Mad Dog's 3" block head Pot

[Professor Green]

That is a lovely piece of kit.

I wonder if the blockhead adds a touch of passive reflux as the vapour hits the top before turning the corner?

Cheers,
Prof. Green.

[WalterWhite]

Fourth reason .... It looks tough as nails!

Really looking forward to seeing how it performs mate. The 'Gattling Gun' condenser is a mighty fine piece of engineering.

[rumdidlydum]

Thats a sexy rig there mate :O)

[WTDist]

Nice rig mate. in a short time too :handgestures-thumbupleft:
Love the block heads

Have you thought of making a 3" RC for under the blockhead (that you can take out or put in when you want) to be able to hit higher ABV before infusing botanical's? I haven't done gin so maybe it doesn't matter but might be good to have. could also do neutrals too with some copper packing.
Looks like you and your mate knocked this up with no problems :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[maddogpearse]

That is a lovely piece of kit.

I wonder if the blockhead adds a touch of passive reflux as the vapour hits the top before turning the corner?

Cheers,
Prof. Green.

yeah, i reckon it would prof. but bugger all to be worried about i'd say.

Nice rig mate. in a short time too :handgestures-thumbupleft:
Love the block heads

Have you thought of making a 3" RC for under the blockhead (that you can take out or put in when you want) to be able to hit higher ABV before infusing botanical's? I haven't done gin so maybe it doesn't matter but might be good to have. could also do neutrals too with some copper packing.
Looks like you and your mate knocked this up with no problems :handgestures-thumbupleft:

yeah, that was in my origional plan.

still.JPG

everyone one here scared me out if it!
punchy said, "CM's can be fiddly to dial in when running neutral compared to LM's and VM's"
so i thought bugger it. i'll keep my PD reflux for running neutrals, and pot for stripping, brown spirits. But yeah, i think it will come. along with some bubble plates :D
It really wasn't that much work. Probably about 3-4 hours.

[WTDist]

You have certainly more time than me :laughing-rolling:
going on 6 months for me 8-}

CMs are fiddly but a pressure regulator can fix that. I dont have a pressure regulator and i havent worried about it but if the missus uses the washing machine ~x(

[mark-gabb]

wd i fixed that issue really easily.....

a cheap float valve from ebay.....
a aquarium pump from same.....
laundry powder tub, and away you go...

ive got one setup at home because of the issues with water presure living on a farm with pressure pumps...cost me about 30-40 bucks to make it

perfectly equalized pressure water at all times

[WTDist]

minister of finance is a hard one here :laughing-rolling:
Im not too worried about water changing here though. its reasonably steady

Just googled float valve pics. thats a good idea, mains water but an aquarium pump. ill look into this in the future :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[1 2many]

A few reasons I decided on the block head. Like the others said, for infusing botanicals for my gin! (but lets be honest, i'll probably never do that) Secondly because Zac told me to. And thirdly, I kinda just love the name. For some reason it reminds me of me :laughing-rolling:

:text-+1: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

[benpandaae86]

Great lookin rig mate

You could always upgrade later by addin one of macs 4inch sg tees and use end caps and ferrules to make short 3-4 inch reducer it would up your abv and quality

http://www.5stardistilling.net/4-complete-sg-tee/

http://www.5stardistilling.net/4-inch-t ... p-end-cap/

http://www.5stardistilling.net/3-tri-clamp-union/

Happy stillin

[maddogpearse]

Great lookin rig mate

You could always upgrade later by addin one of macs 4inch sg tees and use end caps and ferrules to make short 3-4 inch reducer it would up your abv and quality

Thanks benpandaae
I could, but I'd much rather add 4! And if I buy the Tees off mac I miss out on all the engineering fun! But yes, I think that's the plan. I feel like I won't fit in around here until I build a bubbler!

[dogbreath vodka]

She's looking good, you will be up and running in no time. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[maddogpearse]

Haha unfortunately dog breath I'm going on holidays for a week so won't get a chance to run it before I leave. I've got a sacrificial TPW bubbling away in the shed now so as soon as I get home I'll get it cleaned up! then I think I'll be looking for a drum of molasses....

[maddogpearse]

The sacrificial TPW is currently dripping out the end of my pot. A few notable notes. It took soooooo long to heat up. I guess the column is now about 3 times higher than it used to be, and it takes time to push steam up higher, but it was painfully slow. probably 50 - 60% longer heat up time. Defiantly time for a boiler upgrade :D
also, my flash new parrot doesn't work. :angry-banghead: my alchometer is too snug in the inner pipe, and the pot flow is too fast, so instead of flowing around the outside of the alchometer, it just pushes it out. so what is actually about 55% looks like about 10% in the parrot :handgestures-thumbdown: have to try and find a smaller alchometer.
thirdly. i thought the angle i cut on the outlet would make it all run from one point. it doesn't. it just sprays everywhere like a wanker! ~x(

back to the workbench...

[WTDist]

what was the hat up time?

outlet pipe spraying like a wanka, lol. I had dramas too. :doh:

got a pic of the outlet pipe your talking about, im unsure what this part looks like

Did you use 3/4" for the parrot?

[maddogpearse]

Heat up used to take about spot on 60min with my PD reflux.
Today it took about 105min before it started to get about a drop a second. After an hour, you could feel it was pretty hot about half way up the column, but cold as a stone on top.
The outlet is essentially a 3"-1" reducer, with a 45 cut on the 1" end. but it makes sense that anything that condensed in the middle tube of my PC would drip straight through without touching the sides.

outlet.jpg

dunno what the Parrot size is. The trouble is, plumbers are bloody dumb and call 20mm &3/4" the same thing. Or 15mm and 1/2". I beg your pardon Mr. Plumber, but 15mm is closer to 5/8" than 1/2" and 20mm is about a full mm bigger than 3/4's of an inch. Incidentally, how is copper measured? ID or OD? I can tell you that the ID is about 16.6mm and the outside of my alchometer is 16.07. 16.6mm on the inside makes it pretty close to 3/4" on the outside.
I would have thought half a mill would have been plenty for booze to slip between. It's pretty slippery stuff.

[WTDist]

Most people recommend 1" here so it doesnt flow past the alcometer and push it up.

Have you got a funnel? i havent got a reducer on the collection side of my parrot (where the alcohol leaves the still and goes into my parrot) but i fit my glass funnel in well and this collects my wanka :laughing-rolling: stream also
I would have trouble if i didnt use the funnel or a reducer.

for the funnel it can be plastic because this is your sacrificial run, not drinking this stuff :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[maddogpearse]

oh well. i guess we can put my parrot down to a learning experience. Back to the copper shop for some 25 :handgestures-thumbupleft:
yeah, may have to look at funneling options in the future. for today, i had to ditch the parrot and just jammed a demijon's mouth around my outlet piece.

[WalterWhite]

I personally prefer a Jane to a John when jamming a mouth around my outlet piece :happy-partydance:

[scythe]

Copper tube is named by its OD here in Aus.
You could make up a little slant plate to go in your 3"-1" reducer so it pushes all the condensate to one side, that might help reduce the spraying.

Or attach a bit of tube to the bottom of the outlet reducer at about 45* to direct the flow a bit.