Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Baffles ? No baffles in mine and it works fine.

They work without them just fine. They work even better with them. I'll pay a drawing I did for the last couple I made, showing the baffles. The bales are used to create turbulent flow. Plenty of engineering details on the web for those anal enough.

my theory is that once the hot end of the condenser is hot the coolant inside will be moving due to the energy anyway :-B

it can be easily seen in hot pot of water on a stove top, the water is moving in the pot well before boiling point.

TheMechwarrior wrote:It's normal practice to install baffles

Might have been this bit that prompted me to comment.
Maybe its common practice in heat exchange units or some other applications that I know little or nothing about.
Im a forum whore and look at a lot of builds by people with different ideas, I'm yet to see baffles in a home built shotgun condenser.
If they are out there i haven't seen them.

I have seen this type of idea mainly in the liebig type condenser by wrapping a copper wire spiral the length of the tube.

Where the shot gun type condenser is so effective there is no real need for baffles.

Bryan1 wrote:................... still need file the mating face fully flat and nearly there with it.
Cheers Bryan

Bryan , I have found the easiest way to get a perfectly flat surface is to put it in the concrete floor and do big curcular movements .the concrete acts like a giant grinding wheel and you will end up with a flat as glass surface :handgestures-thumbupleft: . .I've used it for sight glass mating surfaces , easy flange surfaces and peltier device heat exchanger surfaces ( OK the last isn't Still related but did involve copper and water ;-) )


Love your progress and the twisted pipes ...I do that too :D

Edit: RE: the baffle talk...I don't think you will need it ...the twisted pipes will cause turbulence and the size of that thing is huge :-D

I've designed and built shell and tube heat exchangers and it's a common design requirement.
As far as this hobby is concerned apart from myself I've not seen anyone else bother.
Like I said they do work without them.

When you put your hand on shell and tube without baffles you will feel hot spots on the opposite side to your inlet path.
With baffles gives no hot spots due to turbulent flow and no opportunity for bypass.
Apart from the century plus of solid engineering detailing this you'll find plenty of great thermal images and flow diagrams on the web detailing the benefits.

you win !

however lets at least try and keep this on topic and within the realms of a home built 4" still please 8-}

G'day Guy's,
Well after months of work and other projects getting in the way my build has come to the point if any member wants it they can have it for the cost of the copper. So $250 will be the asking price and that will be for the total copper I have allocated to this project.

Tomorrow I can put some pic's up of all the bits as I have decided to buy a Mac built still as what I ever try and built will never eclipse what Mac can provide.

Cheers Bryan

You might want to make a new thread in the for sale section with a pic off all the parts :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Do you want to add a 12" thumper with your purchase ?

:laughing-rolling:

MacStill wrote:Do you want to add a 12" thumper with your purchase ?

:laughing-rolling:

Ok Mac now that does sound interesting and I can't find that thumper in the web store so how about a quote mate, Ok I'm going for the 4" pot still so yea an inline thumper will make stripping runs a thing of the past so the good drop is that much quicker 8-} 8-} 8-}

Was just pullin ya chain mate, see the 12" gear in my FSD thread.

I think Mech was first in line for the 12" bits I got here, but he's been a bit busy elsewhere I think.... so just waiting to hear from him before I sell off these samples.

The rest I can help with though, and I'm just waiting on pricing for an 8" inline thumper from the suppliers.

G'day Mac,
OK mate I will wait for this 8" inline thumper to come in and I'm willing to be the test bunny for it :)) :)) :)) and get the whole package in one shipment. I'll get those pic's taken now and make a new thread in the for sale section soon.

Cheers Bryan

Nah BigD is going to be getting the prototype mate, he's been :techie-typing: :violence-stickwhack: me for 2 weeks about it now..... but I'll order more than one ;-)

G'day Mac,
OK mate just let me know when it's ready to ship and the $$$ will be on the way quicker than a refo with a macas voucher :)) :)) :))

I'll shut this one down now fellas... Please PM Bryan or refer to for any inquiries... It looks like a pretty good start to a good bubbler, I can't see it lasting long.

Bryan, get onto Mac through the FSD store when you're ready to buy :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Well, indecisive old mate Bryan has decided he's going to stick with this build, so I'll reopen the thread...

Looking forward to seeing it up and running mate :handgestures-thumbupleft:

G'day Guy's,
well as finances are pretty tight and look to be for the new few months decided after a goading from WoodDuck on the weekend to go ahead and finish this project off. Now if you guys want to :violence-smack: :violence-smack: :violence-smack: I feel I do deserve it :)) :)) :))

Anyway some progress done today, cut the column to length with 200mm to the first site glass then 150mm spacing for the sight glass's and then 200mm at the top. Cleaned down my bridgeport mill and it didn't take long with a 3" holesaw to put the 4 in. Decided rather than try to bash an easy flange to go the lazy route and I flattened some 1/4" and silver soldered in onto the lower end of the pipe. This worked out much easier then I thought and looks pretty good to boot. I got the first sight glass mount soldered in and started cleaning it up and decided to call it a day . When I get the other 3 sight glass mounts and top flange done i'll take a couple of pic's.

Cheers Bryan

Anyway with this vapeing gear went from 2pm to just now without a smoke and gave in and hopefully thats the last smoke for the night.

Good to here your giving it another crack mate looking forward to it, and good luck getting off the nails :handgestures-thumbupleft: