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I don't like to see sites disappear. So, a friendly 'heads up'. Ya might wanna check out who yer registered owner is as of this a.m. It ain't Dave (he let it lapse). I did some digging. Not pretty. Posted the info I found on my Distillers site. Hope you guys can sort it. http://groups.yahoo.com/grou...

Guys...we need to get this clear. The SILVER solder is for all work EXCEPT the waterboxes. If you try to silver solder the waterboxes in place, you will melt the joins of the tube ends and endplates because thos joins are directly behind the waterbox joins. THAT WHY two (2) different temperature sol...

HookLine said:
Harry

Just to be clear. When you say silver solder, do you mean brazing rods? ie high temp.

Soft solder melts around 200-220 C.
Hard silver brazes melt around 650-800 C.


Yup, correct.

Your mistake was in silver soldering on the waterbox ends. The temp melted & breached the tube welds. In my original designs (see here) I told people to use SOFT solder on the waterboxes. Lower temp, therefore no breaches or problems. And soft solder only contacts water, so no issue with ethanol...

That's a damn fine construction, NM. Lovely bit of kit to leave for your kids as a legacy. Kudos to you. I'm glad you got a little something out of my designs. A suggestion...you may want to give folks a blow-by-blow rundown of a stillin' run with this rig. I've done one before, but it's always good...

Would'nt those return lines on either side of the onion head be better located on the slight underside of the equatorial horizontal? Did that sound right? I should be taking delivery of my 5" orb this forthcomming week. I'm still working out wher to place it and the like. They're not "ret...

It seems like the alcohol would tend to "boil off" first. Alcohol will NEVER 'boil off first' . Ethanol (alcohol) is miscible (molecularly joined) in ALL PROPORTIONS with water. It takes considerable energy input to break that bond. Even then, ethanol and water will BOTH leave the boiler ...

How come this was not incorporated in the original design, this design of condenser is IMO simple to build, soldering the caps on was my only worry because of the blind joints. The original design I posted was always a 'work in progress', subject to change without notice. The removable end-cap mod ...

Perhaps we should clarify what a vapor (vapour) is... Definitions of vapor on the Web: a visible suspension in the air of particles of some substance vaporization: the process of becoming a vapor wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn Vapor or vapour (see spelling differences) is the gas phase component o...

The fact that the crossflow is extremely compact and efficient at what it does (it removes the need for a product cooler liebig it's that efficient) is just a plus (I'm biased too, Hook). :D Sorry, I should qualify that statement. I meant in a LM still or the LM side heads takeoff of a multi-draw L...

I am one who is not convinced that the cross flow condenser (a perfectly good design in its own right) offers any serious advantage to small scale hobby stillers. It is fiddly to build, (yes, I know, some folk have trouble winding coils too, fair point). It also does not give any great savings in h...

The link below is to the full text of the foxfire. It's not a download but is available for online reading. Lots of info on building a traditional potstill. http://www.scribd.com/doc/8961411/Foxfire-One" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow Yeah, I extrac...

Hi guys , I'm new to this forum and to still makin . My buddy just got his still from still drinkin last week , and he wanted me to help figure out how to use it :roll: :roll: . He payed $714.90 for the Turbo Raptor , tilt refluxing tower . After taking it out of the barrel it came in , we put it t...

Sounds easy! Thanks Harry, I'll use the crimped system then. Apart from lookin cool, (I know no-one will see it) but to me, it seems that the crimps would give the vapour the most contact with the water cooling. I was thinking of making it about 450mm, so it should be long enough. The other issue i...

The crimps in the vapour tube in the Liebig will work, but will also make it hard to clean out if you need to. IMHO, it is better of leaving it circular, and just put a thin strip of copper mesh loosely inside the length of the tube to get the turbulence inside it. Very easy to clean. Plug the end ...

yeah, cool technology at work there. Its surprising to me that some of those barrier technologies could be cost effective. There's three basic Barrier Technologies. Each has specific uses in the packaging industry. Some are for oxygen-scavenging to prolong the shelf life of foods. Some are strictly...

junkyard dawg wrote:

Good to see you post Harry. I do feel better informed.

Aye JD. That was the aim.

Followed that link and did some reading, and although SOME coatings are applied to the inside of the bottles, MOST seem to be applied to the OUTSIDE of the bottle, or sandwiched in a layer inside the plastic itself. Because the purpose of the coatings, to most of the manufacturers, is not to protec...

Holy, I have no doubt that the chemist is giving true info, and you are getting quite exasperated with all this talk of plastic bottles. But May I make a simple observation? Everyone is missing the point with the plastic spirit bottles issue. The spirit NEVER TOUCHES the plastic. It is COATED with a...

The oldest printed work I've found mention of so far is by a fellow called Michael Puff von Schrick, 1478. This from "Science and Civilization in China" pg 125... http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n101/gnikomson2000/Science_and_Civilisation_in_China_p.png ...And this mention from "A ...

Thanks Nyker, that's what I needed to know: homogeneous or not. It is possible to read Nixon, Stone and Riku in the sense I described. I thought there was some separation taking place. Separation has occurred, at a molecular level . But the various components (as vapours) still occupy the same phys...

So what are you trying to filter? Wash? Time, or cold settling in a fridge/freezer will work wonders for dropping out yeasts & other haze-causing proteins. Product? Don't let haze-causing substances get in there in the first place, unless you are aiming at a traditional Scotch Malt. Again, chill...

I know that this probably won't contribute much to the discussion, but I had to point something out that bothers me a little. In the offset head position pic, shouldn't the cooling water flow in the top and out the bottom to take advantage of countercurrent exchange? Or am I missing something? It j...

I understand this condensor can be used as a LM or a pot still but how do you configure it to run as a single condensor VM ? You don't. No advantage in trying to (run VM) either. VM shines only when doing the hearts run or cut. What comes out of any properly adjusted reflux still in either VM or LM...

Hmmm...I kinda knew this was going to develop into a debate on "what-ifs & maybe's". That's why I suggested to GD that he build a prototype & test it to prove or disprove the theory of operation. I still see the original concept as being an attempt to make one condenser do the job ...

instead of having a valve on the product tube, the valve has been put above the shotgun condenser. my theory is that when the valve is fully open the still will be at 100% reflux. when you start to close the valve, this will restrict the vapour flow to the reflux condenser and the vapour will have ...

So in the case of a coil-in-a-liebig unit, would it be more efficient to run the vapour into the liebig and the coolant into the coil? Yes. BUT only if the canister is filled with copper mesh inside and around the coolant coil. This will create the required turbulence to bring the vapours into inti...

I realize it is all soldered together but you want to make sure your coil is spiraling down hill the whole way. In your first picture (pre assembly) your coil looks like it could be running up hill in places but that might just be the camera angle. Someone is observant. That's always a serious conc...

And yes, the spiral tube insert is used in industry. It's not just a concept or some theoretical patent. They call 'em Turbulators...
http://www.flamingochillers.com/heat-exchangers.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Harry has nailed it about the vapour not rising up the product arm. But I think he overstates the importance of having to deliberately design turbulence into a small scale straight tube condenser (such as the basic Liebig or shotgun designs commonly use here). For two reasons: 1) The vapour collaps...