Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Hi folks,
The cleaning has just cooled on my last build and l picked up tools today...when l was working out my vertical space to column height l couldnt believe my eyes...so with out further adieu iintroducing the " HightTower build....lol...sheez l think l will need a damn light on top...lol. l am starting at the cooling head with this build and before l solder it to the column l would appreciate your comment on my methods of returning the distillate to the column, so here are a couple of photos for you all to look at....laugh...comment...tell me its just no good as l can change it pretty easy if needed.

layed out on floormaking the return cup and shower the underside of the cup and shower, my gap was from the plate to the id of my tube was a little gapy hence all the solder to fill it up, tested and it's watertight

my return tube is 2 1/2 ". Do you think this method woulds choke the column ?

and some of the cooling head with the cup and return shower installed into the tube...

JayD wrote:Do you think this method woulds choke the column ?

The proof is definitely in the testing, but I suspect it may.

What you've created is, in essence, is a single dualflow tray — a sieve tray with no downcomer:



To quote,

'Inside a trayed distillation column', p. 128 wrote:...any given single hole of a dualflow tray does not pass liquid and vapour simultaneously.

So, those holes you've drilled will only be letting through vapour on its way up or liquid on its way down at any given moment. You may need more, or bigger, holes to handle the load.

But, like I said, the proof is in the testing.

:handgestures-thumbupleft:

thanx for your comment stilly_bugger.... :think: maybe l should cut it out and only have the tube for vapour up and distillate down. l will do some more research. Here are some progress photos of the column coming together,silver soldering and stacked on top of each other as it will look on top of the keg.

heres the flange soldered to the tube



two column sections x 1mtr and cooling head at around 15 inches



and all stacked up...you can see where "HighTower" comes from



this can be adjusted to any height l want or if you blokes can see a design flaw ?? please comment and tell what you think. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Not so Quick!

I should also have mentioned, from what I can gather you want the plate to act as a "shower head", not as a refining/distillation plate. Once the surface area of the holes in a dualflow plate reaches 25% of the plate surface area it stops acting like a distillation plate and starts acting more like a shower head (same article as quote above, p. 129). That is, in commercial dualflow plate towers, more that 25% surface area of holes prevents liquid hold up, so all of the liquid that lands on the plate dumps through it.

So, work out how much surface are you have drilled compared to total plate surface area.

The surface area of a 63.5mm (2 1/2") diameter plate equals
3.14 × (63.5/2) × (63.5/2)
=> 3.14 × 31.75 × 31.75
= 3167 square millimeters (31.7cm) of surface area

So, taking 25% as a minimum required surface area of holes to create a shower, you need:
3167mm × .25 (i.e. 25%)
= 791.75 square mm of holes.

Using a 3mm drill bit, that's:
791.75 / 3.14 × (3/2) × (3/2)
=> 791.75 / 7.065
= 112 holes!

Now, I counted 80 holes in your plate, and I don't know the diameter of your drill bit. But at 80 holes you'd need to have used a 3.55mm drill bit or larger to get to the 25% surface area mark.

This is only a rough guide.

ok, @ stiily_bugger thanx once more for your advice, I just enlarged the holes to 4mm and added as many more as I could, tested it with water and it acts like a shower. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Hi JayD,

what are you going to pack that tower of power with?

crozdog wrote:Hi JayD,

what are you going to pack that tower of power with?

l was thinking of using S/S scrubbers...

here is the condensor made out of 1/2 tube and a cold thumb....not a cold finger as it is a decent size tube...

How did you go with the wind??
Looks awesome.
Cold fist... Haha.

zwagerman9 wrote:How did you go with the wind??
Looks awesome.
Cold fist... Haha.

it wasn't that hard as it was an annealed copper coil and l heated it up so it would flatten out but not restrict flow...proofs in the pudding as they say...

crozdog wrote:Hi JayD,

what are you going to pack that tower of power with?

JayD wrote:

crozdog wrote:Hi JayD,

what are you going to pack that tower of power with?

l was thinking of using S/S scrubbers...

S/S scrubbers out, perforated plates in with down comers no view ports (this build) this way I can take from Peter to pay Paul utilising the plates for which ever way I want to go...

here are some photos of my progress...

here is my cold finger (fat thumb) all cleaned up and the outlet tube on the cooling head housing with the water in n out tubes nicely formed.



As the needle valve is quite heavy I am soldering in a suport gusset to the outlet tube...



And here is the beginning of the interchangeable tree, and yes I broke one drill already...damn !



you will notice the copper is pretty clean? I like to keep it as clean as possible as I go.

some more photos...

gusset soldered into place...



cooling head soldered to column...

more progress photos...

here is the hammered pipe section to step up the the pipe to fit the 1" needle valve.


step section filled with solder and free standing...



and the bottom of the plug...



all I need to do now is make the output cooling arm and we are ready for a cleaning run. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Things are coming along nicely. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Bloody top work there JayD! She's a quality build :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Just a quick post to let you know "HighTower" is in the last stage of its build...checking for leaks before we polish him up and introduce him to you all...more to come shortly.

Well stop talking about it and hurry the fuck up will ya :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

Cupcake wrote:Well stop talking about it and hurry the fuck up will ya :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

lol's...the tower makes the keg look like the end of a drum stick, not a chickens drumstick lol's..you'll all see what I mean shortly.