Help ! Not The smoothest Easy flange.

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Help ! Not The smoothest Easy flange.

Postby danwbrews » Tue Oct 29, 2019 12:45 pm

Well the first couple easy flanges came off pretty good. They were flat, smooth and sealed well. I built a reducer for the take off from my PC and was crazy and not being the best at brazing , tried to braze the lip of the flange on the reducer. It's not to great. Not very flat. I've run out of copper to make another reducer and am excited to do my first run. it's only off by a little, not so flat in places. Hard seals won't work. What should I use to make a seal for this? Am I just worried... it is the cold side of the condenser, the liquid should just fall straight though. Am I being paranoid ? I have some silicone sheet to make gaskets out of. Would that work ok. I forgot to say that I am working on a pot still on a 1/2 barrel keg. It's powered by two 2000W heaters, one that is output controlled.
Just out there for some advice. I'll be doing a cleaning run sometime next week so I'll probably see then if it leaks. :angry-banghead:
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equipment: I'm new to the hobby. I've been a beer brewer for 23 years. Building a CCVM still that can be used as a pot still when I want.
I have a 15 gallon Keg with 2 2000 W electric heaters. with a 2"potstill head 20" tall and a 2" shotgun condenser 20" long with four 1/2" condenser tubes. A 1.5 meter packed column is in the works.

Re: Help ! Not The smoothest Easy flange.

Postby scythe » Tue Oct 29, 2019 3:46 pm

Photos will help us.

You can always sand it flat on some concrete
That should bring it closer to flat.
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Re: Help ! Not The smoothest Easy flange.

Postby danwbrews » Tue Oct 29, 2019 4:50 pm

I've tried. My father in-law was a mechanical engineer (died before we met) had loads of tools( still in the shed) for leveling factories. Lots of perfectly flat stuff. I almost wore myself out trying to get it flat. Brazing rod is just to hard and copper to thin. If I had more copper I would just add a flat piece on. It's just too thin to go any further.
Maybe I should just add a braised ring and remove the messed up ring like my original EZ Flanges. Should have done that in the first place. I still have tubing and my originals seal just fine. .
I did EZ flanges on my PC. I guess I was just lazy, looking for a quick fix.
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Posts: 34
Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2018 9:45 pm
Location: Texas
equipment: I'm new to the hobby. I've been a beer brewer for 23 years. Building a CCVM still that can be used as a pot still when I want.
I have a 15 gallon Keg with 2 2000 W electric heaters. with a 2"potstill head 20" tall and a 2" shotgun condenser 20" long with four 1/2" condenser tubes. A 1.5 meter packed column is in the works.

Re: Help ! Not The smoothest Easy flange.

Postby Doubleuj » Tue Oct 29, 2019 8:48 pm

danwbrews wrote:I guess I was just lazy, looking for a quick fix.


This is the statement that should go into the “tell us your fuck up” thread. 8-}
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Re: Help ! Not The smoothest Easy flange.

Postby db1979 » Wed Oct 30, 2019 6:05 am

If it's for your product take off it won't matter, so long as the liquid runs through it and doesn't pool there. My PC outlet is open and I either put a collection jar straight underneath it or my parrot which has a cone large enough to catch all the liquid.
Not the best photo (and I haven't cleaned up messy soldering) but you should be able to see what I mean, PC and cone in the background.
15606521633210.jpg
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Currently having a makeover: 2" x 4 plate solid state bubbler (1" bubble caps, no sight glasses...maybe not for much longer!) on a bain-marie boiler.

Re: Help ! Not The smoothest Easy flange.

Postby danwbrews » Fri Jan 17, 2020 10:56 pm

Thanks for the advice all. I finally gave up on trying to get the flange perfect and made more pliable gaskets. Now that we are through the holidays, I've done a vinegar run. Worked out fine. I did find a small leak on a solder joint to my coolant input that I need to fix... don't know how I missed that. :angry-banghead:
Just waiting for time to do a sac run of TPW. It's done. That worked out really quick!
Now if the weather will accommodate (stupid rain and electricity don't mix).
:text-thankyoublue:
Dan
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Posts: 34
Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2018 9:45 pm
Location: Texas
equipment: I'm new to the hobby. I've been a beer brewer for 23 years. Building a CCVM still that can be used as a pot still when I want.
I have a 15 gallon Keg with 2 2000 W electric heaters. with a 2"potstill head 20" tall and a 2" shotgun condenser 20" long with four 1/2" condenser tubes. A 1.5 meter packed column is in the works.

Re: Help ! Not The smoothest Easy flange.

Postby Yonder » Sat Jan 18, 2020 4:19 pm

FWIW. I have found a surgical grade epoxy will seal it, level it, and stay tight to 150 c. Gets the little level it jobs done and plugs them little gaps solder just won’t fill.
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Re: Help ! Not The smoothest Easy flange.

Postby RC Al » Sat Jan 18, 2020 4:37 pm

:law-policered: I have seen ethanol resistant epoxies before (and couldnt find them again when looking later) but without an MSDS stating that is its 100% proof against 90+ degree ethanol vapour that sort of stuff is taboo here mate. In addition it not just ethanol we are processing there's a whole swag of stuff in what we call fores and heads that have very different properties to ethanol.

Non contact area in a product condenser - sure sounds like a great idea, in side the still, NO
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Re: Help ! Not The smoothest Easy flange.

Postby Yonder » Sun Jan 19, 2020 5:16 pm

Sure can’t argue about policies but, always that big but, sealing a small pin hole or levelin’ a dip in an exterior flange is not equivalent to replacing a solder joint with JB weld. Surgical epoxy is meant to be used in flesh an blood in the body. Sometimes it’s okay to visit the wild side, if you research and understand the risks. Hell, you got people advocatin’ wrapping silicone in teflon tape, as if it were a barrier. Won’t say more, jes my view.
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Re: Help ! Not The smoothest Easy flange.

Postby woodduck » Mon Jan 20, 2020 4:07 pm

Have you tested this stuff in ethanol? Thread tape and silicon has been. Get a roll of tape and throw it in high % alc and in a weeks time it's still fine. Silicon is the same. There are some cheap silicon that shouldn't be used and that has been explained many times. I wouldn't use the "it's been inside of humans" as a reason to use something in a still, not a Dr but pretty sure we don't have 96% alcohol flowing through our vanes... well maybe some of us do :laughing-rolling:

If you show us an experiment where you can prove this stuff is safe we may consider letting it be mentioned on the forum. We are all about safety here and "living a little" isn't a valid reason here I'm sorry.
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Re: Help ! Not The smoothest Easy flange.

Postby Doubleuj » Mon Jan 20, 2020 9:19 pm

Yeah I’m with Woodduck, Pfte and / or silicon are immune to high proof ethanol.
I’m sure there are other products out there that are as well but you’d need to be certain, and much more certain than soaking in 96% in my opinion.
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Re: Help ! Not The smoothest Easy flange.

Postby db1979 » Tue Jan 21, 2020 7:46 am

I agree with woodduck and doubleuj.

I just did some quick reading about medical grade epoxy and while it did say that they are used in applications/devices that need to be autoclaved and the medical grade epoxy is able to withstand that for a number of times, the point is that it isn't guaranteed to be able to be autoclaved indefinitely. Since autoclaving uses steam, as do our stills, I think it'd be a waste of time to build a still knowing that parts of it would need to be (or should be) remade after a few runs. Heat in general is bad for epoxy, and heat and moisture makes it worse. Add alcohol into the mix, along with the other substances in the wash and it doesn't sound like epoxy is a good solution.
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Posts: 1760
Joined: Sat Dec 29, 2012 3:47 pm
Location: South of the big smoke in banana bender land.
equipment: Eve - 4" x 4 plate solid state bubbler (sieve plates), 330 mm packed section on a keg boiler with 2 x 2000 W elements.
Currently having a makeover: 2" x 4 plate solid state bubbler (1" bubble caps, no sight glasses...maybe not for much longer!) on a bain-marie boiler.

Re: Help ! Not The smoothest Easy flange.

Postby B-Man » Mon Aug 17, 2020 7:14 pm

I know this is an older thread although still this year so hope im not necroing it.

Could you just give it a coat of soft solder and file that down? I gouged my easy flange and ended up filling it with soft solder.

the easiest way I have found to level the easy flange was get a length or sheet of sand paper and clamp it to a flat bench then push the flange over the sandpaper away from the clamps. bring it back to the start turn it slightly and slide it again. if you hold it quite steady at the base and with low pressure push it forward it does a great job. its stable so keeps it flat and smoothes out the joint nicely. turning it will assist if theres a slight unevenness in the table or the sandpaper is worn more in 1 spot
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Re: Help ! Not The smoothest Easy flange.

Postby Bodgy » Mon Aug 17, 2020 7:40 pm

My missus has an easy flange.
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