Dan's Flute x2, 4" x 5 plate 42" column

dan · Post by **dan** » Sat May 14, 2011 5:18 pm

Well I have been lurking around this forum for the last six months and i have just decided to post some pictures of my first build. Thank you everyone for your ideas and inspiration on this creation. I am building two identical 42" five plate columns with a removable 12" dephlagmater that will have a 8" shotgun in it. This column will have a removable "flat top" 2" vapor take-off going to a 3" x 16" Graham condenser. Most of my copper has come from the scrap pile @ $4.00 / lb. USD except for the .125" plate for the caps, tops, and perforated plates. I am going with a removable tree that will slide down into the column to give me as many options as possible in the future. I am trying to stay away from as many fittings as possible to keep the cost reasonable. For the sight glasses I am using 2" pipe with an easy flange and I have ordered 5mm x 63mm heat absorbing glass windows that i will use with 2" tri-clamps. Let me know what you think so far.......

Post by **olddog** » Sat May 14, 2011 7:16 pm

Nice build Dan, is the plan to make it as a 10 plate column, using the two sections together?. Your dephlegmater is a bit of an overkill with that size, it only has to reflux the vapor from the top plate whether you have two plates or ten plates, 4-5"will be plenty.

OD

Kentucky shinner · Post by **Kentucky shinner** » Sat May 14, 2011 7:41 pm

Looks great Dan. I have to agree with OD on the dephlagamater. You only need a few inches to create your reflux. It takes very little water to cool the top of the column enough to do the job. If you have to much it makes it very tricky to control. That has been my experience any way.
Looks great though.. Your doing good man.
Keep the pics coming
KS

Post by **Bushman** » Sat May 14, 2011 9:33 pm

You heard it from the two experts on this design, I have nothing I can add to the design but I will say it is very nice work and we here all love pictures! By the way stop on over to the Welcome center and give us a proper introduction obviously you have spent some time here at the site

Post by **Prairiepiss** » Sat May 14, 2011 9:35 pm

Looking good Dan.

That's some nice copper scrapping you have done. Keep us posted on you progress.

Post by **Mr.Spooky** » Sun May 15, 2011 4:59 am

even the walls are shining

. i like the jig for the sight glasses!!!
spooky

Post by **LWTCS** » Sun May 15, 2011 5:05 am

Ship shape Dan.

That jig is the WTG.

dan · Post by **dan** » Sun May 15, 2011 8:22 am

Thank you guys for the input on the dephlagamater!! I will definitely plan on down sizing if it will make this beast easier to control. The question I now have is do I push this column to 6 plates spaced 4" apart or leave it at 5 plates spaced 5_1/2" apart?? The plate tree portion of the column is already cut at 30" and the dephlagamater will stack on top with a 4" tri-clamp. There will be a flat top vapor take off on top of the dephlagamater connected again by a 4" tri-clamp. This way I can add new sections of plates in the future if I want to. Thank you for your advice!!

-Dan

Post by **Prairiepiss** » Sun May 15, 2011 8:56 am

dan wrote:Thank you guys for the input on the dephlagamater!! I will definitely plan on down sizing if it will make this beast easier to control. The question I now have is do I push this column to 6 plates spaced 4" apart or leave it at 5 plates spaced 5_1/2" apart?? The plate tree portion of the column is already cut at 30" and the dephlagamater will stack on top with a 4" tri-clamp. There will be a flat top vapor take off on top of the dephlagamater connected again by a 4" tri-clamp. This way I can add new sections of plates in the future if I want to. Thank you for your advice!!

-Dan

So you will be able to run it as 2 separate 5 plate stills at the same time. If you had 2 boilers. Or take the plate column from one and add it to the other and have a 10 plater? I like the idea.

Don't know if I would ever need to run 2 at the same time. But you never know? It could be handy.

dan · Post by **dan** » Sun May 15, 2011 10:31 am

Prairiepiss wrote:
dan wrote:Thank you guys for the input on the dephlagamater!! I will definitely plan on down sizing if it will make this beast easier to control. The question I now have is do I push this column to 6 plates spaced 4" apart or leave it at 5 plates spaced 5_1/2" apart?? The plate tree portion of the column is already cut at 30" and the dephlagamater will stack on top with a 4" tri-clamp. There will be a flat top vapor take off on top of the dephlagamater connected again by a 4" tri-clamp. This way I can add new sections of plates in the future if I want to. Thank you for your advice!!

-Dan

So you will be able to run it as 2 separate 5 plate stills at the same time. If you had 2 boilers. Or take the plate column from one and add it to the other and have a 10 plater? I like the idea. Don't know if I would ever need to run 2 at the same time. But you never know? It could be handy.

