Building a 4" perforated plate Red(nose) Rocket

[JethroBodine]

I started building a 4" CM perforated plate still, inspired by Rednose and Olddog. I had decided to build a CM rig for my impending business venture, but wasn't sure where to start. Enter Rednose. I read and reread and reread his posts of his build and runs with a little kids patience for the next installment( as in, NONE!). Two things I didn't like though; all SS on the outside and bubble caps. Don't get me wrong, the work GREAT for him, but wasn't something I was looking for. Enter Olddog. Cool copper, awesome perforated plates, again, two things I didn't like, sight windows and the condensor. Again, don't get me wrong, these things are great for him, truely amazing to look at, and an absolutely beautiful package, but not for me. Mix the two and Ta-Daa! RedNose Rocket. My funding is not very deep right sow, but I wanted to get a few things built so I will have something to move in once I have a place to move into .

[olddog]

Sounds good, shown us some pics as you build.


OD

[JethroBodine]

OK, now for some copper porn.

I'm building the column first( still getting the plates sorted out), and I just want to say DAMN this stuff is big! 4" copper( besides being expensive) is like moving from a 1 room efficiency appartment into a two story ranch! OD, flat out stole your height measurement, 30" column, but went a bit bigger on the dephlag.

The sun was setting just right, like a little piece of Copper Heaven was comming down to visit.

Just slid the pieces together for fun.

OD is already asking for pics, so I'll post these and make another post.

Edited to remove double pic.

[JethroBodine]

Ooops. Double pic. Dunno how that happened

Anyway, I decided to put one of the 4x2 couplers in the lathe and trim it a bit. The small end will make a nice 2" coupler, the taper will be the lower part of the deplag inside the column, pointed down, and the larger piece will be half of an Easy Flange( triclamps will be ordered later).

Couple more pics then bedtime. I also stole Joe's 3/4" worm in a bucket. I know it's a bit big, but if I have efficiency issues, I'll pull some coper mesh into it. Oh, and I'm going to TIG everything, as much as possible. 90 degree bend out of the deflag and into the raised worm bucket. 50 gallon boiler and 17 gallon worm( with 200 gallon water tank for deplag and worm with optional external cooler if issues arrise).

[JethroBodine]

Did a quick fit of the deflag, tomorrow I will try to bend the 2", sort out the plates( I'm going with 4 for this whisky rig), drill and cut the inlet and outlet in the deflag.

No more pics this morning( 1AM). I 'll have more tomorrow and then as progress happens. I DID have to but 10 feet of 4"L tube as I couldn't find anyone to sell by the foot. Hmmm, I wonder if I could find anyone who would pay me what I paid for it( $35/ft American). Almost 7 ft left. Probably have to find a place to hide it. Can't think of ANYONE who might like it. And with my TERRIBLE memory for names, I'd probably forget who I sold it to as soon it left my sight. Hmmmm.

[Kentucky shinner]

Dude that really looks good. I sure do wish I had a lathe. I swear I had thought about what you did on the flange for your delphlag. I know a guy that has a lathe but I am just afraid he will ask to many questions.. I would rather just get by myself than fool with him.. With a lathe at your disposal you will be able to build a really nice piece. Keep the pics comming man.
KS

[Samohon]

Really nice build man... I also would love to have a lathe at my disposal, Maybe one day....

great, keep the piccies commin...

[WalkingWolf]

Damn good work Jethro. A lathe sure makes for nice fabrication. Got a machinist brother that excells at specialty projects and will definitely follow up with him.

[LWTCS]

Really love the way you added a better value to some spendy ass fittings.

Really good work.

[rednose]

Looks as you know what ya doing and have enough skills to make a great still built.

BTW: I worked with SS as I have no sources for 4 or 6 inch copper tube. I know that ist's a lot of work to make the bubble plates, it takes moe time than all the rest of the still built but it's worth the efforts.

In my opinion 4 plates is a lot for a whiskey still, I do work with 2 now for Rum and Whiskey, 3 and 4 plates didn't give me enough flavors (congeners).

[LWTCS]

Hey Joe,

Need to figger a way to create a larger accumulation of "stagnant" liquid...........

Hmmmmmm,,,,how could we do that?

[rednose]

Hey Joe,

Need to figger a way to create a larger accumulation of "stagnant" liquid...........

Hmmmmmm,,,,how could we do that?

Stagnant means no moving/floting if I'm right.

That's easy thang in a plated column while building, you just raise the downcomer and vapor tubes.

The advantage of a good control on bubble plates is very high, it is very difficult or almost impossible to control a perforated still as the conditions change during a run, that for they are mostly used in continious stills where conditions are always the same.

Normal liquid level

Larger accumulation level

[rednose]

I'm wondering why nobody yet tried a valved plate if the bubble plate sounds to difficult?

You can use a copper penny as the valve top, solder a 1/4 tube and secure it with a 10 gauge copper wire in the lower part, ready and less headache.

That plate can rattle a little but will not allow that the liquid falls down easily.

[rad14701]

Kinda tough to find copper pennies these days, at least here in the US, rednose... They are copper plated zinc blanks... Copper rivets would work great though...

[Mr.Spooky]

keep the progress comin jethro,,,,,,,,, im followin
Mr. Spooky

[rednose]

Here an example of a 2 bubble plate single rum run (not stripping).

I'm actually passing 60% of heart collection (till now 8 gal) at 88C, discount 5% ABV cause we are in the tropics.

rum 2 plates 60% hearts run.jpg (9.25 KiB) Viewed 7145 times

[JethroBodine]

Sorry everyone, no new piccies tonight. Ozone gave me some tips on TIGing copper, so I decided to spend the evening "stareing at the pretty, bright light". I also needed to order my boilder and some stainless collection vessels. We don't have a tubing bender at work, just a pipe bender( which will destroy my poor 2"), so I'll need to find one, or just put in 90 degree bends. I prefer the look of a long, sweeping bend over a sharp turn. I can't wait to tackle bending the 3/4" into a worm!

Great-and-Mighty Rednose, it's not so much that the bubble plates are a lot of work, I have the luxury of time for right now, so I can plot and plan my moves as I see fit. It's simply the fact that I prefer the perforated plates. OD has said that he can get 180 proof out of his flute by adjusting the cooling, so i figured that if I dropped 1 plate it would be easier for me to stay under the 180 mark as that is a requirement for a product to be called "whisky" here in the US. I'm shooting for around 175 proof out of the still for the unaged, and am making the plates removeable so I can remove a couple more to around 125 for ageing. Same grain bill.

Thanks for all the support, Guys. This site has been the best thing in my life since my kids came along. And ellie-Mae, of course... and the critters...

[olddog]

Oh the luxury of having a tube bender, lathe, and things like that, you would never get me out of the shop. All of my builds have to be done with basic hand tools, files, hacksaw, and a mapp torch with soft silver solder.
It looks like it's going to be a great build Jethro, I only put sight glasses into the Flute to be able to see what's going on, I have built plated columns before and always wondered, now I know.



OD

[Kentucky shinner]

Oh the luxury of having a tube bender, lathe, and things like that, you would never get me out of the shop. All of my builds have to be done with basic hand tools, files, hacksaw, and a mapp torch with soft silver solder.
It looks like it's going to be a great build Jethro, I only put sight glasses into the Flute to be able to see what's going on, I have built plated columns before and always wondered, now I know.



OD

+1 OD +1

[ozone39]

Hope the bright light works out for ya, let me know....l

[MuleKicker]

Dammit JB..... you got it goin on!

[JethroBodine]

Great-and-Powerful OD, and Brother padawan( junior jedi) KS, I'm glad you did put sight glasses in your columns. I would be one of the first in line to watch a 2 hour video of nothing but those sight glasses in action. Followed by a highlights video of 15 minute clips of your 10 favorite recipes in action. And that's not a joke! I would loose my silly, little mind watching those things. Imagine setting up a webcam for each window and streaming it live for us . Forget porn( well, just for a little while anyway). Just not for me. It's like your favorite niece or nephew. Love to see them, but glad they go home to Mom and Dad.

[olddog]

Just to complicate matters, the thought going through my mind now is, as the alcohol separates into its various stages, would it be possible to sample each plate to find out what stage is on which plate. You could then tap the plate with ethanol leaving all of the other nasties behind.
This is what happens when I have completed a build, my mind drifts into new thoughts, and sometimes results in a new still, but not this time,I have got to give building a rest for a while and do some serious stilling.


OD

[olddog]

I'm glad you did put sight glasses in your columns. I would be one of the first in line to watch

Having the use of a lathe, it would be an easy job for you to put sight glasses in your column, you could custom build them instead of having to adapt bits and pieces. Although you said you did not want site glasses in your still, they give a good insight of when to adjust the flow to the dephlagmater, and when to take off spirit.


OD

[JethroBodine]

Going down a similar route, OD, I was thinking of a continuous column that had a pot still feeding the bottom of a bubble plate VM column until equilibrium was reached, then the feed is switched into the area above the plate under the take off where a baffle across that cavity (like Rednose's very fine perforated mesh/plates or even structured packing )slowing the incomming vapor from shooting strait across to the output. This as a way to run a continuous column without the taint of heads as it constantly passes the output. The crossover to your thoughts is that you would have to drain the plates above and the bottom of the column(External P traps) so they wouldn't smear the plates stratification. Heads go up, tails go down. I guess you could just run the inlet into the product take off chamber as you will be equalizing the column anyway. This is what I think like when I'm tired, drunk and tired. I'm just not usually sitting at a computer when I have brainstorms like this. Probably missing a dozen things as why this wouldn"t work. Brain hurt. Still need to finalize how to build plates and make them removeable and reconstructable. Could build adjustable plates that would have two or three settings, a la Ozone( I think) with the two disks at the same level and run the same wash through two or three times at the three settings and see where ABV is higher/ lower. OK brain REALLY hurts now. Bed time.

[Kentucky shinner]

if I ever finish cp30 I plan on taking a video and loading it up to photobucket and posting here. That is why mainly I want to put the other row of sight glasses in my column is for light.

[olddog]

My twin column design had a heads and tails return, but without sight glasses and a dephlagmater I could never be sure I was taking off spirit off the correct plate.

OD

[LWTCS]

My twin column design had a heads and tails return, but without sight glasses and a dephlagmater I could never be sure I was taking off spirit off the correct plate.

Recon a dozen thermeters

[JethroBodine]

Few new pics. Cut the top of the worm bucket and wound the worm around a large arcon tank mounted to a TIG welder. One end was ratchet strapped to the tank and using a LOT of pull, wrapped all 50 feet.

Kept kinking the worm trying to get it bent to the angle I wanted for the output. Going to get a 3/4" 90 degree and run it.
Did a little to the deplag work, drilled and offset the bottom hole, top is going out the tapper on the 4x2 adapter( forgot pic, tomorrow).

Going to try to finish the dephlag tomorrow and maybe some on the easy flange.

Edit to stand up pics.

[Mr.Spooky]

Few new pics. Cut the top of the worm bucket and wound the worm around a large arcon tank mounted to a TIG welder. One end was ratchet strapped to the tank and using a LOT of pull, wrapped all 50 feet.

HPIM1330.JPG

HPIM1331.JPG

Kept kinking the worm trying to get it bent to the angle I wanted for the output. Going to get a 3/4" 90 degree and run it.
Did a little to the deplag work, drilled and offset the bottom hole, top is going out the tapper on the 4x2 adapter( forgot pic, tomorrow).

HPIM1334.JPG

Going to try to finish the dephlag tomorrow and maybe some on the easy flange.

Edit to stand up pics.

50 ft.