Bubble Bowl Column Build (BBC)

[skow69]

Damn it, Moon, you keep my hair away from your hypodermic needles!

In your bottom pic, it looks like two lines for the top plate. One that goes under your thumb, and one above that that seems to be slanted toward the wall. What am I looking at?

[BigSwede]

Yes, interesting take on the plates, if that is what I am seeing. Thought initially it was a liquid capture pool, but it's not. Nice fabrication. How did you do those saw cuts?

[MoonWhisky]

In your bottom pic, it looks like two lines for the top plate. One that goes under your thumb, and one above that that seems to be slanted toward the wall. What am I looking at?

This is were I messed up. I cut the top plate to far in the pipe and realized I wanted to change it. The cut that goes underthe top plate is nnothing and just filled in with solder. So nothing special

[MoonWhisky]

Yes, interesting take on the plates, if that is what I am seeing. Thought initially it was a liquid capture pool, but it's not. Nice fabrication. How did you do those saw cuts?

The cuts are made with a NSK just a very expensive dermal tool. And used dremel cut off wheels and hack saw.

[MoonWhisky]

[MoonWhisky]

A drawing of my plates for a better understanding.

[Brutal]

That looks different in the illustration than the pictures. I am no boka authority but I believe you want the smallest distillate pool you can at the take off. The pool looks very slim in the illustration. I have a variation on this too, that I hope to show you guys soon.

[MoonWhisky]

I could even drill a hole to let the distillate drain out the take off instead of it having the fill the entire bottom plate up. The black dot illustrates where the hole could go. You think this is a good idea?

[Brutal]

Now I'm confused? Is that big circle your take off? For boka style running?

I thought it was on the other side to make a Samohon style lm/vm head.

[skow69]

I would drill the hole, Moon. The theory is to keep the pool as small as possible to minimize smearing. While I think it is often overstated, the pool in my offset VM/LM holds less than a half ounce. I figured there was no downside and my heads cut is way too big already, without me building in possible smearing.

[MoonWhisky]

This will be a LM/VM combo too. The 3/4 take off pipe there will be a gate valve there then after the gate valve will be my liebig I will draw a sketch of it later today to get ur guys input.

[BigSwede]

That's what had me confused. I thought it was an LM capture pool initially, but then I read you were going to have a gate valve in that big lateral hole, so I thought the plates were purely to protect the take-off location from liquid reflux falling down.

If it's dual LM/VM, yes it'd be a simple matter to drill hole(s) in that lower plate to return distillate to the column, and thus reduce the volume of LM capture as needed.

How about a hefty copper pipe soldered into that big hole, attached to your VM valve, but then add a little stub of smaller copper in the lowest point of the pool attached to a needle valve for LM? I guess something like that is where you are going.

[skow69]

Now I'm confused. But that is to be expected with a Moon Whiskey build. There is no way to anticipate what this guy is going to come up with.

Bring on the diagrams, Moon. Speculation is futile.

[MoonWhisky]

Here's a rough drawing

[BigSwede]

?? So it's not a dephlegmator, it's a reflux condenser at the top, unless you count the small pipe from the reflux to the liebig as fulfilling the duties of a normal vapor pathway THROUGH a deph into a product condenser.

And the plates capture distillate? If so, wouldn't a valve with finer control be more suitable?

If there is a distillate pool at the entry to the gate valve, then there's no VM.

I'm confused.

[thatguy1313]

Looks like a cm/LM combo to me. I don't see any way for VM control.

[BigSwede]

Looks like a cm/LM combo to me. I don't see any way for VM control.

That's what had me confused, as Moon shows a gate valve there, and gate valves normally = VM.

We'll just have to wait for him to drop in and explain it a bit.

[FullySilenced]

Nah its a bubble boka... uses air packing....

[skow69]

Or a double doka... with pear acking.


If you leave the valve closed, it's a 4 plate flute, isn't it? Dephlemator/shotgun....potAtoe/potOtoe.
So with the valve and internal plates it's a LM/flute combo?
What it's not, is a VM.


I think.

[BigSwede]

But in his drawing, he shows a pipe from the shotgun to the liebig "for vapor that might get by the shotgun." Doesn't sound like it's designed as a dephlegmator, it looks like its supposed to be a reflux condenser. And those plates as illustrated will capture liquid distillate. Meaning a valve a bit finer than a gate valve would normally be used there, and an output pipe usually not that large.

Those plates would normally go into a deph and then via wide-bore tubing into a product condenser.

MoonW. is probably laughing at us right now. Where are you buddy?

[skow69]

I know, right? It's like a terrible transporter accident where a flute, VM, and a boka were all in the booth and somebody hit the switch.

And the Fu Man.

Ahhhhhhhhh! Quick. Somebody get the axe.

[MoonWhisky]

Yeah guys sorry as I been very busy lately. We sold our house so yeahhh. Anyways your guesses are as good as mine. This is just what I'd imagine I'd make. I don't see why it wouldn't work. The reason I want a 3/4 gate off the side of take off is because I'll be able to put a cap where the shotgun condenser goes then run it in pot still mode. Yes the shotgun will work as a reflux condenser

[thatguy1313]

Couldn't you just cut off coolant flow to the shotgun and run it like a pot still that way? The gate valve just doesn't have the fine control that most want for their lm still. Every slant plate I've ever seen uses a needle valve in that spot.

[MoonWhisky]

Hers my shotgun condenser.

Made this out of 2" pipe that I opened up

1-24"x2" 3-24"x3/4" 2 end connectors

Dry fit

Inside the shotgun condenser

E-Z flange with 6 gauge copper wire

[MoonWhisky]

Completed

[Halfbaked]

Nice looking. Just out of curiosity is there a reason you used 3/4 inner cooling tubes? Are you planning something inside the tubes to wow us with?

[MoonWhisky]

No nothing special, sorry I was going to use 5 1/2 tubes but had 3/4 laying around. It works very well. I had my 15.5 gallon keg at a full boil with a 5500 watt heating element and it was dropping all the vapors on a direct connect test run. I will post a video.

[BigSwede]

Nice fabrication! That last picture looking through the shotgun is awesome, like a warp drive starship or something. That length of shotgun won't let any vapors past it if there is reasonable water flow.

But I at least am still 50% confused on the mechanism behind your build. If it's LM, at the pool capture point, the gate valve won't give you the fine control needed, right?

How about making the piping from the top of the shotgun to the liebig to be a wider bore... it can perhaps do deph duties, although it is truly massive. Cut the water flow way back, you have a type of flute, if you close off the gate valve from the slant plate area.

[MoonWhisky]

Here's the video. Zero vapor passes through this monster. Shotgun condenser test run: http://youtu.be/-kuerk1qa1o" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow