new build still drilling

[ticknaylor]

Cheers bt :handgestures-thumbupleft: . So this is how I spent my Saturday





Needs a bit of a clean up and she'll be good to go.... oh and some idiot soldered a cap on the top plate for no good reason 8-} . Unfortunately I had a couple of drinks by then :laughing-rolling:

To anyone who's attemping this build I recommend checking your drill press isn't a wobbly old piece of sh"t and your how saw holder isn't crooked. The one hole that was a snug fit was extremely easy to solder, f"ck yeah capillary action just watch your solder fill the gap. Oh and use a g clamp to hold down your drill vice if your using a drill press. 2o and 21mm holes are f"cked to solder :laughing-rolling:

Im surprise how little room the 5 plates take up. originally my plan was to make a 1m column then to eventually make a second 1m column for neutrals I may just cram a few more plates in then take them out as needed. Product condenser tomorrow I'm a bit worried bout desoldering joints so I bought some compression fittings when I was in bunnings getting some bends for the plate tree (couldn't be bothered driving to canningvale) they were $4.5 each but will save me the hassle of soldering to brass and I may easy flange the condenser again just to prevent desoldering.
Oh on that note got some 1 inch for the cups from reece wasn't worth the $10 buck saving to drive to canningvale again anyway for shits and giggles asked em for a quote on 4 inch $135 a metre how they justify the extra $50 a metre I don't know my last words were ahhhh fuck no thanks and I was out the door.

Cheers N.T.

[bt1]

geez tick,

it's belting along...nice looks good...

that extra cup on top plate wasn't a mistake was it...you really did plan for a 6 plater all along you sly bugga

When you and googe are ready for plate tree slide in I'll post my yet to be famous tree loving tips...

cheers
bt1

[googe]

Awesome mate, your kicking ass! :-D Drinking and building is fun hey :laughing-rolling: . I dont have a plate tree bt :teasing-neener: .

[Yummyrum]

Good job Nick,at this rate you'll be running by Friday :-D

How high did you make your down-comers? .Might be the camera angle but looks a little low ??

[Kimbo]

:clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: good work mate, keep the picks coming :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[ticknaylor]

Yeah bt its probably the missus brainwashing me so she can get vodkas for chick drinks. Hahaha its good to a point googe then your building performance drops right off :laughing-rolling: . Yummy rum overall size of downcomers is 110mm with 10mm sticking out the top of each plate
Here's what my shit drill bit did to a plate



Then I found this little toold in the toolbox it worked sweetly its a step down drill bit ya just drill a pilot hole and your away



So it begs the question is it really worth twisting my product condenser or wrapping wire around it anyone got any opinions I seen it done both ways?
Its 4 1/2 inch tubes 500mm long. Theres not a lot of space in the two inch pipe so I thought it might restrict the flow at the centre of the twist.

[bluess57]

The wire wrap around the tubes is to prevent laminar flow of water at the pipe surface.
I.e promote turbulent flow
No idea if it actually works, sounds good in theory and is easy to do

[Yummyrum]

. Yummy rum overall size of downcomers is 110mm with 10mm sticking out the top of each plate

Thats what it looks like .Hope someone else can jump in here but I was sure most had the down-comer height at around 20mm above plate

So it begs the question is it really worth twisting my product condenser or wrapping wire around it anyone got any opinions I seen it done both ways?

Not sure but I twisted mine and I only have literally a trickle flowing through it and my condensate comes out in the low 20c most of the year .Pretty sure my boiler is around 2Kw

Theres not a lot of space in the two inch pipe so I thought it might restrict the flow at the centre of the twist.

If you just twist it ,the pipes will close up in the middle ,I had to massage them apart slightly so there was an even gap all around them.Come to think of it it was a PITA.Perhaps the wire wrap method is easier.Some don't even bother at all ,just straight through .Just up your flow rate :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[MR-E]

If it helps, my tubes are straight thru, no wire and my shotty is 16" in length & only needs a trickle of water.

