Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Just thought I'd put up a post detailing the progress of my build from the view of a complete novice builder attempting a ground up build of a keg pot still.
There will be nothing creative or original here. A pretty standard build.

The plan - build a small upgrade to my *cough* airstill *cough* that's modular for future upgrades (maybe a CCVM).

The boiler.

50 litre keg.
2 x 2400W elements.
1 controller. (for 1 element)
Use the original 2 inch hole for the column.
4 inch ferrule port with a sight glass for wankyness.

The pot.
All 2 inch copper.
850mm column. 2 inch ferrules at each end allowing for modular options later.
500mm shotgun. Not sure how many cores (?) yet I'm thinking 5 - 7 1/2 inch.

The outcome.
Not get heavy metal poisoning and make good booze.


I have the keg, I have the copper, solder and flux.
Waiting on ferrules, triclamps, sight glass, elements and controller.

I'll post pics when I work out how.

*Disclaimer*
I don't know all the correct terminology yet. Please feel free to correct me if I call a potato a pear. Also I'm learning and I'm thick skinned if I'm fucking up tell me as bluntly as possible lol.

Also if I'm in the wrong place or this isn't allowed admins/mods please move or delete.

Thanks for reading.

Monk

Sorry monk, it’s definitely not ok to post stuff about actual distilling here. I’m going to pour another camomile tea and listen to the soothing sounds of enya..
:laughing-rolling:
But seriously, sounds like a pretty good plan, but I’d suggest flipping the keg upside down and using the existing 2” as a drain and adding a 4” still mount as well as your 4” fill point.

Doubleuj wrote:But seriously, sounds like a pretty good plan, but I’d suggest flipping the keg upside down and using the existing 2” as a drain and adding a 4” still mount as well as your 4” fill point.

Did I say booze? I meant essential oils, yeah Uhm, essential oils, for massage. :cool:

I did consider flipping the keg but I'm trying my best to keep as much work done in house as possible. One, for cost and two for my own twisted satisfaction. I think the 4 inch port may get the better of me as it is and I may have to get it outsourced but I'm going to have a red hot go at soldering it on top first. If it fails I'll suck it up and get another keg lol and flip it and get a pro to tig it all up.

So while I wait for my belated birthday presents to myself arrive I've had a go at soldering.

2" to 1" reducer to a 1" to 1/2" reducer for the bottom of the shotgun.
Aquasafe solder
Bakers flux (research suggests that it's much more effective than bakers yeast. I know I didn't beleive it either)


I'm not sure how detailed I should get with all this. I'm happy to post exactly what I've done, post heaps of pics or both.

Basically I cleaned this with citric acid, scuffed the area I wanted soldered with 400 grit, painted on the flux like you'd butter your toast when the mrs isn't looking, heated up the copper with a propane torch and just began touching the join gently with the solder. Eventually something magic happens, the solder dissapears into the join and it runs through the whole joint on its own.

Considering this was my first time I was quite impressed.

This is the underside.


Then I gave it a polish with 800grit, 1200grit and a little autosol and citric acid.



Not perfect but not bad for a first crack.

Tomorrow or Sunday I will work on the shotty.

I started with an air still,from small things big things grow.I would prolly make ya colomn about the same length as ya shotty,and get two 2inch copper 90'elbows from the plumbing sup then the 2inch ferruls will fit in the ends ,leaving silver brazeing them up easier.cheers hillzabilly ;-)

hillzabilly wrote:I started with an air still,from small things big things grow.I would prolly make ya colomn about the same length as ya shotty,and get two 2inch copper 90'elbows from the plumbing sup then the 2inch ferruls will fit in the ends ,leaving silver brazeing them up easier.cheers hillzabilly ;-)

Already got them sitting on the workbench mate. Great minds :cool: :cool:

:laughing-rolling:
But seriously, sounds like a pretty good plan, but I’d suggest flipping the keg upside down and using the existing 2” as a drain and adding a 4” still mount as well as your 4” fill point.[/quote]

Yep plus 1 on this design, you could get by with a 3" fill port/view and a 4" still mount but the drain will be invaluable.

78Monk wrote:

hillzabilly wrote:I started with an air still,from small things big things grow.I would prolly make ya colomn about the same length as ya shotty,and get two 2inch copper 90'elbows from the plumbing sup then the 2inch ferruls will fit in the ends ,leaving silver brazeing them up easier.cheers hillzabilly ;-)

Already got them sitting on the workbench mate. Great minds :cool: :cool:

Maaaaate,I have a 2inch expander for copper tube ifn ya need seeing as you are a local boy .cheers hillzabilly ;-)

Mate which flux are you using? your paste seems to have worked very well, im a bit jealous lols, i need more practice 8-}

RC Al wrote:Mate which flux are you using? your paste seems to have worked very well, im a bit jealous lols, i need more practice 8-}

This stuff mate.
Before my current occupation I was an electronics technician. Dunno if it's helped but I'm no stranger to solder. This is just much much bigger.

Had a few technical issues with my images but all sorted now.

Had a go at the shotgun a few days ago.

Onto the internals of the shotgun.

To say this was a massive bastard is quite the understatement.

My soldering skills were tested and it shows. This is after a quick clean up with a lapdisc.


You'll see my inner tubes (whatever they're called) aren't lined up perfectly. This is because I made 8 pairs of the plates and stuffed them all up. In the end these were the 10th and final ones. I hope to never make them again. If I do I'll perhaps have a little more patience.

One win was after soldering (excessively) the water jacket was sealed completely first go and held up to full test with the hose. No leaks!
I think I'll need to run water through it to get the reducer and ferrule soldered on so I don't de-solder everything.

Looking good mate, I just made a 2" shotgun myself but with 6 vapour tubes. That was a fun exercise to drill out :))

Well done mate. Looks awesome :handgestures-thumbupleft:

They can be a bit tricky

The reducer and outlet could be a snug fit with a little thread tape ifn ya not going to have a parrot hanging of it,I would solder or braze the SS 2inch ferrule to a 2inch joining ring first then soft solder that in place,running water thru it could be tricky as too much will prolly cool things too much.With coolant outlets I would get brass 1/2inch npt female fittings from the hardware,gives flexibility ,as you can configure with straight or elbows or even valves as you need,and solder them directly to the 2inch tube.I have found when building being able to braze some parts and then soft soldering others can be very helpful in situations like this ,idearly brazeing the inner tubes first would make things easier ,like brazeing the 2inch ferrule to a joining ring then soft soldering the other side.I have tried soft soldering SS to copper but failed badly and found brazeing much easier,but others can and not having access to oxy equipment could sway the choice to ,good luck wich ever way ya go.cheers hillzabilly :handgestures-thumbupleft:

ooh I love shiny things, so pretty ....

Great job mate, it's looking excellent.

hillzabilly wrote:The reducer and outlet could be a snug fit with a little thread tape ifn ya not going to have a parrot hanging of it,I would solder or braze the SS 2inch ferrule to a 2inch joining ring first then soft solder that in place,running water thru it could be tricky as too much will prolly cool things too much.With coolant outlets I would get brass 1/2inch npt female fittings from the hardware,gives flexibility ,as you can configure with straight or elbows or even valves as you need,and solder them directly to the 2inch tube.I have found when building being able to braze some parts and then soft soldering others can be very helpful in situations like this ,idearly brazeing the inner tubes first would make things easier ,like brazeing the 2inch ferrule to a joining ring then soft soldering the other side.I have tried soft soldering SS to copper but failed badly and found brazeing much easier,but others can and not having access to oxy equipment could sway the choice to ,good luck wich ever way ya go.cheers hillzabilly :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Cheers mate I might try the plumbers tape on the reducer and see how it goes. No plans on a parrot right now. Trying to keep it simple. Definitely saves me a headache in the short term.

The joining ring I'll definitely do. I've got about 30mm between the top of the shotgun and the beginning of the cooling tubes so if I do your idea with the spacer hopefully I have enough room to heat it up without the solder letting go.

The idea of running water through it while I solder I got from another blokes build elsewhere. Maybe just having a bit of water as a heatsink of sorts might help things along but I'll see how I go.

I intentionally left the inlet/outlets blank as I knew I wanted to do something with them at some point but wasn't sure what. Right now standard hose clamps on perfectly but the npt fittings are definitely on the cards. If i point them down when it's mounted I can attach the hose free of kinks and I have a reticulation tap that I've macgyvered up to adjust flow.

Not surprisingly, you start what you think will be a simple build and it gets complicated real fast. I think I need a drink. :-D :-D

I've found with soft solder that it will melt slightly while soldering other joints but it will hold if you don't move or bump it while its liquid. You may have trouble if you have large gaps but otherwise you should be fine :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Had some parts arrive today. So I thought I'd have a go at the keg.

Before

Afterish.

I went too coarse with the lapdisc at first, then I hit it with a 220 but it's all swirly. I'll fix it later.

I've realised now after a little reading that I may have purchased inferior elements. Meh, if they fail I'll buy the better ones.
Dunno if I can name the brand but I have a black voltage controller (kl) that was being a bastard. Running at full noise warming water it would trip after 10 - 15 minutes. Then at 80% then at 60%. The controller was getting hot so I brought the whole lot inside and plugged it in with a fan on it and, no surprise, ran at full noise for over two hours without issue.
Looks like I'll need to fit a computer fan on each of the vent holes on the box. Bit disappointing but it was hot as outside today.

Fitting the second element tomorrow. Not sure if I should put the hole directly above the first element or offset. Looks like everyone fits them beside each other but mine will touch.

Back to work tomorrow so no progress until next week.

I would prolly mount ya second element 90' away from the first and slightly higher,KK elements do not have a good rep here .For legs I used three 2inch SS 90' elbows from Stirlings in Freo Tigged to the boiler with 2inch balustrade end caps fitted (unwelded) in the elbows as feet.Ifn ya need someone for TIG welding I can rec a friend up in the Perth hills who does all mine for a good price .cheers hillzabilly ;-)