Bryan's Bubbler Build

[RuddyCrazy]

G'day Guy's,
Well after that crash last weekend I'm on the repair trail but the 3" blockhead and the 3-4" reducer is RIP :crying-blue: :crying-blue: :crying-blue: due to the crash.

So that pic in my last post will be the next setup to finish the TPW I have left to run with a heap of feints to throw in.

Hard soldered the 1/2" pipe to the 3-1/2" reducer that sits under the pc tonight and on the way home from work tomorrow I'll stop in bunnings and grab another spool of aqua safe soft solder. I'll make a new 1/4" easy flange for the 4th plate and I do have a spare 3" sight glass saved for events like this.

I am thinking of making a stick in RC for the 4" blockhead so the still isn't close to hitting the roof of the shed. I reckon a 4" drop in RC for doing neutrals and pack the SS scrubbers in the lower part of the blockhead will make a nice addition to the still collection.

I do want to get this still back to it's former glory and as far as getting the rest of the spent wash out I'll just use that bunnings wet/dry vaccum I have sitting in the shed. :angry-banghead: Should of used that along. :angry-banghead:

Cheers Bryan

[bluc]

What happened bryan did it fall over? Were you running it at the time :shock: :doh:

[RC Al]

sucky that it happened, but yeah post some pics mate

I'm interested in how the various bits broke, can't see me destruction testing any thing in a hurry, might learn something :sad:

[RuddyCrazy]

G'day Guy's,
Well got the aqua safe solder and repaired the 1/2" outlet and made a new easy flange for the 4th plate. Got a big job tomorrow morning shearing the sheep then hopefully in the evening load up the rest of the TPW wash and throw all the feints in. I have put that 3 ring burner I repaired in that provides a nice blue flame on a low pressure reg. It be interesting to see how it performs and if needed I can always throw on the HP reg. Also I'm making a fire guard to go around the rim so flareups can't happen when changing the flow using the hp reg.

[RuddyCrazy]

G'day Guy's,
Well go onto fixing the 3" blockhead or so I thought I was :scared-eek: from the fall some of the soft solder on the 45 degree join decided to part ways so there went the seal. :angry-banghead: So one thinks well just clean the area and re-solder eh :think: well after 4 or more attempts it still leaked. :angry-banghead:

So the only thing to do is cut it off, clean it up and start again to ensure a full sealing joint is done. So into my hacksaw cutting bench it went and started cutting, just got it started then BANG the hole thing let go. :angry-banghead: The top pivot had ripped out where the 4mm rod holds the tension and my only choice was to make a new pivot. The thread on the tensioner bar was 3/16" bsf 32 tpi so off for a look in my dads gear and found a tap. :happy-partydance:

Found some 12mm bar to make a new one and found out well S.S. may as well do just tapping it was nice and slow. Then onto the mill where I milled in the start of the slot then hacksawed the slot so I could then clean it up with a file. Got it all fitted up on the saw and tensioned so cut the 45 dergree off and cleaned it all up. Then resoldered the joint and I reckon I got it so now just the water test and cleanup.

[RuddyCrazy]

Well the beauty of making a modular setup for the bubbler today I setup for a 4" pot still to strip TPW. Now as shown I left the RC on as changing the plumbing for a few runs will be a pain in the rear end to change it back so the RC will just stay closed.

4 inch pot still.jpg

Now as this will be the first time running this setup I made a new 3" frustum for the output and I'm wondering with the output flow should I put a breather on the frustum as if the output is full on thru the 1/2" pipe it could cause some pressure buildup which we don't want to happen :scared-eek:

After being frustrated for years with plates not fully loading using a 3 ring burner I made my own luxford burner out of some 3/4" copper pipe, closed the end of the 3/4" pipe in the vice and hard soldered it to seal it. Then a 0.8mm hole was drilled in and a short piece of 1/8" pipe was hard soldered around the hole. Used some 2" pipe and carved out both sides to get the fuel to air ratio just right and running this on 50 psi is an eye opening experience. I do find running it on 5-6 psi for a run is the best and all the pastes load nicely now too so in all it was a btu issue or lack of :angry-banghead:

luxford burner.jpg

'

Now that 1/4" needle valve is on there to provide length so the gas feed line isn't in the path of the flame. I should of made the 3/4" pipe longer but when designing something new hindsight is always a pain :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

Cheers Bryan

[RuddyCrazy]

G'day Guy's,

Well set up my still with 4 plates and packed section and doing a steam run to clean the still as I haven't used it for so long. Now I've got 22 litres on average @55% and all my aged CFW is going in the boiler so in the end I'll endup with about 40 litres @40% to do a spirit run. The way the water is coming off in pot mode to clean the still its taken 1 hour and a half to get 2.5 litres now my still is 2.5 metres tall so I reckon a spirit run will take 12 hours or more. Now this is the first time I've done a run at 40% and the idea is do the same the next day just so i can have some triple distilled neutral for my macerations.I mean the ones Ive done in a pot still are nice but I do want to take this one step further so in the end with my maceration's they will be distilled 4 times.

The way I figure doing a spirit run should net 16-18 litres of 90% + so watering that down for a third run sounds the go to get a great base to work with.

Cheers Bryan

[RuddyCrazy]

G'Day Guys,
Well here's a pic of my setup which I took while doing the cleaning run :handgestures-thumbupleft: tried to take some pic's just now but this pic is the best by far and the wacky lense decided to take a day off :laughing-rolling:

a todays setup.jpg

Cheers Bryan

[RuddyCrazy]

G'Day Guy's,
Well it has been awhile since I did an update on my still :scared-eek: So just had to have a play today and the last time I try to this with only one person :laughing-rolling:

agrownup still.jpg

Got that bottom join on the inline thumper fixed and the height did lose a good 20mm so I had a nice clean join to soft solder up. :handgestures-thumbupleft: Left it filled up and put some paper under it and after a week dry paper and a full thumper so now it's finally online hearing that thump thump is going to be a blast from the past. :laughing-rolling:

Just had to put that Whisky helmet I got on so getting this still to puke will be a thing of the past.

Now just gotta clean a few fermenters and get some ferments on :laughing-rolling:

Cheers Bryan

[The Stig]

You do know a helmet under a plated column is an absolute waste of time

[hjubm2]

I thought you were going to fixing that dent... you get lazy Bryan? :laughing-rolling:

[The Stig]

It’s the great leaning tower of Bryan :teasing-neener:

[WoodyD40]

Happy to see that mine is not the only leaning column. Nice looking unit there.

[RuddyCrazy]

It’s the great leaning tower of Bryan :teasing-neener:

Coming from guy who more than likely uses a spirit level to setup his still :laughing-rolling:

Any got game and took off the whisky helmet just to keep those nannies happy :laughing-rolling:

newsetup.jpg

Cheers Bryan

[The Stig]

I don’t need a spirit level , my stills just erect straight and true :laughing-rolling: :handgestures-thumbupleft: :music-deathmetal:

[RuddyCrazy]

Well guy's rather than start a new thread as this my build thread it is time I announced my new bubbler build so it can go on my 100 litre milk can Boiler :handgestures-thumbupleft:

First now as I'm going to be using elements I do need to get 3Kw of solar on the roof and hook up one of my 5Kw grid tie inverters so the still has a dedicated power supply and suitable thick wires can go to the 3600 watt element. The 2400 watt element can go thru that voltage controller I won all those years ago :laughing-rolling:

I have measured the shed height and 8 plates along with my 500ml packed section will fit under so 8 plates it is :handgestures-thumbupleft: as once I have the setup going on my mill it will just a case of rinsing and repeating to get the amount I need. This time with the 3" site glass's I will make sure they point up so the fluid can drain instead of pooling with my first build.

I will show plenty of pic's with the setup on my mill where a 3" holesaw makes short work of making the site glass sections. I'm also thinking of making a jig for the the tri clamp connections so they are flat and square just so the purists can be happy :laughing-rolling:

I'm heading back to see my mate in the bridge to give him a bottle for xmas and now I'm member of the car club he suggested to me stuff should be alot cheaper :handgestures-thumbupleft: as I do need to get more 4" and also 3" copper pipe for this build.

Now on talking with a forum member the perf plates will be sorted so I do need to get on and flatten some of that copper tube for him to use.

Lots of work to do to get this build done and it will be a fun job.

Cheers Bryan

[RuddyCrazy]

Well Guy's since we had a cool couple of days finally got my hearts by hearts run done :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Started with putting 5 off 2 litre goon bottles then a bottle of water each time to also rinse out the goon bottle and chucked in a extra goon bottle of water to get it down to 40%. Got 8 litres in that run.

This morning put the last 5 goon bottles in and as the boiler wasn't fully drained just sealed it up and fired up the BD burner, ran it on 6psi and within an hour first drops :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Got 9 litres with today's run so 17 litres in total of hearts by hearts :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Now as I put the 400ml extension on a while ago I put my SS scubber mesh in above the RC to get that extra reflux.

still pic.jpg

After filling 3 goon bottles switched over to my parrot where I did see it was still putting out 94-95 % :scared-eek: and just used moccona jars to fill each goon bottle.

So the plate tree is getting a citric acid bath and I'm going to set up my pot still " The leaning Tower of Bryan" :laughing-rolling: so I can strip those 2 60 litre fermenters of rum where that first fement where I did the generation finally got down to 40% where it stayed :angry-banghead: Now the other ferment where I did the heat treatment to the molasses fermented out in less than 2 weeks.

Now depending on how the 3 strip runs goes I do still have one more batch of molasses so that could get done to ensure I can enough for a full 40% spirit run.

Cheers Bryan