Hello all, fellow newbie Perthite calling in here. Actually have a chemistry degree so a lot of distilling theory is not new to me but as always experience trumps all.
Just bought a stainless steel turbo 500 (I can hear you all facepalming from here). It has the stainless saddles which is good though and comes with a lote of other kit including flow rate regulator etc for fine control of the cooling fluid. I also plan to make some modifications.
1. Change plastic outlet tube to glass or metal (Am wondering if silicone tubing would work as well as it is not quite the same as plastic and it is very inert)
2. Want to drill a hole in the top of the pot and make my own thermocouple from an arduino and thermocouple wire from RS components to monitor the head temperature (much more accurate distilling)
3. Want to use it to also distill water, essential oils and general fun to teach my nephew/niece some interesting science stuff (they will be kept well away during spirit distills though)
Have read the recommended cut volumes etc on the newbie forums. Did have one question though, the prevailing wisdom for extracting flowers/oils is to suspend a hops bag full of the material above in the headspace so it can be permeated by the steam coming off (Going to try with water and ethanol to see the difference in product). I am wondering why people dont just stuff the hops bag into the column itself as this would increase the permeation of the material (all the steam has to pass through it to get to the condenser). Since you aren't refluxing a steam extraction you will be removing the saddles so there should be plenty of space. Perhaps it is not done due to the risk of a blockage that will build up pressure in the system?