Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

G’day all. I have read most people use 1.5mm holes in their perf plates, but I have a mate that has bought with him from NZ some plates that have 160 holes at 2.5mm. He is willing to part ways with them as he’s never got around to building a still and figures if I use them and supply him with a bottle every run he’s in front.

To put some context to my question, I’m building a 50l keg boiler with 2x 2400w elements and at this stage I’m not going to run a controller. I’ve got the pipe to make a 4x4” modules with a 500mm packed section. In time I might add 2 more modules if the need arises.

So my question is will it matter these plates have 160x2.5mm holes and will my boiler keep them loaded in theory?

Thanks guys.

2.5mm holes are 1.77 times bigger than 1.5mm holes.
How far apart are they?
Its going to take a fair bit of power to run them not sure if 4.8kW unregulated will be just enough or too much.
I dont think 2.4kW will be enough.


Sounds to me like its a bad deal.
Just make your own.
If your worried about drilling thousands of holes just stack the playes up and drill them all at the same time so its only 270ish holes to drill.

its not the size of the holes its how many on a 1.6 mm hole how many are used

scythe wrote:If your worried about drilling thousands of holes just stack the playes up and drill them all at the same time so its only 270ish holes to drill.

This doesn't work, the copper grabs the drill bit and it snaps. I remember reading on here a few months ago someone managed to do it but I can't remember what it was they did to get it to work.

It really isn't that difficult to drill them. Comfy chair, something to rest your arms on, a few beers and you're away.

Maybe take your mates plates and give them a try, if they work with 2400 W then you're all good to go, if not, make your own.

Cheers everyone for the insight, I might pass as I feared , I might not be able to run them effectively.

The key to drilling stacked plates is to have them securly clamped down so they cannot move.
Also with such small holes you will need to peck drill down through the plates.

Copper is a long chipping material that needs to be kept cool or it will get "sticky" and bind up in the flutes of the drill causing it to snap.
You will also need to spin the drill at about 16, 000rpm due to the small diameter.
Try using a dremal-drill-press attachment.

Its easy to overload small drills and snap them

I used my dremel. Worked great. I did find the drill bits blunted to almost unusable after 100 holes or so.

db1979 wrote:
It really isn't that difficult to drill them. Comfy chair, something to rest your arms on, a few beers and you're away.

Wish you were the safety officer at our work place.... :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

Sugardaddy wrote:

db1979 wrote:
It really isn't that difficult to drill them. Comfy chair, something to rest your arms on, a few beers and you're away.

Wish you were the safety officer at our work place.... :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

No cause for alarm, I was wearing my thongs.