Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Could a plate be warped? Or is it possible that the plates are too thick for the seals preventing the ferrules from clamping down on them. Do seals even come in differing thicknesses?
Would you be better off not trimming them and running with a seal above and below the plate?

Go the way society is going... If in doubt lower your standards and chuck something at it that will fill the gaps :laughing-rolling:

Mormash wrote:Well I smeared some vaseline on the seals and carefully assembled it while filling each tee up with water as i went and it worked temporarily but it didn't last long as one plate dried up in no time during my last run.
When I disassemble it tonight I'll do what hillzabilly recommended and check for warping.

Thanks for all the advise here guys!

I would use flour paste before vaseline :puke-huge:

I have the exact same plates. Mine were suited to a glasser though @ 100mm od. I struggled with mine for ages and the downcomers were shite too. I have a temporary fix with home cut silicone seals but obviously my setup is different being a glasser. If ya want some tips about improving the plates efficiency pm me. My plates were warped too. Im ordering some from 5sd that will suit the new glasser gaskets i have

Have you looked/thought of a u channel type seal you could put around plate to increase the thickness?( or wrapping ptfe plumbers tape around them) Have you been back to the hbs and told them the plates don't seal?

Mormash wrote:

woodduck wrote:You may have cut too much out. My understanding is the plate needs to seal around the outer most edge by forcing the seal to flatten and push onto that plate edge by forcing the 2 tees together with the clamps. If you've cut too much out the seal may not be expanding/flattening out enough to reach the plate edge. Can you post a photo of the seal sitting around the plate before its fitted up, it might help us work it out.

They were leaking before I trimmed them but I assumed that the plate was obstructing the seal.

You have cut the seals correctly mate. Check the flatness of the actual tees (homemade ones are usually not flat and require a bit of "sanding on the garage floor). This could be the case with yours :think:

bluc wrote:

Mormash wrote:Well I smeared some vaseline on the seals and carefully assembled it while filling each tee up with water as i went and it worked temporarily but it didn't last long as one plate dried up in no time during my last run.
When I disassemble it tonight I'll do what hillzabilly recommended and check for warping.

Thanks for all the advise here guys!

I would use flour paste before vaseline :puke-huge:

:text-+1: with bluc..

Vaseline is a petroleum based product. Maybe grapeseed oil or glycerine would be a better option.

Hey guys I checked the flatness of a spare tee last night on a piece of glass and there was just a slight amount of rocking there. It didn't seem to me that it would pose a problem as it looked flush with the glass however maybe it's enough to cause issues. I'll check all the other tee's tonight.

Should the tee's be perfectly flat or is even the slightest imperfection enough to cause such a significant leak?

If they do prove to be warped enough to cause leaks what would be the best way to shave them flat? I sure don't want to risk making them worse.

Point taken of the use of Vaseline. I never intended to use it every time but was more curious as to whether it would work enough to give me better understanding as to what's going on.

I haven't spoke to the hbs as yet but plan to when I go back some time this week. They don't know much about these stills so I don't expect too much trouble shooting coming from them. Maybe they can swap tee's with ones that aren't warped but I'm not sure.

Thanks heaps guys!

If you can put fine wet and dry on the glass and rub the faces on that, you will get them flat. I have even seen rednecks skim heads that way on YouTube! Crude, but it works

Ifn ya plates have the recess on one end then cutting the inside from seals will do more harm than good ,I found the EPDM seals slightly thicker and sealed better than the silicone ones,be careful how much ya grind or sand down the tee's,as ifn ya take too much off the clamps will not be able ta tighten enough to get them ta seal well .cheers hillzabilly ;-)

hillzabilly wrote:Ifn ya plates have the recess on one end then cutting the inside from seals will do more harm than good ,I found the EPDM seals slightly thicker and sealed better than the silicone ones,be careful how much ya grind or sand down the tee's,as ifn ya take too much off the clamps will not be able ta tighten enough to get them ta seal well .cheers hillzabilly ;-)

I do believe thicker seals are gonna be the solution mate. I checked for warped tee's and found two out of five that weren't perfect so I reassembled the column with three perfect tee's and it still leaked like a sieve.
I then reassembled the column without using any of the copper plates and it was instantly 100% water tight.

