Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Nice Russ!
Keep at it, you'll get there. :handgestures-thumbupleft:
Rome wasn't built in a day either.

Russ wrote:Cheers WD and DB, I finished 4 plates/downcomers today, the fifth got drilled but there were issues finishing it, I had spent a lot of time on them today and I'd had enough by that stage, tomorrows another day.

Tested the downcomers under the tap and they handle an awful amount of flow without backing up, hopefully they will work as they should.

Hi there, this build looks great mate. I'm just getting everything together for my build and have a question about the plates please.

What size is the diameter of the actual plate? My 4" is 101.5mm ext dia so would 102mm be ideal, in order to just sit or should it be a few mm larger so that it grabs some of the gasket to seal better?

Cheers!

That all depends on how you plan to mount your plates in the module and your chosen module connection method.

Some go a complete sandwich (few), or a dedicated lip the depth of the plate thickness (more common), others use the inside radius of the gasket to push against the edge of the plate as it crushes in the clamp (very common), it's a balancing act of not making the gasket distort and a joint leak vs the plate leaking

Do your modules first, work out which seals your using and go from there, many have trimmed the gasket, ezi flanges require a flat gasket - 5 Star sell a good one

RC Al wrote:Some go a complete sandwich (few), or a dedicated lip the depth of the plate thickness (more common), others use the inside radius of the gasket to push against the edge of the plate as it crushes in the clamp (very common), it's a balancing act of not making the gasket distort and a joint leak vs the plate leaking

Do your modules first, work out which seals your using and go from there, many have trimmed the gasket, ezi flanges require a flat gasket - 5 Star sell a good one

Thanks fellas, I'll be using the easy flange/tri clamp as a lot of others here do, will get the modules done then decide, good advice thanks.

Cheers!

Hey Chocko, as mentioned there are a few options. I was confused as well to start with, what I did was to make the plates the same diameter as the outside diameter of the 4". Then I did my best to cut the inside of the PTFE seals to sit around the plate, wasn't the most fun I've had and I don't think there is a simple way out of it. Remember I haven't finished my build yet so the things I do may not work haha.

I would recommend EPDM seal over the PTFE as they actually squish.
And are easier to cut with a sharp knife or scissors.

As someone that is using PTFE, I agree totally, the PTFE is hard and even with machined surfaces like my stainless end cap, its difficult to get a seal.

I am using the 5 star EPDM seals on the sight glasses, much nicer.

Russ wrote:Hey Chocko, as mentioned there are a few options. I was confused as well to start with, what I did was to make the plates the same diameter as the outside diameter of the 4". Then I did my best to cut the inside of the PTFE seals to sit around the plate, wasn't the most fun I've had and I don't think there is a simple way out of it. Remember I haven't finished my build yet so the things I do may not work haha.

Thanks for the advice, this is the way I'll go I think, just as soon as I can get moving! Still waiting on some bits and also trying to find the time while keeping the wife and kids happy too. I've been taking photos so far and will get a thread started once I get a bit more content.
Cheers!

After what has seemed like an eternity (looking back at my posts its been about two months) I have got the boiler back, very happy with deciding to put the 6" ferrule and 4" riser with ferrule on before I started using it, this way I shouldn't need to modify it or the rest of its life.

Now I am going to start assembling and cleaning each piece as they get installed, hopefully they should stay like that for evermore, except for maybe removing/adding a plate every now and then.

Pics or it didn't happen...

Paint her black and call her pot belly, I love the look :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Haha good idea!

Nice one ,looks like they used pickleing paste ta clean up the welds,make sure you rinse it and scrub it with well with scrubbies and jif to get rid of any residue its nasty shit.cheers hillzabilly ;-)

Is it gunna be off balance with still towards back instead of middle :think:

If he places the PC above the fill port it should be fine

Balance won't be an issue. The center of gravity will still be somewhere above the base of the boiler, even if the contents of the boiler are low. Worst case if the PC is opposite the fill port.

I'm going to see how it goes when its assembled and with an empty boiler. The boiler will be sitting on a stainless box section stand for now, until I decide whether to put legs on or keep the stand. If its a bit wobbly I'll clamp the boiler to the stand for the first few runs and go from there.

Good news bad news, today I mounted 4 sections including plates and also the RC and blockhead, then capped the boiler and filled the lot with water to pressure test.

The T sections held perfectly but both top and bottom seals of the RC leaked quite badly.

When my mate soldered it for me I know it rattled around in his work truck for a few weeks, the easy flanges came off and he knocked it all back together, soldered it then gave it a hit with an angle grinder to pretty it up...result is a very sad looking RC.

I think I have to cut away the flanges, also remove the 1/2 pipe for the hose connections, then re-flange them and re-attach the pipes. The reason I didn't do it myself in the first place was I didn't have a full oxy set to get enough heat into the 4inch pipe. I am going to have to find one to borrow, or at least use for half an hour.

Lucky I didn't put a wash down for a cleaning run next weekend.

Sorry to hear that mate.

Post a couple of photos so we can see the damage, it may be repairable?

Having had to redo the flanges and end plates on my RC that i have not even run yet let me tell you it will be easier to make a new one...