Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Hey guys,

Finally got started on my rig today. I'm building a 2" VM column and a separate pot still head. Here's some pics of everything I've done so far dummied up (I haven't soldered anything yet)

The VM column is a copy of Samohon's design on HD. The main column is 1250mm, the bit that houses to condensor coil (which is Punkins handiwork btw, not mine!) is 250mm. I went with a ball valve instead of a gate valve because I wanted to be able to tell at a glance how far open it is.



Here's a closer pic of the upper bit of the column. The stainless fitting after the valve is for the the liebig (which I haven't built yet) to screw into (I want to be able to use the liebig on both the column and the pot head, so both will have a threaded fitting on their end).



Here's the pot still head, It's 2" pipe as well, 500mm tall. Since it'll mostly be used just for stripping I figured it didn't need to be too fancy. I picked the tube for this one up at a scrap yard, I'll clean it up before soldering it together.



Cheers

Hey Busman, what size is your offtake pipe and what type of ball valve did you use?

Just interested as my planned vm column (when I finally get my arse into gear all all the parts) was going to have a 3/4 inch ss ball valve on the take off, but I wasn't sure if I'd go full bore (2 piece valve) or reduce bore (1 piece). Bit of a price difference from memory too.

The takeoff pipe is 1", into a 1" two-piece full bore ball valve. I figured that if I needed to, it would be easier to close a bigger bore valve down a little than to open a smaller bore valve up a little!

Looking pretty flash busman 8-)

I'm sure it'll serve you well, keep us posted on how she runs.

Cheers.

Thanks McStill, and thanks to everyone here for their help and advice :D

Oh, and happy birthday for yesterday :mrgreen:

yeah let us know how it develops

Flash as. I can't take credit for the coil however it's one of Hooks.

lol, thats cool, I don't care where it came from :lol:

finished all the soldering yesterday - used 45% silver rods to join the stainless bits, shit its hard work getting the copper hot enough to melt them! I had a mate helping, to do the 2" stuff we needed two Bernzo MAPP torches, one on either side of the tube, or one inside one outside where we could - that 1250mm main column is one hell of a heatsink :lol: :lol:

Today will get started cleaning up the solder and the torch burn, will take some more pics when it's prettied up.

OK, here are my two rigs all cleaned up and (almost) ready to go. Have some copper mesh packing on the way, just need to pick up a tri-clamp gasket and a burner and it's good to run.

VM column:



It's much taller than I anticipated - I'm about 5'10" or 5'11", standing next to the still the ball valve and thermometer clear my head by a good couple of inches :lol:

Pot still:



When I cleaned up the scrapyard length of copper I was using for the potstill head I found the makers mark (Kembla Copper) under all the crap, I thought it added a bit of character so I didn't clean it all off.

You know you need to insulate the column on your reflux still right?

Armaflex is the stuff you want, comes from the plumbing supply shops.

Looks like you are in business busman :)

5Star wrote:You know you need to insulate the column on your reflux still right?

Armaflex is the stuff you want, comes from the plumbing supply shops.

Yep, on top of that already. Do you guys insulate your boilers as well?

Mine is now, not real flash, the silver foil with blue backing on it, saves on the power bill ;)

busman wrote:

5Star wrote:You know you need to insulate the column on your reflux still right?

Armaflex is the stuff you want, comes from the plumbing supply shops.

Yep, on top of that already. Do you guys insulate your boilers as well?

I certainly do ;)

It's simple enough and productively worthwhile with an electric based boiler. Reflectix i think is the name of the business stuff, it's bubble wrap with sarken either side.

I don't bother with a gas shroud, but if i was paying more for gas i might.

Free gas I am jealous, you should have Punkingotgas at the bottom of your posts :lol:

I get a lot of things gifted. I give a lot of things away. 8-)



"And in the end,
The love you take,
Is equal to the love you make."

Lennon/Mcartney

Reflectix i think is the name of the business stuff

Another name for it is - Aircell,
that's the stuff i used!

So after extracting the spear from the keg and giving it a good hose out I was intending on getting some vinegar/water in there and doing the first cleaning/leak-test run. But of course we can't have too many wins in one day, can we? Turns out either the reg off my bbq gas bottle is fucked, or the gas inlet on my burner is blocked, 'cause there's gas in the bottle but it doesn't make it out of the burner. *sigh*. Probably too late to start running it anyway... on the upside, I got the keg and the reflux column insulation finished. Does anyone bother insulating their pot still head?