Vm reflux

[Distillnation]

Cheers yummyrum,

Yeah, I'm getting a couple from the guy who made it in the first place, so hopefully he'll have them in time for the ferrule delivery.

I may need to get more solder though. Hopefully I'll find a place with some in stock.

Is there a good place to get packing from online?

[Camikaze]

Amphora Society sell copper mesh by the pound. It's awesome stuff. Google 'em. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

EDIT - Better yet, click HERE :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Distillnation]

Cool that's something else to add to the list. I might have to place an order for the needle valve sooner than I thought.

I've narrowed that down to these 2 here:

http://item.mobileweb.ebay.com.au/viewi ... 6084646778

http://item.mobileweb.ebay.com.au/viewi ... 6084646778

The male thread seems like it might be easier to use in a possible weld less way. Any thoughts guys?

Thanks

[Distillnation]

Damn mobile ebay links. This is what I wanted to post:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/3-8-DN10-Sta ... 20ccfde060

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/1-2-Threaded ... 20ccb4a682

[Sam.]

Damn mobile ebay links. This is what I wanted to post:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/3-8-DN10-Sta ... 20ccfde060

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/1-2-Threaded ... 20ccb4a682

Would think twice about buying 304 grade stainless from china. stainless aint stainless as they say :laughing-rolling:

[Distillnation]

Haha, was hoping not to hear that. Compared to the price of needle valves in Australia, they are a steal. I guess in this case the saying is right. If it's too good to be true, it probably is.

Hopefully I'll get the ferrule today. Even if I don't have the coupling yet. Might give a few places a call and see if they have anything in stock. The two hardware stores didn't have anything over 1" for fittings. Need to find an end cap as well. Hopefully some plumbers are feeling generous ;)

I'm excited to get this going. Might need to invest in another fermenter or two.

[Distillnation]

There is currently this needle valve on eBay which is clearly a better quality item. (As seen by visiting the supplier website which has the List Price at $205.50)

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Hoke-2219G8Y ... 19ceb7b1e9

The only question I keep coming back to is how I would connect it to the 3/8" output pipe.

Is there an easy way to go about doing this?

[Distillnation]

I really wish I could edit my posts for a longer time after the initial post b-(

I'm actually a little confused about the above needle valve I posted. It has 1/2" gyroloks on both sides. But does that mean it will connect to a 1/2" pipe? Or would it be perfect for a 3/8" pipe. If it's the latter it would be great. If not then I have an idea of what might work.

I could find myself a 3/8" to 1/2" coupling and use enough pipe to fit into the valve so that it makes a seal on both sides. (See below diagram).

needle_valve.png

Cheers

[Yummyrum]

Recon what you show will work .
However
I just used a 10mm ball valve on my VM/LM and sure its fiddly as fuck to use,but for $15 bucks ,I put up with it ,but then I only use it for taking off the foreshot/early heads ,never done a whole LM run with it ,but if you expect to just nudge the handle and not just turn it like a handle ,it will work just fine .

[Distillnation]

It's funny you say that because I saw a small ball valve at one of the hardware shops the other day for <$10. Looking down the valve I can see how it would be difficult getting it right, but I remember a post somewhere where the guy got it set right and then marked a line on the valve so he knew where to set it right away.

That's definitely another option. And a cheap one at that.

So far I reckon I could end up spending more on valves than I would anything else for the still Haha.

With any luck I'll have the ferrule tomorrow (definitely this week though) and can start looking at how I'll be working with it.

I'm still in need of a coupling though. The guy is away on holidays for the next week so won't be able to get it from him till then.

Are there any online suppliers for copper fittings. Most of the places I looked only listed what they made not actually selling them.

I saw a local ad for a gas ring burner, reg and hoses for $25. Seems like an offer to take up. I don't see them too cheap these days.

Thanks for the tip yummyrum

[Camikaze]

What kinda burner was it mate?

Online copper fittings? :handgestures-thumbdown: Won't happen mate, not for larger sizes. Not aussie stockists anyways. Smaller stuff you might be lucky with. All the yank stuff is sized differently to ours so don't even bother with ebay or the like.

Try pm'ing one of our esteemed builders and see if they could rustle up some bits for you. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Distillnation]

What kinda burner was it mate?

I'm waiting on a reply from the guy now so should hopefully know what it is. Is there anything in particular I should be staying away from?

Online copper fittings? :handgestures-thumbdown: Won't happen mate, not for larger sizes. Not aussie stockists anyways. Smaller stuff you might be lucky with. All the yank stuff is sized differently to ours so don't even bother with ebay or the like.

Try pm'ing one of our esteemed builders and see if they could rustle up some bits for you. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Yeah, I didn't think I'd have much luck with that. I might see if there are some members out there willing to help me out. I couldn't even find a damn 1/2 to 3/8 reducer. There's a big range of PVC and Brass/Chrome fittings, but for anything in stainless or copper you pretty much have to be lucky and hope they have it.

If you check out the post I made in the other thread below, you'll know what kind of stores we're up against.

http://aussiedistiller.com.au/viewtopic ... 938#p50938

I just used a 10mm ball valve

I found a couple ball valves, a 6mm and a 10mm (~$5.94). The 10mm looks like it would be perfect but its one of those brass/chrome valves. Are you using a stainless valve or one of the brass ones?

Cheers

[Camikaze]

Re the burner: If its firing a keg, you don't really want anything too small as it'll take hours to boil the sucker. My opinion, you'll want at least a 3-ringer for that. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

$6 for a valve, I would hazard a guess that it'd be no good for high % alcohol contact. Inferior seals/meterials for our purposes and a prick to adjust. Go staino for a valve mate. :-B

[Distillnation]

Alright cool. I'm hoping it will be a 3 ring burner because that will come in handy as well for my AG brews when I don't have access to a power point.

