Gin Basket and Simple Coupling

[Braz]

Some time ago I made a gin basket for vapor infusion. I only used it once before acquiring a keg and changing to a tri-clamp attachment which won't work with my basket. So I had to change the design, and in the process I came up with a pretty nifty column coupling. (The coupling has probably been invented before but I haven't seen it.)

So here's the original basket:



And I want to be able to insert it into the pot still column here:



So the first thing I had to do was cut the head off the column:



Then I took a 2" coupler fitting and cut a 1/2" ring off it:



Then solder the short end of the coupler to the column, test fit it to the bottom of the basket and solder the 1/2" shoulder ring so the coupler fits against the ring and solder the ring on the basket. Also solder another shoulder ring to the top part of the column so you can run without the gin basket:



Then when you put it together, just wrap a couple or three wraps of teflon tape around the pipe just below the shoulder ring:



And when you put it together the teflon tape will scrunch up against the shoulder ring and make a very effective seal:

[Prairiepiss]

Nice. I like the simplicity.

Whatcha got in the background there? A BMW?

[Odin]

Nice work Braz!

[Bushman]

Very interesting. I was thinking about making my own copper ferrules in a similar manor, buy using couplings and then CNC a ring to solder to the end of the coupling this way it can be attached with tri-clamps. I am probably one that would run out of teflon tape when I needed it most

[Braz]

Whatcha got in the background there? A BMW?

Yes, an '03 R1150RS. The "Mile Monster."

[WV Shine]

Love the design, and nice bike!

Got a '03 F650GS i've been puttin some miles on, real fun out here in the mtns
That new F800GS is making me slobber though...

[Frosteecat]

Nice! Will look to utilize this in pot design. And on a side note, upgraded my '81 CB750k to an '08 HD Crossbones last year!

[The Baker]

When I made my first pot still I took pieces of copper tube to the muffler man and had him expand ends so that other tubes fitted snuggly inside; then wound a bit of plumber's tape round the outside.
And used reducers and some bends where appropriate. Though the muffler man can do bends too.
The only problem was he didn't think it worth tempering (??) the copper (heating and cooling it to make it malleable) and he split some of the tube...
But it worked well and it was tube I had in the shed, bought it cheap.
Can do the same with stainless too, even where you want to connect stainless tube to copper tube.
And it is easy to take apart and reassemble if you want to change the configuration...
Geoff