My first VR Stil

[deepseajb]

I have ran about 5 runs and have a few questions. I found partial answers on this site but there is so much information to sort through my eyes are crossing. I used nut certs to fasten thr adapters and when distilling water they leak a bit, more than I am comfortable with. I beleive using the flour paste as thread sealant on the next run should work as I do not notice any leakage when distilling spirit. 2nd I do use a cork rubber gasket at both connections I have gathered from searching this is not ideal, but what I cant find is if it is an absolute offense. 3rd I use well water for my internal condenser and at the begining the 3'' cap will leak, I thought it should knock down all the vapours without the cap being sealed, the condenser is a 6'' coil of 1/4'' od tube. Is this too small or do I need colder water as I run it wide open. 4th I plan on using it as a simple pot stil by putting a rubber plug in the bottom of the column and running another condenser off the pot. Which would put the rubber inside the boiler basicly, is this a no no. If I CAN figure out how I WILL post a pic or 2. Thanks in advance to all that respond and have a great afternoon.

Feel free to comment on anything that may need attention.

[MuleKicker]

you need to get the 3" cap off, your still is then sealed, this can cause a boom. not good. if you have vapor coming out here, you need to lower your heat input or make a bigger condenser, 6" is not long enough, get at least 18". how hot is the water leaving your condenser running wide open? this rig is not for simple pot stillin, it is a valved lm reflux still. although it can be used for pot stillin, you went through a lot more work if all you want is a pot still. depends what your aiming to make. what is your collumn packed with? flour paste is messy but a very good seal. dont use cork rubber. the best thing to do would be get rid of that boiler, get a keg and flange the bottom of that 2" collmn and hook it to the keg with a triclamp. No rubber, plastic in contact with hot distillate/vapor. I cant tell what your flang is made from, but if its not stainless steel or copper, get rid of it, steel/iron will rust fast

[Hawke]

Mulekicker, that is a keg. The base of the column looks to be attatched with one of those food service containers from a salad bar.

The condenser does sound a bit small, you could stuff some copper potscrubber in and around the coil for a bit more efficiency.

That 3" cap definately needs to have a vent hole in it. (Minimum of 3/8")

You want to get rid of any rubber. The stuff used in the cork will leach. Flour dough will work, even if it is a pain.

I also agree, you are running too much heat.

When using it in potstill mode, remove most of/all the packing from the column, close the reflux valve and open the takeoff fully. This will work, but is still extremely slow going. Best to make another head that can be swapped over.

[deepseajb]

Hey Mulekicker, I thought I might use it as a pot still on occasion. The two caps on top are just sitting there, not soldered, completely removeable. The flange at the column is brass I hope thats not a problem. Being both my kegs have the top's cut out what would be a suitable gasket material, or should I just seal it with flour paste. Originally I just wanted to make nuetral or vodka, but after seeing UncleJessies recipe it's spelled out so well I started one yesterday. So I really don't know exactly what I want to try and perfect. Oh let me try to clarify maybe, the condenser is a 2 1/2 '' coil 6" long of 1/4" OD tube which was a little over 3' is that enough or do I need to make it 18" . Thanks for the help and look forward to your reply.

Thanks
J.B.

PS. Just saw Hawkes reply and I will give the potscrubbers a try and remove the rubber cork, BTW I'm using marbles in the column do you think I would do better with potscrubbers.
Thanks again guys.

[Hawke]

Scrubbers would give you a higher output percentage, over marbles. The marbles would be better for potstill mode though.
I used a double coil, about 8 inches long, when I built mine. It took around 9 feet. That is a bit of overkill, but I prefer to err on the safe side.

[rad14701]

As quoted from the parent site:

Packing ------------------------------------- HETP
Stainless Steel Wool Scrubbers -- 0.13 m (copper scrubbers are approximately the same as SS)
Marbles (10mm diameter) ----------- 0.33 m
6mm Ceramic Raschig Rings ------ 0.24 m
13mm Ceramic Raschig Rings ---- 0.38 m

Plenty of good information regrading HETP, as well as lots of other stuff there...

[deepseajb]

Hey Thanks Hawke, I may be pushing it a little fast, but learning something new every run. The still will stay at upper 78c right til the end and then it goes crazy and I shut it down. So far the highest output I have got was 94% but not for long hopefully the scrubbers will assist on that. Queastion should I unravel the scrubbers or loosely pack the scrubbers as bought. Yall do a great service for us novices.


Thank you
J.B.

PS. Hey Rad, yeah sorry for kinda going over info really easy to obtain just thought I would ask from personal experience, as I chose the marbles over the scrubbers from reading a book I have that suggested scrubbers, then marbles, then rashig rings. But I have not read that part of this site I will do that now.

Thanks guys
J.B.

[Hawke]

Copper scrubbers have a slightly higher HEPT than stainless, due to the finer mesh.

For packing around the condenser, I would unroll the scrubbers, then scrunch them up. For the column, I would leave them as is.

[MuleKicker]

3' is better than 18", the more the better, make sure your scrubbers are solid copper, not plated. my first still looked very similar, and kicked ass, kinda hard to clean. i would have kept the keg flange on top rather than your setup but to each his own. you will get the hang of that setup fast, and it will make good neutral. just run in full reflux for about 1 hr, before any take off, make sure discharge cooling water is hot (and condenser is knocking down all the vapor, also like they said, add a scrubber to the condenser, works great) and trickle your way through the heads. then you will be in for some smooth 95% hearts. marbles are less maintenace but scrubbers are worth it, if you cant get the solid stuff where you are at, mile hi sells it by the pound, works great, lasts forever. as for running the usjm, that setup will do it, as said in the guys' posts, remove packing, and close reflux valve.

[MuleKicker]

Mulekicker, that is a keg. The base of the column looks to be attatched with one of those food service containers from a salad bar.

The condenser does sound a bit small, you could stuff some copper potscrubber in and around the coil for a bit more efficiency.

That 3" cap definately needs to have a vent hole in it. (Minimum of 3/8")

You want to get rid of any rubber. The stuff used in the cork will leach. Flour dough will work, even if it is a pain.

I also agree, you are running too much heat.

When using it in potstill mode, remove most of/all the packing from the column, close the reflux valve and open the takeoff fully. This will work, but is still extremely slow going. Best to make another head that can be swapped over.

I relize that is a keg, i just think it is alot more work sealing and whatnot cutting out the top. a keg works great as is, or at most cut a little bigger hole and weld in a flange for a bigger dia. collum like i did. I dont know what the advantage is to doing it this way here, seems like more work, and trouble.

[Hawke]

I started with a cut keg as well, quickly decided to look for an unmolested one.
My cut keg is now pretty much used as a BOP, at least untill I get a plate and 3" flange welded to the top.

[MuleKicker]

what is the advantage? cleaning is the only thing i can think of. not to mention, it has to be a bitch to cut that hole.