SJC's Glasser Build

[SJC]

G Day All

First post out side of the welcome centre so a bit of a recap joined this great site in Jan 2014.
I live up in FNQ & owned a T500 for a year chucked the Turbo's in the bin moved onto the TPW but soon got sick of buying the flavour's so decided to sell as it has served its purpose and got me hooked on this great hobby.
Drink of choice is Rum and lots of it am hoping to start moving through the Tried & Proven section obviously kicking off with MacRum sugar season has just finished and a mate recon's Molasses or cane juice isn't a drama what perfect timing.

I had plans on taking the next step up the ladder and build a pot still but after looking at the bubbler builds ( hats off guy's these are amazing ) and not having to to multiply runs I have decided to give a glass bubbler a crack.

So read read read & read some more and I have complete information overload. So this is what I have come up with so far

80 litre keg with 5star 2400 & 3600 watt elements / drain / 4" Fill Port. I have a electrician coming around when I get home to inspect the wiring and to instal or re run new cables to handle both elements. Old house so better to check now.

5 x plates using some 3mm copper plate the old man has laying there doing bugger all - 150 - 160 diameter.
50mm single bubble Cap / 50mm high. Evenly spaced slots approx 5mm high cut with a 1mm cutting disc. A 32mm riser 30mm high. Im not real sure on the height of the bubble cap & riser so will keep reading.

Downcomer 19mm pipe with 25mmm bath depth & 50mm below including a 25mm cup.
500mm 4" Packed Section / Copper Packing
R.C - 4" x 100mm with 7 x 3/4 tubes
P.C - 2" x 500mm with 6 x 1/2 tubes.

IBC for cooling just got to find one

Any feed back or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Next step order some parts from 5star /1 more week of work / Wait for the chopper / Sit on a plan for 2 days / 3-4 days of jet lag couple of hangover's and I should be good to start.

Cheers

SJC

[benpandaae86]

Hi mate im in townsville and i can find out if i can get a ibc from my work if ur in the area i was goin to do the same myself
good luck on the build they are great to look at and im lead to belive even better to run

On the rum side of things i brought 15l of molasses from paines rural producw today for $26

[Zak Griffin]

Sounds like you're well on the way!

For rum and whiskeys you're going to want 4 plates, no packed section. It might be worth making the 5th plate and packed section easily removable, ie; on a different set of threaded rods.

You guys in QLD should be able to find molasses cheaper than that, too... I paid $38 for 25L in country SA...

[bt1]

Love a bit of pre Xmas commitment...sounds like a plan.

Just a consideration FNQ temps might consider extending the PC length to give you a tad more cooling grunt perhaps? You'll have higher ambient in a IBC in any case.
By comparo, in Adelaide on stinking hot day my 500mm struggles by about 1 -2 c off optimal and end pushing 5lt/min to over come it.

Relax and enjoy the building time, there's no better time to be had :handgestures-thumbupleft:

geez got build another got the urge
bt1

[1 2many]

Just a consideration FNQ temps might consider extending the PC length to give you a tad more cooling grunt perhaps? You'll have higher ambient in a IBC in any case.

:text-+1: Also I would go 150mm lenght on the RC instead of 100mm just to play it safe. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[benpandaae86]

Thats sound advice ive found a massive difference in temp when doing runs at night the ambient temp of air and water drops heaps

[SJC]

Thanks for the reply's lads.

Benpandaae86- cheers for the offer on the IBC Im around a 1hr south of cairns mate so the ville is a bit far to grab a IBC. On the Molasses Im going straight through the Mill which is a couple of km's from the house so would expect it to be a lot cheaper than that just waiting on a mate to get back to me.

Zac- For sure I have been thinking along the same lines on having the 5th plate / Packed Section in 1 piece would make life a heap easier down the track cant wait to get home and get this thing started.

BT1 / 12Many - Thanks for the comments I was a little worried about the PC / RC as my shed area does get pretty warm so might look at increasing the RC to the 150mm to play it safe. With the PC would an extra 100mm be sufficient?

I havent looked into getting a power controller made up yet I was planning on running both element's 2400 / 3600 for boil up and switching the 3600 off for the run. Will just running the 2400 for the run be sufficient when just starting out?

Cheers

SJC

[1 2many]

I havent looked into getting a power controller made up yet I was planning on running both element's 2400 / 3600 for boil up and switching the 3600 off for the run. Will just running the 2400 for the run be sufficient when just starting out?

