Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Researching/planning a modular bubbler build, just gathering some materials and trying to sort out a plan.
Thinking of going all copper 5 plate modular with optional packed section. Have some 6 inch pipe already, enough to make 5x150 mm tees and a 150mm rc, and some 5 inch for the tees/sight glasses.

Anyway my question is I can't find in any build threads how people seat their plates into the tees. I see the five star stainless tees have a recess in the ferrule that the tees seat into. But how do u do it in copper? Solder them in? Or cut the plates to the same od as your easy flange and they are like a gasket between tees? Or solder some little tabs or a ring inside the tee for them just to sit on?

If anyone can point me in the right direction it would be much appreciated.

Also wondering if I might be biting off more than I can chew doing a 6 inch bubbler for my first one? Contemplating maybe going 4 inch and using the 6 inch I have for plates and maybe an inline thumper?

Have already built my own 2" pot and a 2" cm both with shotgun condensers

A 6 inch bubbler is gonna take some feeding. A 50L boiler will barely charge it, so youll be looking for a 100L upgrade in no time.


As for seating the plates, ive been wondering myself. Make sure you can afford (and get) 5 inch sightglasses before you commit. 4 inch might be easier and cheaper.

orcy wrote:A 6 inch bubbler is gonna take some feeding. A 50L boiler will barely charge it, so youll be looking for a 100L upgrade in no time.


As for seating the plates, ive been wondering myself. Make sure you can afford (and get) 5 inch sightglasses before you commit. 4 inch might be easier and cheaper.

Yeah boiler is another thing to upgrade. Already have quite a few CUB kegs. When I'm getting close to finishing I'll just cut and shut 2 together and make a 80-90 litre boiler.

As for sight glasses I may opt for 4 inch and use my 5 inch for plates ect. See how it goes

With sanitary ferrules you can remove the inner part of the seal and can put plate in there..or you can just sandwich them between the ferrules/easy flange.. as you say the 5 star ones sit in a recess. You can also solder them in. Also in the case of a plate tree they are a press fit. Where you slide the tree in and out :handgestures-thumbupleft: Gives you a few options

Not 100% sure but recon they just use a thin seal either side of the plate.

woodduck wrote:Not 100% sure but recon they just use a thin seal either side of the plate.

So just the plate forms the flange gasket with a very thin seal either side or maybe a wrap or 2 of plumbing tape around the edge?

Maybe you could make copper easy flange and just rout out a recess with a lathe?

You can do it 3 ways.

1* Cut the inner bit out of the standard seal and sit the plate in the inner ring on the ferrule.
2* Make you own thin gaskets out of silicone baking sheet (as long as its the good stuff with no fillers).
3* Solder your plate to your modules and just use the seal between ferrules.


It really depends on what you want to do.

Cutting the inner bit out is easy, but if you are using easy flanges then you need to remove the bead as well, you leave the bead alone if you are using ferrules.

Soldering the plates in is also easy but then it makes the modules a little harder to clean, but its still easy if your caps are removable.

Making you own gaskets out of baking sheets is fine if you can find the quality silicone sheets but this can get expensive as you are making big circles once you get up to 6" and pure silicone baking sheet without fillers can be hard to find.

I guess if you wanted to try it you could wrap your plate with teflon tape around the diameter, but im not sure how many rolls you would go through each plate or how many times you could use each "seal"

Going to try to make everything I can so I'll be doing easy flanges. So I think I'll be soldering them into the top end of the tees. And for the lowest one into the top of the bridging section that joins to the keg.

Odd choice.
What about your top module with the RC above it?, you would need to put a spacer between them.
Generally if you are going to solder plates in you do it so the plates are at the bottom of the module.

Ah good point, :oops:

Didn't think about that.

So it seems most people go with the removal of inner part of the seal and seat it there?

Much still to learn. I'll keep reading

Fishleg wrote:Much still to learn. I'll keep reading

That is the important part of building a bubbler and why I'm glad there's no "plans" of bubblers around. By the time I built mine I knew exactly how I wanted it and how it was gonna work. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with asking questions, it’s good to get confirmation on ideas but reading build threads is the key to gathering all the related info you need. I don't think there is a page in the plated still section I haven't read (and there are alot :laughing-rolling: ) Bookmark the ones that you think are really useful and even start a list with what inportant stuff you've found in what thread and what page it was on because trust me they all blend into one after a while :laughing-rolling: I look forward to the build thread :handgestures-thumbupleft:

woodduck wrote:That is the important part of building a bubbler and why I'm glad there's no "plans" of bubblers around. By the time I built mine I knew exactly how I wanted it and how it was gonna work. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with asking questions, it’s good to get confirmation on ideas but reading build threads is the key to gathering all the related info you need. I don't think there is a page in the plated still section I haven't read (and there are alot :laughing-rolling: ) Bookmark the ones that you think are really useful and even start a list with what inportant stuff you've found in what thread and what page it was on because trust me they all blend into one after a while :laughing-rolling: I look forward to the build thread :handgestures-thumbupleft:

:text-+1: building a bubbler 101

scythe wrote:You can do it 3 ways.

1* Cut the inner bit out of the standard seal and sit the plate in the inner ring on the ferrule.

Cutting the inner bit out is easy, but if you are using easy flanges then you need to remove the bead as well, you leave the bead alone if you are using ferrules.

:text-+1: That's exactly what I did. And, when I was building mine I wondered the exact same thing!