My Little Bubbler Mod

Perforated & bubble cap plated columns

Re: My Little Bubbler Mod

Postby SBB » Mon Feb 20, 2012 8:52 pm

McStill wrote:Wouldnt pressure hold the froth back in the boiler?


I dunno Mac................What I mean is that more pressure above the liquid line in ya boiler makes the pressure outside of the froth/bubbles more equal with whats inside the froth /bubbles .....so they dont burst as quick......then the whole mess of puke bubbles lasts longer , grows bigger.............maybe ill just shut up :laughing-rolling:
The fact of the matter is that the pukes getting up that far.........and it cant do that unless the top third of ya boiler is full of the stuff.
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3 inch Boka (half share with Draino),...... 4 inch 4 plate perforated plate Bubbler

Re: My Little Bubbler Mod

Postby MacStill » Mon Feb 20, 2012 9:04 pm

The puke is only slightly yellow with a charge of black wash, and I've ripped the still off pretty quick when it happened but the boiler had no froth in it at all.

Wouldnt the pressure be equal through the whole rig? I would've thought only vapor speeds would change as it enters & exits each part of the rig :think:

A spoon full of oil breaks the surface tension while the wash is boiling, so it's pretty impossible for froth to form in the boiler I'd imagine.

The more I think of it the more I reckon it's got to do with the boiler being depleted of grog, the thumper holds it all by now as it only happens where I think mid run should be...... so I need to change tactics when running this thing.

SBB wrote:maybe ill just shut up :laughing-rolling:


No mate, everyones suggestions is actually helping me nut it out, it's got me thinking of stuff I hadnt thought of yet :handgestures-thumbupleft:
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Re: My Little Bubbler Mod

Postby SBB » Mon Feb 20, 2012 9:11 pm

At the risk of really talking shit.....lets work backward and look at it from this angle.....if theres puke on ya top plate....the only way that can happen is for the plate below it to be full of puke too......and the one below that ...and the one below that........for that one to be full.....ya bunnyfucker/thumpers gotta be full of puke...........for that to be full the top third of ya boilers gotta be full of puke.....which makes me suspect that the boiler is causing the problem......now as i see it ....the only thing thats changed in the boiler is the amount of pressure.......

Edit due to above post.......yes and much less ABV in ya wash at a much earlier stage.........two changes in boiler
McStill wrote:Wouldnt the pressure be equal through the whole rig?

Im not sure ya can make a bubble or froth unless the pressure inside the bubble is greater than that outside......I aint a scientist :lol:
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equipment: (The Pelican) a 2 inch pot / stripper on 25L electric boiler interchangable with T500 reflux still...... 2 1/2 inch pot still on 50L keg (gas burner).....
3 inch Boka (half share with Draino),...... 4 inch 4 plate perforated plate Bubbler

Re: My Little Bubbler Mod

Postby emptyglass » Mon Feb 20, 2012 10:31 pm

McStill wrote:I keep going back to the idea of taking it to work and smashing fuck out of it with the digger, then it will never flood my column again :text-lol:


This could work.

Tell me to piss off, but it seems you only had this puke problem since you installed the drain.

Seemed peachy keen before that.
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Re: My Little Bubbler Mod

Postby MacStill » Mon Feb 20, 2012 10:33 pm

I added the "extra" drain after the first puke ;-)

I'm starting to think it's just misbehaving once the alc in the boiler is depleted.

Cheers.
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Re: My Little Bubbler Mod

Postby emptyglass » Mon Feb 20, 2012 10:57 pm

Allright. Go the digger option.

McStill wrote:I added the "extra" drain after the first puke ;-)

I'm starting to think it's just misbehaving once the alc in the boiler is depleted.

Cheers.


Mine tends to misbehave towards the finnish. I don't got no bunny fucker thingy though.

I get flooded plates, I tend to think its hot dunder/slops, or possibly that bad spot in the column around the 3rd plate.. Flutes are pretty good at pulling the good stuff off quick, I can't help thinking there is a lot of heat towards the finnish that ends up vaporising the water/dunder. Of course, the plates sort out the alc, but there seems to be a lot more fluid.

My flute has a real sharp temp rise to the end that my pot never had. Pot had the classic gentle climb, but the flute is pretty sharp.

I hope you get it sorted Mc, 'cause I want to build one.
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Re: My Little Bubbler Mod

Postby emptyglass » Mon Feb 20, 2012 10:59 pm

Where's Larry when you need him?

ETA; He is da thumper man.
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Re: My Little Bubbler Mod

Postby LWTCS » Tue Feb 21, 2012 2:05 am

How long are you refluxing @100%?
Its difficult to evaluate whats happening with yours as all of my sizes are different.

My inlet to my thumper is 2",,,not 4". My vapor riser/chase after my thumper is 1.5. So right there,, is seems logical that your equipment is going allow for a higher volume of vapor to load the system very rapidly compared to mine.

Additionally, my tower likely holds more liquid at each plate level and therefore takes a bit longer before draining liquid contributes to the liquid level in the big thumper... To me it seems your thumper is being loaded very rapidly compared to mine...

Also,,,because my system holds more volume within the tower section, (once the 100% reflux mode is complete)I only need enough heat to merely evaporate the very high proof alcohol contained on the tower plates..Doesn't require much heat to evaporate 94-95% at this point.
So once I have equalized/stabilized I can turn down the input without compromising much at all in terms of collection speed as the ever rising boiler temps will now drive the system.

I have swamped my system a few times trying to find the point during the run to optimally collect. It can get a little scary having 90+ distillate spewing out of the body of the parrot under bloody pressure no less.

Anyway, my first impression is that you may be pushing to fast or refluxing too long before you collect....Or more specifically.. you have not yet found the optimal time to collect for the way you are running.

Are you using a thermometer to gauge when your head temp is stable? Did you install a sight glass in your thumper to help realize when collection should start?
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Re: My Little Bubbler Mod

Postby MacStill » Tue Feb 21, 2012 11:01 am

I like to reflux 100% for about 30 minutes once the temp gets stable, but it's not quite 100% I guess because generally I use this period for a slow heads bleed at about 2 drops a second.

Thanks for your reply :handgestures-thumbupleft: it does seem I was on the right line of thinking now you've chimed in.

I have so many projects going on at the moment the sight glass on the thumper has been stolen for another thing I'm building, but I'm just going to wait until I fit one to it before I run it again on the new electric boiler.

Run strategy is the key I reckon for sure, I'm confident it's not a design fault.

Cheers.
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Re: My Little Bubbler Mod

Postby LWTCS » Tue Feb 21, 2012 12:07 pm

I don't think you need the site glass as such....It just may take an extra run or two till you get a good feel for when to draw product...And if you had a sight glass you'd prolly only use it a hand full of runs and then never look at it again....

That's why I was hoping Loneswinger would come back into town as he built a calculator that would use heat input and plate liquid volume to create a simulation of the run progress. The tool was dern'd close and quite helpful to give one a good feel for how the run should go....

Dunno what happen'd to him.

You'll get it worked out I'm sure.
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Re: My Little Bubbler Mod

Postby Cane Toad » Tue Feb 21, 2012 9:42 pm

Any updates Mac??? :think: Or been busy building :handgestures-thumbupleft:
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Re: My Little Bubbler Mod

Postby MacStill » Tue Feb 21, 2012 9:47 pm

Been busy avoiding 37 degrees, laying on the couch in air con snoozing :laughing-rolling:

Marinated a couple of T-Bones for mrs mac to cook and drank a few beers :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:
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Re: My Little Bubbler Mod

Postby emptyglass » Tue Feb 21, 2012 9:55 pm

Sorry to go talking still's while your nashing down on a good bit of cow, but, since its a casual 24 degrees over here,

What happens when if you crack the valve on the drain piping while running?

Do you get vapor or fluid?

Something to try, maybe?

I'm still trying to get my head around it, but Mac, yours seems to me to be a bubble chamber, with an extra plate on top of that, whereas LWTCS' seems to be more of a traditonal thumper design. The humper bit, that is.
I'm not sure if they are the same, or different. I'm still trying to work that out. Not sure if I missed somethin in your pic's.
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Re: My Little Bubbler Mod

Postby MacStill » Tue Feb 21, 2012 10:18 pm

I have opened that valve during the puke actually, a little fluid from the air lock and then just steam/vapor... it did as I expected it would do.

Any of these bubbler builds could be classed as inline thumpers, every plate acts just as a thumper would on a large scale.... others may have a different more scientific opinion but that's how I see it in laymans terms, so my bunny rooter IMHO is basically just a large extension of the column with a large bubble cap & a sieve tray.....

I'm almost certain my problem occurs once the alc is depleted from the boiler, and before this happens I need to speed up my take off rate before this happens..... so basically I'm thinking back the heat off a touch & close the reflux valve a fair bit.

We'll see how it goes :think:
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Re: My Little Bubbler Mod

Postby LWTCS » Tue Feb 21, 2012 11:51 pm

Mac what still head are you using?
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Re: My Little Bubbler Mod

Postby MacStill » Wed Feb 22, 2012 12:00 am

LWTCS wrote:Mac what still head are you using?


4 plate (sieve) bubbler mate, same rig as in my vids ;-)
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Re: My Little Bubbler Mod

Postby LWTCS » Wed Feb 22, 2012 5:34 am

Also Mac, don't charge it. Let it self fill for your proofy stuff.
If your gonna charge with flavor juice then ya gotta run it much more like a thumper rather than a column ....Like a tuneable thumper.
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Re: My Little Bubbler Mod

Postby Cane Toad » Wed Feb 22, 2012 9:14 am

Only 33 degrees there today Mac,I expect a full run down this arvo :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:
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Re: My Little Bubbler Mod

Postby LWTCS » Wed Feb 22, 2012 10:21 am

Arvo?

I'm such a yank
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Re: My Little Bubbler Mod

Postby MacStill » Wed Feb 22, 2012 10:24 am

LWTCS wrote:Arvo?

I'm such a yank


Arvo = afternoon ;-)

But he'll be waiting a while longer than that, I've got a still to build :laughing-rolling:
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