Time To “Just Do It”!

[Linny]

LOL , as im reading this its 5:30 in the morning , im pissing my self laughing and trying to be quiet .... im subscribing to this post ... oh yeah , i do hope it works out for ya :happy-partydance:

[Petulance]

Ok it's official (in my neck of the woods at any rate). Soldering sucks.

These are the bits involved in the reflux condenser.

01-Reflux_Condenser_Parts.jpg

It only took about 5 hours to get to this.

02-Reflux Condenser soldered.jpg

03-Reflux Condenser soldered.jpg

There's more solder than copper, and one end doesn't look particularly flat, but it's done. I'll solder the shotgun into the sleeve once the prospective son-in-law has flared the pipe. I don't feel a great level of confidence about this task, but we'll see.

Product condenser pipes soldered into the plates, and then into the sleeve. After about 20 tries.

04-Product Condenser.jpg

Coolant inflow and outflow pipes soldered in. Heat used managed to unsolder one of the end plates. I hate this shit!

05-Product Condenser.jpg

Continued next post...

[Petulance]

Put the 180 degree together, and had more trouble soldering them than all the others put together. Solder running in every direction except into the join. Tried repositioning the whole lot. Ran around side of shed, filled water bucket, plunged hands into water, in mad panic imagining blisters the size of pancakes, wave hands like some kind of demented charismatic, manage to snap arm of reading glasses which hand around my neck. Shit that copper gets hot! Unfortunately spent rest of day trying to hold glasses on, manipulate burning gas torch which keeps going out, and position solder on work with only two hands. Soldering sucks!

Anyway, I think (???) it's water tight now. Butt soldered the reducers to the output end. Can't say I have too much trust in the join's strength, but I guess it doesn't have to bear any weight.

06-180 degree bend attached.jpg

07-Product Condesnser and bend.jpg

I was so impressed with not completely screwing it whole thing up, I picked it up to show the wife, threw it in the air and plunged hands back in bucket. Damn thing landed precisely on top of the coolant inlet and outlet and buried both of them up to the sleeve. I now have an inch of dirt somewhere inside my product condenser. Ah well, at least it shouldn't impact the booze. Unless there's a leak lurking.

08-Oops - Dropped it in the dirt.jpg

And I finally found out where all my solder was going.

09-Where did my solder go.jpg

I could start a mine in the back yard. Solder is lying about in great chunks. Mowing tomorrow might be interesting.

[emptyglass]

It cleans up. But it does go somewhere when you keep poking it in.

A quick pressure test should eliminate doubts about leaks. Connect it to the hose, purge the air out plug the end and see if any drips come out the bend or other end.

So much easier to fix them now...

Good job.

[Petulance]

Yeah EG,

I think it doesn't leak with cold water in it. Perhaps that will change when there is hot vapour flowing through it.

I'll test it again tomorrow. Does that make me a masochist?

[crow]

Now this is my kinda build :laughing-rolling: when ya go to do ya parot I could send ya some links, hard to follow as build is spread ovover several threads its own, My fuck ups, and hows ya luck to name some :laughing-rolling:
Jokes aside looking the goods to me bud :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Petulance]

Crow,

I'm not feeling too confident with this build. It's my first time actually using tools, let alone that bloody LPG torch and solder. Something in my head keeps saying "When you mount it all together and fire up the keg, boiling alcohol is going to explode all over you! Do you feel lucky, punk? Well, do you?"

I hate those voices in my head! 'Cos they're usually right!

[emptyglass]

You're doing ok mate.
Metal shit gets hot when you join it.
2 things;
1) don't doubt your work, there are ways of prooving things work before using them, that takes doubt away and gives confidence,
2) wear gloves, or stop touching hot shit! Your fingers will thank you.

[Petulance]

Fingers? Oh yeah, them wiggly bits at the end of my arms. I don't seem to have much of them left. I must invest in some gloves.

[blond.chap]

Mate you have to stop making me laugh this much at work, I keep imagining three stooges sound effects during your stories.

My advise is to ditch the lpg torch and grab a $20 propane one from bunnings. You're probably having trouble controlling the flow because there's too much heat. 2nd piece of advise is to really clean your copper before soldering, it may be oil or dirt that's stopping the solder getting sucked into the join.

[Petulance]

Ahh, too much heat, eh? That might be why the copper glows such a pretty red colour. I think I'll try holding the flame a little further away from the work. Of course, if I do that I won't be able to focus on the work 'cos my glasses keep slipping down my nose (what with only one arm left on them) and rotating slowly to about 45 degrees from horizontal. Think of Jerry Lewis as the Nutty Professor, and that's about what I look like. I used the torch handle to nudge them straight occasionally, but had to stop after I singed my right ear...twice.

[Petulance]

Heard from the prospective son-in-law today. He's adamant that I do all the work myself if at all possible. He says it will give me a greater sense of pride in the finished article. He may be right, but all I want from the finished article is a sense of good booze.

Anyway, all I'm waiting to do is flare 10 pieces of 4 inch copper. I can't do that with a hammer (bugger, so there is a task for which a hammer is not suited), so he says he is going to make me a tool. Told him I'm already a tool. He says he's making me a tool for the job. Told him I'm already a tool for the job. He says he's making me a flaring tool. Told him ... well you know how the conversation went on.

I just hope this flaring tool needs to be hit with a hammer. I like hammers.

[Petulance]

Hi Folks,

My prospective son-in-law is doing all my copper flaring for me. He should marry my daughter tomorrow!

Here's a question.

If the fores and heads boil off first (and they do??) and we don't really want them in our product (and we don't??), why isn't there a way of side tracking those vapours so we don't have the undesirables taking up boiler time and smearing the product we do want?

I'm thinking that a 3-way ball valve immediately above the boiler could redirect those vapours coming off at a certain temperature to another path with a small condenser attached. This would remove the fores/heads from the column untill the temperature rises to the disired product level. The same could be done at the end of the run for those who wish to collect tails. My understanding is that tails also come off at a predetermined temperature.

This would keep fores/heads and tails out of the column and the condenser.

Am I over complicating things? Has this been tried and disproven? Am I a newbie wanker?

[Dominator]

As your wort begins to boil you will actually get a mix of fores/heads/hearts. If you were to take that straight off you would lose some of the good stuff. By running your bubbler in full reflux for a while, before taking product, you compress your heads and so when you do start taking them they will contain minimal ethanol. Resulting in more good stuff.

[Petulance]

Compress them where? At the top of the column?

[Sam.]

Compress them where? At the top of the column?

Yep, basically :handgestures-thumbupleft:

The longer you let it reflux it will seperate the compounds better in the column with the most volatile sitting at the top of the column ;-)

[Petulance]

LISTEN!!!

Will you blokes please stop posting new and improved ideas? Every bloody time I look there's some new method of improving bits and pieces of stills. I can't keep up, and I want the best I can produce, so just hold your horses (cows, pigs, sheep) and let me finish the build BEFORE you suggest something new and better. I just want it, and I can't help it. At least that's what I tell my wife. Unfortunately she pays little attention.

Reflux condensers. I had built a 19 tube 4 inch by 100mm reflux condenser. It has more holes in it that the opposition budget reply. I am a shit solderer!

Then I start reading Mac's comments on smaller condensers with greater coolant flow. Sounds great.

So now I'm about to halve my condenser length to 200mm.

Grabbed some thin copper plate from North Coast Plumbing (Maroochydore QLD) for $14.00. That should give me plenty for the condenser plates and for 4 new reflux plates that I'm going to put into a blind 4 inch 300mm pipe. That will give me an 8 plater, or any combination up to that.

The plate is quite thin (can't remember the thickness at the moment... I've been drinking ... who'd have guessed) and should be easy to cut and shape. Beats the hell out of flattening 2 inch pipe and cutting it. I hope.

Anyways, we'll see... no more new thoughts from you blokes, alright? I need to finish this fucking thing!

[MacStill]

By the time you get to finish your plates I'll be able to show you a brilliant new idea for downcomers :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Linny]

LOL just build it ,,, and fix it later ,,, that was my plan,,, havent got around to fixing it yet LOL ,,, she still works ... come to think of it I think i just came up with a name for my still ... HOOKER . looks like shit but works like a pro :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[BackyardBrewer]

By the time you get to finish your plates I'll be able to show you a brilliant new idea for downcomers :handgestures-thumbupleft:

And this is why my bank balance hates you!
;-)

Must.have.new.kit.all.the.time!