WTDist T500 Modification

[P3T3rPan]

Using a soaking wet rag will help tremendously, but there is many a plumber who will tell you to watch out for steam.
100c steam will take your skin off instantly so arrange your work area to suit.
A water bath will work more safely but sometimes is not convenient.

[WTDist]

Cheers p3t3rpan. ive been soldering outside so it will be well ventilated. found there were too many gasses burning off in the garage. didnt want this in my house. ill try the rag as i think i might burn the flux from heat if i sit it in water. this may have contributed to my first fail, too much jeat directly under the flux. last 2 attempts were verticle. ill start verticle for one end then clean the other again then wrap a wet rag on the soldered end and lay it horizontal for the opposite end.

Everyones advice is much appreciated :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[P3T3rPan]

An assistant with a water bottle to keep the rag wet can be useful

[WTDist]

only assistant i will have is my wife and she will pour the water over me before the rag :laughing-rolling:

She hates me distilling and my mod. Ill try do it myself. Only time i have is at night. I look after my kids every day so time to solder is hard to come by here. maybe i can set up a hose on a slow drip over the rag. I have a few days to think of a way ill set it up. If i cant then i will get someone to help me

[WTDist]

So with having a break on my RC until i get out of my mood :O) i went and drilled 4 plates for inside my column. I plan on trying to make them removable as one piece like i talked about in another thread which was here

Im hoping i can make it tight and perfect that it will slide in and out (so i can still have it packed for vodka), maybe with a little force so it works. Now that im removing the normal T500 coil i will have a little more room. My aim is to be able to do a flavor run without the need for a power controller and use plates in its place. I figure if i can squeeze in 3 or 4 plates when i want a flavor run then i can narrow this down to one run with no power controller. Originally i thought of a large bath depth for the first and then have a small bath depth for a second and just leave it at that but i want to try more with smaller depths. Like i mentioned earlier, this will be my experiment once i finish my mod and will be hard as i wont be able to see the plates when i run so if i flood or have too many plates or something and it doesn't have power ill have trouble figuring it out. But i think i will, im optimistic :D

Ive read that 4" and/or 6" plates can run on single 2400W element on full power and I hope to make the T500 boiler power a number of plates on a 2" with 2000W

I also realize i wont gain any speed, just higher ABV and maybe better heart cut. (and this may well just be out of my league and a waste of time 8-} )

Any way the number of plates is undetermined but i have drilled out 4 so far to match the CAD picture below, +- a few mm lol. nothing is perfect 8-}
I went with 1/2" down-comer and 1/2" riser (if that's what its called) surrounded with a single 3/4: bubble cap. There is room to go 1" but it will be snug and ill have to be careful with spacing

plates.png

hmm, seems like i have less room on the actual plates :wtf:

Im a little fuzzy on how they are meant to be but this i can figure out as time goes by, i understand perfectly how they operate just not the manufacturing side yet, but i will :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Does this sound alright for a 2" still?

i don't want to restrict flow to much or flood the plates with it not draining away fast enough. 1/2" is the largest drill but i have anyway so it may have to do.

Does anyone think these measurements will be good enough for flow? Don't want to get too pressurized

Ive looked and it doesn't seem like anyone has tried this in a 2" column before. Maybe this will be the first for Aussie Distiller.

[WTDist]

Soldered my 2 ends for my RC onto my inner pipes for the 3rd time. Worked well for the first end as usual, nice and easy and what seemed clean. Re cleaned my other end wiped and fluxed ready to go. Had some small washers around the soldered end with a larger towel around them which i kept pouring ice water over to keep this end cool. The RC was on its side horizontal for this which is why i didn't submerge it in water.

Worked a treat, didn't heat the other side up but limited my maneuverability to all 5 tubes but i think it worked. may have over heated a couple of times 8-}
Hardly any steam came from the rags. i was using water with ice in it though...

Some joints look like the solder has gone in but not all the way through (on last end soldered), and all the way through is only like 1mm. I have it sitting in citric acid now for a day or so to clean it up, il hit it with a brush n stuff and really clean it up joints and all so when i try for the outer pipe ill reflux the inner tubes and ends as well as the outer pipe to make sure it holds and flows in evenly. This way if it needs just that little bit more heat and flux it might flow properly, or not, as long as there is no leaks and it is strong :-D I may cut a few sticks of solder and place it in place ready so it just flows easy, not worried about using to much on this part as the 2" RC has been my major hurdle. Funny my 2" PC was my first solder attempts and easiest of them all :laughing-rolling:

No pics as of yet, was under time constraints so the job had priority over photos. Ill take some when i take it out of the acid bath. Not sure when this is but i wanna light a fire under my arse now, the T500 is leaking again :angry-banghead: majorly so its decommissioned

[WTDist]

Belled my first end today for a flange. Bottom of the RC pipe and only one im having in the build. Thought it would be best to do this first since im having so much trouble with my small 2" RC.
Annealed about probably three times. didn't want it to crack or be too hard.
Dont think i will do the same for the T500 column, might be too hard for my skills. I think i will just solder it on with no lip. Might just have to double up on a gasket :think:
I guess i could make a ferrule maybe :think:

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[WTDist]

Ive had the inner pipes and ends in citric acid for a few days and yesterday i swapped the citric acid for a new lot for my internals. The old stuff still works which im using on my flanged end to clean up but with the new lot it has turned my pipes grey and dark. I used half a container of citric acid from the Coles shop, approx 30 grams of powder in water. Much the same as last time but the reaction it has had is puzzling me and i want it to be shiny and clean not dark and grey. Can anyone help me on where i may have gone wrong.

It was about 1L of maybe 50 degrees water with about 30 grams of citric acid from the baking section of coles and soaked for less than 24 hours.
Here it is looking grey and dirty :wtf:

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Have i not added enough citric acid or too much? im puzzled, haven't had a problem with citric acid soaking before :angry-banghead:

[P3T3rPan]

cant use too much so maybe you used not enough

[WTDist]

cheers peterpan, ill add the rest in and see what happens. This photo below is taken 20 mins later withe the end in the old acid solution which is blue and dirty. Ill use the rest and see how i go. i want it really clean and ill hit it with a wire brush around the joints n stuff before i do any more. Just in case i missed something

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[P3T3rPan]

make sure your wire brush is stainless steel or you will leave iron all over it and have more fun soldering

[WTDist]

Will do, is brass ok too?

Just gave it a scrub with the ss one to have a look after i added in the lot of citric acid. it went all grey again but once i started scrubbing i realized that its putting a coat or film of grey crap all over it. the acid seems to be making it dirtier than it was. it was fairly clean before i first put it in.
I might stick with the old citric acid for now if this one keeps playing up....

Is watered down hydrochloric acid ok to use? i have a heap of that. i used to use a 50:50 solution for cleaning render of windows n shit

[P3T3rPan]

Haven't tried hydrochloric cos citric always worked so well.
Never felt the need to brush it either cos it comes out so clean

[WTDist]

Dramas :angry-banghead:
3rd attempt at this RC, no going back on it now, used a lot of solder to make sure it stuck :laughing-rolling:
I cut small bits of solder and placed it around both ends and soldered the lot in the one go, very slowly. seemed to work well other than a lot of solder was used

Both ends soldered. Can see a small leak here between the end and outer pipe. cleaned this up re fluxed and managed to seal it up good :handgestures-thumbupleft:

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The bottom end of RC

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in/out water pipes and no leaks

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90 degree bend added to top of RC

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After the 90 degree bend was soldered on i checked for a leak and there was one on the top where the bend was attached, the same end i had the first leak. Im left with 2 options, well i think anyway :think:

one i try and clean it up re flux in there and cut bits of solder off to place it in and re solder.... or
heat up and take the bend off, re seal the end like i did the first time i had a leak and make a flange instead of a solder join.

Didn't want more than one flange join as i wanted to save on costs but im not sure if i can successfully fix the leak with the bend in place :angry-banghead:

If i make a flange for this end (the top of RC) and i don't flare the end of my pipe as i have no room for this now, and if i don't flare the 90deg bend end. will i still have a good seal with a tri clamp or will i need 2 seals to space it out a bit?
might try and seal it up but its hard to see where the leak is. Im thinking the 2nd flange is best, just gotta get the treasurers approval ~x(

anyone have experience fixing these leaks? i think it may be the original leak as this was an easy spot to be compromised with high heat. not sure where it is though 8-}

I bet 4" or 6" would be much easier to make :O)
Next time ;-)

[WTDist]

Owww i think i found it and i can see it. maybe 10mm on the outer edge easy to get to. ill try fix it :D
Not tonight though

[rumdidlydum]

Looking good mate. Its fun chasing leaks 8-}
Looks like your hand came second best a couple of times :teasing-tease:
Cant wait to hear how it runs :D

[WTDist]

Getting there...
Put most of it together. Need to add the last reducers n bends (which are already made up) and attach the flanges and then im done, other than making the 1/2" inlet/outlet water tubes reduce to 1/4" to use same t500 hoses :-D
I keep checking... no leaks :D
Then next will be the 4 plates, started a lil bit cutting pieces up etc... I think i have the slot in bubble plate design well thought out but i wont give anything away for that yet :-D

Picture this on top of a T500

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Cant wait to see what it looks like after im finished and its all sanded back shiny n smooth :D

[Professor Green]

Looking good mate. I don't think I'd have the confidence to tackle a complete build of my own. I did knock up a little liebig recently just to see if I could do it (I'll probably use it for cooling on my MacBoka when it arrives) but I think it's fair to say I'm no metal worker.

Cheers,
Prof. Green.

[Jimbo]

This has been an great thread to read. I've been a metal worker for a few years, but all ive done is steel and hammers and arc/mig welding lol, useless for soldering and copper. If you had to build a custom from scratch you're learning very useful skills. It looks like its all going well though. Look forward to some new pics of the build. (My T500 sits silently hoping haha). :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[WTDist]

Cut up a piece of 2' to make a type of conncetion to go on the end on my PC to connect my 2" to 1".
Made a leak. This was on the week end. Attempted to rectify this today and everytime i sealed a leak another one or 2 sprung up. Got there in the end, about 10 leaks later :angry-banghead:
Ive decided on a new way to attatch the 2" to 1" now ;-)