Prairiepiss...... one distillation column will be heading up to the great white north, or "49th state", so my brother can drink his very own purified "water" and the other one will stay here in the NW. I am trying to determine if the sixth plate will make much of a difference or just stick with five and leave the extra 1_1/2" between the plates.??
-Dan

Post by **Mr.Spooky** » Sun May 15, 2011 10:38 am

dan wrote:
Prairiepiss wrote:
dan wrote:Thank you guys for the input on the dephlagamater!! I will definitely plan on down sizing if it will make this beast easier to control. The question I now have is do I push this column to 6 plates spaced 4" apart or leave it at 5 plates spaced 5_1/2" apart?? The plate tree portion of the column is already cut at 30" and the dephlagamater will stack on top with a 4" tri-clamp. There will be a flat top vapor take off on top of the dephlagamater connected again by a 4" tri-clamp. This way I can add new sections of plates in the future if I want to. Thank you for your advice!!

-Dan

So you will be able to run it as 2 separate 5 plate stills at the same time. If you had 2 boilers. Or take the plate column from one and add it to the other and have a 10 plater? I like the idea. Don't know if I would ever need to run 2 at the same time. But you never know? It could be handy.
Prairiepiss...... one distillation column will be heading up to the great white north, or "49th state", so my brother can drink his very own purified "water" and the other one will stay here in the NW. I am trying to determine if the sixth plate will make much of a difference or just stick with five and leave the extra 1_1/2" between the plates.??
-Dan

will you be my brother???? please????LOL im truley not sure if you will ever notice the difference of a +or- a plate
spooky

Post by **Usge** » Sun May 15, 2011 10:44 am

That's a great looking build Dan. Keep it coming.

Post by **Prairiepiss** » Sun May 15, 2011 6:32 pm

+1 spooky I need another brother too. Please!

Your one hell of a brother. Nice thing your doing.

dan · Post by **dan** » Tue May 17, 2011 8:04 pm

Progress report.....everyone likes pictures. This is either the "Evil Twin" build or the "Good Brother" build... Haven't decided yet! All ten sight glasses are done and next up is drilling the 2_1/8" holes in the column.

-Dan

Post by **blind drunk** » Tue May 17, 2011 8:31 pm

one distillation column will be heading up to the great white north, or "49th state", so my brother can drink his very own purified "water" and the other one will stay here in the NW.

Hey dan, send it to me and I'll personally drive it over to your brother. Promise

Post by **Samohon** » Tue May 17, 2011 8:48 pm

Nice work Dan, I've enough building one for myself, let alone my brother...

Like the sight-glass jig...

Keep it coming man... Great stuff...

Kentucky shinner · Post by **Kentucky shinner** » Wed May 18, 2011 2:33 am

Liking the hell out of your work man..

dan · Post by **dan** » Wed May 18, 2011 7:54 pm

Well another round of fighting with the drill press......

Here are some pictures of the progress so far. The sight glass windows will be here tomorrow so that I can take the final dimensions on the easy flange + teflon gasket + glass = to determine if I need to adjust the thickness of the easy flange before I solder them on the body of the column. it will be much easier to make this adjustment with another jig one at a time so that they are all identical. then I will solder them all on the column and be done with it. I just want to make sure the tri-clamps have a nice uniform snug fit. Details, details, details......

dan · Post by **dan** » Wed May 18, 2011 7:57 pm

And a few more pictures......

Post by **condensificator** » Wed May 18, 2011 8:13 pm

...SO cool, man. i am so jealous of you right now! i have been absolutely buried with work and haven't had any time to mess with my project. i have a whole heap of mostly finished still parts collecting dust in the corner in plain sight of the workbench that i am chained to. the only thing that keeps me from loosing my melonfarming mind is hopping on the board a couple times a day and seeing stuff like this. thanks!

you are killing it.

Post by **olddog** » Wed May 18, 2011 8:14 pm

Love your work Dan, thats going to turn out to be a great build.

OD

Rum Bum · Post by **Rum Bum** » Wed May 18, 2011 9:25 pm

Let me add in... this is the proper way to introduce yourself!

I dig it man.

RB

dan · Post by **dan** » Thu May 19, 2011 8:51 pm

Well I guess the term "easy flange" is just a matter opinion..... You know what they say about opinions ----everyone has one!! My sight glass came in today and instead of being 5mm they were a lot closer to 5.9mm. I had to mill off about 2.5mm of my easy flange to get the tri-clamps to close over the glass and flange. I must say they do look pretty nice now that they are done but what a pain in the butt. tomorrow will be the real test when I solder all of the sight glasses to the column body. Here are a few pictures of today's progress.

