Cleaning Copper Mesh

[The Stig]

Lets Talk Cleaning Copper Mesh.
The copper mesh we have these days is nowhere near as oily as the old stuff, we asked the factory to degrease it and they went ahead for us.
This doesn’t mean its clean, we still need to clean the mesh before we use it.
I personally like to use the dishwasher for the first clean (without a tablet) this removes the bulk of whatever it is the factory use to clean it up.
Then I soak in a citric acid solution for 24 hours, agitating every time I walk past.
All I do is buy the citric from Woolworths https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/prod ... cid-citric
I will add half the container into about 5 litres of water in a bucket.
Drop in the roll of copper mesh.
If I have other copper bits, they go in at the same time.
I leave the bucket in a well-trafficked area and instruct all who walk past to give the bucket a jiggle.
After 24 hours simply rinse really well with water, I user the garden hose so I have pressure and it’s good to go.
There you have it a nice easy way to clean new copper mesh.
If your cleaning used copper mesh you can simply skip the dishwasher part and follow the rest.
Cheers
Andrew

[1 2many]

g'day stig, been a long time. i am glad to hear that the supplier is doing the initial clean, the rolls i bought back in 2013 where covered in oil and did take a bit of work to clean.
I also did a fores run to make sure it was good to go. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[The Stig]

Sorry to hear that mate

[Rolls912]

I also find cleaning them in the foreshots and early heads works a treat. Then dishwasher.

[1 2many]

:text-+1:

I also find cleaning them in the foreshots and early heads works a treat. Then dishwasher.

[Onlyalittlebitdodge]

1/2 tspn in the dishwasher at 45 degrees for 30 minutes works reasonably well. even does the rinse cycle :)

[stillts]

ah good! I was washing them in the fores hoping it was ok to do it this way!

I am a little worried. The bucket I was using to soak the mesh in citric acid has broken down a bit and it's hard to tell it the green on the copper mesh is oxidisation or plastic from the (green) bucket. I have given it a good scrub with a brush and then brushed and soaked in fores. Hope it's ok to use.

[Wellsy]

Just make sure you have gotten all the plastic off the mesh mate. Probably a great example of why not to use plastic parts with alcohol. You never know what bits will dissolve and what bits you don’t notice dissolving.

[stillts]

thanks Wellsy. Yeah, you're right. Didn't think it would be a problem as this bucket was where I had the citric acid, but I think I let is soak a little too long....

[NoHope]

After soaking Copper Mesh after a few runs is it supposed to come back to the same sparkly copper colour or be a much duller colour ive soaked it a few times in a mix of citric acid and vinegar when its soaking looks a lot more "brighter" once out and rinsed it changes to a dull colour

[The Stig]

It’ll dull down when dry , nothing to worry about

[Wellsy]

If you are really sneaky point it out to the missus, once she starts to worry you can suggest just to be safe you could upgrade to a 4 plate bubbler and then stop using the mess.

It did not work for me but if you time it right when she is full of festive cheer you might have better luck.

Otherwise plus one to what Stig said

[NoHope]

Nice thought wellsy but just to get the new milk can was pushing it

[Wellsy]

Most of us know that feeling mate :)

Now she has an endless supply of future gifts. A second element will make a lovely birthday present lol

Enjoy mate

[Buj]

After some advice here.

I decided to pull the copper mesh, from my FSD 2" Boka and Pot Still, to check its condition after 9 months of decent use (16 spirit runs in Boka alone).

Some of the mesh was pretty dark so I thought to give it a Citric Acid wash and rinse. There was no evidence of a blue tinge beforehand.
Placed them in the sun to dry and a few hours later the 'blue tinge' showed up on a few rolls.

Started the process again and dried them in the oven ot 120°.
Same again.

Is this something I should be worried about? I was planning on doing a feints 40% sac run or do I go down the path of the vinegar run first?

For the Citric Acid clean I used 40g in 3lt boiling water. Then rinsed with filtered tap water multiple times.

I've always ran water through the stills after each use as well.

[B-Man]

I've found a good billing hot water rinse stopped my plates going blue after a good clean.

[Wellsy]

I have never had mine go blue after a clean, but I have always used cold water.
Did you unroll them when you cleaned them ? Ialways unroll mine no idea why but again never had an issue.

Hope that helps

[howard]

After some advice here.

I decided to pull the copper mesh, from my FSD 2" Boka and Pot Still, to check its condition after 9 months of decent use (16 spirit runs in Boka alone).

Some of the mesh was pretty dark so I thought to give it a Citric Acid wash and rinse. There was no evidence of a blue tinge beforehand.
Placed them in the sun to dry and a few hours later the 'blue tinge' showed up on a few rolls.

Started the process again and dried them in the oven ot 120°.
Same again.

Is this something I should be worried about? I was planning on doing a feints 40% sac run or do I go down the path of the vinegar run first?

For the Citric Acid clean I used 40g in 3lt boiling water. Then rinsed with filtered tap water multiple times.

I've always ran water through the stills after each use as well.

i've had a slight touch of blue/green stuff when i've had my mesh in a bucket of citric (even though i unrolled it).
i have recently tried unrolling it and soaking the mesh in whats left in the boiler after a run (in a plastic bucket, not the boiler itself)
this works well in removing the black stuff.
however, i have always hosed the mesh after soaking and hung to dry, which causes some sort of chemical reaction.
when i re-roll the mesh i end up with 'copper' fingers, like i've been handling rust.
yesterday i didn't rinse with water, after a soak in the remains of a rum spirit run, and it's dried clean without the copper residue on my digits.
there is a very slight residue from the rum low wines, so next time i'll use FFV dregs.
but i won't be rinsing with water any more.

[Buj]

Thanks guys.

I didn't unroll these for cleaning/soaking.

This morning I chucked them in the boiler and ran around 5lt of 40% feints through the Pot still. I then removed them and have them soaking in 80% feints.
Will see how they play out. The feints soak seems to have lifted a heap of the copper oxide so far.

[The Stig]

The trick is to rinse them really really well after cleaning