Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Hello gents,

I've just built myself a pot still from an 18 litre urn and am having trouble trying to seal the lid. I've tried some silicone hose with a slit cut along its length and placed over the rim of the urn but steam is escaping under the hose and out under the outside lip.
I thought the lid would seal against the rim once the lid was clamped down.

My options are

1. Silicone the hose completely along the inside and outside edges of the hose.

2. Find a sheet of silicone large enough to be able to cut a gasket around 15 mm wide that I can silicone to the inside concave ridge of the lid.

3. Use flour paste every time which I would rather avoid if possible.

Any suggestions or advice on which option should work best, or any other options I can try would be appreciated.

Thanks heaps.

Guppy you could try a large version of this http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=24199

Cheers

What's the ID & OD of the pot mate ? :think:

Giving it a bit more though you prob want something a bit better to use as a clamp as well. something like ....

Not to sure what its called, this fella is holding the lid on a can of paint in the garage.. Seen them pretty large though.

Cheers

I tried running some Teflon tape around the edge of the lid and it sealed perfectly. I just overlapped the outside of the lid by 1/4 and let the rest lay on the Inside of the lid. Might keep using this for now and see how it goes. Just a pain to have to re do it each time. But to be honest as soon as I find a cheap 50 litre keg for sale I'm going to switch over to a keg boiler anyway.

My OD of the pot is 30 cm to the outer edge of the knurled lip at the top. Not sure about ID as I've got the lid clamped on nicely now and am about to do a vinegar wash through it.

I considered making the cardboard Teflon gasket but didn't think it would work that well for such a large diameter.

@c2h60.. Where do you buy those ring clamps from in various sizes? That would be ideal.

Thanks gents.

Hey mate, i just had a bit of a Google and think they are called Lever Lock Rings
Places like http://www.blackwoods.com.au/part/06600 ... eavy-300mm
or https://www.bakers.net.au/part/06587541 ... ever-eximo sell them
It would all come down to how much of a lip you had on the urn lid/boiler..

Mine come off a pain tin and is 200mm (4ltr tin), a bigger tin might work if you need to do some painting (fark i hate painting :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead: .

As you said mate a keg is going to be the best option though..

C2H6O wrote:Hey mate, i just had a bit of a Google and think they are called Lever Lock Rings
Places like http://www.blackwoods.com.au/part/06600 ... eavy-300mm
or https://www.bakers.net.au/part/06587541 ... ever-eximo sell them
It would all come down to how much of a lip you had on the urn lid/boiler..

Mine come off a pain tin and is 200mm (4ltr tin), a bigger tin might work if you need to do some painting (fark i hate painting :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead: .

As you said mate a keg is going to be the best option though..

Thanks for that. Might suss out how much they are. Cheers

Hey Guppy, where you at. I could spare a keg if you need it. I'm in Sydney.

Potmash Boka wrote:Hey Guppy, where you at. I could spare a keg if you need it. I'm in Sydney.

Damn it, I'm down in Melbourne. Thanks for the offer though.

Guppy...just an Idea.

Now there have been posts on some forums on how to make a gasket out of Aquerium silicon .It basically involves smearing too surfaces of glass with vasaline and squeezing silicon between an leaving a few days to cure. The vas allows you to separate the silicon from the mold.

I can't see why you couldn't smear vasaline over the boiler rim and apply a ring of silcon directly to the lid .Press together with about a 1mm gap and leave to cure for few days...seems to be kind of what the HBS boiler guys have neen doing for years.

Guppy wrote: But to be honest as soon as I find a cheap 50 litre keg for sale I'm going to switch over to a keg boiler anyway.

Go to keg king in Springvale, they usually have second hand 50l kegs for about $50

a 12" tri clamp seal could be just the ticket, I'll dig out my spec sheet and let you know sizes once I boot up the pc tomorrow :handgestures-thumbupleft:

MacStill wrote:a 12" tri clamp seal could be just the ticket, I'll dig out my spec sheet and let you know sizes once I boot up the pc tomorrow :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Damn...I never imagined they made them that big....LOL...I always related them to something used in the dairy industry...thats a lot of Milk :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Can go up to 16" too :))

Yummyrum wrote:Guppy...just an Idea.

Now there have been posts on some forums on how to make a gasket out of Aquerium silicon .It basically involves smearing too surfaces of glass with vasaline and squeezing silicon between an leaving a few days to cure. The vas allows you to separate the silicon from the mold.

I can't see why you couldn't smear vasaline over the boiler rim and apply a ring of silcon directly to the lid .Press together with about a 1mm gap and leave to cure for few days...seems to be kind of what the HBS boiler guys have neen doing for years.

Actually as the lid has a concave rim that would probably work if I just fill the lip on the lid with silicone then sit it onto the pot with Vaseline smeared around the rim and let it cure. Then the seal will always be secured to the lid.

@macstill, a 12" tri clamp would probably do the trick but I can imagine they won't be cheap and this was just a temp measure until I get a keg. I started using this urn as my first BIAB rig but then upgraded to my current 3V with Herms brew rig so I can see myself doing the same with my pot still before too long.

@Bayside bogan- I always thought KK kegs were a lot more expensive than that but $50 is about what I wanted to pay. Might have to suss it out. But I will be keeping far way from their elements though.. :o

Not sure about this home cured silicon Idea doesn't sound to good to me, I doubt it would pass the high ABV alc test. :-B

Guppy
I know this is a very old post and I'm sure you have found a solution and moved on but it may help someone else in the same spot as I struggled with this issue for a while until i spotted a Youtube vid from a NZ fella I think it was - Fold Back Clips!. Buckets of clips - same seal - silicone hose sliced lengthways joined with silicone - then clip the lid all the way around.

Oh for the love of god. And material sealing leaks at the top no less :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead:
That’s should be a pic of what NOT to do ~x(

Yep don't be doing that! :handgestures-thumbdown: great example of how to burn a house down.

And then they whinge cause they spend the next 10 years recovering from 3rd degree burns :twisted: