Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

hillzabilly wrote:Nice one mate,just wondering were ya got ya downcomer specs from as I have my doubts wether they will work properly.cheers hillzabilly :handgestures-thumbupleft:

:text-+1:
The J trap will be all good but the others will need cups on the end.

I have seen this before where the liquid from the plate below creates the vacuum on the downcomer. Apparently it works

db1979 wrote:

hillzabilly wrote:Nice one mate,just wondering were ya got ya downcomer specs from as I have my doubts wether they will work properly.cheers hillzabilly :handgestures-thumbupleft:

:text-+1:
The J trap will be all good but the others will need cups on the end.

Yes mate, it's just that I've been promised 1" end caps for the last month which are on the slow boat from Kembla apparently, which is why I haven't made my own up but yes there will be end caps and slots at the end of the downcomers too!

Chocko

Chocko6969 wrote:

RC Al wrote:
Thanks RC, what would be considered low profile SG? I have 20mm on my modules at the shortest measurement from front of column to face of SG. Would 30-35mm for the Gin head be better?

Chocko

The 35mms should be heaps - you may have to dodge the bottom triclamp a bit

Chocko6969 wrote:

db1979 wrote:

hillzabilly wrote:Nice one mate,just wondering were ya got ya downcomer specs from as I have my doubts wether they will work properly.cheers hillzabilly :handgestures-thumbupleft:

:text-+1:
The J trap will be all good but the others will need cups on the end.

Yes mate, it's just that I've been promised 1" end caps for the last month which are on the slow boat from Kembla apparently, which is why I haven't made my own up but yes there will be end caps and slots at the end of the downcomers too!

Chocko

Hey Hillz, what's your thoughts on this slotting bottom of downcomers? Do you think it will allow flow or should I remove every 2nd slot maybe? The slots are 1 - 1.5mm.

Or I can always cut it off and try again, it's only 5mm deep?



Chocko

What's everyone's thoughts on cleaning the perf plates?
If I polish them as I've seen some blokes do here, does that leave any compound residue and/or is the vinegar and sacrificial run enough to get rid of any residue?

These have just had a Citric bath and ready to clean up more, or is it a waste of time doing this meaning they'll only discolour with use?

Chocko

Having a little time off I've managed to get the 4 modules together, now just to spend some time cleaning up excess solder (f**k me I've wasted some solder) and a bath before polishing.



Also put together my first RC following Mac's instructional post. Had a bit of a time with this, after soldering I found about 5 pinholes during leak test which I managed to get sorted after some very precise and arse-puckering torch work!

And yes I almost forgot to drill the water connection holes before inserting the pipes!

Also made a start on the top bend, and couldn't help but stack it all up and see if it resembles anything like a still.!

Very nice the plates get discolored pretty quick. I wouldn't bother polishing them. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

:text-+1: if they've been citric cleaned thats all you need

Chocko6969 wrote:

RC Al wrote:Great start mate
With the top of your column, in your drawing you end up needing 2x 4-2 reducers, put a clamp at the top of a single reducer? you should be able to just have Clamp connectors on the carter head bit and save some expensive bends. Depends what your paying for bends vs triclamps i spose.. worth a re-think

Check out this thread http://www.aussiedistiller.com.au/viewt ... =56&t=5027 the carter head inlet kinda turns into a thumper/bubble cap, you may want to raise the inlet to about the sight glass level, you dont have to build it with the thump capability, but it gives you the option to use it that way and achieve a different flavour if you want to

Chocko6969 wrote:This has left them at 150mm so I'm assuming this won't be too much of a problem.

Thats actually a great height, it gives the bubbles plenty of room to do their thing

Good suggestions thank you, I'll definitely have a rethink on that.

After looking I think it's a good idea to raise the inlet as suggested, to allow a little more room. I'm looking for a basket insert but FSD site is down atm? Do you know if they sell just the insert to suit 4"..?

Chocko

Can always make the gin basked yourself. Simple case of cutting the pipe in half (length wise) and solder it back up and put a base in it (drill your holes like your perf plate). You will find it will fit neatly inside the tube.

looking good BTW Mate :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Lowie wrote:looking good BTW Mate :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Thank you, excellent idea for the gin basket too, I might just attempt that once I have the bubbler up and running!

Chocko

Chocko6969 wrote:

Chocko6969 wrote:

db1979 wrote:

hillzabilly wrote:Nice one mate,just wondering were ya got ya downcomer specs from as I have my doubts wether they will work properly.cheers hillzabilly :handgestures-thumbupleft:

:text-+1:
The J trap will be all good but the others will need cups on the end.

Yes mate, it's just that I've been promised 1" end caps for the last month which are on the slow boat from Kembla apparently, which is why I haven't made my own up but yes there will be end caps and slots at the end of the downcomers too!

Chocko

Hey Hillz, what's your thoughts on this slotting bottom of downcomers? Do you think it will allow flow or should I remove every 2nd slot maybe? The slots are 1 - 1.5mm.

Or I can always cut it off and try again, it's only 5mm deep?

perfs 10_resize.jpg

Chocko

My thoughts are copy something you can validate works ,or get FSD downcomers wich is all I have ever used and wich I am happy to rec for that reason,the downcomers and plates are critical for this type of still to work well and be predictable and controllable and details should never be just guess work or takeing desighns from all over the place from possibly different size or powered stills.That aside half as many slots would be my guess and I am thinking that I have not even seen them done that way and why ,most just solder the cap on a few mm from the bottom of the cup to get the maximum downcomer to cup rim depth,anyhooo good luck with the rest of the build.cheers hillzabilly :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Looks like your going well Chocko :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I wouldn't polish any internal components especially with any sort of compound. I "polished" mine with scotchbrite pads which made it look real nice nice for some photos but after a run or two the plates will go black so a complete waste of time really :laughing-rolling:

Not sure about the slots in the downcomer tubes, haven't seen that before. I cut the bottom of my tubes on a angle of around 5mm (I think, you'd have to check the glass duck thread) so that I could push the tube into the cup and know I still had a gap at the bottom when I soldered them on.

Looks like your RC went well mate and your soldering looks bloody nice too. Well done. Keep it up and you'll be done in no time :handgestures-thumbupleft:

woodduck wrote:Looks like your going well Chocko :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I wouldn't polish any internal components especially with any sort of compound. I "polished" mine with scotchbrite pads which made it look real nice nice for some photos but after a run or two the plates will go black so a complete waste of time really :laughing-rolling:

Not sure about the slots in the downcomer tubes, haven't seen that before. I cut the bottom of my tubes on a angle of around 5mm (I think, you'd have to check the glass duck thread) so that I could push the tube into the cup and know I still had a gap at the bottom when I soldered them on.

Looks like your RC went well mate and your soldering looks bloody nice too. Well done. Keep it up and you'll be done in no time :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Thanks woodduck, I have tested the flow of the downcomers with a running tap and it gets through without restriction so I'm glad about that. I guess the first vinegar run will tell me if I've got any problems so looking forward to that.

Chocko

Ive seen slots like that at the top of a downcomer - in theory to break the surface tension of the bubbles so they collapse better before entering, without the bubbles we could use a much smaller tube - running bubble free water through it isnt a good test

While looking for a flow rate chart, I may have solved the length riddle too - there's a minimum length for a pipe to overcome the viscosity of the fluid vs the drag on the walls, check out the attached chart, the thing that would affect those numbers is the difference in viscosity of alc to water - alc is aprox 20% thicker so there would be a change in those numbers (by a different amount, beyond my paygrade) so all the way down to the next plate could make it more efficient.

RC Al wrote:Ive seen slots like that at the top of a downcomer - in theory to break the surface tension of the bubbles so they collapse better before entering, without the bubbles we could use a much smaller tube - running bubble free water through it isnt a good test

While looking for a flow rate chart, I may have solved the length riddle too - there's a minimum length for a pipe to overcome the viscosity of the fluid vs the drag on the walls, check out the attached chart, the thing that would affect those numbers is the difference in viscosity of alc to water - alc is aprox 20% thicker so there would be a change in those numbers (by a different amount, beyond my paygrade) so all the way down to the next plate could make it more efficient.

I would think that alcohol is thinner in viscosity than water,the other thing that is hard to simulate when testing downcomers under a tap is that in a colomn there is pressure and heat,my opinion is a test under normal load situation is the only way to confirm they work well all the way thru a run ,some may be fine at the start but have problems towards the end of a run and vise versa.I used ta think how easy it would be to set up the downcomer on my thumper ,but I had to change the design several times with several test runs to validate it worked from start ta finnish .cheers hillzabilly ;-)

https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/abso ... _1259.html

higher the number, thicker it is