She's finally ready

[twojaythomo]

After so many questions and help from all you guys, after many designs of condensers trying things that didn't work out, small amount of money wasted she is finally ready for the first run :dance: .

I might still cut the packed column down a bit and make a larger condenser as I think the one now is border line but for now untill I can get a hold of some more 6mm tube I will not be polish and painting.

Once again many thanks for you all putting up with my constant nagging and help doing everything the right way.

[flamehawk]

Nice neat build.

Well done and there is nothing like doing that last solder joint and starting a cleaning run.

[MacStill]

looks great dude, going to be a bitch putting a skylight in with that still in the way tho :))

[res]

You always know a custom build but the amount of room left above the still. :laughing-rolling:
Nice build mate, I bet she goes well. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[twojaythomo]

looks great dude, going to be a bitch putting a skylight in with that still in the way tho :))

Hey Mac see in the picture at the element I still used the high temp. sealent (orange colour) lol it's not leaking but I still didn't trust myself with the seal. Didn't really need it but I don't like water and electricity so makes me feel better.

[Brendan]

Why didn't you make it higher mate? :shifty:

Nice clean build though, you should be really happy with it! Get a few washes to start with after your cleaning runs are done.

[Urrazeb]

She's a great looking still mate! Not much room left there :scared-eek:

Hope to hear how she goes for ya!!

[twojaythomo]

Just did a flow test maybe because of winter but was still knocking down the vapours at 500lms/m, 6mm condenser tube seems to work really well.

Yeah was a bit disappointed when I seen the 30mm between the top of the column and the roof, could have had more packing.

[hillzabilly]

She is a beauty mate sweet pipe work on both the still and the bike,have a mate recently bought a house, he shows me the shed ,old owners had put in a pit to work under cars,got me thinkin now what could i use that for . :handgestures-thumbupleft: hillzabilly

[twojaythomo]

Couldn't help myself it's all polished, painted, column packed and vinegar cleaned ready for first alcohol cleaning run, now I just need the alcohol to run it which will be atleast another week :handgestures-thumbdown: .

Will let you all know how it goes. One more thing I am guessing it's normal but can' know till the brew is ready but does the VM not have much coming out if it's just water and vinegar, only got a few drops come out the hour that I ran it so I filled the pipe with solution and let it sit.

Should I be getting water vapour coming out the VM side or will only ethanol vapours come out?

[flamehawk]

You can always use some cheap wine.....

[OzKev]

Get a couple more feet in height, chuck a man hole above it :D

Looks great, too many ideas keep flowing

[Yummyrum]

Couldn't help myself it's all polished, painted, column packed and vinegar cleaned ready for first alcohol cleaning run, now I just need the alcohol to run it which will be atleast another week :handgestures-thumbdown: .

Will let you all know how it goes. One more thing I am guessing it's normal but can' know till the brew is ready but does the VM not have much coming out

Should I be getting water vapour coming out the VM side or will only ethanol vapours come out?

Because I citric acid cleaned mine and didn't do a vinigar run I can not confirm this ....but...it has been reported that ethanol vapour is heavier that water vapour and therefore at the end of the run ..IE the watery part wont fall down the long pipe between the valve and condenser.


This is actually why I put a long piece of copper before the condenser as have you...the theory was that at the end of the run , the output would slow down ...but as I said I have never bothered colecting tails as they are sooooo fuckin rank out of one of these that I can't personnally confirm.

So maybe you jut have :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[twojaythomo]

Pretty sure I read some post somewhere that VM's don't do so good with tails so was just hoping that was the case can't see why it wouldn't work.

[Yummyrum]

You are really going to enjoy the nutral that comes out of this beast.

One thing I should have mentioned before you screwed the valve in was to mark with a texta on the handle exactly where it physically just closes off ...This will give you a reference when you come to operate it.By knowing exactly where off is , you can know where to turn the handle to to just crack open the valve for a slow drip as there is quite a delay between adjusting and what comes out the spout...about a minuate or two's delay

[twojaythomo]

You are really going to enjoy the nutral that comes out of this beast.

One thing I should have mentioned before you screwed the valve in was to mark with a texta on the handle exactly where it physically just closes off ...This will give you a reference when you come to operate it.By knowing exactly where off is , you can know where to turn the handle to to just crack open the valve for a slow drip as there is quite a delay between adjusting and what comes out the spout...about a minuate or two's delay

:handgestures-thumbupleft: awesome advice thanks is really a must.

[twojaythomo]

Ok so she runs really nice but I must have made a mistake, I am still worried that some of the pipe maybe contaminated. I soaked and scrubbed all the parts best I could, I did a vinegar run, alcohol run, vinegar run then one half alcohol run.

I started to collect product about half way through the second part of the cleaning run, when I finished I thought I would test the water, diluted the neutral, added a few drops of essence, added some coke and took a sip. Next I felt a small warm sensation in my stomach very different to the normal alcohol feel, next I suddenly got this hot rush and dizzy feeling for a short moment.

So I guess there must have been something really toxic in the pipe but the question is how, could there still be flux inside somewhere, did I use the wrong flux or could the pipe have been used for something toxic I don't really know but I don't really want to used it any more.

I'm starting to think I should have just paid the $$$ and bought new pipe but oh well lesson learnt.

[C2H6O]

Mate post a pic of the flux you used. Safety is obviously number 1 so if you are going to feel uncomfortable with the product you make try and clean the copper again... As i mentioned earlier you could always dig a hole cover with black plastic and give it a good soak in citric acid.. A rod in a drill with a scourer on the end also makes quick work of cleaning..

Im only going to hazard a guess here and may get shot down, but if you have done a number of cleaning runs and you had a sip of watered down spirit then you may be experiencing stress/anxiety, this is quite possible if you are stressing hard about the quality of the pipe.. Again this is only a left field guess and i suggest you clean the copper as best you can before trying agin.

Cheers

[twojaythomo]

This was really the only one I found and thought it was ok got it at bunnings, I dought it was stress because I wasn't stressing at the time when I had a sip, I thought it was good to go. Also I did think I was stress so I watered it down to 40% and ran it through the carbon filter and did the sme but being careful this time took a very small sip and same think but not as intense.

cleaning again is on the cards but I don't know if I can even trust it if the amount I had was so small.

[C2H6O]

Had a quick look on the forum and that flux has had a lot of praise http://www.aussiedistiller.com.au/viewt ... =17&t=4347
Was really just thinking about my own experience as in the beginning i was very paranoid about the quality of the product i was making, just kept on thinking Darwin awards 8-} 8-} .
Maybe have a look into this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uhp8zg8r0dg

Sure someone else will pipe in with a better idea,

hope it all works out