First Copper Pot Still Condenser Build.

[Milky]

Hi All. Thought I'd share this with you all.

My friend & I both have a Pure Distilling Reflux Still. I have only been on this forum for a couple of weeks.
My friend has had his for 2 years now. I just got mine for my birthday and am yet to give it a go. My friend & I thought of mucking around trying to make a pot still condenser of our own based on the Pure Distilling Pot Condenser. I'm an Aircraft Structural Technician & thought it would be a sweet project.

Below is a pic of the Pure Distilling Pot Condenser.

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It is made from 2 inch copper tube. I found a 10 foot length of 2.5 in copper tubing in our scrap metal bin a contractor had thrown out so I nabbed it and started work.

I haven't silver soldered or TIG welded for a couple of years & figured that I could probably TIG weld the copper rather than soldering. It worked out really well, using thin strips of copper sheet as the filler rod.

So the next thing was to work out a lid attachment. We didn't want to buy an extra Pure Distilling boiler lid for $28 so I mentioned to my friend I could try knocking up one from copper sheet on our Piccolo (stretching & shrinking machine). I just went straight ahead & formed it without annealing the sheet. Next time I will anneal the sheet to get a deeper concave but for now it will do. I used the Jenny Form roller to roll the 7/8 in lip then stretched it flat back in the Piccolo. Then in the Jenny for the 1/4 in lip finished by had on our metal stake forming table.

Here is a pic of the lid fitted on the boiler

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My friend bought a 3 metre length of 1/4 tube for $17 & rolled the coil at his house then we brazed some brass air fittings for a garden hose on the end of the coil & then TIG welded a cop on the end of the condenser after putting the coil in. My friend also bought a 2.5 in to 2 in copper reducer for $12 because we were going to braze a 2 in brass pipe thread fitting to this condenser so we could use the Pure Distilling SS lid he already had. I TIG welded the reducer on. The brazing didn't work so we decided to just TIG weld the condenser to the copper lid I made. Well, it worked really well.

Here is the final product before he cleaned it up.

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And here is a pic he sent me last night of its first cleaning run with a heap of slops and wines he had left over. This is after he cleaned it with citric acid. Came up looking good.

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It all took around 4 hours and cost him $30. Not bad considering Pure Distilling want $460 for there version.

He will give it a proper test in a week or 2 and i will post back the results here. If it goes well ill make 2 more for the both of us with a little more care & will silver solder the hose fittings on the coil.

Walker, out. 8-)

[JayD]

I have seen those types of pot heads in the brewing shops and they are real expensive, nice job... :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Milky]

Thanks JD.

It was a bit of a challenge but a really good small project to start. If it works on my friends run then we will make another 2 but take more care. This condenser will keep us going until be both refine our skills. Who knows, there could be a couple of shotgun or bubbler builds later this year.

See how we go with what we have got. Still (haha) got lots to learn.

I'm going to make a parrot next but just need to practice my silver soldering.

[JayD]

Your Welcome, a man with your skills and tools at hand should go for broke.... and build a bubbler... :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[blond.chap]

Pretty...

[crow]

Nice job :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[googe]

Nice work.mate maybe you should start selling them.and undercut pure distilling :))

[Sam.]

In sure with your metal bashing skills you will be able to knock up something better than the HBS can offer

[BackyardBrewer]

What is it about birthdays & stills? I got my pure distilling reflux for my birthday last year too.

[rb20Siliva69]

Hey dude,
Of course it came up good I helped you make half of it... Lol.
Nar walker did a great job he is pretty skilled. It also seamed to work pretty well thou for a first try, flow was about 4 l/hr (nice tooth pick size). Being the first time I've operated a pot still of anykind It kept alot more aroma and taste than I expected.
That being said it will be modified a little bit:
1- Lyne arm will be extended about 3" as I think we made it a bit short in comparison to the Pura distilling pot still
2- an extra thermometer hole will be made just behind the condensing coil; I think it will be a better indication of temp closer to the condensing coil (will put one in to see the difference between the two locations)
3- I think the out put pipe (I guess you call it that) needs to be 5/16" instead of 1/4".
Apart from that I think it will work quite well.

I'm wondering does anyone really care about temp, does every one just use ABV to know when to stop taking spirit completely; because of the location of the thermometer it seemed to operate above the usual temps in use to seeing with the Pura distilling still (boka style).

[SBB]

As a rule of thumb a thermometer is pretty well useless on a pot, though I do know a few who say they are useful when making gins and a few other things such as Ouzo, After playing around a bit with Ouzo and watching a few gin runs being done im beginning to think they might have a place for some things.
Having said that I cant be sure the same thing cant be achieved by using a parrot and going on ABV.
Its something Im going to be working on soon when I make more Ouzo.

Edited once or twice for spullun and stuf.

[1 2many]

I keep getting amazed by the different types and variations .I love it .Thats realy cool sharp and to the point. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Andy]

i really like that design. working with the boiler you have to enhance it. having both a reflux still and pot still will give you such versatility :handgestures-thumbupleft:

i run a pot still and i don't even own a thermometer.... Take cuts and measure ABV

[rb20Siliva69]

Hey guys did a second strip run with pot still we made using a 25l turbo wash (Samuel Willard's 24hr(funny it still takes a week))
For interest sake I took SG 1025 finished on 880 after 6 days and 8 kg of sugar I also squeezed I lime in it for something to do which from normal cut the fermenting time in half for some reason anyway not important.
I thought I would do a run and measure ABV and temp thought it would be interesting here where the results.
Switched on the boiler at 1740( forgive me for the 24 hour time) and was finished at 2043, after fores I started taking spirit at 1843.
75abv@87.2(1843), 73abv@87.8(1851),
70abv@88.7(1902 I had 2l), 67abv@89.6(1914),
63abv@90.8(1928 I had 4l), I had 5l at 1943 (1 hour),
53abv@93.6(1954), 43abv@95.5(2013 I had 7l),
20abv@98.1(2043 I had 8.75l)
After two hours I had finished with 8.75l at 55abv which I'm pretty stoked about for this little pot we made.
(Don't judge me on the turbo I have recently found my self on this forum and are changing my ways. I was just excited to get the pot running. Hope the above is easy to understand).

[Colin Smith]

You have a silva with a rb20 :law-policered: nice ... Anyway love the still too.. :drool: post a pic of tha S13

[Milky]

What about a pic of the still in the S13?

[Colin Smith]

Even better... :happy-partydance:

[Milky]

Competed Mk II last Friday. Clean run it last night. Performed well. This time I made the column out of 2 inch and still TIG welded it all but silver soldered a 2 inch brass fitting so I could use the stainless steel lid my boiler came with instead of making a copper bowl.
Made the copper bowl but didn't have time to finish it.
Gave it all a polish this time and a coat of clear.

[Linny]

Looks good... think I might drop down tomorrow

[bluc]

Great compact build what is this style of condenser called?