Bubble Cap Plated Still

[MacStill]

Here's a few pics of a bubble cap plate I'm making for a new still I'm making.





This new still will have 4 plates like this one mounted on a stainless threaded rod, shotgun dephlegmator, shotgun product condenser and a few other bells n whistles.

Once I'm done making the other 3 bubble cap plates all I need to do to finish this build is the sight glasses, these will be 1.5 inch with the glass being held in place via tri clamp.

Cheers

[MacStill]

Here's a pic of the design I'm following.

[maheel]

in the design up load what is the tube coming in from the left just above the bubble plate and below the Delfag (is that the delfag?)
it has the angled lines coming out of it

[MacStill]

Yep it's the dephleg, and the tube from the left would be the thermometer ;)

[reknaw]

looks like your going to be in the shed for awhile :)

How much of a difference do you recon it'll make from the perferated plate on the first one you did?

[MacStill]

I'm almost finished it mate, not sure how much better if any than perf plates, but apparently the bubble cap will carry over more flavor.

But then even if it doesnt I'm working on another addition to this design that will ensure a full flavor profile, again with high ABV ;)

[MacStill]

Finished the plate tree off today, geez there's a lot of work building one of these :?



Just got the sight glasses to make now and she's all done :D

Cheers.

[MacStill]

Just made a start on the sight glasses and I wanted them simple and brass (lead) free, been thinking about ways to overcome this and decided on easy flanges with tri clamps to hold the glass in place, works out LESS than a 1/3 of the price of the ones I bought from an old fella in WA :mrgreen:



Just got to find some glass and get a cutter and she's in business :mrgreen:

Cheers.

[reknaw]

Bloody hell, she looks good :)

I'll be interested to see how she looks when it's finished.

[MacStill]

Bloody hell, she looks good :)

I'll be interested to see how she looks when it's finished.

Shouldnt be too long now, just got to do a few little minor bits now and it's onto the next thing I got half built.

[QLD.Andy]

Forgive the nooby question, but how does this work?? Looks like a beast :shock:

[MacStill]

It is designed to give a strong flavor profile with high ABV% in a single distillation, it's pretty much a real fancy pot still with a series of stacked thumpers.

They're a scaled down version of a commercial still, I put a link in the off topic section titled "copper porn" where you can see the type of still these things are based on.

There's probably a lot better explanation for it than I've given, but I dont feel like typing for an hour :lol:

On youtube you can find some video footage of how these things run, try typing in "bubble plate still" and see how that goes ;)

Cheers.

[maheel]

how wide are those plates? and what are you using for it? plate copper or pipe hammered flat

and you have more time on your hands than me, your always in the shed :oops:

[QLD.Andy]

Thank Mr Mc.
It make sense now :oops:

[MacStill]

how wide are those plates? and what are you using for it? plate copper or pipe hammered flat

and you have more time on your hands than me, your always in the shed :oops:

This build is a bit of a prototype so all the details will have to wait a while, once it's built and tested I'll put up a new topic with all the build details ;)

The plates are made from offcuts of new pipe I had lying around, cut, annealed and hammered flat, I then use a scratch guage to mark the disk, cut real carefully with snips and finish them off with a file on my drill press.

Yeah I have a lot of time on my hands, but hopefully not for too much longer, cant wait to get patched up and get back to my job in the mines.

Cheers.

[MacStill]

Here's a finished sight glass, total cost was $18ea :lol:



Cheers.

[reknaw]

Did you cut the glass yourself?

[MacStill]

Nope! cost me $11 to get 5 cut from the glaziers in town, so why bother cutting them myself.

:mrgreen:

[reknaw]

Bloody hell that is cheap, I might need some of those in 2 inch.

[MacStill]

I got 5 in case I broke one, yeah well I effing broke two didnt I :x

I'm ordering 5 x 4" discs when I ring up to replace the ones I broke.... starting the new build real soon :mrgreen: