Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Well I packed up and shipped off my bubbler to another member here this morning and need to build another one for myself, so I started the build this arvo with a drop in shotgun reflux condenser.

The reflux condenser is 90mm long fitted with 4x1" tubes, cooling lines are 1/2"

This build will be a little different again, it'll have 4 perforated plates, 4 x 2" sight glasses, side take off and a shotgun product condenser. Also going to go with a 4" keg connection so the plates can be removed to use the rig as a stripping still.

First pic is getting the reflux condenser housing ready, I have to cut the tube down the length and remove about 15mm to get it to fit inside the column, then braze it back together holding it with big hose clamps.



Next is all the tubes and coolant lines in place, the cooling line at the front has the bottom cut off at 45 degrees and is pushed to the bottom of the condenser, this is the "coolant out" line & the coolant inlet protrudes just inside the top of the condenser.



Next up I grind sand and file the welds smooth and check for fit inside the column.... perfect as usual :lol:



JD guess what the take off area and reflux housing came from :shock:

Cheers.

It's awesome watching an artist at work

Cheers

your a one man still building machine !!!

you must have a very understanding wife 8-)

maheel wrote:your a one man still building machine !!!

you must have a very understanding wife 8-)

Yeah Mrs Mac understands I need to keep myself busy, otherwise I'd be in the house pissing her off :lol:

She also understands that without a still her bourbon is going to cost $40 a bottle.

:mrgreen:

So today I'm starting on the plate tree, it'll be 4 perforated plates spaced 120mm apart.

First thing is to pre drill center holes using a 1/8 drill bit, then with a scratch gauge I made from scrap (compass would do) I mark the circles.



Next is to cut them out, I use really good tin snips but you could use a hole saw if you want, I just prefer to use snips.... cutting very carefully around the scratch line, you want them as close a fit as possible without cutting inside the line.

They're a little rough like this but I'm about to fix that in a minute ;)



Then drill out the center hole on the plates to the size of the rod or whatever you want to use, I like 6mm stainless threaded rod as it makes the final adjustment of the plates nice n easy.... some guys use a bit of 1/4 tubing but I dont like that idea, you stuff up the position of the plates and you'll need to melt solder and redo it.... So SS rod it is for me ;)

Place all the plates on a small piece of rod and into the drill press they go, this is how I get them smooth and a nice tight fit inside the column..



Once nice and smooth I'll shine em up and debur the edges.

Now the filing has been done and edges smoothed of I'll check for fit in the column, and of course it's perfect yet again :lol:



Next up I mark out and center punch one of the plates, you'll want the hole area to work out at roughly 30% of the plate surface.



Start drilling 7654 holes :?



Cont.

Now all the plates have been drilled out and the downcomers are ready to be soldered in, this is when I realize I've fucked up.... anyone spot the mistake?



Soldiering on after my stuff up I start preparing to solder them in, you want about 10mm of the downcomer protruding above the top of the plate.



Plates almost done, just got to fit them to the SS rod and solder the cups for the downcomers on.



Cont.

Plate tree is all done now and the fuck up is fixed, the plate tree is the most time consuming part of a bubbler build and is probably the best place to start if anyone intends taking one of these builds on.



Checking if the assembled tree fits, and yep! of course it does.... like a finger in a bum :lol:



So! now we move onto the next step of getting the sight glasses sorted, for this build I'm fitting "fester flanges" from "Artisan Copper works"

Here I'm measuring up exactly where they need to go, I'll center punch before cutting the holes in the column with a hole saw.



Cont.

And then here's a mock up of where the build will be until tomorrow, I'm too busy drinking rum now :mrgreen:

Brigand wrote:It's awesome watching an artist at work

Cheers

It's almost an obsession once I get going mate, I wake up at night planning my next days tasks on these builds.

I just love these stills :mrgreen:

Looks like a lot of work to get to the final product. Wow.

Compared to a more traditional pot still head, can you give us a brief run down on the good and bad things about a plated column style design?

They look pretty cool, but does the extra work and materials equal extra quality product or ease of operation?

I've researched pots and reflux columns a fair bit but have dead set baulked at plates/fluted designs just because they look so hard to do for most people to fabricate.

I must admit it would be cool to "look in" at the magic as it it happening!

I doubt that it could be this simple , it might be just the photos...or my eyes but it looks like you forgot to drill some holes in one plate???

Looks like you drilled to many holes hey :)

bradsgonetrekkin wrote:Looks like a lot of work to get to the final product. Wow.

Compared to a more traditional pot still head, can you give us a brief run down on the good and bad things about a plated column style design?

They look pretty cool, but does the extra work and materials equal extra quality product or ease of operation?

I've researched pots and reflux columns a fair bit but have dead set baulked at plates/fluted designs just because they look so hard to do for most people to fabricate.

I must admit it would be cool to "look in" at the magic as it it happening!

The thing I love most about these plated columns is the amount of hearts you get from a run, once the plates are all loaded and the temp stable you can pretty much bleed heads slowly or leave it refluxing for a good while to draw them off. From a 30L wash I'll end up with about 400 to 500ml of heads.

Getting into the hearts it just runs itself until the stream turns to drips and the first hint of tails come through, by now the tails are so compressed that once you turn the reflux condenser off the alcometer just about jumps out of the parrot, and rarely do I collect more than 400mls of tails from a run.

So from the time tails arrive at 88% to the time you get down to 20% wouldnt take more than 1/2 an hour, possibly less if I timed it properly.

Drawbacks/down side is only in the cost of the build and time it takes to build it, other than that and the fact it's not a very good vodka still it's all positives for me.

All the extra work and materials is well worth it, I wouldnt be without a bubbler..... they're easier to run than a VM or LM, and produce awesome flavor in one run compared to a simple pot still.... It's my "go to" rig for the stuff I want to make ;)

Not an easy build for sure, but very doable with some patience and basic tools, and once done you've got a still that's a ripper and for life.

However! anyone calling these things "FLUTES" in future will be spending a week in the sin bin :lol: fuck I hate that name for these things :lol: :lol:

Just kidding ;)

Cheers.

Spud1700 wrote:Looks like you drilled to many holes hey :)

Yup :oops:

Forgot about leaving a blank area for the cups, easy fix though as I just flooded the cups with solder ;)

Looks the good mate

c'mon mate. I thought OD had the patent on the naming rights now :lol:

So does that mean with a plated design you only need to pot still your rums and bourbons once, or do you still strip first?

oooh! funny :lol:

1 run, high ABV @ 90ish % @ pot still speed = :mrgreen:

and yummy :D

Damn it, now you have me thinking of a new build before I even finished my last ones...

Well if you've got any questions and dont want to be told to read 300 pages of hype, you know where to ask :lol:

Seriously mate, if you get in strife or hit a problem area..... I'll help in any way I can ;)