and another VM

[devotus]

So, bits and pieces together will be soldering on the weekend

what I have is

Column

a 40mm column (1.59 inch)

a packing height of 1150mm
an empty space of 60mm under the take off T
an empty space of two times pipe diameter above the take off T
a single wound 6mm tube reflux coil of about 300mm length/height (may do a cold finger set up yet)

Take off

40mm T
reducing coupling 40mm-22mm
an oversized (because I'm retarded) SS ball valve
reducing coupling 22mm-15mm
15mm elbow

Liebig

15mm x 1100mm inside 22mm x 1000mm
I made two of these, one for my pot still as well.

As usual my posts come with a question attached

If you look at the pic below you'll see that between the take off T and the elbow above the Liebig is a distance of 300 mm.

Is that distance a problem?





Cheers

[R-sole]

Shouldn't be.

[devotus]

Thanks 5Star,

All other dimensions seem ok?

[R-sole]

Columns shorter than i would build it, but you still should get close to aezotrope running steady.

[devotus]

I was limited a little in height as this will be an apartment still and at the current dimensions it leaves me with about 200mm to the ceiling with pot and plate underneath.

I could of added 100mm to packing height but that would make it a close fit.

[devotus]

Finished;






Recycled the worm bucket to make a lid for the column to boiler




an old SS cooler lead free that I dug up in my mates shed



needs serious tlc but is intact.





As for my Vm it's built but untried my only concern is the reflux coil (so it'll probably work fine and something else will shit itself).

[Kimbo]

Nice looking rig Devotus, ;)
your gunna need a bigger boiler :doh:

[devotus]

Thanks Kimbo, yeah the 10 litre boiler looks pretty small on the end of that thing. I might see if I can get a 20 litre pot from somewhere. Again things like that are expensive here.

[stubbydrainer]

Hi Devotus
I have a feeling Kimbo might be right re.boiler size,
so can ya stick a banana next to it ? it may be an optical illusion. Relatively speaking of course :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

[devotus]

We'll see, I know it's a small boiler but at the moment it's all I have.

Doesn't matter anyway as the hotplate I've got is struggling to bring my vinegar run to boil even though it's 2 kw. I need one of those controller doovas so the piece of shit doesn't switch on and off all the fuckin time.

[devotus]

So things that didn't go quite to plan (I know you guys don't give a shit but I'll post it anyway.)

Vinegar run

1) I thought I could get away with slipping water hoses over pipe inlets into coolers with hose clamps sealing the deal......wrong (hopefully push fitting fix tomorrow)

2) My soldering around the lid column connection was less than awesome...(flour paste fix).

3) In my heavy handed manufacturing on Saturday I must have pulled too hard on the copper boilers handles and have ripped the rivets a bit (solder fix)

4)Although in my previous post I said the hotplate wasn't up to the job I was just being impatient and after boil point was reached it maintained a steady 97°c at the take off T. I think that because I use a thickish steel fry pan between pot and hot plate the pan retains the heat for the short time the hot plate switches off so the variable temp is minuscule, but I'll wait until I do a proper alcohol run before I say that for sure.

5) grand idea of soldering in a small piece of 6mm into T for Thermometer jacket was a complete failure and I just yanked it out and wrapped a wad of pfte tape around therm and jammed it back in. Works fine.


I have been thinking about what 5Star said about how he would of built the column a bit taller (or at least the packing height), so if I dont get 95-96% on my alcohol run I'll remove T and add a 42mm-42mm extension fitting and perhaps a small piece of 42mm pipe to extend packing height 100-200mm.

Thats it

Boomshanka

PS one think I'm happy about is the fitting for the lid into pot, its so flush that I think won't need to manufacture a seal/gasket.

[stubbydrainer]

never mind Devotus
chin up etc etc.
I run on the rule of ; You can't have a good day if you don't have a bad one to compare it against

[devotus]

Na, it's all good mate. All these things are minor and it's an enjoyable process. It's snowing here so pottering around fixing things isn't all that bad.

But thanks for the hug

[Kimbo]

Mate, we are all learning here.
we do give a shit about your achievements and failures ;)
as for your stove, you will probably find that using a hotplate will make it harder to control the heat input to your boiler.
keep us posted :D

[Sam.]

so can ya stick a banana next to it ? it may be an optical illusion. Relatively speaking of course :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

It does all depend on how big that banana is.....

And by the way mate you are already 100 up on anyone that has not attempted to build a still. All the pictures on here make it look too easy, but unless you have had experience with the materials it will be a real bitch (that's why I use a licensed plumber! :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: )

[devotus]

Cheers, it was my first time soldering and or attempting to build something like this. I read a lot before I started and asked a couple of questions.....and still fucked up a few times. The soldering was easier than I thought it would be I only needed to be shown on one join and then I was ok with it. As has been said on a few occasions with soldering the three most important things are cleanliness of joint, don't burn the flux and hold the heat on until the metal goes blanc then apply solder.

The mistakes I've made so far (bearing in mind this vm is still untested and may be a complete disaster) have been mostly concerning connections to water inlet/outlets and hoses. I tried to go the cheap route and it has ended up costing me three times as much as if I'd just forked over for a decent hose and connections in the first place. (this is a bit of a sore point with me at the moment)

So thanks guys for your comments, I just hope the hotplate doesn't give me too much drama because I really am getting way over budget.

All the little things add up to a shit load of cash.