Yeah, I didn't like the fact that they were brass due to most people saying to stay away from them, but the price definitely did make me think twice. I suppose there are just some cases though were it counts to go the extra mile and spend the extra money to make sure you're doing it right, especially when it comes to something that could affect your health.

Looks like I'll keep an eye out for one or check online, if not, that $40 one I posted a few posts back might be the way to go.

Thanks Camikaze!

[Camikaze]

Your welcome dude! :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Yummyrum]

It's funny you say that because I saw a small ball valve at one of the hardware shops the other day for <$10. Looking down the valve I can see how it would be difficult getting it right, but I remember a post somewhere where the guy got it set right and then marked a line on the valve so he knew where to set it right away.

LOL that was me here viewtopic.php?f=8&t=2468

........ Are you using a stainless valve or one of the brass ones?Cheers

Nickle plated brass with Teflon seals and SS ball.Came from Reeces think the invoice said suitable for potable water and gas

Not saying that Nickle plate is OK .Personally I'd like to have it SS but there seems to be no noticeable difference last time I looked inside it.
Pretty sure I read on the HD site where all the poison police dwell that It was safe to use but I know that the Nickle platting on the nut that holds the head to the boiler on my Still spirits still did eventually vanish leaving a brass nut exposed .

Carrington copper products (02) 9627 4277
http://www.carringtonbends.com/Plumbing_Products.html

Rung them once ,they have all the bits we use.Will do mail order. Nice to talk to .Any quantity and very cheap.
Unfortunately I have never bought anything off them as I prefer to go into a shop and get my stuff ( weird bastard aye)

[Distillnation]

LOL that was me here viewtopic.php?f=8&t=2468

Haha, I knew I read it somewhere. Good to know that it was you that posted it, gives me more confidence if I decide to go that way.

I'll look for stainless for now, but I don't want to have to wait forever to get it up and running, so may have to do some temporary solutions in the mean time. With any luck I'll find something soon though.

Carrington copper products (02) 9627 4277
http://www.carringtonbends.com/Plumbing_Products.html

Rung them once ,they have all the bits we use.Will do mail order. Nice to talk to .Any quantity and very cheap.
Unfortunately I have never bought anything off them as I prefer to go into a shop and get my stuff ( weird bastard aye)

That's a nice looking site! I could see myself spending quite a bit there :D Might have to give them a call and see what costs I'd be looking at to get them here.

If I could go in store and do it I would. Just so much easier to do it that way, can actually pick it up and look at it before buying it, plus you don't have the extra cost of postage and its easier to return as well.

In other news though, I got a nice surprise when I got home :dance: :happy-partydance:

IMG_20130318_173623.png

Now I just have to wait until I can get a coupler :(

[Distillnation]

Okay, so while I'm waiting on the arrival of my needle valve and coupling, I've been thinking about how I'll be getting water to the condenser.

Originally I was thinking I would get myself a pump, a large rubbermaid container and fill it with water/ice and have it recirculate that way. It seems like a good way to go about doing it in terms of reusing the water, but obviously the limit here is that the container only holds a small amount of water and will presumably get warm quite quickly (used a similar setup in the past) and hence the need for ice is pretty big.

I'm in the process of getting a house and the one I've got my eye on at the moment has a fair size water tank (but no tap currently attatched - not hard to change). This seems like a better option as it is a much lager body of water and will not warm as quickly, plus I won't have to fill and empty it each time as nature will do that for me :D

If everything goes well and I do get the house I'll definitely look at getting it set up for the still (and while I'm at it, using a pump will be useful for getting the water pumped out to the lawn/garden).

I have a few questions about this though. The main question being, what is the best way to go about this?

1) Should I install a tap on it and have a line connected from the tap, to the pump, and another line to the condenser input? So essentially an inline pump.

2) Should I use a submersible pump?

The first one to me seems like the way to go as it will be easy for me to do, but that's only because I'm not sure how I would go about doing the submersible pump.

On the bunnings website there is this pump. How exactly would this work? Obviously it needs to be submersed in the rainwater tank, but how would I connect it to the still? A line that goes up and out of the tank? Would it have enough power to do that? It does 8000L/hour or ~133l/min so I'm assuming it would have the guts to do it, but I would rather check first to make sure I'm not wasting money I don't have.

The other question, or rather concern, is how I would go about controlling the flow into the condenser. Would I be better off adding a valve at the condenser input to constrict the flow. Unless of course I can find a pump that will allow for adjusting the flow.

I'm open to better ideas of course, but just throwing out a few things I had in mind.

[googe]

Hey mate, I use the same one but it's the $50 one, they have more than enough power. Have a tee on the output line inside your tank with a tap/valve after the tee. What size is the tank?.

[Distillnation]

This one here?

I'm not too sure, I didn't get a good look at it, but it is probably 3000-5000L.

Have a tee on the output line inside your tank with a tap/valve after the tee.

I'm a little confused about this part. My dad got a better look at it than me, and said that it didn't have a tap installed on it currently, so that would be something I would need to be doing.

When you say output line, do you mean the output line of the pump itself or the tank? Sorry, hard to picture it without seeing the tank/pump in person.

This is probably my worst diagram ever haha, but it is easier than trying to explain it.

pump.jpg

Pump Output connects to the ball/gate valve on the rain water tank using plastic hose. The valve would have a barbed connection to allow connecting hose to the still.

Is that what you mean or am I completely off?

Cheers googe!