Ok so a bit later was not that weekend :)) :)) :)) ,
From my post back on the 11-June-18, not a whole lot had changed up until the COVID-19 happened that is.
So since last time all i had to show for my efforts were a few bits of copper cut to seemingly random sizes and squished in funny shapes.
When my workplace decided that we had better all work from home i got ~1.5hrs back in my day meaning i was not as tired and had more time to think about things that were not work.
During my time not thinking about work my mind tends to wander towards making stuff.
In one of my making sessions i happened across my bits of copper and thought why not kick this back into gear, or at least onto the back burner, so i chucked most of them in a bucket of citric acid and forgot about it for a week.
The following weekend I decided to start back up slowly with trying to make a lid for my blockhead.
I had already cut out the copper disk and all i really need to do is solder it together, so i did:
And the underside:
And that was all it took for the bug to bite again.
I moved onto attaching my pressed flanges to my bits of 4":
Once i had done all my module pieces i started looking at my block head.
This was my most troublesome piece apart from my RC, but only because it had a few dents close to the ends of the pipe section that were making the pipe slightly out of round.
But with a bit of squeezing the pipe so it was round and gentle tapping with my hammer handle i managed to get the flanges on.
Each flange is attached so the pipe is recessed slightly by 1x plate thickness, i figure this will allow me to use standard seals without trimming out the inner surface and also help seal the plate.
But what is a block head without an off-take spigot
I positioned it as high as i could so that there should be minimum "stagnant" vapour above the tee
then i coiled up a bit of solder and pushed in into the 2"
Waved my torch around for about 10mins till the solder finally melted and wicked into the joint and hey presto it was attached
I've still got to drill out the hole but that is a job for another day (still has not arrived yet either).
Now that i had my confidence back i decided to put the flanges on my RC, which i had been pretending didn't exist as last time i messed with it, it almost ended up breaking me ~x(
But it seemed to go well this time, i took it slow and used gravity to assist.
and seeing as i was there and it was hot i took the opportunity to put some more solder on the joins that were looking a bit thin around my vapour tubes
From this angle you can see the vapour tube extensions that i hope will act like cold fingers a bit.
You might also notice that the water outlet is missing, this is because i dropped it and it got slightly squashed to i removed it, lucky nothing else was damaged.
And that brings me back to my teaser image:
I've got my 4 modules, blockhead and RC flanged, now i just need to drill out my block head tee, add a lifting point to my lid, make some 2" easy flanges or by some ferrules and that should be my 4" bubbler about ready to function as a pot still once i buy some gaskets and clamps.
To get it functioning as a bubbler i will need to finish my plates and fix my water connections.
But i should probably start looking at doing something about my boiler that is currently just a keg in need of a 4" ferrule welded on and some elements added, good thing i got a TIG for Christmas and finally bought a gas bottle for it, i look forward to swearing at it.
My number 1 tip for other solderers out there is get an insulation fire brick, I didn't have one the last time i messed around with my RC and i feel it was one of the contributing factors in what made it go smoother this time.
Also by using the insulation brick i could hard solder a 3" ring of 1/4" copper using 2% solder with my 12mm pencil tip torch on BBQ gas, not MAPP or Oxy/Acetylene. :happy-partydance:
That's all for now but i got some fittings in the mail the other day so who knows...