The Heart of Gold

[hillzabilly]

Good ta see ya giving it a crack again Zac ,noticed Macs got the 2inch caps with risers on special at moment ,good onya Bryan for the offer ,no exuses now boyz.cheers hillzabilly :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[WTDist]

cross section area of 1 1/2" riser is exactly same as the distance between the 1 1/2' riser and 2" cap. so for a perfect balance of open area a 2" cap would have a riser of about 1 1/2"

As for hacksaw it takes a long time and is a bitch but its how i prefer to cut my copper nice and straight, as for slots... grinder it is :))

[hillzabilly]

Just curious as to what bath depth ya plan ta run with the build,as I found when I tryed a bath depth that was higher than the outlet height of the riser (or holes) the plates flooded and the vapour was going through the downcomer's :scared-eek: cheers hillzabilly

[Zak Griffin]

Mac's 2" caps are definitely tempting mate! I already had all of the gear to make these ones though. Honestly, between this build and Agrajag I should've just saved my spare change and gone straight for an FSD rig! I'd be well in front in time, and probably not far behind in $, and that's without paying a cent for any of my copper! I do love working with copper though :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I was thinking a 20mm bath depth? Seems to be about standard. I may even make adjustable downcomers yet, see how keen I get/what copper I find.

[Zak Griffin]

Found a few 2" fittings at work yesterday... A couple of 90° elbows, a tee and a 2"-1" reducer. Basically everything I need to make a 2" shotgun, so I'm going to do that instead of a 3" PC. I've also already got a couple of spare 2" clamps and seals.

Also picked up enough new 1" for a parrot. The pieces are coming together!

[Zak Griffin]

Got another hour or so in this afternoon.

First I had to make a work bench for my new micro-microdistillery (a 1.5x1.5 garden shed)

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Used nothing but bits I've scrounged at work (including the secondhand nails :laughing-rolling: ), a hacksaw and a hammer. Perfect height for sitting a fermenter on to sing a symphony syphoning straight into the boiler :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Then I slotted another bubblecap and cut a 500mm piece of 2" for my PC.

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Cutting slots with a hacksaw is a pain in the arse but it's not hard. Might get the other two done tomorrow.

Not sure if I should keep my plate sections at 150mm as they currently are or cut them down a bit to 120mm. Shorter modules will let me see more with the 2" sightglasses, and I'll also be able to fit a fifth plate in the same height :think:

[Rowey]

Looking good mate :handgestures-thumbupleft:
The stuff will taste so much better coming out the spout since you are doing it all by hand :obscene-drinkingchug:
Looking forward to seeing them bubbles

[Professor Green]

Perfect height for sitting a fermenter on to symphony straight into the boiler :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Well who doesn't love the sound of a fementer emptying into a boiler! :teasing-neener:

Cheers,
Prof. Green.

[Zak Griffin]

Is that better, Professor? :laughing-rolling: I've got my extra buttons back!

Given my space constraints I think I'll run just a single 50L fermenter and probably work on whiskey in the winter and rum in summer, rerunning the whiskey feints for neutral when I get a keg full. I should get away with just leaving the fermenter on the bench, hopefully!

[Professor Green]

:D
Bloody moderators and their god like powers!

Cheers,
Prof. Green.

[scythe]

If you are going to cut the rest of the slots with a hacksaw i suggest getting a 32tpi blade if you dont have one already.
Makes it a much smoother cut and there is less chance of you bending something.
Grinders are cheating anyway.

[Zak Griffin]

Cheers for the tip. I'm using a blunt 24 tooth blade, gives me a pretty clean cut. Only 100 slots to go!

Got all of my caps slotted!

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Also decided I'm going to cut my plate modules down from 160mm to 130mm so I can see more bubbly action through the 2" glasses :-B (disregard the 2" clamp, that's only to show where the sightglass sits)

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[Zak Griffin]

Got my plate modules cut down to 130mm, and started thinking about making a 3"-4" reducer/bottom plate section but run out of daylight.

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[Zak Griffin]

Got a start on my bottom plate/4"-3" reducer before the rain settled in this morning

Take a piece of 4", a ball pein hammer and the tow ball of your ute, and start annoying the neighbours! If I had a torch I would've put some heat into it first but instead I just had to make a couple of little cuts with the hacksaw so it would work in enough.

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It fits pretty well around the 3" pipe, just needs a bit more tickling. I'll also flare the end of the 3" out so there's plenty of surface for the solder to work with inside.

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Not sure how the plate is going to seal in there yet, I might use an offcut and make a weir plate :think:

I'm doing this because I've already got a 3" still port on my boiler :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Doubleuj]

Tow balls an awesome idea for an anvil :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[dogbreath vodka]

Well done Zak.
The ol' tow ball trick works well. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Starting to come together. :music-deathmetal:

[WTDist]

Looking good, will you soft solder or braze the 3" onto the reduced 4"?

With the caps, did you make something up to hold them or use a vice? i found them a pain to cut with my 24 teeth hacksaw on 1" caps and no vice

[Zak Griffin]

Ill probably hard solder the reducer, just to fill the gaps a bit better. And because its gotta support the whole still.

I just held the caps while I cut the slots. If I had to do more I'd cut a 50mm hole in a piece of timber to sit the caps in...

DUJ, I got the idea off dogbreath vodka, he did the same but 6"-4" for his build.

[Zak Griffin]

Reducer done!

I flared the end of the 3". Once it has been soldered together I'll cut the bottom end to length, but it will only be ~30mm long with an easy flange.

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Then I fed it in from the top and the inside looks like this!

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Once I've got it soldered up I'll work out how the rest of the module will work.

All done with a tow ball, a ball pein hammer and a hacksaw :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Dig Brinker]

Nice work, Zak :handgestures-thumbupleft: