Another 2" Slant Bokakob

by **mullamulla** » Thu Aug 02, 2012 9:13 am

Hey you lot,

I'm just putting together my first still and I'd like some opinions on my design if anyone has the time,

The head & condenser (1/4 dual consentric) is built, I'm just wondering if I'm doing the right thing with the take off and cooling system.

The 1/4 pipe fits pretty nicely into 1/2 pipe and I've got some laying around, do you think it would provide enough cooling for the distillate?

Any comments would be appreciated, :handgestures-thumbupleft:

by **Kimbo** » Thu Aug 02, 2012 9:43 am

Yeah mate, that would work just fine ;-)

by **mullamulla** » Thu Aug 02, 2012 10:52 am

Cheers Kimbo :dance:

by **MacStill** » Thu Aug 02, 2012 10:55 am

Wish I could draw pics like that on a computer :clap:

It's a good design that will work very well :handgestures-thumbupleft:

by **mullamulla** » Thu Aug 02, 2012 11:36 am

Thanks, a lot was gleaned from the charity still auction, nice bit of kit that and in good spirit!

This is the full plan:

by **mullamulla** » Fri Aug 03, 2012 9:19 pm

I was in bunnings today and couldn't help getting a length of 3/4" pipe for the distillate cooler.... I thought, it'll be better for the fittings, do a better job and just plain look cooler :smile:

My only thought now is could this liebig thing cool down parts of the column if it's attatched with 2, 3/4" braces? or am I just over-thinking things as usual :shifty:

Cheers!

by **Sam.** » Fri Aug 03, 2012 10:15 pm

I don't think you would notice a difference mate, better to have the still solid, that's something my reflux still lacks unfortunately

by **stilly_bugger** » Sat Aug 04, 2012 1:57 am

Awesome pics. Good work on the condensor coil. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

What program are you drawing in?

My only question about the build: you've got what looks like a TriClamp union high on the column, adjacent to the needle valve. But the column from the braced liebig up is pretty much fixed, so why do you need a union? You won't be able to open it unless you also unscrew your needle valve.

by **mullamulla** » Sat Aug 04, 2012 4:00 pm

Yeah it is :oops: I kinda went off half cocked building the head before everything was planned out :))
I suppose it could come in handy if I need to break it down for some reason.

I'm using CorelDRAW and Signlab for the design work, they're great bits of software.

Cheers guys

by **zwagerman9** » Sat Aug 04, 2012 6:02 pm

If its 1/4 " pipe. A quick disconnect will click on and off under the needle valve. $5 solution to your design flaw.

by **mullamulla** » Wed Aug 22, 2012 7:16 pm

Well I'm getting to the pointy end of my build now, heads done, columns brazed, boilers ready and wired up... one thing I'm thinking about doing though is drilling a couple of small holes in the head about 30mm below the bottom of the bottom plate, running a piece of copper wire through and soldering it.... the idea behind it is to stop the packing from pushing all the way up to the bottom plate when I'm stuffing it in as the head and the upper column will be fixed.

Is this a good idea? or doesn't it matter if the packing reaches the bottom plate, I'm thinking it might help prevent choking :think:

by **Kimbo** » Wed Aug 22, 2012 7:19 pm

Mate, it cant hurt ;-)
:text-worthless:

by **mullamulla** » Wed Aug 22, 2012 7:56 pm

All in good time :teasing-neener:

by **mullamulla** » Thu Aug 23, 2012 2:06 pm

ok... progress so far... the needle valve shown is being swapped out for one with 0.25% lead though

I've taken a whole bunch of photo's throughout the build, I'll post them all up once it's built... if it works :shifty:

by **stilly_bugger** » Thu Aug 23, 2012 6:06 pm

Looking real good so far.

I also like to keep a hammer within reach at all times. And duct tape.

Nice looking bench too.

by **crozdog** » Thu Aug 23, 2012 6:33 pm

mullamulla wrote:Well I'm getting to the pointy end of my build now, heads done, columns brazed, boilers ready and wired up... one thing I'm thinking about doing though is drilling a couple of small holes in the head about 30mm below the bottom of the bottom plate, running a piece of copper wire through and soldering it.... the idea behind it is to stop the packing from pushing all the way up to the bottom plate when I'm stuffing it in as the head and the upper column will be fixed.

Is this a good idea? or doesn't it matter if the packing reaches the bottom plate, I'm thinking it might help prevent choking :think:

I dunno that you need it. I say that we you've got the head joining the column with a triclamp. You can simply pack the column from the top down & then attach the head once you're done.

I've always found scrubbies don't move once inserted into the column. I'm assuming here you're using scrubbbies for your packing....

nice looking build. Don't forget to insulate the column.

You'll be stoked with your first drink i'm sure.

by **stilly_bugger** » Thu Aug 23, 2012 7:04 pm

mullamulla wrote:...one thing I'm thinking about doing though is drilling a couple of small holes in the head about 30mm below the bottom of the bottom plate, running a piece of copper wire through and soldering it.... the idea behind it is to stop the packing from pushing all the way up to the bottom plate when I'm stuffing it in as the head and the upper column will be fixed.

Is this a good idea? or doesn't it matter if the packing reaches the bottom plate, I'm thinking it might help prevent choking :think:

That's a sound piece of reasoning to me.

I do the same thing, sort of, but solder a piece of 6mm copper tube all the way through, just under the bottom plate, and use it as the thermo port.

Here's why:

top-packing-flood.jpg

What this graph shows is liquid accumulation high in an industrial packed column. (It comes from 'Distillation tower flooding — more complex than you think', which you'll find in your local library ;-) )

Liquid accumulates high in a packed tower, just where you get freshly condensed liquid meeting the rest of the column. So, I make my packing looser the higher I go, just to make sure that there's more room for upcoming vapour to flow against the downcoming liquid.

It's just something I've done since I started to get problems with column flooding while running low wines. If I was running straight from the fermentor, I wouldn't worry about it too much.

You should note, though, in a hobby column of between 1-1.5m any length of column that's unpacked will reduce the % abv of your final product.

by **mullamulla** » Thu Aug 23, 2012 7:20 pm

Cheers :handgestures-thumbupleft:

crozdog wrote:I say that we you've got the head joining the column with a triclamp. You can simply pack the column from the top down & then attach the head once you're done.

My only thought is that I'd like to unpack the column for stripping/pot runs and once the output pipe is connected to the needle valve the head is pretty much locked in place... so I get the feeling when I re-pack it after after stripping runs I'll end up pushing the scrubbers too high.. dunno :think:

*edit*

stilly_bugger wrote:Liquid accumulates high in a packed tower, just where you get freshly condensed liquid meeting the rest of the column. So, I make my packing looser the higher I go, just to make sure that there's more room for upcoming vapour to flow against the downcoming liquid

Thanks for the info Stilly :handgestures-thumbupleft:

by **mullamulla** » Thu Sep 13, 2012 3:09 pm

Build piccy's and cleaning run vid as promised...

I was going to put them up one by one but then I realized how fucking many there are :))

by **JayD** » Thu Sep 13, 2012 3:26 pm

Great build and a bloody great way of presenting it.... :clap: pispots... :teasing-neener: lols.