50L keg and 4" stainless

[Camikaze]

Morning all,

Well, The fortunate chap that I am, just had a 2m length of 4" polished stainless undo itself and fall off an old firetruck - right into my shed!

What am I gonna do with 4"? "Not a farkin lot" I hear you say...

Here's what I'm thinkin says I:

A cool potstill.

Buying a couple of reducers, bends and clamps etc from www.5stardistilling.com.au and using a piece of the 4" to fabricate my still.

2" reducer from keg - 4" stainless - 2" reducer - 2" bends - couple of other bits, reducers etc to match up to the worm.

I'm guessin it would look like an old two-stroke expansion chamber.

Before you ask, I have the mental capacity of a glazed donut so go easy with the tech-talk.

Here's my Q's:

Will it work? Not much point if it won't...

How long should the 4" be from the keg? I'm stabbing at 18" - nothing to base that on other that looks...

On the weekend I made me a 3/4" worm that sits in a 20L bait bucket that has been modified with hose bungs etc. No kinks, about 4m of copper. the bucket connects straight to the garden hose and the fact that it rains 6 months of the year, I couldn't give a stuff about water usage. We have no water restrictions and pay $16 a month for all the water we can use. I plan to exploit that dearly. :D

Should I be concerned about the velocity of the vapour as it travels through the reducers into the worm?

On that, should I consider a decent liebig and keep the worm for another build??

I have found a few cool keg stills on the site using 4" pipe and bends, but the s-bend in my tubing is dented to shit. I plan on just using the 4" as a straight piece, hence the 2" bends I am considering.

I'm guessing the 4" ferrules should be tig'd to the pipe? No dramas - plently of metal fabs on base here. Might cost a carton of green cans.

Thoughts??

Any help would be most appreciated.

Cam :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Kimbo]

Hi Cami,
yes that will work quite well, may i suggest that you cut off the 2" ferrule and tig a 4" ferrule to your keg.
that way you could do away with the reducer.
i would go a shotgun condenser rather than a worm,
coz i recon one day you will use some of the remaining 4" pipe to build a bubbler ;-)

[squid]

How large (diameter) will the worm be?

[R-sole]

I agree with all that. If you can tig ferrules to your straight peice we can supply the rest. I also agree with Kimbo on the shotgun. The 2" ones are pretty cheap and clamp straight on.

If you do go ahead with using the worm, make sure the feed of water in is quite slow and from the bottom. You want the water to stratify in a gradient from steaming hot at the top of the bucket, to quite cool at the bottom. A very small inlet of water (think a dribble) may not upset that and will work quite well.

[Camikaze]

Thanks guys.

I've already tee'd it up with the welders at work to tig the ferrules on for me. They're also gonna cut out the top of the keg with the plasma cutter and tig the ferrule on that too. Should I dump a few litres into it beforehand so the slag doesn't stick?? Would I be better off using a jigsaw to make it a bit neater?

Sorry bout all the questions - don't exactly wanna naff it up n end up with a 50L party bong.

I've got me some shopping to do.

Thanks for the advice 5Star, I've just been browsing on www.5stardistilling.com.au and it looks the goods.

If I do use the worm, should I put it in a bigger container? I figure the more water surrounding it, the greater the cooling effect possible?

Cheers guys

Cam :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[R-sole]

A bigger container will allow for more time before any water needs to be replaced. The top really can get hot (enough to burn your hand) and the worm is still working well. Kinda miss my worm sometimes.

I was using a small wheelie bin (100+litres?) and could get a couple of runs before i'd have to change out some water.

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