That will work perfectly to start with, 2400 watts for the run is what I am still doing. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

To lazy to make the controller :))

[benpandaae86]

No probs if you can get it from the mills go for it

Dont u use less heat/power on a glasser due to the glass holding the heat in better than copper or stainless

[SJC]

Cheers 12Many I'll go with the 2400 and have a chat to the electrician about a controller down the track

[bt1]

SJ +150mm on the PC is a good target so saying total length would then be 650mm.

I'd be inclined to use a division of the mtls supplied here I mean take Bunno's 1/2" tube you could use as the inner vapour tubes. Standard supply length is I think from recall 1.8m so logical to go 3 x600mm.

bt1

[woodduck]

Hi Sjc,

Looks like you've done your research and are well on track to make a great bubbler. I agree that if you are going for 25mm bath depth you will be better off going with 4 plates. I find with my 5 plates and packed section I can get a good neutral from low wines, it won't clean a wash quite enough. Having a removable 5/6 plate is a good idea, something I'm looking into aswell.

The longer pc is a good idea too mine is 600mm and seems to work fine. On the rc, from what I've read the bigger it is the slower it will react to adjustment. Just something to consider.

Good luck with it mate and remember we love pictures :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[SJC]

Cheers BT1 & Woodduck I am keen to extend the length of the PC to 600-650mm. Ive got a 80 ltr keg coming so was hoping to tie in the lengths using the 4 plates (this will be the standard rig up for rums / whiskey) plus boiler on some legs to get me around bench height for collection. Hope to have all finalised when I get a few measurements when I get home.

I'm up and down on the RC length at the moment as it is pretty warm at home could be some trail and error with this to find the optimal set up for my gear and the condition's it will be running in. The average temp in Cairns is 29-35*c with a bit of humidity Im just a bit south but pretty much the same. Shed Temp is a different story haven't taken a reading. Its all good but that's the reason I want to make my own still good learning curve and can all ways make adjustments. Looking forward to it.

In saying that I've never soldered a thing in my life so that could be interesting.

Pic's will come for sure just need to get home to get the ball rolling

Cheers

SJC

[dogbreath vodka]

Hi mate and welcome
From memory my PC for Steampunk was around the 600mm mark.
It did the job well in the Cairns area.


Running the 6" I'm now using an 3" tube 800mm long PC with 4 x 19mm tubes.
You can feel the warm area up the top of the PC and it is dead cold by the time it hits the bottom.

A longer PC may seem over kill but the product never comes out warm. :D ;-)


DBV

[SJC]

DBV Thanks for that mate :handgestures-thumbupleft: I I've read the steampunk build's a few times now they look unreal.

[andybear]

Good Luck with the build. I'll be watching closely as I'm planning my glass bubbler now too. I'm also stuck away from home work atm. But home in 10 days, then it begins. I'll start a thread when i get home so you'll see my progress too. I'm hoping to be tasting rum by mid Jan. :obscene-drinkingdrunk:

[bt1]

Yeh it's that ambient you mentioned of 29- 35c for Cairns that makes more sense for a longer PC.

Even when we have like 42c plus the avg night temp is much lower and resulting cooling water ambient.

On the soldering, there plenty of good threads on it so won't bore you with the details except to say, if you get a hour or two over a few weekends nothing wrong with a bit of banging on the tunes, get mellow and practice. Start small, work up. Get comfortable with heat, fluxes and good work prep. You'll be fine :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Impressed with your comment about measuring up before getting to final decisions....build what suits with good prep :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Got plenty of tips on glassers having finished the fourth (don't see the mates as much these days...bastards are busy hooching :D ) let us know where your up to in the build and we'll all no doubt throw a few ideas in.

Geez Andy Jan for a taster...you'll be busy.

bt1

[SJC]

So finally got home and got the first few hang overs out of the way.
Pretty hot up in these parts today afternoon storm was a good sight coming over the hills. Managed to get the plates marked up and drilled out.

Few photo's to kick off the build.

Gotta do the family thing this week so 3 days camping at a local island & with a bit of luck should have all the pipe waiting when we get home,

[Whiskyaugogo]

Looks great mate! What do the large caps do as opposed to small ones?

[Geeps]

Looks great mate! What do the large caps do as opposed to small ones?

Cut the cost in half i recon :))