Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

So Bender The Bubbler needs a torso powerhouse to run liquid gold out of him.

(The thread to my bubbler column build if you haven't had a look, still in progress viewtopic.php?f=36&t=3935 )

I scored the keg for free from Summie, Thanks dude!

Started a little while ago but plan on
2 x 2" ferrules (for elements)
2 x 2400w elements,
1" drain via a 90 degree piece in the bottom of the keg with a 1" stainless ball valve,
4" fill port,
4" ferrle on top for the column,
adjustable legs/adjustable legs with wheels (haven't decided yet)

Pictures to come. Just got to find them!

I think I will put the boiler on adjustabel feet and not use wheels as some of you have suggested. I have finally sorted my garage and have plenty of room for distilling now.

I have been working on the boiler a little every day since I finished Bender The Bubbler and taken some photos along the way.

I got this keg for free from Summie, thanks man. Took the spear out of it, gave it a wash with water and started cutting holes out. I'm going to use 2 2400W elements so I cut holes with a specific SS hole cutter for 2" ferrules to be welded (which I still have to do).



I then cut a 1" hole with a specific SS hole cutter in the bottle for a drain. I have already bought a 1" ball valve so this has stopped me using a 2" drain.





Marked out the 2 4" ferrule holes ready to cut. I didn't have a SS hole cutting that was 4" so I used a Cobolt drill bit and an air drill and "stitch drilled" the two holes out and cleaned up the edge with a 2" diametre linishal die grinder attachment. This was an absolute BITCH to stitch drill out in stainless steel!!

I then used the same process as I did polishing my bubbler but minus the tedious 3M post pad sanding pads. I used a scotchbrite wheel and then the cutting JOSCO wheel, the JSCO polisning wheel then the metal polish.

There are a tonne of imperfections but the keg was pretty beat up at the start. I can always go back to the surface finsih at a later date but it still looks pretty good from where I'm sitting and I cant wait to get my bubbler on top of it!!

Here are a few pics.

More to come, standby!!

Ohhh shiny! ^:)^

Bloody brilliant mate, can't wait to see it all together :clap: :clap:

You're gonna need sunnies to run the still :laughing-rolling:

Thanks everyone! Sure makes me more motivated to get this done! I tig welded the 2" element ferrules on today and cleaned up the weld and then manufactured my own copper element guard. I wanted stainless but I only had copper. But the plan is to get this thing running and I can remake the element guard in stainless when I get my hands on some. Pics to come later when I get to the PC.

So all I am waiting on is a 90 degree ss 1" dia bend, an bsp threaded pipe end 1" to weld on to complete my drain and to work out how I'm going to make my adjustable feet. Took people's advice and didn't end up going with the wheels option. I have something that I forgot I had that I can use. Pics come later..

Looks bloody great Milky, I am dying to see your bubbler on top :music-deathmetal: :music-deathmetal:

Puts my boiler to shame Milky. You will love having 2 x 2400 watt elements they warm the boiler up very quickly. :)

I have a one inch drain and it does the job well ( at least for me it does :) ).

I did the whole keg-flip thing...so 2 inch drain, I used a Dremel and 3 disks to cut out the 4inch still mount, will tidy it later. I see you have 2x "long" ferrules on top...would 1 long and one short be better for giving clearance? Idk why I'm bothering...as my elbow won't fit through a 4" anyways...maybe I should just go 3 " fill port? Bloody nice to see something that looks that good. I really admire the skill and art that has gone into these setups, sadly chain drilling and endless polishing is beyond both my ability and level of patience!

I'm really impressed with your welds, after having recently attempted it myself. Looks fantastic! :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Come on milky!! I'm dying here, I need to see this rig put together. Any progress, photos, hints anything give us something :teasing-tease: just give us some warning before any photos so we can prepare our sunglasses so we don't get retina burn :laughing-rolling:

Awesome keg :handgestures-thumbupleft:

So I started thinking of ideas for adjustable feet.

Found these in the metal scrap bin at work, brand new. Measured the thread and was 5/8" UNF so I got some scrap 3/4" solid stainless bar and turned up in the metal lathe and cut a 5/8" UNF thread to match and made 3 nut sleeves. The idea behind this was to then cut a 1" length of 3/4" SS bar and weld the nut sleeve to it as small legs for the adjustable feet. Welded the nut sleeve to the bar and ground it back flush on the linishal, ready for welding to the rim of the keg.

I decided on 3 legs for best stability.

Next came welding them to the boiler bottom rim.

I measured the circumference and divided by 3 and marked out where the legs were going to fit. I then used a 2.5mm drill to pilot a hole for the SS hole saw (3/4" Dia).

Drilled all 3 holes, and the legs sat recessed all nice and neat in the rim ready for welding. It worked out great.

Then I TIG welded them in place, making sure to tack them first and test and adjust with a hammer and a square to make sure they were perfectly straight.

They look great! I filled it up with water to the top and you can just take the weight off one leg to lift it off the groud to wind it in or out to adjust the height. Found out it doesnt need nuts to wind in and out.

More pics

I purchased a 90 Degree 1" SS bend off ebay and a threaded pipe end to fit the 1" SS ball valve I had for the drain.

The threaded pipe end was 1 1/4" dia and the pipe was 1" so I had to find a way to join them.

I welded the 90 degree bend to some 1" pipe. I then flared the end of the 1" pipe to the dia of the threaded pipe end. Then TIG welded and ground it back. No leaks in any of them and back gassed with argon to try and keep it sanitary too.

Results below. It cam out better than I expected. After all the welding I put on my element guards and filled the sucker right up with water and left it for 8hrs. No leaking anywhere and my home made element guard was leak free too! So apart from some minor weld clean up and polishing and wiring up the elements, then I can use Bender. Has been a long time but he is pretty much complete!!!!!!!

more pics

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