.

[bluc]

:D

[scythe]

Is it a jacketed boiler then?

[RuddyCrazy]

Is it a jacketed boiler then?

Well the cat is now out of the sack :laughing-rolling:

Anyway don't ya just hate it :angry-banghead: when ya looking for steel stock in the shed and the only bit you can find is 1mm smaller for the ID :happy-partydance: but 3mm smaller on the OD :angry-banghead:

Well not be out done 1/2 an hour on the mig with gasless wire and got the blank ready for machining. :happy-partydance:

d.jpg

It's on my list for ages for stamping the groove in on a easy flange so it can fit the ribbed seals 5 star sells :music-deathmetal: This one is the base die so it forms the taper to suit the tri-clamp. This morning I used a diamond bit to ground up a 1/4" tool for making radius groove and as the prototype 1-1/2" is the best to start with.

Cheers Bryan

[RuddyCrazy]

Well got the first 1/2" tube soft soldered on one of the joins and I just used my dremmel to cut the slot in the tube and I scored some 220mm diameter thick wall pipe where I wrapped the 1/2 around using it as the former. cut about 10mm off the length and found that just amount needed to close up the join nicely.

Now that 220mm diameter pipe is for another project where I'll make a ball mill so it can crush the output of that 6" jaw crusher I made.

In the morning I'll do the other join with the 1/2" copper tube and cut more of that old copper hot water tank for the jacket and get it soldered on.

Now that 1-1/2" former I welded up and machined didn't work out as planned but it does provide as a good jig for hammering the end of the pipe flat for making the easy flange. In the end I scrapped the idea of putting in groove to suit the seals as when I hammered over the pipe I did it large enough so when the 1/4" pipe was hammered down it met the OD. Had a bit of 2" copper pipe scrap so found a bit of tube and put a easy flange on which will be the fill port.

As a member has picked what I'm making I do suppose it time to come out of the closet and mention this is going to be a steam heated boiler for a 1-1/2" pot still, 12 plate bubbler and setup for a carter head for doing botanicals.

Now all you pundits may say why go so small as it take ages to run :angry-banghead: but like my minime pot still I found it was a short time to do a run and the slow spirit run only took about 2 hours.

I've had a 50 litre TPW ferment going for about 3 months now and as I made the decision to strip the TPW with the weather here it would take 12 months to get enough low wines to make somemore neutral which I have run out of.

So when this TPW finally finish's I rackon I'll have the boiler finished and the pot still made so I can start stripping it then get on and make the bubbler for doing the spirit run. :happy-partydance:

For the bubbler I'm going to first make a 4 plate section solid state style then make 2 more for the 12 plate still, then for the carter head I'll make a 2 plate solid state section.

Ever since I started working with copper it has become a addiction :teasing-tease: and thinking along the lines of distilling :obscene-drinkingdrunk: new projects are born. Beside when one has an old mains copper hot water tank the only use for them is using the copper after giving it a good clean is making projects.

Cheers Bryan

[RuddyCrazy]

Damm thought of something and was too late to edit my post :angry-banghead:

As I've said this boiler is going to be steam fed I'm going to make a copper based flash boiler for the steam input, many years ago I made a flash boiler for a project where I converted am old 5hp briggs an stratton engine to 2 stroke and the idea was to run it off the flash boiler I made. Well time went by and by revisiting that flash boiler I found by raising the head of water for the in take gave the better output of steam.

So a new flash boiler will be made to suit the still and I do have some 1/8" copper tube here to make the flash tube and I'll make water tower for it but to get the best steam output time will tell if the tower is worth it or just run a line from the roof of my shed.

Now some may say steam is a killer but I was taught at a young age where steam is respected and used as a tool, a flash boiler isn't in the same class and should be treated that way on the small scale I'm making.

For me this is all in fun off the grid and fully equipped to make what I want and the thought of doing small runs to strip and do the final spirit run in such a small still will be a great challenge to do.

Cheers Bryan

[RuddyCrazy]

e.jpg

[RuddyCrazy]

Well cut the jacket and it's now soaking in citric acid so all the impurities are gone from the copper before i start working on it so spending the rest of the day on making the pot still which is going one out there :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

[bluc]

Watching with interest :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[RuddyCrazy]

Work in progress fueled by 150 lash's :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

f.jpg

Notice the small hammer that was the only tool used oh and the blow torch too to anneal :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

[RuddyCrazy]

Well I made another sphere measuring 85mm diameter and I did think about making a third one but the third one would have been too small and served no purpose apart from the appearance. In order to join the 2 1/2's I cut a 10 wide band from the hot water tank and hard soldered it on to make the spheres.

In all the time I've been researching I've never seen a still with spheres and when I said this one is going to out there well it is with 2 of them.

Now I have decided to name this project so if the mod's want to move it to another forum I do think it will be a good idea.

OK this project is called Mar-Tini and I did think of Mar-Tiny but it didn't just sound right then the thought came about that word Tini :laughing-rolling:

A yorkshire man walked in a toilet and saw an Irishman taking a leak and when he looked down at his private part he said " Whoa man ya winni is very tini" :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

Gone thru 2 sticks of 2% silver solder and a bottle of map gas so far so more supplies will gotten this week, also nearly out of 1/4" copper tube so another roll is on the cards as a heap will be used for the RC and PC.

Now with that jig I made I'm going to cut it in 1/2 as trying to do 2 easy flanges on some pipe I'll never get it off :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

Mar-Tini got it's jacket on today and is now sitting in citric acid for the clean and most important the leak test, it does take 2 bricks to hold down in the bucket and pulling it out earlier it was a heap heavier and yep had a leak where the 1/2" pipe is. So left it for an hour to drain out and fixed the leak so it will be intersting tomorrow night if there are any more leaks :angry-banghead:

Now my Mini-Me only has a 1 litre boiler and Mar-Tini's boiler will be I reckon about 4 litres so it will be better for stripping the wash,

Cheers Bryan

[RuddyCrazy]

Went into a plumbing shop here in the hills to get a couple of 1-1/2" 90 degree bends and when I asked the price I nearly fell on the floor :laughing-rolling: $49 each + gst :angry-banghead: So I just said no thanks and walked out, went to my local hardware store and asked about them well $16 each but a weeks wait to get them as they go down the hill once a week. I didn't even bother going to fleece as I didn't want to have sell my youngest daughter just to get some copper :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

So this weekend finish off the base and legs for the boiler and get the PC made as finally my TPW wash is down to 1005 and will soon be ready to strip.

Now a question about vinegar, I did keep the 4 litres of vinegar from when I did the first run on my 4" bubbler so is it OK to use it again or just toss and use new vinegar?

Cheers Bryan

[RuddyCrazy]

Well as SA has been locked down tomorrow I'm going to have buy somemore chook food so I can those 2off 1-1/2" copper bends I ordered last week. The pot still riser has been made but out of mapp gas and my local hardware has some bottles :laughing-rolling: So may just have to finish off this pot still and for now just stick one of my hand made burners under to do the vinegar and sac runs.

Another project has taken my mind over the last few weeks where only a dram or 3 :obscene-drinkingdrunk: is needed and not produced. Yes I joined a gold fossicking forum as not only stilling has my full intentions. If one only had gold on the farm one needs to make a full small mining setup just to process a few ton. Well if it don't produce just ship out the setup to a remote location and keep processing.

One of the fruits of our love in moonshine is the fact when a great occasion comes around the moonshine plays a big part :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

Cheers Bryan or as my nic says I am RuddyCrazy

[RuddyCrazy]

G'day Guy's,
Well first up here's a progress pic

g.jpg

Well as only having one tri-clamp it was time to get more tri-clamps so got onto the online store to find out there was no 1-1/2" ones in stock :angry-banghead: Sp straight back to the forum to PM The Stig and find out when the ETA was coming in. to cut a long story short the 1" and 1-1/2" flanges use the same 1" tri-clamp. So I was damm lucky none were in stock and The Stig put me on the right track :dance:

I got the 2 off 1-1/2" bends yesterday while this lockdown was still enforce and my excuse was we needed some chook food so while I was there I grabbed them and another bottle of mapp gas as I seem to going thru them like a No.2 after a hard night :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: with all the annealing done that mapp gas doesn't last long.