It looks as though the seals are too thin and as the column is sitting on the copper plates there's no amount of tightening that will get a good seal.

I'll go to a stainless steel place tonight and see if I can track down some thicker gaskets.

Q. Will rubber gaskets be fine for long-term distilling and not leach unwanted nasties?
Q. Did you buy yours online or source them locally? Just wondering where I should look if I can't find the right ones.
Cheers hillsabilly and thanks again to everybody else who has help me sort these problems out.

They need to be silicon or epdm seals. I would be going back to where you got the still and make him get them and sort it out, you payed good money for something that doesn't work. Or better yet take the whole thing back for a refund and buy a 5star :handgestures-thumbupleft:

A gasket either side of the plate may work if they are that thin?

woodduck wrote:They need to be silicon or epdm seals. I would be going back to where you got the still and make him get them and sort it out, you payed good money for something that doesn't work. Or better yet take the whole thing back for a refund and buy a 5star :handgestures-thumbupleft:

A gasket either side of the plate may work if they are that thin?

Ok thanks woodduck. I'm going to the hbs to talk to them this arvo. I'll see what they can do to help out and I'd rather work with them to sort this however I certainly wouldn't be recommending this set up to anybody else in future until they've sorted these issues.
Apart from the dodgy seals I can't fault the quality of the still. Just a pity I've had to deal with this stuff as it's been a complete pain in the arse and non-stop researching as the way they had it set up was miles away from how it should have been. It was their first still sold and they admit to not knowing much about it so I do understand from their point of view.

I've tried two seals and as they are ribbed they simply won't fit. Hopefully I can track down the correct epdm gaskets tonight and get back stilling asap.


Thanks mate

You can cut the rib off one or both sides of those seals with a craft or Stanley knife if need be, I've done it. You maybe only need one seal on top of the seal you've already cut just to fill the gap a bit.

:text-+1:
Then you can buy a silicone baking sheet (Kmart, target, etc), they are quite thin, cut to the size (inner and outer diameter) of the original seal and add that to your existing seal (I have done that with my still). I'd be asking the hbs for some cash back if it were me. Btw, unusual that the plates are thicker than the seal too...

Did you try epdm seals?

1.Do ya tee's have a recess for the plates at one end ,the question was asked but I did not see an answer,mine do not and the seals have the inner cut out,my bros set up does and he finds it easier to assemble the plated section upside down,then flips it over and mounts to the boiler,Peter C had the same problem and rotated 2 plates 90' and found they sealed better,you may like ta look thru his posts (or send a PM)and see ifn you both have the same still set up .With alcohol at a high ABV it will flow thru leaks much quicker than water .I also found the EPDM seals need a slight strech ta fit perfectly sometimes,a little extra care and attention ta detail on assembly is critical for these stills ta seal well ,something I did not get until a dozen or so runs and a few leaks later ,once I have positioned the next plate and befor I put the clamp on I rotate the tee back and forth about 5mm seems ta help then clamp up .cheers hillzabilly ;-)

Oh yeh and one other detail I forgot ta mention was I run the seals thru my mouth ta get them wet with a bit of spit befor assembleing (ok guy's keep it clean :shhh: ).cheers hillzabilly ;-)

hillzabilly wrote:my bros set up does and he finds it easier to assemble the plated section upside down,then flips it over and mounts to the boiler

That's interesting hillzabilly, are you saying he mounts his tees with the recess at the bottom? I do mine with the recess at the top and the plates sitting in the recess and the seal on top of that.

Cheers,
Prof. Green.

I would have thought plates and recess at bottom to line up with sight glass..

Must be something peculiar to the Neutraliser (or perhaps the way I assemble it!) then because the 100mm section of pipe that goes at the bottom is recessed for the first plate. The first tee then sits on that with the second plate sitting it's recess above.

Edit: just realised some folks run the neutraliser off a 2 x 4 reducer. That too should have a recess for the first plate.

Cheers,
Prof. Green.