6 inch Build

[royboy73]

Thanks to Crispy have a 800 length of 6 inch to start new build :music-deathmetal: Hoping some of the gurus on here might help me out. My questions are I have started making a 200mm 4 inch condenser as shown will this be enough ? Also 2 4 inch 90's because I have them to a 500 4 inch PC mainly cause I don't have any 3 inch.What size for pipe for parrot.Last question will a 18 keg work till I finish my 120 litre boiler.Thanks all advice appreciated cheers

[rumdidlydum]

6inch column with 4inch sightglasses, 6inch reflux condenser with 25 1/2inch tubes, onto a 6inch to 4inch reducer, to two elbows to your pc :D

What ever you decide make sure your happy with the plan 6inch would be handy to have :clap:

Or split a section of 6inch and make a 8inch inline thumper :))

[dogbreath vodka]

Perhaps my Steampunk 2 can give some inspiration.
In my signature line.
Page 5 is the upgraded reflux condenser. 200mm with 19 x 3/4" tubes..... works very well.

[Zak Griffin]

Looking forward to this one Roy!

[Crispy]

I also am watching with interest - keep the pics coming Roy.

I need some inspiration and ideas to keep me going til I can get back home and start a build of my own...

6inch column with 4inch sightglasses, 6inch reflux condenser with 25 1/2inch tubes, onto a 6inch to 4inch reducer, to two elbows to your pc :D

What ever you decide make sure your happy with the plan 6inch would be handy to have :clap:

Or split a section of 6inch and make a 8inch inline thumper :))

Hmmm now there's an idea.....I may just be able to find some 8" if you need it ... :D

[royboy73]

Thanks guys this build will be slow one. Price of fittings etc hard to slip past shmbo. Forgot about steam punk sorry DV your thread answered half my questions ^:)^ Going to go with 6 inch RC. Want to keep modules at around 200 so might be hitting my new best friend up when he's back from O/S :D .Giving myself a 3 month goal cash permitting.Had a bit play with plates this morning anyone used perforated plates in 6 inch ? Have few large caps but not enough cheers Roy

[dogbreath vodka]

If you are doing easy flanges, you will need to pay particular attention to how flat they are.
I used a stainless steel flange from Mac as a guide to make them as flat as possible.
Even so, they needed an extra seal to make them watertight.

Jumping from 4" to 6" things change regarding build quality needed.
I have seen and bought pressed copper flanges from another supplier, but not used them yet.
Or you could go all stainless flanges.

Just a thought.
:D

[royboy73]

Funny u should say that DV just ordered 9' 6 inch ferrules from a mate works as engineer at food processing plant in Bathurst. I have had issues with squareness its great method easy flange just my skill level especially on 6.Even thinking 4 inch ferrules for sight glass. Have very skilled fabricatior as mate so am lucky there said not a problem.Your rounded reducer with tow ball is fantastic might use it to get down to my 4 inch 90's ^:)^

[dogbreath vodka]

Lot of guys cracked sight glasses in the past using ferrules.
I suspect because of overtightening the triclamp.
With screwed on sg fittings that doesn't happen as easily.

The 4" SG allows you to access the bubble caps without stripping down the still..... if you need to.
Had a puke with a rum wash and could clean it out of the module through the SG.
Also I don't have the caps soldered as they are quite large and tend not to bounce around during runs.
Makes it easy for clean ups as well.

Consider CIP at the top of your column and drain holes in each plate.
Makes life so much easier. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Looks like you have a lot of good ideas anyway.... looking forward to seeing your build. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[warramungas]

The power requirements to load and sustain a 6" perforated plate would be fairly high. Dont have figures but unless you have a lot of power to throw at it you'll need to restrict the plates (fewer holes) which sort of defeats the purpose.
Those 2" bubble caps are the ducks nuts and I would go with at least 2 per module.
6" will cost more with everything.
Swmbo needs to understand. Slap her on the rump and demand that she lets you have a few more bubble caps, if that's ok and she doesn't mind. Please, sir, pretty please with a cherry on top. ^:)^

:laughing-rolling:

[TasSpirits]

I run 4 perforated 4" plates at 60% of 2400w and have a output of around 2.2-2.5L per hour, if I was to go 6" I would stick with perforated plates. I have been using them for a while now and have also tried 1" bubble caps and am slowly putting together some plates for the FSD 2" caps. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[royboy73]

Hey Warra just showed wife your post and guess what I'm allowed to purchase more lol but she wants more than a slap on the rump I'll earn those caps haha.

[Blinky]

hey royboy finished a 6incher few months ago. Got 3 x 2'' bubble caps per plate and 1+3/16" (30mm) down comers.... works pretty well
Ended up getting a 150kpa reg for a big gas burner for now as the power setup was out of my budget.

blinky

[warramungas]

One of the plates I got was a stainless perforated plate. Didn't realize until I put it together for the first run on my 4". After a chat with the fella I 'stole' it off he told me he did have 4 of them originally as they were cheaper but never performed well. Had trouble loading and maintaining the load. It's touchy as F**k compared to the caps. Need to run at least 8 amps to keep it loaded but I think the holes might be too big. Look around 3 mm across each one. I'm not gunna mess with it as it works but I don't like it. Might build another bubble cap plate for it sometime.

Three caps looked really crowded on your mock up and one would have just looked lonely and with them on special they're a bargain. Should actually get one and a downcomer for myself to save the f'n around building them and F off that perforated plate. Making a flat plate the right size and drilling it out is the easy bit. Made a couple of monsters for my thumper recently and making the caps and downcomers themselves were the hard part.

[Zak Griffin]

DBV used single 3" caps on Steampunk 2, I went with 3x 2" caps on Agrajag...

[dogbreath vodka]

:text-yeahthat:
Can't comment on the difference in performance between single caps, multiple caps and perforated.
Can say I get good results from my still.

The thing I was looking for was the ability to leave the cap loose for cleaning.
The pools on my plates are also deeper. Some discussion on here suggest that there is no advantage in that over shallow plate depths.
My reasons for a deeper pool is it took a lot of energy to get it there and I don't want it cycling back into the boiler.

From the results reported on here over the years there doesn't seem to be any outstanding advantages from having deeper plate depths, number of caps or even glass and stainless over copper columns.
They all work pretty well. Maybe at a commercial level there is..... just not hobby level.

I say build what takes your fancy! It can all be changed later if you are not happy with it. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Zak Griffin]

Are your caps not tacked to the plate, DBV?

[dogbreath vodka]

No mate... they are heavy enough not to need it.
They can jump about if need be but rarely do.
I had a couple of runs puke into the bottom plate while doing a mango rum.
Took out the sight glass, took the cap out through the sight glass mount , cleaned everything and replaced... :handgestures-thumbupleft: worked a wonder and lost maybe 20mins each time.

[royboy73]

Thanks for the comments :handgestures-thumbupleft: Been doing bit on modules and PC. So modules are 180 with 4 inch sights.Sights are flared for s/s ferrules going to do same for 6 inch at this stage.PC and 90s welded going to weld 90s and PC as a whole unit. :music-deathmetal:

[Zak Griffin]

Killing it, Roy! :happy-partydance: