Bryan's Bubbler Build

[RuddyCrazy]

G'day Guy's,
Well walking into the scrapyard today with the idea of looking for some steel plate to remake my old Metters wood stove, when I walked into the shed to go to the office I saw a heap of keg's sitting there. :teasing-tease: So quickly walked in and asked about them and also some 4" copper etc. When the guy came out we went for a look and I got some the basics to make a start. 2 lengths of 4" new copper pipe and a 3" length of secondhand copper pipe, a brandnew 4" elbow and a secondhand elbow. Next week I'll be going back for some pipe reducers and some 3/4" pipe.



Now the 4" elbow has this pushin fit and as it was used for lpg the seal should be purfect.



So thats the top all sorted from the column to the shotgun which will be 3" with a heap of 1/2" pipe in.

All up sofar it has only cost 3 cabbages with the keg 50 leaves and the copper at 5 leaves a kg. He did say any left over copper he would buy back at 6.5 leaves a kg too. He did have some tee-pieces there but the cost would of risen to a full garden patch of cabbage and this poor farmer needs to harvest in small quantities in order to keep the family jewels intact.... :laughing-rolling:

Now Mac I am sorry about that PM last week :angry-banghead: as I should of RTFF first. Anyway I will have to grab some stuff of you to get this build done so once I workout what I need and the cabbage patch is ready I'll place an order the correct way.

Let the fun start... :music-deathmetal: :music-deathmetal: :music-deathmetal:

Cheers Bryan

[Zak Griffin]

Nice score mate!

Plenty of pipe there for everything you need...

Perf plates? Bubblecaps? Packed section?

A 3" shotty is gunna knock down everything you can throw at it and more, it won't need to be very long :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[TheMechwarrior]

Your pics are most welcome!

I'm looking forward to watching this build.

[RuddyCrazy]

G'day Guy's,
I remember ages ago I found a thread where a calc was for doing the form for a 90 degree join.

I reckon I'll go a solid section and solder/tig (aint decided yet) 4 off tees then make a plate tree. As far as putting the music on loud and drilling each plate hole I'll setup my homebuilt cnc and drill the holes that way, now the Q would 1mm hole in the plates be too small as I got quite a few carbide drills and my cnc would get the jobbie done in minutes.


Still got a heap of reading and learning to do today before I get into cutting so a slab of beer may be on the cards to help think. I do remember one member did the solid column and the grey matter is fading and off memory that build was first class so I'll be basing my build on that one as soon as I can find it.

Cheers Bryan

P.S off to the shed to bash some copper flat and start thinking about plates......

[sp0rk]

That is an awesome scrapyard find!
I wish one of the yards round here would sell to the public :(

[RuddyCrazy]

G'day Again Guy's,
Well that Swan keg is proving to be a bit of fun to get the spear out, Now I started unscrewing the cap in my shed and found it was under pressure so it was tightened up straight away to stop that poison infecting my shed. Well I did taste Swan Lager once :puke-huge: ...... Also that Swan keg does have a lip so I'm thinking a Mac clamp will fit it to a tee.

I found it unscrewed nicely then only rises up about 15mm then won't go any further so left it at that then came back down to the house and had a search on here to see there was a solution. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find any threads. :crying-blue:

Now I flattened out some of that 3" and found the ID has a heap of pock holes which does show it is really secondhand pipe, now I'm thinking maybe that pipe can go back and see if there's some new pipe next week when I will hopefully get the reducing pieces too. That 3" will only be used on the PC so I may be over cautious but eh you guy's know the best. For the flat plates I need I'll now use the new 4" and to get them a nice snug fit I'm going to use some brass plates I have and sandwich the copper between two of them then with a centre hole make a mandrel and machine the OD in my lathe.

Got visitors arriving soon and BBQ to prepare so work is done for the day, now trying to plan when work can start.... :pray: first gotta make a dog kennel then change the rear end on the subi, cut a ton or so of firewood and a heap of other jobbies. Now I'm commited to getting this bubbler built or atleast underway home has to be treated like work then hopefully with a :romance-kisscheek: I can get working on it tomorrow arvo.

I reckon xmas has come in May and that scrapyard will get a nice pressie when this done as he reckoned he had an old Southern Cross stationary engine out back and said if I pay in cabbage I could have it for scrap value it that old motor is still a runner.

Now for guy's in SA I reckon I found a gold mine where more kegs are there and after I'm finished more copper too.... Also they had some nice looking say 80 litre + keg's with handles but they are Aluminum so would they be OK for fermenters ???? As I'm upgrading to a 50 litre setup I do need to upgrade my fermenters and that open keg(the top cut out) may prove a good grain conversion keg.

Cheers Bryan

[RuddyCrazy]

OK guy's I got the spear out and gotta say with that spring it is an eye opener, I took some pic's and can do a how too but until Mac is talking to me I do feel like a rock in a hard place.

[MacStill]

OK guy's I got the spear out and gotta say with that spring it is an eye opener, I took some pic's and can do a how too but until Mac is talking to me I do feel like a rock in a hard place.

What's up mate ? have I missed something ?

[RuddyCrazy]

G'day Guy's,
Got the first site glass pipe nearly done and it did seem to take ages to hammer down but got there, found that pipe template thread so decided to go 3" instead of 4" for the site glass as thats what most builds have done. I was just about finished cutting the form for the pipe and my mandrel that holds the cut off disks on my dremmel broke, the head of the bolt snapped off. :crying-blue:

Anyway I was nearly out of propane and needed some 1/4" copper for the easy flange so headed in bunnings only to find NO dremmel mandrels and NO 1/4" copper tube. So as it was close to midday headed over to ripoff reece and got slugged 25 cabbage leaves for 2 metres of 1/4" :angry-banghead:

Now with the site glass's it does seem the norm is 4 of them and I was thinking 6 may be the go, now off memory the spacing is 150mm right ????? For the RC I was thinking 8" high and for the packed section/gin basket go 12". Now do these numbers sound about right ?????

Back off to the shed to hammer some 1/4" copper and finish my first easy flange and I'll take a pic so you guys can hammer me for a bodgy job :laughing-rolling: .

Cheers Bryan

[Yummyrum]

Nice score Bryan.

Few things.Most would agree that a reflux condenser should not be over 4" otherwise they are too difficult to control.I think Brendan made his out of 3" x 4" long and it worked fine.

Genrally agreed hole size is 1.5mm on a 5mm grid.

think you should look further into that push on elbow as I suspect there might be a seal in there somewhere...the material is unknown ???.


Anyway...on with the show. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[MacStill]

OK guy's I got the spear out and gotta say with that spring it is an eye opener, I took some pic's and can do a how too but until Mac is talking to me I do feel like a rock in a hard place.

What's up mate ? have I missed something ?

BUMP!!

OYE! BRYAN1...... OVER HERE MATE :greetings-waveyellow:

I dont get what you mean by the underlined bit mate :think:

[RuddyCrazy]

First Mac sorry about that outburst last night mate it wasn't warranted so if you want to :violence-smack: feel free.

Ok so the RC has to be 4" then so be it I'll make it that length and I'll be using 1/2" pipe so should get a few in there. I tried silver soldering the 1/4" with propane and found noway would the silver solder flow so went back to bunnings and bought some mapp gas not bloody thinking my propane burner is the wrong one for the mapp gas as usingthe mapp still couldn't get the solder to flow. I am using what I have onhand and that is 45% silver solder. Next week I'll get an actelyene bottle of my mate then I'll use oxy for doing the soldering of the easy flanges. If I'm not happy with the result I'll just bite the bullet and save some cabbage and go with Mac's easy fittings.

Yummy there is an unknown O-ring just past the lockin plates and I still need to measure the ID past the O-ring and I do reckon it will be a sliding fit with the 4". So if it is I'll cutoff the locking plate then silver solder the 4" in just to be sure to be sure.

Well todays effort pretty well sucked with me only making one site glass copper piece and wasting 1/2 of the day driving to find stuff then the rest trying to silver solder the ring

Anyway as promised



The under side thats seals has been filed totally flat then painted with texta and put on my surface table with some 400 grit paper. Once i do the 1/4" ring that will get done again. also by the looks I'll have plenty of 3 and 4" left over so if any SA based guys want to do a 4" I'll be happy to work a deal and pass it on.

Cheers Bryan

Edit: I forgot to say before, last night the guys that cameup are SS tig welding guru's And we spoke about the keg need a fill port and drain. The first thing he said I'll have to purge it then we spoke more on the fill port. I did mention I need to get a 4" tri clamp of mac and he said get that and he will make the fitting to suit. Now where one would love to go with one of Mac's 2400 watt heating elements being off the grid here lets do some maths, on 240 volt thats 10 amps and drawing 2400 watts out of my inverter will mean 100 amps out of the batteries, so if a run say takes 4 hours I'll endup with one flat battery bank so I'll be going with a decent gas burner.

[RuddyCrazy]

G'day Guy's,
Well the scrap yard visit today only yielded a 4" to 3" reducer and 1.5 metres of new 3/4" copper pipe so thats the top of the shotgun sorted. Now I had a chat with the guys and for Adelaide folk well if you want a keg and copper to make a bubbler there a plenty of kegs and I was shown a shelf of new copper tube of all sizes. The place is Enviro Recyclists and they are on the OD4 bypass road in Murray Bridge. There is two of them side by side and the one you guys want are on the side road. Now I did say for guy's to mention my name (Bryan) and he will do a good deal with the previso when you start producing one drops some finished product off to the guys to show our appreciation of them doing us the favour of finding the stuff.

I am sorting an argon bottle so I can have a play with tig and after asking a few tig guru's they are asking me is it AC or DC tig welding for copper. Hopefully someone that done this can inform me as all are very interested.

Anyway got my first order with Mac today for the perf plates so that deal is sorted and I will need to learn how to set them up.

There are some nice 75 litre ali keg's there that would make for nice fermenter BUT is ali a BOO BOO in this game even for fermenters ????


So many questions to ask and my mate when I told him what I was doing said make me one I'm a seasoned bundy drinker :puke-huge: I told him after I make a rum brew he will never go back to that crap but he is yet to be convinced. :))

Tomorrow I'll go get the PROPER MAP GAS HEAD and try and get the 4 sight glass peices done and get going on the RC and DC.

Now Yummy has said about that O-ring so I'll be cutting off at the junction then hopefully tigging the joints and I reckon a few mates may show up once I can get the knack of tigging this copper.

Anyway Friday Night and a box of pales so working out the weekend priorities and I will be in the chatroom if any members want to roll in.

Cheers Bryan

[RuddyCrazy]

G'day Guy's,
Well the scrap yard today still hasn't found those reducing couplings I need but I did get a nice tangled coil of 1/4 and 3/8 copper pipe for only 40 cabbage leaves. Also today I saw a keg where 2 were welded together and had a heating coil attached and was tempted but decided to wait for my mate. Anyway he just rang and will be around tomorrow so my boiler keg will be off to get welded by a pro. Now as for the fill port, drain etc he did say just leave it to me and we will talk about it more tomorrow and I'm sure if other Adelaide guy's want a keg done my mate will do it for a good price.

Anyway just got a text and as my mate is coming around looks like I'll be working Sunday so only tomorrow morning to have a play. Now got 2 sight glass mounts done and the mapp gas gets the silver solder going nicely so I will see if 2 mapp gas bottles will be enough to finish the still. On the way home I was thinkin hell whynot try and make my own 4 to 2" reducer so I may give it bash or 3 and have a go.

More pic's to come and although the progress is slow the resources are gathering for a full all grain setup and to keep my fermenters happy a rum run will try and get my mates off the bundy.

Cheers Bryan

[RuddyCrazy]

G'day Guy's,
Got a bit more done on the bubbler today then my mate came around and I showed the ropes and what Ive done sofar. We did talk about soldering the 3" site glass sections to the 4" and the heat that will be needed. Now as my mate is a blacksmith he is going to organize a burner so getting to temp will much easier. Also he is going to chat with a mate who is tig welder and ask about copper welding a the 1/2 doz tig welding guy's Ive asked have never heard of it. The 4 to 3" reducer i have here has been tig welded and the inside is welded like purged SS so I do wonder if purging is needed when welding stop stop any sugaring. We also chatted about cutting some 4" to make a 4 to 2" reducer and he said give me a bit and i'll have a go at hammering it down for me.

I am slowly getting a list together for my final Mac order as shipping does add a fair chunk to the cost I do feel getting one final order will be the go. With those perf plates I got I found they are 107mm diameter so I'm going to make a mandrel setup and machine them down to 98mm for a nice sliding fit in the 4" tube.

Also I found with one of the cylinder barrels on the 5 cyl radial engine I'm making was a sliding fit inside 3" pipe so on hammering down for the easy flange ensure the pipe stayed round and it did make it a heap easier. Now my mate has a coil rolling machine he got off his dad and I will need to machine up some new dies then rolling the 3/8" for the lauter tun build will be a breeze.

Even tho it's a longweekend tomorrow off up north near clare to see a mate and perve at some vintage diesels and hopefully bring one home.

In order to comply with other builds until I have the site glass section welded to the 4" no pic's and polished up as this build is gettin there I want this to be the best project I've done in years.

Cheers Bryan

[Zak Griffin]

Don't be shy with the pics, mate! We'll be able to tell you if you're doing anything wrong/could be doing things better as you go, rather than after it's all soldered up...

[RuddyCrazy]

G'day Zac,
This week I had a go at making that 4 to 2" reducer and got there but it still needs the easy flanges hammered in and cleaned up. As I did have a high pressure LPG reg here I took the BBQ bottle up and hooked it up and MAN gotta say where it takes about 3 minutes to heat 1/4" copper for the easy flange using mapp gas with the LPG/Oxy combo it was like 30 seconds. Getting back to the 4 to 2" that heating setup did the silver brazing job in no time and the leak test showed no leaks.

Didn't work on Wednesday so ripped out the termite ridden shearing floor and put new floor in today which took longer than I thought so no work on the still today. Got tomorrow free sort of so I will get this flange done and provide a pic or 2 and I'm also going to have a go at making my own triclamps in order to keep the costs down. Also got several glass screens of old scanners so may have to have a go at making my own site glass's.

I'm off to Prominent Hill on Monday until next Saturday so next Saturday arvo and the Sunday will be full on the build and with my tig welding mate well he likes the way we live so much we have agreed he can put a caravan at the back of my farm and semi retire.

On the 6th of August I am 50 and my plan is to having the still going by then and Mac RUM is going my first run as so many guys are asking if I make it.

Last weekend I went upto the Clare Valley to see a mate and thru out the question about 15 litre oak barrels so may be onto a good score they said a TA at work was a cooper but the pay working as that was shit and he may be interested. I will order 10 of them to start and if I can get the to make them WELL I will let you guys know. As I reckon with 15 litre barrels and a decent air setup one can age the produce in 6-12 months and have whats better than one can buy.

Doing the shearing shed floor today I've decided that will be my new brewing place and it will get it's own power array and it will become the power central as it is near the top of the hill. Been living off the grid for 10 years and loving it.

Long post and gibbering

cheers Bryan

[RuddyCrazy]

G'day Guy's,
Well got some work done on the bubbler today after 14 hours of sleep to get out of night shift mode. Hammered down the last sightglass mount easy flange and on researching the easy flange today I did see some guys soft solder them so I decided I would give it go with the last 2 I had to do. The mapp gas heated the copper up nicely and on touching the solder it bubbled so I let the heat transfer for a minute or so then the solder flowed nicely. I have tomorrow morning to get a bit more done and I have some 6mm ali plate here so I'm going to make couple of disks, the rear tapped M6 then a countersunk front plate. I do think well when it's all together the sight glass's will never need to be taken apart.

Also I cut the 3-4" adapter to get rid of the quick connect and the yellow O-ring so the top section can be finally done and silver soldered up. Now I am going to put in a section above the RC so I can do botanical's, now as I will need to get the fores and heads done I was thinking well if I run the RC flatout after the heads I could take the top of the still apart to insert the basket or rather than take the still apart put a door on the section so the basket can be fitted. This door would be 1/2 the 4" diameter and with using a silicon seal on both the door and section it would seal nicely.

I did make a 4-2" section but I was thinking while I was away it may be better to go 4" straight from keg so another order from Mac will be done this week.

Anyway pic's to come tomorrow guy's

Cheers Bryan

[RuddyCrazy]

G'day Guy's,
I did get a few hours work done yesterday so concentrated on getting the 4" 90 degree pieces and the 4-3" reducer ready and slowly getting there, placing the still on the floor in sections to show how it's all going together. Anyway got started on the PC shotgun, hammered down the first easy flange then was about to start on the second one then I thought of when I read on another build gotta get the 1/4" copper ring on first so lucky there.

Then my mate arrived so no more work, but not working tomorrow so with a new batterybank for the shed will be going full bore on the still as this is by far one of the biggest projects I've taken on where I had only research to go on and for the first time not self designed.

I was just reading before and Mac's idea of using the existing keg 2" output as drain is a great idea, now as I will be using gas I do reckon a SS shroud to go around the pipe should protect the drain Right ????


Cheers Bryan

[Yummyrum]

Like Zac said ..."don't be shy with the Pics " ....when you're layin it down on the floor ...whip out the camera ...click ...post ....just sayin 8-}

About that drain ..,Guessing Mac was referring to electric here , a tri-clamped bottom drain would be fine on an electric boiler ....but on a Gas fired boiler , the extreme temps would fry any gaskets including teflon.

Some guys have put a drain in the bottom of their gas fired kegs and feed it through the middle of the gas burner ,.....but they have been welded on to the bottoms of upright kegs