Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

prawnz wrote:

warramungas wrote: I hope the 1/2" doesn't cause any problems.

Yeh , thats my biggest concern , I'm hoping that with an inchnarf of insulation wrapped around it will make a difference .

Just need to wait for my sac wash to finish now , or if the need for action gets to great I can see a couple of boxes of Chateaux Cardboard sitting on top of the fridge , maybe she wont notice them missing 8-}

If she's anything like mine she will. Mine would shoot me if she found me doing that. :D

I have built a few of those extensions for the boys at the hbs
At the very top I wrapped and soldered a couple of turns of 3/8 copper to give a bit extra reflux
Sorry don't have photos

Just a quicky , when I run a sacrificial thru this should I do it packed or in pot mode ?

Cheers Al

Do it in full configuration so that it all gets done.
Otherwise you will need to do another one for the packing.

scythe wrote:Do it in full configuration so that it all gets done.
Otherwise you will need to do another one for the packing.

Okedoke , will do , but I do have a secret weapon for the packing .

In my other life I service and repair fishing reels and I shouted myself an ultrasonic parts washer for Christmas .

Put packing in with a very small amount of citric and turn it on for about 180 seconds , like magic , gleaming copper saddles n scrubbers . I put ceramics in to that had been used a few times and to watch crap emerging from them in the washer is quite amazing . even put new ceramics in it for a pre clean and you can watch all the loose material break free from the surface .

SO here we are in full dress rehersal mode . 25lt of tpw in there all being well ill get a couple of ltrs of firestarter/cleaner out of it .

Its a little wobbly with the extra weight of the packing in there so a couple of braces to the table are in order I think but for this run just to see if my boiler can push it up that high I will just be gentle with it .
Please feel free to disregard the octopus of power cords coming out of the pvc pipe , I have a sparky coming to fix me up :teasing-neener:

Good going mate :handgestures-thumbupleft: You can store the stripped tpw and use it over and over again as a sac run when you feel she needs a clean. Saves brewing a new wash every time.

Hmmm ok that is not what I expected .
About 90 mins after start up it starts to flow 1.5 hours later it's done .
2.8 lt @ 70% .
It was much better without the extension :-(
Any ideas ? Take the insulation off the extention perhaps ?

More water flow to the RC ?

prawnz wrote:More water flow to the RC ?

:text-+1:
Only issue with that is the rc is pretty paltry on those things. Just a wrap around type.

Is there any packing inside the condenser section to distribute the cooling from the RC into the chamber or are you relying on the walls to cool it? Surface area for it to condense on would be very low. Copper mesh with its high thermal carrying capacity would be perfect for that job. Stainless at a pinch.
Maybe a power controller for the element to balance it out?
Another thing to check. Is your packing too tight or too loose possibly?

Yeh the top is packed with ceramics and a copper scrubber at the top .

It's clearly running to fast now , I was expecting it to be slower .

Rerun at 40% and see what happens.

Well I just reran it back in the backset , same again , all done in 50 mins at 70% .

So , Im assuming its not refluxing ? Just getting pushed straight thru .

Maybe the half inch between the extension and the still head is to narrow to allow the reflux to flow back past the upcoming vapors ?

Maybe I need to get some 3/8 and solder on a coil to the bottom section as well ?

At about 2 liters an hour its clearly too fast. If your packing is good then you need either more reflux or less power if you want into the 90's%. You want to pull about 1 liter an hour on a 2" column.
If you could get 6 inches of tightly wound 1/4" in the top of the column that should solve your problem. Then you wouldn't need to worry about the rc in the top of the head.

Yep , I hear ya Warra , its clear what I need to do now . !/4 or 3/8 wont be hard to get, making it into a coil wont be hard , soldering it on might be a challenge tho .

OR , I could soft solder it on couldnt I , seeing as its external right ?

External may not solve the problem as you're not getting the cooling where its needed.
There is another option which may be easier. I see you have a copper pipe on the takeoff (product). If you could somehow tee into that and run a line (would only need to be 1/4") back into the center of the top of your column below your 1/2" tube with a valve to control the reflux going back into it you could use your product condenser as a type of rc.
Like a type of offset head still (sort of).
Have a think about it before you do anything though.

Ok , penny has dropped , you mean getting the wound 1/4" inside the column .

The take off tube idea makes sense , the vapor would not travel back up into the take off tube ?

warramungas wrote:Have a think about it before you do anything though.

That's good advice.
There's got to be something else going on here.
You should be getting more passive reflux now than ever, hence your rc shouldn't have to work as hard :?
There are others who have added this type of extension on these stills, what are thier findings?

prawnz wrote:Ok , penny has dropped , you mean getting the wound 1/4" inside the column .

The take off tube idea makes sense , the vapor would not travel back up into the take off tube ?

I'd use some type of airlock to prevent vapour going back up the return. The drawing is a very crude doodle but you can see what I mean.

Still, have a good think about it. Power control is probably a good solution. Most people use it with shorter 2" columns even with efficient refluxing.