[bt1]

same,
mines straight through with no wire...

reckon cooling water will remix constantly anyway as some heats up and cold moves in, especially if your on a decent pump it has enough turbulence...never really saw any value in it.

bt1

[ticknaylor]

Hey yummy I got the 10mm from one of macs posts, it is from 2011 i figure its still good advice scroll down theres a pic with the 10mm in it viewtopic.php?f=36&t=549 .

Thanks for the replies fellas went for straight pipes no wire or twist and damn it pisses out water, shits all over a coil on my boka which is wound well. I had a nice solder going but then it leaked and I ended up with a big messy solder. So first step was to solder the 4 1/2 inch pipes to the two plates this was easy the solder just gets sucked into the joints. Anyway at the top of the product condenser I decided to leave a 15mm gap to allow for an easy flange later or just straight join to the 90 degree bend . The torch choked and spluttered I think its because of the back pressure created from the heat going into the half inch pipes anyway still relatively easy solder. The bottom plate connection was a piss off dunno if I was putting the heat in the wrong place but I found it a lot easier once I left a little lip on the 2" pipe, when i had a flush join between two inch and the plate it run away from the join anyway thought I just share that so it might save someone the hassles i had. Like i said i thought I had nice clean solders with little waste but it leak so I hammered it with solder so its not pretty but atleast its sealed here's some pics of the product condenser build. Unfortunately im house sitting for the missus's mate and shes to chicken to do it alone so I gotta go to, so the builds on hold for a week but hey atleast I bought a couple bottles of whiskey, a couple of files, sand paper and some vinegar so I can clean up the build. love soft solder for cleaning up but sux to watch that expensive shit being filed away :angry-banghead: I'm really obsessed with this build forgot how much fun building is. :handgestures-thumbupleft: Cheers N.T.









Sorry I had more pics but I was taking em on my phone without checking em and there blurry and shit 8-} oh and that ding in the two inch is wher some dickhead drop the condenser :handgestures-thumbdown: i'll have to fix that soon

[emptyglass]

Giving stick one's thing...

but the rod...geez..take it easy that extra "motivation" can lead to all sorts of hassles

Last thing you need to do is howl out "refluxer" in the throws of the final act bloke :laughing-rolling: a semi-retired stick
bt1

Bt1, keeping it real.

TN, probably a bit late for you now, but I bat for both teams. I've tried straight through, twisted pipe and wire wrapping.
Wire wrapping helped the most, but only a little bit. If you are on the edge of preformance, it does help a little, but nothing that an extra inch of length wouldn't fix
(thats what all the girls say)
if you have a 3/4" over 1/2" leibig condenser, I wouldn't make one without wire wrapping, but a shotgun is a different beast.

And remember what the semi retired stick said, don't misplace your wife's name for that of you still.

[ticknaylor]

hahaha cheers EG I think I might just give my still the same name so I don't get them mixed up :laughing-rolling: Yeah I figured with the amount of water pissing through it, it won't be an issue. I gotta get the 4 inch next and start the column I heard 1m for column and defag in a post, seems short to me

[ticknaylor]

Im going to get some parts this morning just a quick question I'm a bit concerned about is how in the bubbler chat its says 1m of 4 inch is enough to build the column and dephlag but when I look at the experts columns they look bigger than a metre are my eyes playing tricks on me or am I right to say the experts are making bigger than 1m? Hell yeah Saturday is building day 8-)

[MacStill]

1m is enough to do a 4 or 5 plate still with the plates 100mm apart :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[ticknaylor]

cheers for the quick reply mac legend off to parkwoods this morning :D

[MacStill]

Tell em AL sent you ;-)

[ticknaylor]

i told em al sent me, then i asked whether al bought a bit of copper bloke said al buys ALOT off copper :laughing-rolling:

[ticknaylor]

Pays to check your stuff before you leave the reducers are the same size as thr pipe there meant to be reducing I dunno if its my fault coz I ask for the wrong thing I just assumed a reducer would fit over both of the pipes that are changing sizes to :angry-banghead: either way it fucks up my plans for the weekend coz there closed now :crying-blue:

[MacStill]

Yeh it's your fuck up :laughing-rolling:

All the larger reducers are pipe size on the large ends, you need an expander or pay extra for the joiners ;-)