Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Hey all,

So I've got the bug! I dropped by my local scrap yard Saturday arvo and got a few choice bits of copper including a bunch more 2" and 1/4" a few odd sizes and even a couple of elbows, and I snuck in an hour or so in the shed and put together a lil parrot. Nothing fancy, but it'll do the job.

Now I'm thinking pot still. I love the simple looking unit on 5 star and thought I'd put something similar together, and possibly even do a botanical basket. But that's really just an after thought, so don't spend too long telling why it's a bad placement or not going to work.

I just want something that I can strip runs in and do a bit of whiskey.

This is what I'm thinking.


What you guys reckon? Give it a whirl, or should I be looking to do something a bit different?

I reccomend puting the botanical section above the straight section and just below the first elbow. If you get a bit of surging you could contaminate the botanicals by turning them into a wet teabag. :handgestures-thumbdown:
The 1/4 inch tubing in the condensor might be a bit small, I'd go for 3/8" or 1/2" as it might be a bit to restrictive. I have a 2 inch shotty with 5 1/2 tubes in it that's 800mm long and all the cooling seems to happen in the first 100mm.
All else is fine. :D

Cool, good advice on the botanical placement. Don't have any 3/8, what about a centre 1/2" surrounded by 4 x 1/4"?

Also heres the parrot I smashed out. As I said, nothing fancy.

limitedsky wrote:Cool, good advice on the botanical placement. Don't have any 3/8, what about a centre 1/2" surrounded by 4 x 1/4"?

Because of the reduced drag on the 1/2" section compared with the 1/4", the majority of the vapour will go through it. It is best to have equal size tubes in a heat exchanger. I doubt that you'll ever find a heat exchanger with different size tubing in it.
If you go all 1/2", that will work well. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

i agree on the 1/2 inch. if you have 5 times 1/2 inch tubes in a 2 inch this will have twice the cross sectional area of 10 * 1/4 inch tubes. the air flows easier and has a larger surface area

1/2" area with 5 tubes has an over area of
506.71mm^2= π*12.7^2
5 times =2533.54mm^2

1/4" with 10 tubes
126.68 = π*6.35^2
10 times = 1266.78 mm^2

Its basically half the area and with more pipes and work restricting the speed of the strip run
circumference area of 5 1/2" pipes is 398.98 mm and for 10 1/2"pipes the circumference is 398.98 mm.

So for more smaller pipes you loose some volume flow rate (cut in half) for the same surface area as less pipes that are larger



I hope I haven't confused you with this 8-} I was considering a similar approach a month back then i did these sums and realized it was more work for less cooling efficiency and flow rate. I wish to maxamise my L/h strip rate and smaller pipes will make strip times take longer.

Sweet. Yep that all makes sense. Thanks guys, good to see someone has literally already done the maths on this. Problem is I have about 450mm of 1/2" and I have about 3m of annealed 1/4" and 2m of hard drawn 1/4"!

Any suggestions on what I do with it all? Anyone in Melbourne got some 1/2" they want to swap?

At the top of the column you can use the annealed copper to make a reflux column. It wont make neutral but it can help make high ABV single runs of maintain a high ABV in a spirit run. you can also make the column so it can be packed and unpacked making it a standard pot still/reflux pot still, and when you want a reflux still also (then it will make vodka/neutral). This will make it a hybrid

Here is a pic from my future build but not the one im using. disregard the liebig part. just want to show you what i mean with the coil and that you can make it a packed section also.


Build it the way you want to :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Nice idea. But just built a boka. Building a pot so that I can do stripping runs and the occasional whiskey.

You know what, I was being an idiot, I always intended to do 1/2". The hard drawn stuff I got was for the sole purpose of the shotty and its 1/2" not 1/4". I got mixed up. So I can at least do 4 x 1/2".

One thing I'd like to know is:

Does the distance between the two 90 degree elbows have much effect on the pot? I'd like to make it about 250mm so that I get good clearance from the edge of the keg.

So this is what I'm thinking. Anyone got some opinions before I start soldering?

Is the distance between the two elbows cool?
Also whats the maximum height I can have the column? Its currently 600mm.

the higher you go the more passive reflux there may be so ive read. Ive read that in the lyn arm some people mention the alcohol vapor condensing of in there smearing the fractions. im unsure of the truth of this but thought i would mention it.

Me on the other hand i dont see a problem. :handgestures-thumbupleft: although i havent got my pot head finished ortried out yet too 8-}

In a still this size I reckon it will make fuck all difference.

The big scottish distilleries talk about the different angles of lyne arm making a difference to the spirit.

If I was going to have that space in between I would have the lyne arm angled slightly up :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Either way the vapour will get through ;-)

Cool, I did consider putting it on an angle, but I like the 180° compact look. Saturday I'll put it together, can't imagine it'll take more than a day. Then I'll have to find something else to build!

A couple of ferrules and clamps in the right spots and you can use parts of this for your bubbler :D

Even if you add the triclamps later, if you make sure your second 90° and the shotgun are put together well, you'll be on your way to a bubbler.

Then you can cut up the rest of the 2" for bubblecaps and to flatten and turn into plates! Zero wastage!