Hello all, I've been toying around with the idea of a bubbler for awhile now. Especially like the idea of short run times relative to my current VM.
What I want to build:
4" Modular Bubbler with 5 to 6 (perforated / single / multiple bubble caps - not sure which is best?), a packed section (x mm) (either volcanic rock or SS scribbers), a 155mm 4" Shotgun RC with 9 x 32mm vapour tubes, 500mm 2" shotgun PC with 5 x 10mm vapour tubes, copper breather (like Brendan's build) and then the parrot. I will be using (maybe) 2 x 2.4kW elements to bring up to temp and then just using 1 for the remaining run.
For the Boiler
Will be getting some 4" clamps and shit eventually (when I get my new kegs - eventually) and take it to a metalworking shop and get them to tig it all for me. So I will probably be looking at getting two of MacStills element gaurds and having the 1" ferrules tig'd aswell. So I'd be thinking of replacing the 2" port on the keg with a 4" and also add a 4" fill port. 1" SS ball valve for emptying
I intend to use the standard 4 plate config for whiskeys and rums, with the 5 or 6 plate with packed section for my neutrals. (When the extra plates and sections are added I will just add a 1m ish section to the PC to bring it down to take off height)
My problem is that I only have a standard ceiling height to work with, so lets say 2.3m (to be safe). I will be looking to buy the 5 or 6 qual 4" tees (mainly because I dont trust my worksmanship to get me plumb easy flanges, but then again I do have 2m of 4" sitting around and begging to be ravaged... with allot of brazing rods aswel).
So I drew it all up in AutoCAD allowing about 22mm per triclamp join (10mm per flange and 2mm for gasket - just to be safe), with 5 plates I can pretty much fit in a standard 600mm packed section, and with 6 plates, I would have to reduce that section down by about 200 to 300mm. Is it better to have fewer plates, and a longer packed section, or more plates with a substantially shorter packed section? What has the biggest influence in terms of producing a neutral? I read in Brendan's build that he still has to double distill his vodka's (6 plates with packed section) - if you had 5 plates and a longer section would that be better or worse?
When it comes to the actual plates, i will be looking to fit them in between the unions on each tee, and probably look at just buying the standard copper plate from MacStill, or just building my own (i will become one with my hammer!). I know the perf plates are allot more work, but between the single large bubble cap, multiple small bubble caps and perf plates which is better? (I am sure i will get arguements for and against for each). Generally how deep should the bubble bath be? And what influence does the bubble bath have on the final product?
Approximate Bill of Quantities
Copper
5 - 6 x 4” Equal Tees
2 x 4” to 2” Reducers
0.6 – 1m of 4” pipe
2 m of 2” pipe
1.4 – 1.5 m of 32mm pipe
3 m of 10mm pipe
2 x 2” 90 deg bends
2 x 2” to 1” reducers
Assorted Joiners
Triclamps and SS Items
17 – 19 4” Triclamps
27 ish 4” Ferrules
9 – 12 4” silicon gaskets
5 x 2” triclamp sets
2 x 1” triclamp sets
Whatever I need to make the plates.
Does it look like I have missed something or need to consider anything else?