Rainbow Bubbler Build

[bluc]

Awesome work :handgestures-thumbupleft: wondering how do the bubble/perforated plates seal between sections when using the easy flanges?

[UoySevolNatas]

Awesome work :handgestures-thumbupleft: wondering how do the bubble/perforated plates seal between sections when using the easy flanges?

Thanks :D I'll need to do a touch of experimenting, but looking at Mac's FSD stills and Milky's fucking awesome build, I'll cut the plates to a diameter of 119mm (roughy same diameter as the easy flange) and then use an EPDM or silicone seal on either side. Then they can be removed as needed for cleaning.

Thinking about it, maybe the thinner plate is actually a better idea...

[moonshinindawg]

Argh Im also in brisbane and midway through my 4" build :P northwest but
I have a 4" column with 5x3" braised on, was going to be non-modular and have a plate tree.

But the fact you have pulled this off with little experience is good news, I think I might cut this sucker up

Your really ripping through this build! very inspiring!

[WTDist]

Learnt that in the battle of skin vs steel wool, steel wool wins - cut my left thumb.

had some paint all over my hands one night, type only turps will remove, was late, 10:00 at night and no turpse so i used steel wool and soap. scrubbed my arse off :scared-eek: . no cuts :-D

What general area are you? Off Hardgrave/Dornoch?

close, Orleigh Street on the water. Space is slightly smaller than im used to but my work space is much better than last house, ha if i took pictures of where i built my last still people would be having words with me :laughing-rolling:
as for burns :shifty: i get them weekly :)) I have aburn on my neck from my boiler, looks like someone tried cutting me so my wife says :))

[UoySevolNatas]

Argh Im also in brisbane and midway through my 4" build :P northwest but
I have a 4" column with 5x3" braised on, was going to be non-modular and have a plate tree.

But the fact you have pulled this off with little experience is good news, I think I might cut this sucker up

Your really ripping through this build! very inspiring!

Aww, shucks. :oops: :oops: :oops: Thanks for your kind words. :-p Glad someone is getting something out of my build :D

Three bubbler builds at once! Shit, things really are starting to happen in Brisbane! :-p :-p Where's your build? Get it online so we can see!

[UoySevolNatas]

had some paint all over my hands one night, type only turps will remove, was late, 10:00 at night and no turpse so i used steel wool and soap. scrubbed my arse off :scared-eek: . no cuts :-D

I tried to break a thread of the stuff by wrapping it around my thumb and pulling. I did the same thing about 12 years ago with a bit of fishing line. :ugeek:

close, Orleigh Street on the water. Space is slightly smaller than im used to but my work space is much better than last house, ha if i took pictures of where i built my last still people would be having words with me :laughing-rolling:

Ahh! Sweet, ya lucky prick! :-p I used to live on Montague pretty close to there - not the GOMA end, obviously. If you are at UQ, that's a short walk to the CityCat and up the river.

[moonshinindawg]

Dunno if it will help, but I just picked up a 30-100mm ridgid xmas tree pipe expander if you need to expand any pipe

[UoySevolNatas]

Dunno if it will help, but I just picked up a 30-100mm ridgid xmas tree pipe expander if you need to expand any pipe

Fuckin'ell! That's a piece of equipment and a half! With that, you could have bought 4 boilers! :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

I'll let you know if I need a hand.

[moonshinindawg]

$60 gumtree rig :)) old mate had it listed as rodgid
I bought the titan 150lt boiler that was on ebay a month or so ago, big piece of 500mm OD stainless pipe
Give ya a perv (link as not to pollute thread), I believe a bloke with the handle "what" built it dunno if he is on here.

http://imgur.com/Tpv5hQB
I couldn't have bought all the stainless fittings (element guard, elements, ferrules) for what i paid for it :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

[UoySevolNatas]

Adjustments & Advice Needed - Audience Participation Time (week 2.5, 9 March)

Based on Zak's advice, I decided to change from having a 180° bend to a blockhead design. It looks cool and he says it saves a bit of money and a bit of height. The adjusted design looks a little like this - basically to scale:

Design (2).jpg

Based on a 120mm blockhead with a 96mm base (measured and didn't quite make 100mm) my new plans come to 2139mm for reflux and 1411mm for pot.

What I need to consult the brains trust on is the blockhead length. I've done some searching on the forum and can't find anything that says how long it needs to be and how far from the top the bend needs to be. I set the centre of the 2" at about 45.4mm from the top of the piece - 20mm from the top of the 2" to the top of the blockhead. I'm hoping to sneak a botanicals bag in there occasionally for a gin run. Any advice and help would be appreciated. If ultimately I don't need to worry, awesome, but just need to ask the question to save myself from using this smily: :angry-banghead:

[scythe]

Something about not more that 3x the pipe OD springs to mind but that might boka related.
So long as it clears the main column and all the clamps it should be fine.

[WTDist]

To me it would depend on if you add in a gin basket, and you have now i looked 8-} . I would make it big enough to have a basket in there if it was me and have the tee a reasonable distance above that for suitable vapour infusion. not just for gin though, any infusion you want really. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Ill be doing a blockhead gin basket too. not sure if i will braze or silver soft solder the T. All depends if the map torch can handle such a big piece of 4" but i think it will draw heat away too much so most likely soft :think:

heres rummys, its a blockhead not carter head, excuse the picture naming :O)

[rumdidlydum]

All fixed. 8-}

[WTDist]

All fixed. 8-}

:text-lol:

[UoySevolNatas]

Week 3, Pt 1 (12-13 March)

I'm starting to slow down a bit with the build. Other shit keeps coming up and I'm trying to spend a little more time getting the modules rights. I didn't get quite as much done as I wanted but I'll let you decide whether this amount of work done over the weekend is passable. :-B

What I done during the week:
After trying brazing again on Monday and working out how to do it effectively, I got home early on Tuesday and finished off the other side of the module. Looking good.

One realisation this week. My original plans required less 4" as I was going to use a 2" bend and 4x2 reducer. Changing to the blockhead and gin basket requires more 4"... 4" I don't have - factoring losing a few mil here and there per module and the fuck-ups. Off to the scrappers where they had nada.

I also took a look around the forum and decided I wanted to build a parrot so went of to the plumber's supply store. Got a few pieces and figured I'd ask if they had any 4" offcuts. Turns out they have 6m of damaged 4" - one end is bashed in a bit and they can't sell it new now - and best of all: they were charging $75-80 a metre. Did the calculations, 94mm weighs 0.41kg. At the scrappers it's about $40 per metre (though I'm pretty sure they round up to the nearest kilo so it's be $50). About double the price but for ease of not having to clean it up that much or go to the scrap yard next weekend, I don't mind. They also cut it to the lengths I wanted and threw in an offcut of 1" for the parrot for free. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Anyway, the scrappers and plumber's supply cut into my build time so didn't start until bout 12:30 on Saturday :handgestures-thumbdown:

Weekend work:
First thing I did was anneal more 4". I know you guys said not to, but I had a bit of the stuff laying around that was bashed in - came that way, had nothing to do with me, honest :whistle: - and couldn't be used for anything else. It was too long and lost heat too quickly so it took ages but I got there - sorta.

Annealed.jpg

Annelaed 2.jpg

Eh, I'll cut it up into smaller pieces, anneal it properly and flatten it later. Finished off my first bottle of map - thankfully already had a second waiting.

Anyway, most of Saturday was spent correcting the jagged cuts I made in week 1. Marked everything up and took to it with an angle grinder and grinding disc, then a bastard file and grinding stone on the dremel.

Here's the progression:

After circular saw (old photo)

4%22 cut 1.jpg

After angle grinder

Levelling 1.jpg

After bastard file and a bit of deburring with the dremel

Levelling 2.jpg

To say I'm happy with the results is an understatement. However, obviously the amount of time I spent fixing the two modules up could have been spared if I did it right the first time. Still have two more to tidy up. Lesson learnt: cut right, cut once.

Was pretty much buggered by 5:00pm. Did a few rings which I'll show in the next part.

[UoySevolNatas]

Week 3, Pt 2 (12-13 March)

Here's the rings I mentioned.

Rings.jpg

I might have over-indulged Saturday night and woken up at 10:30am... who's to say... :whistle:

Anyway, after a bit of brekkie and a coffee, got stuck into making the flanges for my pieces.

Better look at the levelled, deburred edge of the module, cleaned for brazing:

Edge 1.jpg

Edge 2.jpg

After completing one side of two modules, ran out of 5% and had to pop off to Bunnings - twice in one weekend. Lucky them.

Cleaned the RC section:

RC.jpg

Somehow I managed to get some of the solder *under* the flange while brazing. A bit of work with the grinding stone on the dremel and it's flat again. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

And everything I've done so far in position:

Combined.jpg

[UoySevolNatas]

Week 3, Pt 3 (12-13 March)

Final post on this week's progress. I put down tools after completing everything above because I needed to bottle a beer. Did a gravity test and looks like the fermentation hasn't completed. Don't know why, it's been going for 3 weeks in the fridge. Will leave it to next weekend then...

More of a look at the modules:

Modules.jpg

After putting the beer in the fridge for another week, I had a whack at the plates for the RC as well as drilling 1/2" holes in the RC for the inlet and outlet. I thought cutting pipe to size was the hard part and everything would get easier... everything is the hard part. The bench drill with hole saw didn't work so well. I think I know why but I'm not gonna say until I fix the problem... I ended up using the dremel, instead. More awkward than hard but it's done.

What was hard, however, was drilling the holes. I was smart enough to practice on a spare piece of copper I had. I started using a hand drill and then the bench drill. I just can't get it... the drill bit either comes out of the chuck of both (I triple checked to make sure it was in tight) or it does nothing. :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead: Any advice or help you guys have... or if there's anyone in the Brissy areas that can let me borrow their stuff would be much appreciated. I think I know why it isn't working, same reason above, so I'll try it out next week, but if there is anyone who can give a hand or advice, shout out.

So the plates...

Oh yeah:

Discs.jpg

Oh shit:

Discs 2.jpg

Will the gap be too much of a problem? With the 5% I've been able to fill gaps around that size but I don't know with soft solder. Weirdly, I have more experience with brazing than with soft solder. If I need to, I'll just braze the discs in as well. Alternatively, I'll just try again.

Injury report:
I'm a bit pissed off about this. The levelling and brazing took no injury, apart from a couple of toasty fingers, and I thought I was gonna have an injury free week. *If* I had bottled that beer, it would have been, however:

I managed to cut my right middle finger trying to get the chuck tight enough for the hand drill

When trying to get the plates out of the last photo, I pushed too hard and made successive cuts up my right thumb.

Evens things out a little. Most of my other injuries have been on my left hand...

That's it for week 3. I anticipate next week will be about the same. We have council elections up here so that'll cut out a bit of time and I have that beer waiting for me.

Final comments:
It was a dreary Sunday in Bris Vegas. I was a bit surprised the brazing worked despite the rain. Then again, the humidity is up to the point of being able to swim through it, so that buffer was probably more of a help than a hinderance. I don't know if the same would apply if it were mid-July so I think I'll push forward with fixing up my cuts and then braze and solder in the next few weeks, rather than focus on anything else.

Also, during the week I sneaked a peek at the FSD site and saw that items are back in stock. :dance: :dance: :dance: Come pay day, there'll be a big shop! Hopefully be able to show you in week 4, if not, week 5 it is. Look out Mac, here I come!

[scythe]

Silly question but wah the chuck rotating the correct way?

What you need is a properly sharpened drill bit.

Or if you want to go a slightly dodgier way you can use a spade bit.
Only use in a bench drill tho, with the workpiece clamped down tightly (minimum 2 clamps) and close to the hole you are going to make.
Gentle pressure and away you go.

[rumdidlydum]

Silly question but wah the chuck rotating the correct way?

What you need is a properly sharpened drill bit.

Or if you want to go a slightly dodgier way you can use a spade bit.
Only use in a bench drill tho, with the workpiece clamped down tightly (minimum 2 clamps) and close to the hole you are going to make.
Gentle pressure and away you go.

:text-+1:
I ground a 13mm drill bit liks and works perfectly

[UoySevolNatas]

Fark! I woke up this morning and thought I'd run a marathon. Sore and tired.

Anyway, I missed a few comments between weeks 2 and 3 so I'll respond now.

$60 gumtree rig :)) old mate had it listed as rodgid
I bought the titan 150lt boiler that was on ebay a month or so ago, big piece of 500mm OD stainless pipe
Give ya a perv (link as not to pollute thread), I believe a bloke with the handle "what" built it dunno if he is on here.

http://imgur.com/Tpv5hQB
I couldn't have bought all the stainless fittings (element guard, elements, ferrules) for what i paid for it :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

Thank christ! Thought you'd gone crazy and gotten the $400 rigs from a plumbers supply. :)) :))

That boiler is awesome! ^:)^ ^:)^ Is that 2x4" ports with a 5-6" filling port in the middle? Can you run two stills at once? How much power do you need to get it going and keep it going?

To me it would depend on if you add in a gin basket, and you have now i looked 8-} . I would make it big enough to have a basket in there if it was me and have the tee a reasonable distance above that for suitable vapour infusion. not just for gin though, any infusion you want really. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

heres rummys, its a blockhead not carter head, excuse the picture naming :O)

Thanks for the help. I think I know what I'm doing now.

Silly question but wah the chuck rotating the correct way?

What you need is a properly sharpened drill bit.

Or if you want to go a slightly dodgier way you can use a spade bit.
Only use in a bench drill tho, with the workpiece clamped down tightly (minimum 2 clamps) and close to the hole you are going to make.
Gentle pressure and away you go.

Ok, cheers. I am using a new multi construction bit so it should be sharp. Is that the right bit to use?