Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

My afternoons effort, as per db's suggestion I did the sight glass 3" on the BBQ, I also only used the mapp gas torch, I am trying to not use so much oxygen on the porta oxy set, it is expensive, not as expensive as setting up a normal oxy set though.

It worked, not as fast as the oxy set but not too bad. I don't think it would work on the 4" though, I will use the mapp torch plus the BBQ to soak some heat in and make the process as fast as possible.

Great work :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Good work :handgestures-thumbupleft:

BBQ idea was RC Al's.

Whoops, sorry bout that RC Al :) senior moment.

Yeah, was starting to stress about the royalties :))

Cheque's now in the mail 8-}

So quick question, if you use bubble caps, how do you drain the plates once everything is finished ? Even perf plate will hold some liquid in the drain part.

1.8mm max hole in plate.

That sounds a lot better/easier than the drain back valve system I had in mind, cheers.

So I was having trouble getting enough heat into the 4" using the oxy set I have, and I really don't like soft solder that much, so I dropped a T piece to a mate that has a TIG, and asked nicely if he could have a crack at TIG'ing the 3" sight glass section onto the 4". He had some trouble at first until he worked it out and I reckon he did a pretty sweet job, used copper wire as filler.

Gotta clean up the remaining pieces and get him to do the rest. Cheering !

I will give it a vinegar bath to make it pretty and re-post the result.

Nice, :handgestures-thumbupleft:
Might have a couple of pin holes in it though looking at the picture. Sure you can fix them up if they are though :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Yeah he had some porosity issues, the plan is to leak test it and if the holes go right through I'll dob a bit of silver solder on to close them up.

Tried to order some sight glasses from the 5 star site but its down, bugger, should have done it the other day...

Got another 2 T pieces back from my mate, that is 3 done. I dropped the blockhead and another T to him, I have to clean up the last piece and get it to him, then that is all of them.

Pretty happy.

Nice work mate! :handgestures-thumbupleft:
You've got a pretty handy mater there. They should look smick all cleaned up.

Cheers Dan.

I am really happy how they turned out, the photos don't do them justice. I have decided to wait until they are all done, and the seals seat properly before I make them pretty. I was going to buff polish them but tried the old vinegar/lemon juice/salt cleaning brew and that worked quite well. I reckon after a good clean and a coat of clear engine enamel they will look the part.

Been a while since I last posted, haven't had much time for the build but there has been some progress.

Got a mate with an oxy set to silver solder the RC together and the cooling water pipes. He did the pipes a bit different to what I had on mind but no matter, it should work.
He also soldered the 3" right angle and easy flanges together that clamp onto the blockhead, and PC.

Still need to build the PC core and start on the perf plates.

Decided to assemble what parts I do have so far, hopefully I will get inspired and finish it someday.

Easy flanges seem to work OK, used PTFE seals with the locating ridge sliced off, haven't done a leak test yet, don't want to ruin my weekend haha.

Sweet as personally I would get a 4" fitting on keg. 2" is bit wonky...

Yea what I've found when tiggin copper if the filler rod isn't 100% clean it will cause porosity, I use 1.6mm enameled copper wire and spend ages sanding off the enamel. Even tried burning it off too then sanding but still get porosity, in the end I just use a clean glove for the filler feed and that seems to work.

Now for hard soldering putting the solder piece ontop of a burner can speed up the process by a huge margin as copper is a natural heatsink if another heat source is there the part you heat with a torch will get upto temp that much quicker.

Cheers Bryan

Russ wrote:
Decided to assemble what parts I do have so far, hopefully I will get inspired and finish it someday.

Coming together nicely Russ!
Just keep thinking of how shiney it will look all polished up... not to mention the tasty nectar that will flow from it! That should keep you going. :laughing-rolling: