Building 2" VM from Boka
Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2012 2:41 amHi Everyone,
Ahoy from Canada! Okanagan valley to be exact...
I'm currently in the process of converting my existing 2" boka into a VM, after having completed a couple of runs on the Boka it was obvious that the level of attention required to keep a constant equilibrium was beyond my attention span, with a my two year old son running around my efforts were only exacerbated :-D
I do have a few questions however:
1. Given that I have already gone through the effort of building a boka I'm wondering if there is additional benefit to keeping the slant plates intact whilst installing my VM take off? My thought was to cut the column in between the two plates and install my take off via a 2 x 2 x 1 Tee.
2. My take-off will be 1" with a 1" SS ball valve mounted in the horizontal and then reducing to 1/2" through the bend, will this provide a reasonalbe take-off rate? Additionally, I've seen many variations of this design with the valve mounted in the vertical instead, is there a preferrence or benefit? I'm able to entertain both options at this point.
3. My product condenser will be a liebig probably close to 2.5' and will be a 1/2" inside a 3/4", will this be a sufficient amount of cooling? I'm planning and spiraling some wire inside the jacket and inserting a spiraled wire in the 1/2" as well to help distribute the vapor flow.
4. Current setup is a 50L keg boiler heated with 2 x 1500 watt elements, both running during initial heat up and then just the single element on during my run, is this a manageable amount of heat? My coil condenser inserted in the column is more than able to knock down the vapor I just want to make sure that I won't be smearing my cuts too bad.
As soon as I have pictures I will post, I'm really looking foward to doing a run in a couple of weeks. I have a plain sugar wash enriched with tomato paste and a bit of apple juice on the go which I can't wait to distill.
Cheers!
Ahoy from Canada! Okanagan valley to be exact...
I'm currently in the process of converting my existing 2" boka into a VM, after having completed a couple of runs on the Boka it was obvious that the level of attention required to keep a constant equilibrium was beyond my attention span, with a my two year old son running around my efforts were only exacerbated :-D
I do have a few questions however:
1. Given that I have already gone through the effort of building a boka I'm wondering if there is additional benefit to keeping the slant plates intact whilst installing my VM take off? My thought was to cut the column in between the two plates and install my take off via a 2 x 2 x 1 Tee.
2. My take-off will be 1" with a 1" SS ball valve mounted in the horizontal and then reducing to 1/2" through the bend, will this provide a reasonalbe take-off rate? Additionally, I've seen many variations of this design with the valve mounted in the vertical instead, is there a preferrence or benefit? I'm able to entertain both options at this point.
3. My product condenser will be a liebig probably close to 2.5' and will be a 1/2" inside a 3/4", will this be a sufficient amount of cooling? I'm planning and spiraling some wire inside the jacket and inserting a spiraled wire in the 1/2" as well to help distribute the vapor flow.
4. Current setup is a 50L keg boiler heated with 2 x 1500 watt elements, both running during initial heat up and then just the single element on during my run, is this a manageable amount of heat? My coil condenser inserted in the column is more than able to knock down the vapor I just want to make sure that I won't be smearing my cuts too bad.
As soon as I have pictures I will post, I'm really looking foward to doing a run in a couple of weeks. I have a plain sugar wash enriched with tomato paste and a bit of apple juice on the go which I can't wait to distill.
Cheers!
