I finally learned my offset operation

[WillTomFrank]

I made a 3 in. by 30 in column and packed it with stripped welding cable and stainless pot scrubbers. It sits on a 15 gal copper boiler i made and heat it with a turkey burner. I have made an offset head with a double wound 1/4 tube with a 1/2 coldfinger. I use a 30 qt.cooler water reservoir and circulate the water thru a truck radiator to dissipate the heat. The stillhead circulation is handled by a 65 watt aquarium pump and the liebig, 1/2 over 1/4 is cooled by a small HF pump, three pumps and a 20 in. box fan total in the cooling system. I also have a potstill head I can run on the boiler. I had been having difficulty running the offset correctly, fluctuating output rate and quality, overloading the condenser, head temp. stability, very inconsistent, damn I learn slow. The potstill operation is simple, heat input controls output. I finally made the connection, run the same heat on the reflux setup as the potstill uses for a given output. DING, what a concept, ran really smooth on some of the sugar wash I had ran before, diluted to 35%. I found I was trying to push too much heat to the boiler, that was causing my problems. It takes quite a while to stabilize into equilibrium, good things come to those who wait So simple I just didnt make the connection before, been struggling for a while learning to run correctly.