Hi from North Coast, N.S.W.

[Popcorn]

Hi - I have been watching the posts on this forum for quite a a while, and thought I should join.
A little history - A friend of mine acquired a still; it’s a Still Spirits Turbo 500.
He did not know how to use it. Also, he thought that there was something wrong with it.
A fringe benefit of having an adventurous youth in rural surroundings is that I learnt how to operate a still (for business and pleasure) at a tender age.
So, friend asked me to set it up and test it, to make sure it was working properly.
I agreed to do that.
The Turbo 500 is a bigger still than I am used to. The problem I noticed was that water would not circulate freely through the still’s condenser – a recipe for disaster if the still was operated in that condition. There was a blockage. I cleared the blockage with a long piece of stiff steel wire. I think it was dirt, or a dead insect. Once cleared, it worked fine.
That woke my dormant interest in stills.
I am in the bush, retired with not a lot of disposable income, so its been a case of build my own gear with what is available. Over a couple of years I have had considerable success, with bits and pieces from a local scrap-metal dealer, Mitre-10 and Bunnings. I now have two home-built stills; a large (dairy churn - electrically heated with a triac temperature controller, also home-built) still which I use for stripping runs, and a small (10 liter) reflux still for refining spirit. I flavour the spirit with whatever fruits are in season (limes, lemons, whatever), and I am very proud of the quality of my product. I also brew (non-alcoholic) ginger beer, which when added to my product, makes a really excellent "Mullumbimby Mule". I use TPW mostly, but I do experiment occasionally with additives such as molasses.
I enjoy distilling as a hobby, and I hope to continue doing it for as long as possible.

[db1979]

Welcome popcorn :greetings-waveyellow:

Nice avatar, your workbench isn't much different from mine :laughing-rolling:

[Popcorn]

Yes, and I have another one with a nice yellow lid, in which I do most of my fermenting! ....(just kidding). :scared-eek:

[Doubleuj]

Hi Popcorn, welcome to the forum.
I’m not too sure what you mean by adventurous youth operating a still for “business”, but please note that selling of home made spirits is illegal and completely condemned by this forum.

[Popcorn]

Thank you for the reminder about selling distilled alcohol. My youth was around 60 years ago, and the follies of my youth have long passed. These days, alcohol I produce is solely for the free enjoyment of myself and friends.

[Doubleuj]

I thought so, just had to check (part of the job :laughing-rolling: ) would love to see some pics of your still, we love pics around here

[Popcorn]

yab_pump_still1.jpg

This is the first (pot) still I put together, after doing a lot of reading on this, and other, forums. I found a 6 meter length of 2" copper downpipe at my local scrap-metal yard; the proprietor sold it to me for $40. :handgestures-thumbupleft: :handgestures-thumbupleft: I cut a length for the column and cleaned it up with citric acid. (I have lots of pipe left over for more projects.) The condenser is made from (white) plumbing fittings joined with methacrylate glue, supported in a timber frame, through which water is pumped (small submersible pump, 12 volt supply, 20 000 liter house water tank, closed loop system), The vapour path is through 1/2" copper pipe through the condenser. Vapour never comes in contact with plastic plumbing fitting. All copper is soldered with lead-free solder. The boiler and lid is stainless steel which I bought for $5 at a second-hand store. The heater is a 1000W camp stove element - a garage sale purchase. I insulated the 10 liter boiler with wall insulation - after all, 1000 Watts is not a lot of heating power, With this simple rig I taught myself the basics of TPW distilling, and double distilling, and proved to myself that with care, excellent quality spirit can be made with simple, inexpensive gear.

[Popcorn]

In my next still build, I wanted to improve the condenser - get rid of the white plastic tube - and make a more compact pot still. Hence, the shortened column, and the condenser made from a couple of plumbing fittings at top and bottom of a 1" diameter piece of clear nylon tubing. The plumbing fittings are solderered to the Lynne arm. The whole condenser is made watertight with the nylon tube clamped to the plumbing fittings top and bottom with wormdrive clamps. A cheap digital themometer which indicates vapour temp. at the top of the column was added. I have been using this still for a couple of years now - ABV is around 70% (as would be expected from a pot still) and I am happy with its performance. Whether or not water is flowing in the condenser is obvious at a glance. There is an annoying disadvantage with using a camp stove element; temperature regulation is achieved by the unit switching itself on and off (probably with a bi-metallic strip), and so the still cannot be run at a constant temperature.

[wynnum1]

Is the pot bottom magnetic as cheap induction cook top may be better at controlling the heat have one of those other ones and useless temperature is all over the place.

[Popcorn]

Yeah...thats a good thought using an induction heater. I also want to experiment with running the element on the camp stove continuously (short out its temp. control) and use a 4 kW power controller (eBay - $8) to control temperature. I havent tried that yet, but thats the plan this week.

[Professor Green]

Welcome Popcorn.

At the risk of coming across as a total knob, how are you sealing that stock pot when you run it?

Cheers,
Prof. Green.

[Popcorn]

I was lucky enough to get one with a snug fitting lid, so sealing has not been an issue. I was kinda glad of that, because soldering some kind of clips to stainless steel could have been problematic. The lid of my dairy churn still is a little problematic though. It is not a particularly good seal and I get a disconcerting whiff of alcohol vapour, particularly if I run it hard in a stripping run. I have a fan in the shed to disperse the odour, and my nearest neighbour is half a kilometer away, but I would not like to be running it in town! :law-policered: I know that the old timers used to use a paste made of rye flour to seal their moonshine stills out in the woods; I am tempted to try the same method.

[The Stig]

~x(

[Professor Green]

OK, this is a serious problem and now I am going to sound like a complete knob - I don't mean to be and I'm not picking on you but safety is the biggest concern around here and it sounds like both of your boilers are dangerous and a disaster waiting to happen.

Regardless of where you are located and how well ventilated the space is, your boiler MUST be vapour tight. Any vapour leak is potential for fire or even worse, explosion. You also do not want to be breathing any of that vapour in either.

Don't believe everything you see on you tube - flour paste is unreliable and not a condoned method for sealing your boiler. Silicon and EPDM are the best ways to seal your boiler.

There is also mechanical stability to consider if the lid of the pot with the still mounted to it is just pressed in place.

Please consider getting a safer boiler before you do another run. We don't want to hear about you in the news.

Other than the boiler safety concerns, you have a nice looking still. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[wynnum1]

What do they do with very large equipment as there must be explosive mixture until the air is expelled by the vapour.

[RC Al]

A keg, ferrule n 2" triclamp n a threaded element from 5star is a great place to start with that
If you know a tradie with a 32mm holesaw, you could get out of it for around $130ish

5star also sell some pretty blingy milkcan boilers if diy isn't your thing

[Popcorn]

Thanks Professor Green, and others who are offering advice. I hear what you are saying. I will stop all distilling activities until stills are made safe. I have adequate supplies of my product to see me through an extended period of non-distilliing. Once again, thanks for the warnings.

[Professor Green]

:handgestures-thumbupleft:

There are a number of safe boiler options open to you. For an off-the-shelf option, the milk cans from 5 Star cannot be beaten or you can DIY/pay someone to convert a keg. The smaller T500 style boilers are also a good option if you want to go smaller than 50l. Boilers and stills pop up in the buy/sell section here from time to time to.

You can probably still use your stock pot boiler for wash making purposes too BTW.