-Dan

Manback · Post by **Manback** » Thu May 19, 2011 10:03 pm

How'd you get em cut?

dan · Post by **dan** » Fri May 20, 2011 6:41 am

Manback wrote:How'd you get em cut?

I ordered the glass from Surplus Shed @ http://www.surplusshed.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow. They were $2.00 each for "63mm heat absorbing glass window" The easy flange had to be cut down from 5mm thick to 2.5mm and I used the drill press with my 2.125" carbide hole-saw. The sight glass was placed in a jig and placed in a two axis tool rest vice. I ran the bit down to the face of the easy flange and moved the easy flange back and forth until it milled off the amount I wanted to remove. Then I put a twist lock Scotch-Brite pad in the drill press and honed the face of the flange to get it very smooth and flat. I hope that answers your question

-Dan

dan · Post by **dan** » Fri May 20, 2011 7:19 am

dan wrote:
Manback wrote:How'd you get em cut?
I ordered the glass from Surplus Shed @ http://www.surplusshed.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow. They were $2.00 each for "63mm heat absorbing glass window" The easy flange had to be cut down from 5mm thick to 2.5mm and I used the drill press with my 2.125" carbide hole-saw. The sight glass was placed in a jig and placed in a two axis tool rest vise. I ran the bit down to the face of the easy flange and moved the easy flange back and forth until it milled off the amount I wanted to remove. Then I put a twist lock Scotch-Brite pad in the drill press and honed the face of the flange to get it very smooth and flat. I hope that answers your question

-Dan

The drill press vise is actually called a cross sliding vise not a tool rest and you can get them from Grizzly.com for $45.00.

-Dan

Post by **mash rookie** » Fri May 20, 2011 7:58 am

Dan,

Do your sight glass tubes sit on the column pipe or insert some? I am planning on drilling my column for sight glasses after I hard solder the tubes on because I dont think I will have as nice of fit as you do.

I have a drill press but dont have vise for it or a four inch hole saw so I will have to hand fit each one. Thanks for the info. I may just order one from grizzly.com

I wish I had a four inch cylinder hone used on engine blocks. It would be nice to sweeten up the inside of my pipe after all the heat that is applied.

How much did you have to pay for the tri clamps?

dan · Post by **dan** » Fri May 20, 2011 8:26 am

mash rookie wrote:Dan,

Do your sight glass tubes sit on the column pipe or insert some? I am planning on drilling my column for sight glasses after I hard solder the tubes on because I dont think I will have as nice of fit as you do.

I have a drill press but dont have vise for it or a four inch hole saw so I will have to hand fit each one. Thanks for the info. I may just order one from grizzly.com

I wish I had a four inch cylinder hone used on engine blocks. It would be nice to sweeten up the inside of my pipe after all the heat that is applied.

How much did you have to pay for the tri clamps?

Mash Rookie,

My sight glass tubes sit inside the holes I drilled. I bought a 2_1/8" carbide hole saw bit on e-bay for $25.00USD that gave me a very clean hole. The brand is Keego and compared to retail they are very cheap but you get what you pay for. You will make up in time what you lack in tooling or tools.

You can get a cylinder hone from www.harborfreight.com for $24.99 and I am considering the same thing for my column. I bought my tri-clamps from St. Patrick's of Texas - http://stpats.com/index.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow and they were $7.00 each + shipping of around $1.22 each. I hope that helps.....

-Dan

dan · Post by **dan** » Fri May 20, 2011 1:07 pm

olddog wrote:Love your work Dan, thats going to turn out to be a great build.

OD

Thank you OD!! Let me know what you think of the sight glass progress.

-Dan

Post by **WalkingWolf** » Fri May 20, 2011 1:59 pm

dan wrote: For the sight glasses I am using 2" pipe with an easy flange and I have ordered 5mm x 63mm heat absorbing glass windows that i will use with 2" tri-clamps.

Looks real nice dan -- I like your choice with the sight glass "ferrules". Your build shows a lot of patience and attention. Keep it up.

Home Distiller

Dan's Flute x2, 4" x 5 plate 42" column

Dan's Flute x2, 4" x 5 plate 42" column

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Re: Dan's Flute x2, 4" x 5 plate 42" column

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Re: Dan's Flute x2, 4" x 5 plate 42" column

Re: Dan's Flute x2, 4" x 5 plate 42" column

Re: Dan's Flute x2, 4" x 5 plate 42" column

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