Getting closer now. The last two plates were finished off yesterday, the RC pressure tested again & the plate tree assembled. The stainless steel scrubbers were also cleaned in citric acid ready for the packed section.
Since I ended up having today off and all the parts are finished off ready to test I thought I'd change over the water fittings to allow the RC to be plumbed in then assemble the parts & do the cleaning vinegar run... well that was the plan anyway. When I went to assemble everything noticed a couple of problems. Firstly a few of the sections weren't sealing properly once the tri-clamp was done up as tight as the thread would allow. This was easy fixed by adding a second silicone seal between each section (I'm assuming this will be alright, having two seals instead of one to pad the distance out...).
The harder problem to fix is the one that has the roof beam right where the copper comes back down into the PC.
So the plan now (think I'm up to about plan Z by now) is to make a wider 2" 180 degree bend to clear the beam. This will serve 2 purposes. Firstly will allow the still to clear the roof beam & secondly will give me something to attach the top of the still onto to help support the weight etc. I'll just have to work out a way to clamp onto the two bits of copper pipe & then attach it to the beam.
So sadly this is as far as the still will get for now until I can get more copper parts & build the bend... so close yet so far...