Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

I've had no trouble at all with it mate. I even soft soldered a plate into my packed section and it barely scorched the clear coat. It will be fine for your still mate :handgestures-thumbupleft:

woodduck wrote:I've had no trouble at all with it mate. I even soft soldered a plate into my packed section and it barely scorched the clear coat. It will be fine for your still mate :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Thanks mate, I'm in the process of using super fine steel wool on the packed section and I'm loving the brushed look as opposed to the high polish, might just go with this I reckon and clear coat.

Chocko

G'day everyone,

Thanks again to those that have helped me through my build, great advice all around.

Over the last month or two I've been getting through about a dozen or so TPW stripping runs and have ended up with a decent amount of
good neutral which I will be putting back through spirit runs. The main aim here is a quality Gin, and drinkable Bourbon and Scotch
from ageing and soaking on chips. I've also used these runs to test for leaks and very happy to say it's all good.

The last couple of weeks I've pulled it down and given it a clean up to clear coat. I didn't want a mirror finish plus I've found
using the buff wheel leaves a residue and no matter what I did it still left a bit which made the clear coat shit. I then decided
to go 400>600>1000 grit wet and dry sandpaper, then finished with a superfine steel wool. Happy with that and the clear coat went
on nicely.

I've finished the packed section and have stuffed it with copper scourers at each end and SS scrubbers filling the middle. Very
keen to see how this performs. My Gin head is ready to go and am just getting botanical's together to have a crack.

Today I'm doing another 50/50 vinegar run, then a sacrificial alcohol run just to give it all another clean out. I'll do this
again for the Gin head when it's set up.

I might need to consider making another extended output/parrot for the packed section/spirit runs, as this has become rather tall!

Cheers,

Chocko

PS: background is a bit busy, sorry about the poor photo composition!

Well ya gotta be happy with that mate, she's bloody beautiful! :clap: :clap: well done. I'm glad shes working well too, you'll get years of great use out of it :handgestures-thumbupleft:

woodduck wrote:Well ya gotta be happy with that mate, she's bloody beautiful! :clap: :clap: well done. I'm glad shes working well too, you'll get years of great use out of it :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Thanks woodduck, I'm really pleased. Can't wait to get into the spirit runs.

Here's the Gin basket, this thing is bloody heavy and I am a little concerned about the offset weight, may need to construct some sort of support as I set it up.

Cheers,

Chocko.

That gin basket is sweet as :handgestures-thumbupleft:

bluc wrote:That gin basket is sweet as :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Cheers bluc, appreciate it, just hope it works now!

Chocko

Chocko6969 wrote:Here's the Gin basket, this thing is bloody heavy and I am a little concerned about the offset weight, may need to construct some sort of support as I set it up

Stick a longer section of pipe on the outtake of the gin basket and run it back across to the other side of the still so the basket and reservoir are on one side and your pc is on the other so they’d balance the weight out a bit.

Professor Green wrote:

Chocko6969 wrote:Here's the Gin basket, this thing is bloody heavy and I am a little concerned about the offset weight, may need to construct some sort of support as I set it up

Stick a longer section of pipe on the outtake of the gin basket and run it back across to the other side of the still so the basket and reservoir are on one side and your pc is on the other so they’d balance the weight out a bit.

Great idea Prof, I'll get onto that I reckon!

Chocko

Well done chocko! :dance:
She looks like a beauty... very rewarding standing back and looking at it in all its shiney glory!
I'm sure you will reap many hours of enjoyment running her and then sippin on the finished product.

dans.brew wrote:Well done chocko! :dance:
She looks like a beauty... very rewarding standing back and looking at it in all its shiney glory!
I'm sure you will reap many hours of enjoyment running her and then sippin on the finished product.

Thanks dan, I'm still trying to convince my wife it's shiny AND glorious but she just won't have it???

Chocko

Give her a sip of some of its fine produce and she may change her mind. :laughing-rolling:
One of the first things any still owner with a partner or Mrs should do is make a nice drop for there other half to enjoy... it helps in a big way to justify the financial outlay and also makes future projects happen a bit easier too.

Well done chocko, loving your work :clap:

db1979 wrote:Well done chocko, loving your work :clap:

Thanks db, I'm gonna make a piece for the Gin head as Prof suggested above and will try and post some pics of the Gin build too.

Cheers,

Chocko

pure copper porn :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Chocko6969 wrote:

db1979 wrote:Well done chocko, loving your work :clap:

Thanks db, I'm gonna make a piece for the Gin head as Prof suggested above and will try and post some pics of the Gin build too.

Cheers,

Chocko

Here's a few of the Gin head build for those that might be interested. All processes are the same as the still except the cut outs for the 2" tee branch.

I did a rougher cut of the 2", but good enough to transfer a line onto the 4". This was done just to ease my own mind to make it (I think) stronger than soldering a tee to the outside. If you see the photos, this method puts the 2" inside the hole as opposed to soldering to the outside then cutting a hole. After tracing a circle with the 2" I then used a die grinder to get the majority close to the line, then the trusty Dremel with a sanding cylinder, holding it straight and checking often for fitting.
This seemed to work really well and I got a very close fit. 3" SG is offset to 45dg, no reason here, just for shits and giggles but now hoping it doesn't interrupt or hinder vapour flow too much.

I'm just finishing off Prof's suggestion and going to return the Gin head output to the opposite side. Will post photo's when I put it all together as I'm currently running spirit runs with packed section, can't believe the clean stuff coming straight off, I'm excited!

Chocko.

more pics: inside was sanded close to flush with sanding wheel on a die grinder.

done:

That's some mighty fine copper work Chocko.

:text-+1: :handgestures-thumbupleft: