Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

so I just found ms paint and drew something up to help me a bit still have a lot of questions so more research needed

CyBaThUg wrote:yeah I'm not I confused myself again
im looking at the 5star downcomers I'm unsure how that clamps to the plate is the round part on top like a socket and tightens on a thread to clamp it?

Heres a pic of the fsd 2", the slots are 2mm X 10mm, the riser is threaded and its held together with a SS hex head screw.

Yeah I get the cap and riser not the down comer as in all the pics on the net show them complete on the plate and not how they clamp on to the plate so that's what I came up with to have the pipe with a threaded end almost like a hose tail and poke the threaded part through the plate and secure it with a socket

My Fsd down comers are attached the same way. I would take a pic but they are in use. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Sweet now got to figure out sizes and lengths

You need your downcomer to finish closer to the bottom of the cup. You only want a few mm gap.

Oh yeah it will be attached to the base and I'll probably drill holes in the downcomer I just stuffed the drawing up

Or have flat bar across the base just depending on weather I machine it out of one piece or tig bits together

CyBaThUg wrote:Oh yeah it will be attached to the base and I'll probably drill holes in the downcomer I just stuffed the drawing up

:handgestures-thumbupleft:
that'll work

So my understanding is the downcomer sets the bath height which therefore can increase flavour or decrease flavour

The higher the downcomer causes a deeper bath which makes it harder for vapour to get through imparting less flavour

So my question is 25mm being around the sweet spot but I will try make it adjustable so I can tweak it after a few runs but does it matter how wide the opening is as I have a 1 inch bsb socket that has an opening of 30mm or so which I could cut to 25mm with a male 1-3/4 inch reducer with a socket and pipe welded to it equaling 60mm below the plate or try fab a hollow threaded pipe to make height adjustments easier for future or go with a 3/4 inch socket but when the male is screwed in it I'm unsure what the opening size will be

This sounds confusing without punctuation but will draw a picture when I get home

so decided I'm going with the 3/4 inch riser
50 - 60mm below plate
1" cap

My plate so far does the downcomer have to have a complete seal as a gasket or o ring between and does the downcomer look to high at 25mm

If it’s 25 and that's the bath depth your after then it’s perfect :handgestures-thumbupleft: the downcomer doesn't have to be perfectly sealed to the plate as the vapor will keep the liquid from leaking back down but the tighter the better.

Ok I made the hole a little big might make a washer to place there cuz when held up to light u can c little pin holes of light

From what i know the downcomer needs to be secured to the plate.
I think 5star units have a locknut underneath.

No seals are required its all just sealed physically by flat surfaces, any small holes just function as weep holes when you turn the power off.

scythe wrote:From what i know the downcomer needs to be secured to the plate.
I think 5star units have a locknut underneath.

No seals are required its all just sealed physically by flat surfaces, any small holes just function as weep holes when you turn the power off.

Any small holes turn that area of the plate into a defacto sieve plate. Extra bubbles :handgestures-thumbupleft:

oh sweet so my stuff up gives me more bubbles lol

and there is a lock nut under it that threads into the socket on top I just have to tig some pipe on it then put my one inch cup on which I'm yet to fabricate as this plate was only a trial but maybe ill go with it for now. But out of gas at the moment waiting for a huge amount to weld so I can smash it all out in a weekend but need to get some parts for the boiler and need to find time to machine up the other cap risers which at the moment is proving very difficult

So curious if there's reasons for why certain size downcomer r used if the pipe going down is 3/4 inch and the cup on the bottom is 1 1/4 inch is this too big cuz I have acquired some fittings that would work well but r a bit bigger than the normal fittings used

As long as the vapour pressure through riser is less than up the downcommer it wont matter how big the downcommer cup is. Vapour will always travel path of least resistence..