Modular flute with options
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Re: Modular flute with options
Really great craftsmanship on your build. Looks great.
Re: Modular flute with options
Thanks, Jack. I love the build process as much as sending vapor up the pipe. Some of the things I did just because I wanted the challenge (1” dephleg tubes). I’d like to build another, but unless I was selling a column the pockets aren’t deep enough, haha.
I’m in the process of the vinegar run currently and the walls are dry, and no leaks!! Everything looks to be performing as it should be. Water run will follow immediately, but the sacrificial run may be in a few days.
Re: Modular flute with options
That’s great. I find the satisfaction of see the build go right as much as having a good drop come out later.
Re: Modular flute with options
Stellar work bro
<no stopping to corner anytime [] no parking passenger zone>
When people tell me I'll regret that in the morning, I sleep till noon.
When people tell me I'll regret that in the morning, I sleep till noon.
Re: Modular flute with options
Did the alcohol cleaning today. I found a small leak at one of the sight glasses towards the end of the run on the fourth plate window. That would explain the slightly lower activity on the upper, that I thought was just reflux induced. Third plate seemed a little light as well, but that may have needed more than two wraps of tape on the plate to seal around it?
One thing I noticed was at a full 5500 watts I didn’t flood plates, the DCs seemed to be able to keep up fully. Unfortunately the 3/4” tube dephleg didn’t want to keep up. Same length as the 1” tubes (5”) and I had a stream of output at 4400 watts.
I had to run around 2500-2750 to keep the plates functioning semi correctly. At that wattage I was using more coolant flow through the dephleg than I did with the 1” tubes. I’m guessing being on the shorter side of minimal for 3/4” and vapor speed? I do feed my dephleg from the PC output. Response time with this plumbing flow seemed to be about a minute and fifteen seconds compared to the 1” taking about 15 seconds to respond.
I will solder up the window, wrap the plates better and test it out again soon. Some of the variables I’m seeing may be due to ambient temps and reservoir cooling.
All in all, I’d call it successful. The copper is looking clean inside and the output smelled clean (no tasting). Of course it has been sent through the column a few times and I usually don’t collect the tails, so it should be getting cleaner. Haha.
One thing I noticed was at a full 5500 watts I didn’t flood plates, the DCs seemed to be able to keep up fully. Unfortunately the 3/4” tube dephleg didn’t want to keep up. Same length as the 1” tubes (5”) and I had a stream of output at 4400 watts.
I had to run around 2500-2750 to keep the plates functioning semi correctly. At that wattage I was using more coolant flow through the dephleg than I did with the 1” tubes. I’m guessing being on the shorter side of minimal for 3/4” and vapor speed? I do feed my dephleg from the PC output. Response time with this plumbing flow seemed to be about a minute and fifteen seconds compared to the 1” taking about 15 seconds to respond.
I will solder up the window, wrap the plates better and test it out again soon. Some of the variables I’m seeing may be due to ambient temps and reservoir cooling.
All in all, I’d call it successful. The copper is looking clean inside and the output smelled clean (no tasting). Of course it has been sent through the column a few times and I usually don’t collect the tails, so it should be getting cleaner. Haha.
Re: Modular flute with options
Glad it went well and you found the problems you might have.
Re: Modular flute with options
A little window soldering and it should be good. With a couple window touch ups do I need to do vinegar again, or would a thorough cleaning and a sacrificial alcohol be sufficient? I’ll be fluxing the outside only on a couple for buildup, but I know I’ll flow a little solder to the inside, and the leaking one will have some flux to be cleaned.
Re: Modular flute with options
That’s really a personal decision. If no solder was inside you might just do a good cleaning and a sac run, but you are the only one that can make that call for sure.
Re: Modular flute with options
Well that was more the question from my end. I didn’t know if flowing solder would be the same as a build. I’ll pick up more vinegar and do it proper. No need to half ass it at this point. I had just dumped my vinegar after cleaning last time. I’ll pick up another 3-4 gallon and steam it for an hour after fixing her up. Safety first.
Thanks.
Re: Modular flute with options
Ok. Finished up all the cleaning runs, alcohol was last night. Either my controller runs a little off on percentage scale to percentage power input or I had to run on the higher end to keep all the plates loaded (2,750 ish) with around a 30% charge. One thing that I seen at the end of my cleaning last night threw me off a bit. I’ll give a semi quick rundown.
Had a couple gallon of alcohol from the last cleaning run ~185-190p. Tossed 5 gallon of water in with it and started running. Several hours later I had tweaked with the heat to reflux trying to finish up at a decent hour (thinking the volume in the collection vessel looked lower, but I didn’t measure it out exactly). I looked up around the 4.5 hour mark and I went from a heavy stream off the parrot to nothing and all the windows were filled with tiny bubbles. Similar to seeing flooded plates, except the bubbles were small and nothing was coming out the spout. When I drained the boiler I got 5 gallon back out of it, so it had extracted pretty much everything. I may have had an extra pint but it was a full water bottle in and caught in a bucket. The volumes were close anyways.
I never seen the plates dropping off from the bottom up. I was bubbling on all five to nothing out the spout and micro bubbles filling them all. At first I was freaking thinking my controller was going bad and went wide open, until I realized there was no output. Has anyone else had plates do this? Was I running a little too much heat and replacing the fluid on the plates with water when they should have been going dry?
Maybe it was because I was running all five plates, but I couldn’t keep the upper three plates fully loaded until I was at 50% on the power controller. The transition from normal to what I seen may have been over a few minutes, but not long. I was setting with it watching, but not super close after that long, just glance at the output and a quick glance at the windows.
Had a couple gallon of alcohol from the last cleaning run ~185-190p. Tossed 5 gallon of water in with it and started running. Several hours later I had tweaked with the heat to reflux trying to finish up at a decent hour (thinking the volume in the collection vessel looked lower, but I didn’t measure it out exactly). I looked up around the 4.5 hour mark and I went from a heavy stream off the parrot to nothing and all the windows were filled with tiny bubbles. Similar to seeing flooded plates, except the bubbles were small and nothing was coming out the spout. When I drained the boiler I got 5 gallon back out of it, so it had extracted pretty much everything. I may have had an extra pint but it was a full water bottle in and caught in a bucket. The volumes were close anyways.
I never seen the plates dropping off from the bottom up. I was bubbling on all five to nothing out the spout and micro bubbles filling them all. At first I was freaking thinking my controller was going bad and went wide open, until I realized there was no output. Has anyone else had plates do this? Was I running a little too much heat and replacing the fluid on the plates with water when they should have been going dry?
Maybe it was because I was running all five plates, but I couldn’t keep the upper three plates fully loaded until I was at 50% on the power controller. The transition from normal to what I seen may have been over a few minutes, but not long. I was setting with it watching, but not super close after that long, just glance at the output and a quick glance at the windows.
Re: Modular flute with options
Have you ran this any more and if so how’s it running? Any pics of it fully assembled?
Re: Modular flute with options
I can only see my top plate, small or micro bubbles in a flooded plate for me means end of run. if i reduce take off (ccvm) i can push tails back for a bit but it is the end of the run for me.
My first flute
My press
My twins
My controller
My wife tells me I fell from heaven covered in white. Why did they let me fall?
My press
My twins
My controller
My wife tells me I fell from heaven covered in white. Why did they let me fall?
Re: Modular flute with options
I never noticed it with the dephleg that had 1” tubes, but I never had my plates fully sealed either. My takeoff just flat stopped, the was no slowing it down. Hopefully going to run some through it this weekend to see how the flavor compares to everything else I’ve ran.