The glass duck

[woodduck]

When I first started reading this forum I thought man those bubbler thingys are for the hardcore distillers I'll never want or need one of those. I'll be hapy with my little pot and boka. How wrong was I !!! I JUST GOTTA HAVE ONE! Reading all your build threads and looking at all this unreal craftmanship has given me the bug, I love building stuff. Next problem what to build, modular or glass? Copper or stainless? I do love the look of those glassers.

So I was in town the other day and thought I'll just swing by the scrap yard and see what they have. Well it was like christmas, it didn't help me diside copper or stainless cause they had both (terrible problem lol). So I ended up with enough stuff for either or both minus a couple of copper elbows all for $250 :music-deathmetal:

Mac made my mind up for me when he posted those new glass cilinders last night, so a glass build in ss is on the cards.

I'm thinking 4"out of the keg cause thats what I've already got, I don't think this matters does it? I know most are 2 " but guessed that was for ease. A removable 400mm packed section under the plates for neutrals, I want to keep the weight of the glass, thoughts? Or maybe 300mm under and 200mm or so above? 4x 4" rounded perf plates seperated by macs glass held together with 8mm ss allthread. 4" rc 100mm long with 7x 3/4 copper inside (I think they'll fit) into 2" 180 onto a 2" shotty pc 600 long with 6x 1/2 " copper guts down to 1/2" to parrot. I think that's it.

Also thinking extra 3600w element in my boiler on top of my already 2400w controled for quicker heat up.

Anyway that's a start. Any cretics or ideas welcomed.

and as usual with a build thread a photo of a heap of pipe on the ground. Hum where to start? :think: :laughing-rolling:

[kickarum]

Go for it mate.
I'll be watching your build with interest.
Cheers Kicka :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[bt1]

Good move wood,

I tried rock filtering sections on 1st glasser build 1 below and one above using at the time volcanic rock as a fill. Can say the 300mm section below which was an extended joiner sleeve in copper to the keg from first plate made no difference to spirit quality or abv. The section above I still use but have changed over to copper mesh fill from Mac.

The bottom section had to deal with all the spirit and quickly gets very shitty and needs cleaning and soaking every run = pain. Given it's taking all spirit at lower abv before it's rectified I reckon they're a waste of time. Filtering selected distilled spirit above is the go.

My small glasser is a 5 plate on copper plates and the 89mm pyrex glass using M6 =6mm rod. It easily supports a 4" return head post the RC of 2 x 4" 90 degree bend, joiner sleeve and a shotty @ 500mm long hanging off that. There's no issues with the weight or twisting .

Needless to say have the same concerns re weight and build 2 and pending 3 did/will use M10 rod with joiner sleeve nuts on rod , extended rods to "bolt" in 500mm filtering section above via a retaining sleeve.

btw glad to hear the 2400w is controlled as glassers use a fair bit less heat than metals I've found and you'll notice it on first run. You'll need to power down a bit to avoid plate flooding.

bt1

[woodduck]

Thanks bt
Some great advice thanks.
I've read your threads on the glasser, you did a awesome job with yours.
I can see your point about the packed section under but good to know it will support it above.
Can you get a good neutral out of yours? from what I've read I may need to put another plate or two in but don't want to take too much flavour out of burbons etc, guess that's why mac builds modulars lol.

[bt1]

wood,

The new pending build 3 will have a 500 - 600mm filtering section. The 300mm one currently in use is a little underdone imho. It's clean a high abv spirit no probs.

There's a bit more too it ...see comments below or don't and avoid the theory shite. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

You can make the glassers modular. You simply decide which plate is the last fixed ie normally 4 for rums etc and use rod joiners for the additional one or two plates.... these suckers

451954199554588.jpg

All you need do then is on output tube from shotty make tube length adjustable by using a slider (say 3/4" over 1/2" copper) locked by a finger clamp lock screw to take up the differing heights of your setup 4 vs. 5/6 plates.... saves adjusting your work space setup all the time.


Plates numbers
There's a lot of small percenters that can be considered in a build. I'm not by any means recommending which way you go.
Most folk would use bath levels around 2.5cm. The theory in simple terms is the deeper the bath levels the more "washing" the spirit gets before it's released to the next plate up the column and the "cleaner" it should be at higher abv's. 4 platers with 2.5cm baths makes a damn fine spirit.

I use bath depths of 1cm and hence use an extra plate mostly. It gets less "washing" and therefore pulls more flavours at higher abv's. There's several reason for going down this path, reduced pressure drops in the column, getting wash characteristics over to spirit, speed of output, desired finished spirit. There's some good reading in the library around impacts of bath depths.

So in answer to your question a 4 plater with std bath depths and a filtering section as many folk can claim makes a good neutral. In this config a 5th or 6th plate would be ideal.

bt1

[woodduck]

Thanks bt some good food for thought.I have read quite a bit about the depths and thought I would go for 25mm bath seemed the norm but maybe might try a bit lower or adjustable? Those joiners look the goods I recon I'll try them for sure. I ordered a spare glass incase I broke one but they sound pretty tough so maybe 5 plates when wanting neutrals might be the go.
Cheers

[woodduck]

Hi guys bit of an update for ya's.

Sitting round home today thinking about the build (after I got the homely jobs out the way) and thought I might have a crack at bubble caps cause they do look cool. So I jumped on the computer and started up the trusty old auto cad to draw up some plans but didn't get to far, that seems to have shit itself :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead: so after farting around with that for too long I dicided to go old school and get the compass out and try free style (crap I haven't used one of these since trade school). Anyway I really enjoyed myself stuffing around doing a few drawings trying to make stuff fit, hell I should do this more often. I eventually got 5x 1" bubble caps and a 3/4 downcomer on my plate and I recon it looks the goods. My knowlage of this sort of stuff isn't great but from all the reading I've been doing surely something has sunk in lol.

I thought I might share these with you all, some of you may enjoy having a good laugh. Now remember I'm only a beekeeper not a draftsman :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: .

So this is what I'm gonna stick in my glass bubbler, should look cool.

[woodduck]

I think I just found my new boiler. I found this beauty in my mates scap bin. Best thing is he didn't want a thing for it, awesome!!!
It's 750 long x 500 round, around about 130 ltrs by my calcs. Now I've been trying to find a thread someone posted a while back about one of these but can't find it. In there a few people had safety concerns about the solder having lead in it, does anyone know where to find that thread cause I would like to know if this one has lead before I get to carried away. The solder seems really hard I can't scratch it with a screwdriver, hope thats a good sign and I think someone said something about a test kit you can get? Sorry to rehash topics but if anyone can help us out that would be great.
Cheers

[P3T3rPan]

That looks like silphos to me, not solder
Solder you can scratch

[woodduck]

Silphos? Is that good or bad?

[P3T3rPan]

Good
Very good

[woodduck]

Thanks P
Is there anyway to confirm that or make sure there is no lead?

[C2H6O]

WD, bunnings sell these http://www.bunnings.com.au/3m-rust-oleu ... 2_p1560254. Just scratch up the weld and follow the instructions :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[P3T3rPan]

Thanks P
Is there anyway to confirm that or make sure there is no lead?

That is not a lead soldered cylinder
Not many are
I Replace many of these in my job and have yet to see a lead soldered one in 46 years of doing so
However I do believe that this is seen somewhere in the world because people keep asking the same old question
I am in NZ but I don't believe even in Aus anyone would be so stupid as to make a vessel that could be (mis)used as a potable water container by the consumer, with lead soldered joints. Let alone the consequences of joint failure in the event of an overheat situation
That to me looks like a reasonably modern cylinder that has failed due to pinholes by the joins as evidenced by the verdigris (green) staining
I strongly recommend that you plug it up and leak test it by filling it with water before spending too much time on it
You might be lucky and find no pinholes if the staining was caused by a leak to one of the connections

[Zak Griffin]

It's also fairly likely that the copper is too thin in spots... I picked up one of these and could poke my finger through the copper in some spots that looked fine after a wire brush :handgestures-thumbdown:

[P3T3rPan]

It's also fairly likely that the copper is too thin in spots... I picked up one of these and could poke my finger through the copper in some spots that looked fine after a wire brush :handgestures-thumbdown:

Exactly.
Usually the side joint and the bottom ones go first.
Often get asked to repair these but as soon as you put the heat on them you discover more holes and a disbelieving customer

[woodduck]

Bugger thought it might be to good to be true

[P3T3rPan]

Don't despair until you have leak tested and inspected it
Usually the top dome is usable copper as is most of the body
Just have to decide what to use it for

[dogbreath vodka]

Hey Woodduck
If you are going to trial it as a boiler, you will need to put a ferrule in the top to hold the column.
So it will need to be thick enough to be hard soldered.

Worth cutting the bottom or top to see if it would stand up to having a ferrule fitted and a column placed above it.

Are you going to put a flat bottom on it or legs?

If nothing else it could be used for a heat shield for a 50ltr keg. :think: :think:

Hope all goes to plan.

DBV

[woodduck]

Yer I recon the top will be strong enough it feels quite thick there it's all hard soldered at the moment so as long as it hasn't thined out to much it should be good, come to think of it I my even tig a bit of 4" copper in for the feral. After I check it for leaks I will cut a hole in the top for the feral and have a peek inside then to see if there is corrosion damage etc. As for the legs I was thinking 3or 4, 2" shaped copper pipe legs maybe extending up the sides a little just to help support the weight.

Thanks for your feedback.