Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

That's some serious overkill IMHO. Unlike the RC, most of the cooling hard works already been done. I think mines about 800 long, 2" OD and has 5 x 1/2 tubes and that is plenty, never had a cooling problem.

:text-+1:
My pc is only 600mm with 4x 1/2inch pipes. It knocks down my 6000w stripping run no worries

Thanks for the quick reply guys, very handy to know, I was worried about building it and having to build another one bigger. Seems I shouldn't have worried.
I will still put a baffle in halfway, I like the idea of the water having to move around a bit.

Nice build mate,consider brazing a 1/2inch npt female threaded fittings for coolant inlets and outlets on the RC and PC ,better flexibility for coolant lines and valves,or use a 90' bend in 1/2 inch tube so they point down when fitted.cheers hillzabilly :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Cheers Hillzabilly, I plan to bend the 1/2" pipe 90 degrees, I just stuck those pieces in for show.

I am thinking of building some type of manifold/control panel in between the column and PC, I saw someone here do that for the water flow valves and it looked quite neat.

Nice to see a new bubbler being built :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Thanks db.

Well tonight I tried my hand at notching out a piece of 3" pipe to fit against the 4", used an online pipe joining thingy, I guess it worked, but it is a little rough, I set my router spindle height to cut the pipe, then hand profiled the curve as best I could, it wasn't perfect but I think with a little practice I'll get better.

Is there a rule of thumb as to how far to keep a pipe join away from an easy flange ? I need to keep this piece as close to the top of the blockhead as possible, and also with the sight glasses I don't want them sticking out any more than they need to.

Cheers.

Russell.

Just leave enough space to get the clamps on and off.

That's my issue, I dont have any clamps yet to measure.

20mm will give you plenty of room for a clamp.

Awesome, thanks woodduck !

So I carefully snuck into the shed today (mothers day!) and did some notching on the three inch for the sight glasses, what a pain that is. I found the best was to just use the old angle grinder and go for it.

Didn't finish all of them, and might re-do the one for the blockhead T as it was done first and is a bit dodgy.

Tried easy flanging one and that went pretty well.

The three inch I have was sitting in the weather for a while so it is a bit green, might see if the dishwasher cleans it up a bit.

Mine weren't great to start with too but I found wrapping some 40 grit sandpaper around a piece of 4" and giving them a rub over seemed to sort out most inconsistencies.

They look pretty good to me in the pic. :handgestures-thumbupleft:
Mine weren't perfect and i was a bit worried that they would be hard to solder on.
As long as you solder from the inside and before you cut out the holes it went together no worries. The solder held in the gaps and sealed no worries.
Good luck!

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db1979 wrote:Mine weren't great to start with too but I found wrapping some 40 grit sandpaper around a piece of 4" and giving them a rub over seemed to sort out most inconsistencies.

Good Idea, I was thinking of making something out of timber to do the same, but the 4" is already made.

dans.brew wrote:They look pretty good to me in the pic. :handgestures-thumbupleft:
Mine weren't perfect and i was a bit worried that they would be hard to solder on.
As long as you solder from the inside and before you cut out the holes it went together no worries. The solder held in the gaps and sealed no worries.
Good luck!

I was wondering whether or not to cut the holes first, I guess if not then you could keep the solver solder on the inside easier with the flame on the inside, with the hole cut you'd probably have to heat from outside the 3", which would draw the silver solder out, making it a bit messy. Thanks for that.

Russ wrote:

dans.brew wrote:They look pretty good to me in the pic. :handgestures-thumbupleft:
Mine weren't perfect and i was a bit worried that they would be hard to solder on.
As long as you solder from the inside and before you cut out the holes it went together no worries. The solder held in the gaps and sealed no worries.
Good luck!

I was wondering whether or not to cut the holes first, I guess if not then you could keep the solver solder on the inside easier with the flame on the inside, with the hole cut you'd probably have to heat from outside the 3", which would draw the silver solder out, making it a bit messy. Thanks for that.

Exactly right! Keep it all happening on the inside and cut the hole afterwards... save the mess.
I would think they would be terrible to do the other way round.

Did another notch today, I decided the one I did for the blockhead was a bit ordinary. So I wrapped the paper template around, taped it on, then cut two sort of V's with a thin cutting blade to remove most of the material, then tried a flappy sanding disk in the angle grinder. I wish I tried that first, much better control, no gouging in randomly and the finish was significantly better. It was also good for minor adjustments instead of using a half moon file and a lot of elbow grease. As the flappy disc is more gentle you can really contour the pipe how you want without it grabbing or leaving indents. The disk I had was a very worn one so it was rounded on the outside edge, I think this played a major part, if it was new it would have been biting into the copper just like a normal grinding disk.

Now I am looking at the top bend down to the PC, is there any science to how far the PC assembly sits from the column? I was just going to copy as best I could others builds. I don't want to have it too far away as it will tend to lever the main column wanting to topple it.

Cheers.

Russell.

One thing I would check is how far your PC assembly is going to sit from the column, check that the PC and parrot if your putting one on does not foul with your boiler etc.

My PC and parrot assembly makes contact with my boiler if I run it with 4 or less plates. Have to put an additional sight glass tee in just to clear the boiler by a little.

Food for thought, I'm not sure what your config plan is like.

Good point, I'm kinda just winging the plan part, though keeping everything modular as much as I can, my PC could always swing forward on an angle if need be, since I'm putting an easy flange right at the blockhead. I'll do some measurements and see how close its going to be.

Hows the build coming mate?