Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

well, it's white. It comes in a little black tub with a red lid. does that narrow it down? :laughing-rolling:
haha, nah no idea mate what it is. Nothing special. Called BOC customer support, and they wouldn't recommend anything, so i just winged it, and used the flux i had for every day silver soldering... it seemed to flow okay when i got both metals to the right temp (which took some doing) but yeah, as the plate moved as it cooled down, it pulled apart...

May be the problem. Comweld 965 will do the job, normal flux wont stick copper to stainless good at all if you cant find that there is another type mentioned in macs soft solder thread.

Eziweld 801 is the other one :handgestures-thumbupleft: good luck.

bluc wrote:May be the problem. Comweld 965 will do the job, normal flux wont stick copper to stainless good at all if you cant find that there is another type mentioned in macs soft solder thread.

Eziweld 801 is the other one :handgestures-thumbupleft: good luck.

i had luck with comweld
it even did copper to copper when watered down to 1:3water

https://www.masters.com.au/product/900001096/cigweld-965-soldering-flux-125ml

With soft solder or silver solder?

OOps soft soler

yea soft, i havent brazed anything other than copper rings atm. i used aqua solder from bunnings, still do

you got a pic of the crack? some pin holes wont matter as the pressure below will force it up rather than down. if my 1/2" downcomer cant get liquid down a small pin hole will be fine :laughing-rolling:

Well found a scrappy who produced a lump of 6.5mm copper plate. Bonza! Anyway, got it running on vinegar tonight. Seriously, I don't think I could have been more prepared for it, I feel like I've extensively researched bubblers for a long time. And it went exactly the way I imagined, but watching the plates load for the first time, it still blew me away! They're just beautiful to watch! :D

Few more pics for y'all

Awesome stuff, Maddog. I only watched mine through (big) sightglasses, but you're right. It is beyond exciting when, after all that work, you actually see the plates start to load and bubble & finally start to drip out the end of your PC. :handgestures-thumbupleft: Must be kool to watch on a glasser.
Those thick plates look fantastic. Did you get any passive reflux due to the thickness of them?
And looking forward to the results of your first "real" run through it. Good luck and well done :handgestures-thumbupleft:


Happy stillin'

damn thats thick. what did you pay, per kilo?

Coooool. Love the thick copper plates :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Not really sure if it matters how much scrap copper is worth in Bendigo, WTD?

WTDist wrote:damn thats thick. what did you pay, per kilo?

it was some shady looking joint. the old guy walks into his office, and put it on one side of the scales and scrounged around for lead weights to put on the other side. then he pulls out his calculator and taps away as he takes a drag on his rolly, then looks up and says, "40 bucks?"
that was enough to cut 4 plates, no idea what it weighed though.... it hurt me to cough up 40 bucks, but i thought bugger it, booze aint gonna make itself Mad dog!

Dig Brinker wrote:Those thick plates look fantastic. Did you get any passive reflux due to the thickness of them?

cheers DB. Good question, but how do you tell what's passive and whats controlled reflux? i would guess no. I would think once the plates are hot, then they should give less passive reflux than a plate that could potentially be loosing heat from the outside environment, simply because of their thermal mass. But that's just a theory, and I've really got no bloody idea! ;-)

yea, you can look at it this way, they are flat as and would seal nice ?

Sorry Maddog, I meant passive as in the plates loading or starting to load before the vapour reaches the RC. Like when the still is heating up & the plates are still cool or cooler than the vapour hitting it...

Dig Brinker wrote:Sorry Maddog, I meant passive as in the plates loading or starting to load before the vapour reaches the RC. Like when the still is heating up & the plates are still cool or cooler than the vapour hitting it...

Yeah. Absolutely a small amount will condense on the glass and plates, but I don’t think it matters when the column is cold because once the plates have loaded you'll let it reach equilibrium anyway prior to take off :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Nice job mate :handgestures-thumbupleft:

So, it's been 18 months and all I've done is run cfw, rum and some brandys. But today for the first time I loaded up the 600mm packed section and chucked up on top for a vodka/Gin run.
Isn't it lovely watching that alchometer look like the titanic :D

Sweet your parrot looks interesting do you have a shot of it?:handgestures-thumbupleft: I cant wait to get mine going :D

bluc wrote:Sweet your parrot looks interesting do you have a shot of it?:handgestures-thumbupleft: I cant wait to get mine going :D

:text-+1: likewise I love the simplicity with a touch of artistry. The parrot looks amazing.

Awesome work mate!

Looking forward to having the head room for a packed section on my bubbler one day soon.