When the tri-clamps get here I can go further as that join between the bends may need to be longer so the PC can clear the boiler but I do need to clamp it all togther first to get an idea of sizing.

Cheers Bryan

[RC Al]

Looking good mate, cant wait to see how this works out :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Are you using one of those pro photographer lens filters used for "glamour" shots :teasing-neener:
Just yanking ya chain man :)

[RuddyCrazy]

Looking good mate, cant wait to see how this works out :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Are you using one of those pro photographer lens filters used for "glamour" shots :teasing-neener:
Just yanking ya chain man :)

Well mate being a welder these days and forgetting to close the pocket my mobile is in the camera lens only lasts a few weeks before a bit of welding spatter lands on it. That why I only buy cheap phones :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

Started setting up the boiler to put the legs on and got sick of sweating as it's about 38C in the shade here and with my shed having a tin roof was a good enough reason for the yard arm to arrive :obscene-drinkingdrunk:

Cheers Bryan

P.S. I had planned to keep working on my 6" jaw crusher but need a 50mm internal circlip so decided it could wait until next week.

[RuddyCrazy]

Anyway the boiler now has feet :happy-partydance: :happy-partydance: :happy-partydance: I thought for ages about how to go about it so in the end used some 1/2" copper pipe and rolled it so it fit about 1/2 way on the lower section. Now I did have a short length of pre-hardened copper pipe so used that for the legs, so set it up so the easy flange was dead level and used a short length of 220mm diameter pipe with a 32mm plate under it to get the right height. Then soft soldered it all together and had to revisit a couple of legs as the solder didn't flow on both sides.

Went to put it in my 20 litre drum and with the feet on it didn't fit :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead: so with a quick look around the shed I grabbed that 50 litre keg where I cut the top off for the marriage to the 75 litre keg. Had enough of the citric acid left and when I put the boiler in there was enough to cover the job I had just done. :happy-partydance: :happy-partydance: :happy-partydance:

I suppose next is making the flash boiler and getting that end sorted but was thinking I could just use that flash boiler I've already made or just use my 50 litre keg and boil some water. I will give both a trial on the vinegar run and the sac run which will some CFW I made and it will be interesting to see the heat up times.

Before the steam police get on my case I first started working with steam when I was 8 yrs old making 5" steam engines with my dad and I do have many books and 1/2 a century of the model engineer to look thru for idea's on using the steam.

That jig I made for doing the easy flanges is going to have to get cut in half so I can make the RC and the PC and to keep it together a few wraps of 1.6mm copper wire will do the job.

With it being a bit cooler tomorrow I'm back onto the jaw crusher and working out how to make the pounder, the pounder will crush the rocks I get from the paddock and the main ram shaft will have 4 choccy blocks welded to it. Got a 250mm diameter thick wall pipe to chuck the rocks in and a 500mm 1-1/2" thick disk to use as the flywheel.

But that project isn't really for this forum :violence-smack: :violence-smack:

Cheers Bryan

[scythe]

While that may be true, I'm still interested to look at it.
Post a link please.

[RuddyCrazy]

While that may be true, I'm still interested to look at it.

scythe no pictures of the jaw crusher have put on the net as yet as until I get it totally finished and working it is still a work in progress.

Anyway today soldered on the 2" fill port on the boiler and had a bit of fun with that 1/8" copper tube, fully annealed it and had some farm jobbies to do then went back later and wound the 1/8" around a 25mm diameter steel bar. Got 27 turns and cut a 250ml length steel pipe with a 40mm ID. Cut a couple of slots for the inlet and outlet and installed the copper coil into the steel pipe.

Then the fun started for heat I used my bunsen burner running of the HP reg on a gas bottle, had it running about 3 psi and a nice blue flame with no yellow to cause soot. setup my magnet pump ith some plastic tube going thru a roof rafter to get some head height and no matter what I tried :angry-banghead: couldn't get it working. So left it alone to cool down and came down to the house for last few beers I had left :laughing-rolling:

Went back up to the shed and revisited but this time just went a gravity fed supply and after about 5 minutes had a stream of steam shooting out about a metre :happy-partydance: :happy-partydance: :happy-partydance:

Now the inlet water did start hammering and this is expected with a flash boiler and ended up with an air lock in the inlet water pipe, got that all cleared and it started spewing out steam again. I'm going to make a non return valve for the input supply and after today's trial finish off the flash boiler with a solid frame and insulation along with a stand for the burner.

I'm going to have a go at making my bunsen style burner by simply using a 0.9mm mig tip wedged into a 1/4" male fitting, make a pipe with a 1/4"bsp internal thread and drill 2 opposing holes. Then a short length of pipe will go over to trim the burner. If this works out I'll do a step by step tutorial as it does seem a easy cheap way to make a burner.

Cheers Bryan

[RuddyCrazy]

G'day Guy's,
Well one step closer with those seals turning up today so a huge thanks to 5 Star :handgestures-thumbupleft: :handgestures-thumbupleft: had to cut off one of the ribs just to get the triclamp on and after a few turns the clamp is nicely squished :laughing-rolling: with the tri-clamp looking like it's still 1/2 open.

Anyway got the PC made and finished last night and on taking it out of the citric acid after giving it a scrub in soapy water then a rinse on fresh found on of the 4 1/4" internal tubes didn't solder all around :angry-banghead: so using a bit of Bakers flux and a gentle heat soon got that leak soldered so hopefully one leak proof PC.

Just need to make a frustum for the output from the PC and sort the flash boiler feed out, now I bought a 5 metre roll of teflon tube 150C rated so that will be the connection to the boiler. Still need to finish the flash boiler with a outer cover and insulation and make the new burner for it then time to heat her up for the vinegar run.

Cheers Bryan

[RuddyCrazy]

G'day Guy's,
Well got the weekend off and the first thing SWMBO said was I want the lawns mowed where I replied ah all those dead weeds that will start a fire as soon as I go over them with a mower :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: Then went on and said well I've worked my butt off and it finally time for a day off, so after a few :violence-smack: :laughing-rolling: I said well after it rains so the ground is wet I'll get onto mowing the dead weeds and that got a reply off you just better do it... :violence-smack: :violence-smack: :violence-smack:

Anyway with a day off time for some fun and get this pot still finished so I can test it out.

Progress pic

h.jpg

The 1/8" top pipe is the steam input and i bent a 90 degree radius and inserted it into the chamber so the steam will go around the chamber and below is a 1/4" drain which will be open to the air so no pressure or very little will build up in the chamber. The drain is 3/8" tube and I put a brace on as a straight soft soldered 3/8" joint won't be strong enough and would distort the base of the boiler.

The PC has been made and on sucking it pulls a vacuum :happy-partydance: it's 200mm long with 4 off 1/4" tubes to make the shotgun condenser

j.jpg

Here's a pic of that 1/8" flash boiler I made and this baby will be used for the first trial, I hard soldered on some 1/4" tube so the plastic tube for the water supply just slides on neatly. I used my local hardware store to buy some 4mm ID teflon tube as trying everywhere came up blanks. Now the teflon tube is rated to 150C so I will try it bare and see how it goes and if needed I'll slide some larger tube over for that extra safety margin.

Now if that 1/8" flash boiler is going to take too long I may have resort to using my other one

k.jpg

This baby is 63 turns of 3/8" copper tube housed in a 4" tube and fully insulated, now to get this one ripping I put my copper BD747 under it and hook the water input from under a shed rafter and let it rip heating the water tub I use to wash bottles for my cider.

All good fun in the shed and bugger plans if a thought doesn't work the project can always be stripped for another project but I do think this thought is onto a winner.

Cheers Bryan