Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Hi Folks,

Clamps and seals arrived today. Just got the pot hooked up ready for a vinegar run. Hope to do the same on the CCVM tomorrow when I get some packing from the big green shed. Thanks to Andrew for getting my order underway so quickly.


Cheers

Les

Nice work :dance:

Insulate for faster heat up and more stable running.

Yep. That will happen for the sac run. Just had a small charge for the vinegar run and wasn’t too stressed about heat up time. Had fingers crossed and got lucky. No leaks and everything ran well. Placed a thermometer in the vinegar/ water mix just to see how well the pc was working. Had to run at about 2 litres per minute to get the temp down to about 34. Not concerned about that as it was a hot run. Ethanol should be totally different. Will run vinegar through again tomorrow in the CCVM configuration.

scythe wrote:Insulate for faster heat up and more stable running.

:text-+1:
Great job with the still!
Ive just got some thin foam around my boiler, nothing fancy and it made a big difference to holding temp better.
I found this to be very beneficial when running in cool evenings with a bit of breeze

I normally run my still inside but as this was a cleaning run on new gear (with the potential for issues) I ran it outside. Was amazed as to the effect of a breeze on the still. I’ll see what I can find for the sac run to insulate it. Dan, are you using a heat resistant foam or is it just garden variety foam that you’d find in a mattress?

Go to Kmart and buy some $7 yoga mats :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I saw some engine bay insulation (caterpillar brand) while I was at work yesterday (a few piles here and there in the crib room of all places). I chucked a roll aside and you've just now reminded me that I've left it there. Damn.

Nice work though!

Two good ideas there guys. I’ll lock those away. Should be able to find something tomorrow.

Cheers

The stuff i used was a bit like yoga mats but a bit more compressed (prob about 3-4mm thick. Holds the heat in great.
I wrap it around my fermenter as well with an electric blanket... lose a lot less heat that way.

The Stig wrote:Go to Kmart and buy some $7 yoga mats :handgestures-thumbupleft:

That's what I've got :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Nice work Lesgold

Got some insulation this morning and worked on the packed section of the CCVM. Just got to get some hose fittings sorted and I’ll be doing a vinegar run.

Lol 3 weeks...
I'm going on 5yrs maybe...

Never mind me, reading the first page comments.
Carry on.

Well it took longer than I thought. Boiler and column insulated and then got onto the cooling system. Didn’t think about this side of it at all when I started and basically thought I’d have all the stuff I needed in the shed. Crickey, ended up scrounging all sorts of stuff and trashing old hoses and fittings to get water to the RC and PC. Thought I had it done until I turned on the water. Let’s just say that if I had soap, I could have had a shower. Leaks, drips and spirts everywhere. Ended up going to the green shed and picked up some new hose and some fittings. Tried using a ball valve to adjust water input to the RC but that turned out to be painful as far as fine tuning the flow. Ended up getting a ball valve which now gives plenty of control. Anyway, tomorrow should be a cleaning run if I can quickly knock up something to support jars etc.

Ccvm dont you have water on flat out and lift condenser up down to vary offtake? You dont wanna cut water flow and let vapour escape :think:

Love the black boiler wrap :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Hi bluc. Hoping water flow will be about the same as a boka. Just need to find out where the sweet spot is for reflux. The RC will be moved up and down to vary the amount of vapour being allowed to pass through the tee to the PC.

Ok i have very limited reflux experience but always left flow to rc on full on boka??

Was going to do the vinegar run this morning but I decided to delay it a bit. With the output of the still being so high, I was going to have to muck around with tables, milk crates and all that sort of crap just to get a jar up to collection height. Thought I’d bodgy up a contraption that could do the task for me. With my current still, I use little tables and blocks of wood to set the heights needed depending on how the still is configured. Starting to get sick of that so here’s what I came up with.

Just used pine off cuts that I normally use to start the fire in winter. Didn’t cost me anything but I was limited with the design due to the length of the pieces I had. The handles of the boiler act as attachment points for 2 x bases made from 90x35. Cutouts on each one around the column means not having to touch the still to set it up. Blocks underneath secure the base. 10mm bolts are finger tightened to keep it in place. An adjustable table fits into slots with pins made from bolts holding the whole thing together. Only takes a couple of minutes to set it up or pull it down. Will modify it as needed to accomodate parrots etc.

Anyway back to the vinegar run. Had a couple of issues there. First problem was a very slight leak on one of the easy flanges. It showed up when the temp built. I think the seal was poorly positioned. Next issue was the glass on the fill port. You all will know what happened there so I won’t say any more about it. Andrew said that I should not over tighten the tri clamp. Some people are just slow learners....... The third issue was the adjustment device I made for holding the RC in place. The weight of the hoses pulled the locking pin away from slots in the 1/2” riser and therefore would not lock the RC in place. Apart from those teething problems, everything ran well. Rinsed components and reassembled ready for the sac run. Only just finished that run. Will organise some photos and write up what happened after dinner.

Cheers

Les

That's a super clever idea with the little table attachment! You're too bloody smart for us drunks!