Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Good ta see ya giving it a crack again Zac ,noticed Macs got the 2inch caps with risers on special at moment ,good onya Bryan for the offer ,no exuses now boyz.cheers hillzabilly :handgestures-thumbupleft:

cross section area of 1 1/2" riser is exactly same as the distance between the 1 1/2' riser and 2" cap. so for a perfect balance of open area a 2" cap would have a riser of about 1 1/2"

As for hacksaw it takes a long time and is a bitch but its how i prefer to cut my copper nice and straight, as for slots... grinder it is :))

Just curious as to what bath depth ya plan ta run with the build,as I found when I tryed a bath depth that was higher than the outlet height of the riser (or holes) the plates flooded and the vapour was going through the downcomer's :scared-eek: cheers hillzabilly

Mac's 2" caps are definitely tempting mate! I already had all of the gear to make these ones though. Honestly, between this build and Agrajag I should've just saved my spare change and gone straight for an FSD rig! I'd be well in front in time, and probably not far behind in $, and that's without paying a cent for any of my copper! I do love working with copper though :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I was thinking a 20mm bath depth? Seems to be about standard. I may even make adjustable downcomers yet, see how keen I get/what copper I find.

Found a few 2" fittings at work yesterday... A couple of 90° elbows, a tee and a 2"-1" reducer. Basically everything I need to make a 2" shotgun, so I'm going to do that instead of a 3" PC. I've also already got a couple of spare 2" clamps and seals.

Also picked up enough new 1" for a parrot. The pieces are coming together!

Got another hour or so in this afternoon.

First I had to make a work bench for my new micro-microdistillery (a 1.5x1.5 garden shed)



Used nothing but bits I've scrounged at work (including the secondhand nails :laughing-rolling: ), a hacksaw and a hammer. Perfect height for sitting a fermenter on to sing a symphony syphoning straight into the boiler :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Then I slotted another bubblecap and cut a 500mm piece of 2" for my PC.



Cutting slots with a hacksaw is a pain in the arse but it's not hard. Might get the other two done tomorrow.

Not sure if I should keep my plate sections at 150mm as they currently are or cut them down a bit to 120mm. Shorter modules will let me see more with the 2" sightglasses, and I'll also be able to fit a fifth plate in the same height :think:

Looking good mate :handgestures-thumbupleft:
The stuff will taste so much better coming out the spout since you are doing it all by hand :obscene-drinkingchug:
Looking forward to seeing them bubbles

Zak Griffin wrote:Perfect height for sitting a fermenter on to symphony straight into the boiler :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Well who doesn't love the sound of a fementer emptying into a boiler! :teasing-neener:

Cheers,
Prof. Green.

Is that better, Professor? :laughing-rolling: I've got my extra buttons back!

Given my space constraints I think I'll run just a single 50L fermenter and probably work on whiskey in the winter and rum in summer, rerunning the whiskey feints for neutral when I get a keg full. I should get away with just leaving the fermenter on the bench, hopefully!

:D
Bloody moderators and their god like powers!

Cheers,
Prof. Green.

If you are going to cut the rest of the slots with a hacksaw i suggest getting a 32tpi blade if you dont have one already.
Makes it a much smoother cut and there is less chance of you bending something.
Grinders are cheating anyway.

Cheers for the tip. I'm using a blunt 24 tooth blade, gives me a pretty clean cut. Only 100 slots to go!

Got all of my caps slotted!



Also decided I'm going to cut my plate modules down from 160mm to 130mm so I can see more bubbly action through the 2" glasses :-B (disregard the 2" clamp, that's only to show where the sightglass sits)

Got my plate modules cut down to 130mm, and started thinking about making a 3"-4" reducer/bottom plate section but run out of daylight.

Got a start on my bottom plate/4"-3" reducer before the rain settled in this morning

Take a piece of 4", a ball pein hammer and the tow ball of your ute, and start annoying the neighbours! If I had a torch I would've put some heat into it first but instead I just had to make a couple of little cuts with the hacksaw so it would work in enough.



It fits pretty well around the 3" pipe, just needs a bit more tickling. I'll also flare the end of the 3" out so there's plenty of surface for the solder to work with inside.



Not sure how the plate is going to seal in there yet, I might use an offcut and make a weir plate :think:

I'm doing this because I've already got a 3" still port on my boiler :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Tow balls an awesome idea for an anvil :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Well done Zak.
The ol' tow ball trick works well. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Starting to come together. :music-deathmetal:

Looking good, will you soft solder or braze the 3" onto the reduced 4"?

With the caps, did you make something up to hold them or use a vice? i found them a pain to cut with my 24 teeth hacksaw on 1" caps and no vice

Ill probably hard solder the reducer, just to fill the gaps a bit better. And because its gotta support the whole still.

I just held the caps while I cut the slots. If I had to do more I'd cut a 50mm hole in a piece of timber to sit the caps in...

DUJ, I got the idea off dogbreath vodka, he did the same but 6"-4" for his build.

Reducer done!

I flared the end of the 3". Once it has been soldered together I'll cut the bottom end to length, but it will only be ~30mm long with an easy flange.



Then I fed it in from the top and the inside looks like this!



Once I've got it soldered up I'll work out how the rest of the module will work.

All done with a tow ball, a ball pein hammer and a hacksaw :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Nice work, Zak :handgestures-thumbupleft: