My very first Still build and it has been quite some time welding stainless so i hope it turns out alright,
First here are some materials,
2 pounds of copper mesh from the USA.
30M of copper hose for cheap.
Stainless steel Keg.
Tri clamp
Stainless steel tube. 2' x 1.6mm 2m long.
some more stainless on the floor, 2.2m laying in the shed it is 1.5 inch i think. may have to make something out of it later.
and brew shop heating element..... I know I know but it was there and cheap. Can't hemp the impulse buys.
first of all did a bit of welding and machining and welded a stronger wider tube to the top of my keg that the reflux will mount to. i also machined up a spigot that holds the element beautifully. no sealing problems as the silacone washer has no where to go and gets crushed against the element and a flat surface.
tested it all out and no leaks and it works a treat. only thing is that i could not boil 45lt of water, it only reached a max of 98 Celsius will deal with that later.
Slant plate setup next so cutting the stainless pipe, and in the background you can see one of the ends welded on for the tri clamp. i was able to machine them up out of scrap. cheaper and quicker then buying although i could not say the same for the tri clamp itself.
Now my first ever go at making a condenser, only single wound but at 31cm long it should do the job and it has really good flow. I toyed with the idea of a double coil but the bend would have been that much that the copper would not allow any where as much water through. will try with a different diameter copper next time and try the double wound design.
here is the un packed 1.5m tube waiting for the copper. 1.5m :D :D :D :D :D bolted to the keg and the tri clamp holding the top piece on with the condenser.
Can you guess what is missing.? the most important part i think.
Suggestions for what i should do there as i have so many ideas i do not know where to start. KISS maybe
and i just found out you can only upload 5 photos per post. :D
Cheers.