The glass duck

[woodduck]

Progress is slow but progress none the less. I've finally got one of the plates finished, it took a bit of nutting out but I got there. The biggest problem when trying to soft solder everything on such a small area is everything wants to melt :angry-banghead:. I overcome this by flaring the tops of the downcomer tubes which is good anyway because it makes hight adjustment easy. And I just used an expanding tool to expand the risers in the plate hole so now their as tight as, so now even if all the solder gets soft nothing will fall apart. :happy-partydance:
Btw I ended up going with 15mm bath depth, 70mm downcomer, 32mm downcomer caps with a pool of 10mm for air lock. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[kickarum]

Jeez Woody
That copper work is so well finished it almost has a jewellery presence to it, I admire you lads with the patience to finish off and polish up things so nicely.
I notice your down comer caps have slits, is this the norm? I haven't noticed before and need to think about what I'm going to do on mine.
Cheers Kicka.

[woodduck]

No I don't think it is the norm, I just liked the look of Macs and recon the overflow will probably dispurse better. The metal finishing isn't that hard but can take a bit of time but recon it looks good so I spend the time.

[Sam.]

Does look awesome mate :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Take lots of pics now because you will probably never have it that clean again once you start using it ;-)

[MacStill]

No I don't think it is the norm, I just liked the look of Macs and recon the overflow will probably disperse better. The metal finishing isn't that hard but can take a bit of time but recon it looks good so I spend the time.

The slots in the FSD downcomers were used as we had already paid for the mold on the copper caps, so there wasn't much point paying again when theses worked so well after testing, it lessens the amount of distillate in the DC too which is a bonus, and the overflow just dribbles off the nut holding them in place.

They do look nice but the slots really aren't a requirement, it's just that we had them so might as well put them to use. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[woodduck]

Does look awesome mate :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Take lots of pics now because you will probably never have it that clean again once you start using it ;-)

Yer I know a shame really but she'll look good for her maiden run. Plus I know you lot like your copper porn :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[woodduck]

Yer their sweated on mate 1" end caps are pretty expensive. I'm happy to put some picks on how I did them if you like.

[woodduck]

Ok, so it sounds like there's a bit of interest in how I do things, so I thought I might put together a few ideas/tips on how I made my bits and pieces. I'm no great metal worker by any means so don't take my word as gospel and please remember this is just a guide, the way I did things, so use your own digression on what you deem safe or nessasery.

I'm pretty lucky I have access to some good tools but you will be suprized at what you can do with what you have. I haven't used too many flash tools so far, mainly a grinder and a drill press but you could get away with a hand drill if you wanted. Also just a assortment of hand tools like files, sand paper, tin snips and a hammer etc. You just need to think outside the box.

I was too tight to buy all the end caps from the plumbing joint so I cut all my pipe to length with a dodgy old pipe cutter that was better at cutting a thread than pipe :)) I then flattened out some pipe or sheet copper and soft soldered the pipe to it to form the cap (there are photos below) then cut the top out with tin snips, don't worry the tin snips will cutt the soft solder no probs. I then found a bit of hose that fit inside the cap nice and tight, jammed a drill inside the hose put it in the drill and sanded/polished it like that. On my bigger caps I used a hole saw that was smaller than the cap and wrapped tape around it till it was a tight fit. The same went for my downcomer tubes I just used a hose over a drill bit, it doesn't have to be rock solid just tight enough for the rubber to grip. Please remember safety first though, I used low speeds, very little pressure and a sanding block is a good idea. Watch your fingers!!!!

I won't go into cutting the slots that's been covered earlier.

The plates I cut out of flattened 2" pipe with tin snips (this can take a while unless you have hands like a gorilla), I don't think you need hard plate because by the time you solder everything the plate ends up annealed anyway (just my thoughts some my disagree), only benefit I see is that the plate won't have hammer marks in it. Btw I used a dead blow hammer, rubber one that doesn't bounce. I then clamped all the plates together and drilled the center hole. I then used this hole to bolt them together and used "macs easy lathe" to get them the same size. I then drilled one of the smaller holes and used a bolt in that to stop everything moving and then just drilled the plates all stacked together. I found the plates did spread and bulge a bit but it didn't seem to hurt anything, I just reflattened them (sorry I don't think that is even a word but you get what I mean).
To clean the plates up I used a short bit of hose through the center hole then compressed it with the nut and bolt to make it firm then as before banged it in the drill press and sanded away.

With my downcomer tubes I did use an expanding tool to flare the ends so you might have to get a plumber mate to help you there or I think this was discussed in bourbon junkies build thread, anyway you should be able to work this out.

Well I think this and my previous posts just about covers it. I hope this wasn't too long winded. I am more than happy to explain anything else you might want to know.

Just one more thing, for those of you that haven't used a de-burrer before, I can tell you they are the ducks nuts for getting the burr out of the inside of the pipe, just stick it in and round you go (get your mind out of the gutter :laughing-rolling: ). There is a photo further down. From memory I got it from a welding supplies place and I don't think it was too expensive, only 10- $20 and makes life alot easier.

Hope this helps and good luck

Ps I can't get all photos on one post so theres another coming. And what a pain in the arse getting them in order :angry-banghead: I really need to learn how to work this thing.

[woodduck]

Here's the rest.

[Yummyrum]

Thanks for sharing the build detail Wooduck. :handgestures-thumbupleft:
Love the pipe wrench in the vice ..so simple ..wish I'd thought of it a few weeks ago.Can totally relate to the "Pipe threader" :laughing-rolling: .
Like the hose over the drill to hold copper for spinning too..
Planning a build is one thing ..how you tackle each piece with the tools you have is the challenge .Don't stop.Whats often no biggy to you is gold to others.

Photos of shiny bits are always nice ...but to me the "how you dunit" shots are the Ducks nuts :-D

[woodduck]

One thing I didn't mention before that I should have, the way I did caps is a lot of work and I don't even know if they will work. I just used this site and alot of guess work for my sizes so I could get this thing together and it could be a complete failure so before you run off and make bubble caps you may want to reserch them yourself, you may find things I didn't.

[Zak Griffin]

I made my caps the same way, but with 2" pipe... It's a lot cheaper, but definitely time consuming!

[TheMechwarrior]

Frack me there are some talented people in these forums :clap:

[woodduck]

Thanks guys it's great to see people enjoy my work.
Well I've finally finished the plates and they all turned out ok, very few cock ups which is good, only had one cap fall apart because I was too impatient but hey ya get that on the big jobs.
My soft soldering is getting better I just wish I didn't shake like a dog shitting razor blades :angry-banghead: , it's a pain when doing the fiddley bits so there's a few stray blobs of solder around the place but guess what, I can just file them off cause its soft solder. Hell I love this stuff.

Now onto the fun stuff, building shotty's :happy-partydance:

[Urrazeb]

Coming together nicely :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[woodduck]

Ok guys I'm gonna have a crack at my rc today.
I've been looking around at other people's rc's to get a few idea's and I often hear people say that rc's can be a bit unresponsive so while I was sitting around yesterday stilling I was thinking (scary I know) what about a plate in the middle of the rc running parallel to the top and bottom plates but with one end cut off to force the water across the bottom passing all the tubes and then back across the top passing all the tubes again (drawing below may help explain) would this be more efficient/ responsive? My thoughts are that without the plate the water could maybe just go in the bottom and straight out the top (dotted line in the drawing) without passing too many tubes thus less responsive? I'm sure someone has thought of this before but I haven't been able to find any info on it. If someone has tried it I'd love to hear your results.

Please don't take this the wrong way I'm not trying to say the rc's that everyone's using are crap and don't work cause as we all know they do. I'm just trying to think outside the box I guess.

Any thoughts? I think I may just give it a go and try it out.

[woodduck]

Thats a good idea. Easy to trial too. I've often thought that the inlet and out let on opposite sides, like some people do would help also but thought it must be a "looks" thing.

[woodduck]

I got a few more bits done the last couple of days. I made up the riser to go from my glass to the rc and got my rc done aswell. I dicided to go with my idea of the middle plate in the rc and well here's to hoping I guess. I'll report back if it's any good or not once I get her running. Because of the middle plate I couldn't solder the top plate from the back, I just couldn't see enough so I just recessed the top plate a few mm for a solder join but should be ok. I ended up making the rc 4" x 80mm long with 5x 3/4" tubes. So that's where I'm at.

[halfbaked]

Woodduck your work is beautiful. I'd love to see more pics of how you did your down combers and bubble caps. Maybe enough detail so as if I ever decide to build one I might copy it (if you don't mind). I like pics. :mrgreen:

[MacStill]

All these builds lately is getting my attention that's for sure, and I cleaned up the shed yestdy too.... found my old 8" plate tree & and dragged out the 6 ft bit of 8" pipe, found a 6" RC...... YOU GUYS ARE FUCKING WITH MY HEAD !!!! seriously :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead: