inline thumper on a 4"column

[Zak Griffin]

Spot on bluc! If you fill your 11L thumper before starting to take product off, all of the alcohol left in the boiler will make its way into the thumper by the end of the run.

[warramungas]

Thanks for the advice guys. Now I need more shiny bits for welding the ferrules on. Be in Perth next week.
Going to run a 2" cap though Zak as I already have the pipe, it takes up less volume in the thumper and less real estate on the 4" plate.
Cheers,
Warra

[Zak Griffin]

Yeah mate, on second thoughts a 2" cap/1.5" riser is probably more suitable haha

[woodduck]

You may have taken me out of context there WTDist. I was talking the difference between 4ltrs and 8ltrs not 30ltrs, i think 30 would be excessive. I'm not real sure cause I'm not real sciencey but I work on the theory that the reflux coming down the colomn back into the thumper is pretty high % so when I work out how much alc my still can hold i work on round figures like 50 ltr, 10% wash stilling at 100% for a aboutsy theresy 5 ltrs give or take, so I was working towards a 5 ltr thumper but come up short at about 3.5ltrs hence me having to full it twice to get all the alc out and fast take off rates.

Sorry for the confusion and like I said my theory could be all up to shit but that's what I've gathered from my research.

[Dig Brinker]

Sorry fellas, have read through the whole thread, just not today 8-} It may have been asked in this or another thread, but...from what I understand:

A secondary thumper should have 1/3rd boiler capacity
An inline thumper could/should hold roughly the "theoretical" alcohol volume at 100% (so could be well less than boiler capacity)
A thumper should be charged with (heads, tails, wash, Mollasses etc) depending on the desired outcome.

So...

How does the charge effect the thumper and it's capacity?

Ie: if you are going to pre-load your thumper with something to increase either flavour or ABV (or both!) does this take away from the volume you should be allowing for your thumper capacity?? And how do you allow for this?

Maybe I should be asking how big is your thumper, what do you fill it with, how much do you fill it with and is it a pre distillation or post distillation thumper??? :teasing-tease:


Happy constant learning :music-deathmetal:

[Toddles]

Sorry fellas, have read through the whole thread, just not today 8-} It may have been asked in this or another thread, but...from what I understand:

A secondary thumper should have 1/3rd boiler capacity
An inline thumper could/should hold roughly the "theoretical" alcohol volume at 100% (so could be well less than boiler capacity)
A thumper should be charged with (heads, tails, wash, Mollasses etc) depending on the desired outcome.

So...

How does the charge effect the thumper and it's capacity?

Ie: if you are going to pre-load your thumper with something to increase either flavour or ABV (or both!) does this take away from the volume you should be allowing for your thumper capacity?? And how do you allow for this?

Maybe I should be asking how big is your thumper, what do you fill it with, how much do you fill it with and is it a pre distillation or post distillation thumper??? :teasing-tease:


Happy constant learning :music-deathmetal:

All this thumper has given me a thumper. Need a thumper to cool down, or thump up?

[warramungas]

Sorry fellas, have read through the whole thread, just not today 8-} It may have been asked in this or another thread, but...from what I understand:

A secondary thumper should have 1/3rd boiler capacity
An inline thumper could/should hold roughly the "theoretical" alcohol volume at 100% (so could be well less than boiler capacity)
A thumper should be charged with (heads, tails, wash, Mollasses etc) depending on the desired outcome.

So...

How does the charge effect the thumper and it's capacity?

Ie: if you are going to pre-load your thumper with something to increase either flavour or ABV (or both!) does this take away from the volume you should be allowing for your thumper capacity?? And how do you allow for this?

Maybe I should be asking how big is your thumper, what do you fill it with, how much do you fill it with and is it a pre distillation or post distillation thumper??? :teasing-tease:


Happy constant learning :music-deathmetal:

All this thumper has given me a thumper. Need a thumper to cool down, or thump up?

Have you perchance been sampling a few too many cuts Toddles?
Like the police say. Don't drink and type. :))

[scythe]

When you precharge you don't need to fill the thumper to max capacity, just enough so that it bubbles, if you are just wanting to impart a flavour.
If you are using it as a boiler extension then yeah fill it to max.

What is in the thumper to start with will eventually be displaced down into the boiler as it has a higher boiling point than the ethanol we want.

[Dig Brinker]

Thanks Scythe, was a bit caught up in how a traditional thumper works on a pot 8-}

[WTDist]

Just wondering about something myself.

I few members with inline thumpers say they need to fill them twice as they arnt big enough, meaning deplete it then stop and reflux for a bit then go again. Im wondering if more power was thrown at it and if the RC was able to hold more back would this eliminate or reduce this issue being it will boil more liquid out of the boiler and then reflux back to the thumper?

Just trying to work out what volume is best for me to make on top of a 50L keg with 4.8kw and an RC with 9 8 3/4" tubes at 150mm long.

if i add a 100mm piece of 8" i can get it to 7.6L. would this be doable or would 10L be best with a 150mm piece of 8??

Cheers
WTD

[bluc]

Interesting never read of an inline thumper drying up and neading to be refilled. Perhaps bigger bubble caps would work?
Edit come to think of it how is that possible isnt there constant reflux falling? Or are you talking about a pot with an inle thumper..

[WTDist]

like rummys and wooducks. only hold 3L+ or so

i think it has to do with collection rate maybe being more than boiling rate but i may be wrong. i guess if your collecting 5l/h at 92% thats going to need like 4 or 5kw to keep up right? and with an RC powerful enough to hold it back to reflux?

wondering what others may think

[rumdidlydum]

You lost me WT,
If your take off is too fast there isn't enough reflux topping the thumper up, so yes the thumper would dry out if let run in that way. Is that what your asking?

I never filled mine twice :think: Only gone back into full reflux to fill it and stack the fractions.

[WTDist]

Cool, sorta what i was going at. thinking about it now i dont think what i was thinking would really work. i think it would be too much for the 4" plates and would maybe flood.


if i have 2 flat SS plates top and bottom with 4" ferrules and with a 2" bubble cap i can get about 5.4L with a depth of 180mm out of potential 220mm thumper depth, the 4" ferrule will add maybe 100 or 200ml maybe.

Is 5.5L a good size for a thumper or should i push it out to at least 7-8L mark? i can try get my hands on 200mm of 8" if i can, or make some and have an 8-4 reducer. I know a plumbing shop near me that has all sorts of size pipes up to 8" and maybe they will let 200 or 300mm go.

What do you think, 5.5L is good or push it that bit more?

[rumdidlydum]

What do you think, 5.5L is good or push it that bit more?

All up to you WT, I guess it all depends how you plan to run it, but I would stick with that amount.

[WTDist]

this is the easiest option for me and probabally look the best too. might mole it over for a few days

[warramungas]

I'm still waiting for my boiler and thumper to get put together but something I'm wanting to try it with is making honey vodka. Fill up my boiler with good quality neutral at 40%, then reflux it all into the thumper until the thumpers full.
Then I will open a valve that will deliver a measured amount of honey at a slow rate into the top of the column under the rc. I'll turn off the reflux at this point and rip it out with honey dribbling through the column at the same time. Any residual honey should collect in the thumper to keep getting steam blown through it.
I would hope this should infuse the vodka with that honey flavour and smell most people want.
Maybe I'm overthinking it again. :-B

[RuddyCrazy]

With the runs I've done on my thumper I've never bothered to pre fill it and at the end of the run after it's cooled down I empty the thumper and the thumper has been full everytime.

[WTDist]

I also wanted the thumper to be an extension of the boiler in a way pre charging the thumper to full each time