Man, I love that boiler! I think it is shaped just right. Anyway, the setup is pretty cool.
The boiler is the bottom end of an ancient water heater liner that I found at a friend's ranch. Cut it up with a Sawzall, bought an angle grinder and spent a considerable time and effort descaling the thing. The lid is a piece of the tank reverse rolled flat and cut to fit. Let me tell you this stuff is tough. The bottom skirt that gives the boiler a solid base to sit on is another piece of the liner cut and brazed to the bottom.
Can you get full reflux with that external coil at a high heat input?
Haven't gotten that far yet but it shouldn't be an issue. Running with moderate heat I can get full reflex with minimum flow through the reflux coil. This is where soldering the coil to the tower to maximize heat transfer will be the ticket.
I see the thermometer is above the reflux coils. If you are at 100% reflux no vapor would hit your thermometer. Do you have it there to monitor the vapor temp going past your coils?
Yes.
What if it were below the coils like a LM setup?
I'd be reading the temp of the reflux which I would imagine would be constantly changing and not tell me much, if anything. I think vapor temps tell you much more since they're directly tied to the ABV of the output.
Might want to consider a flowmeter for your dephlegmater coil, it makes them easier to control. You set it to a certain flow instead of trying a setting and then seeing what it does, with a little driving time it makes it less fiddly. A cheap rotameter of 0-40 SCFH air would get you about 0-9 GPH, which should be in the ballpark for your setup.
Sounds like a good idea. I was using a garden hose for the drain line but changed to a clear plastic so I can see the output flow from where I sit vs. going outside to look at what was coming out. That was a pain. Fixed now. Actually putting a number to the reflux coil flow would be good for repeatability.
googe: I appreciate your input here. You gave me some great insights if not an outright shortcut in learning how to run this rig.
Thanks for the good words, guys. I've noticed that there isn't the knowledge base for CMs as there is for pots, LM and VMs. Hopefully this thread will serve to help others with this type of still understand how to run them to their potential.
) Ok. Now I understand how this works. I'm sure on this next run I can do even better now that I've run this rig as it was intended. Next goal is clearing 90% on a BW wash. I can hardly wait! 
.
