before purchasing, so we ran with what we had.
Fact3: We produce enough clean spirit for our needs, using this equipment.
Fact4: Running any style of still requires knowledge of how it works.
Fact5: If you can't work it out, go to your local liquor outlet and buy it!

:ugeek:

[Ubphu]

I was going to buy that still today but then searched for his eBay username which led me to this forum and all I saw was negative reviews. I was under the assumption if he had been selling those things for that long then he would be good at making those things. I am a new to this and was throwing up between the turbo 500 or something prebuilt but those had bad reviews as well so I went on eBay to look and his sale pitch was pretty good and had a lot of good reviews. I have no idea how to make one nor have the tools.

I have 3 water distillers. I bought one and it was easy to use and got another one to be more productive then another one for the same reason. What ended up happening was my stuff tasted sweet and found out too much heads were in the mix. My work around is to boil it off and let it rest and now it taste ok.. One of the other issues is when the abv is high it explodes so the workaround is i strap down the top which works well. I want something more precise now and have few choices eBay or LBS.

I then read that ppl on this forum can build still for noobs like me and if someone is generous enough to help that would be awesome.. I can spend up to 1k or a bit more and we could work through my requirements and get a project happening. If anyone is interested please let me know. I live in Canberra but don't mind paying for shipping and the time constraints is about a month.

[mitcho89]

Hmm, decisions decision. I couldn't find a great deal of info but ill keep looking. I have a feeling that condenser would be hard to keep at the right temp. Have to say he drives a good sales pitch though! Do you have any particular reasons why to keep clear Mcstill?

[crow]

Matey give it time his victims will chime in soon . by all reports this still is notoriously hard to control and it uses old inefficient technology . There are possibly a dozen members here that have chopped theirs up to use the copper for other things . look around here and ya will find much better value from ppl who's first interest is promoting best methods for hobby distilling . let ppl know what you'd like to make and you can be advised on the sort of stills to be looking into

[emptyglass]

I'm not from the govenrment, and never will be, but when a bloke tries to link his add to the carbon tax?
WTF?
Something about the prime minister too.

Like he said, he might be gone tomorrow.

We can only hope.

Hes been sucking in newbies for a few years now, leaving them with a bad taste in their mouth. Literally.

[mitcho89]

Mate thanks very. Much for that. I honestly I'm still hammering out what designs are around and what's good for what but basically I'm after something that produces quality neutral. Maybe a boka or something similar. Thanks again.

[MacStill]

Mate thanks very. Much for that. I honestly I'm still hammering out what designs are around and what's good for what but basically I'm after something that produces quality neutral. Maybe a boka or something similar. Thanks again.

Fuck ebay, all the sales pitches & scams when you have a choice of reputable products to choose from here :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Here's a good still viewtopic.php?f=9&t=365&p=22359#p22345

Or contact 5Star, draino, SBB, KIMBO, cupcake, BT1, stillybugger etc etc to get one built, all the resources and contacts you need are right here on this forum :mrgreen:

[stilly_bugger]

I'm after something that produces quality neutral.

You've answered your own question. If you want to produce a quality neutral, steer clear of this still and this still design.

If you're not into building your own, McStill will have a quality reflux column for sale in the Commercial Sales section tomorrow. Check it out. It would be money much better spent if you want high quality neutral.

:handgestures-thumbupleft:

[mitcho89]

Just for shits and giggles, i might modify my, essensia express head, maybe extend the column and route the water supply different. Who knows!

[bt1]

Mitch,

I did excactly as you mentioned...it makes a CM work!

Only addtion was the addtion of more packing and a ball valve on inlet for finer water control

works a treat.


bt1

[poompy]

avoid...and go with something from McStill or 5Star.

If I could redo my decisions I would not have originally bought my T500 but would have sourced the bits through this website....hindsight sucks!!

I recently just added a McStill Pot Still to my collection received it very quickly. Doing a cleaning run tomorrow :D

[sloth142]

gday all new to the site and am the same wish i found this site first hahaha i got one of the so called CRANKY columns from what i have read not to many ppl are happy with it and the temp kept fluctuating, i had the temp sorted pretty good it never went past 83 C but ive only ran one 50ltr batch through it and only got 70% from it (used to get 90%+/- from old setup) but it also turned out yellow. not shure what happened here i have a few ideas but am going to run another batch through it and see what the results other wise it back to old faithfull or buy the column from the still spirits t500 and connect it to my keg boiler as mates have the t500 and consistently get 96%+. sorry to mumble on just thought id share my experience with all

[punchy21]

G'day sloth142, the sooner the old bastard retires the better! Head over to the welcome section and introduce yourself and tell what spirits you like to make... :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I think I read somewhere on here that they were gonna chop up their cranky and make a pot still? Might worth the effort if you're that way inclined...

punchy

[unsub]

I cut mine up on the weekend and made a passable pot still, just made a liebig condenser from parts from bunnings and a couple of fittings from Tradelink who were heaps cheaper than Recce. The "condenser" in the short chamber is currently being converted to a cold finger style condenser and will go in another project I will soon be starting and the 32mm tube is being used to roll out the ends of copper pipe to make a coupling type end.

As ordinary as they are as a reflux still the old bugger builds them solidly. One funny thing I found when I pulled it apart was the cap on the 32mm tube that the thermo goes in was actually an old Aussie penny with a hole drilled in it!

I'm actually getting some value out of it now :smile:

cheers

unsub

[MozzMann]

There are many shonky bastards around, when making a still is extremely basic mechanically.

Knowing the science of distillation and applying those rules is how you make a quality spirit,

This forum and other's like it have great information so don't be discouraged by some prick taking you for a ride.
Karma has a way of catching up with them.


Mozz