Brendan's Plated Column Build

[Brendan]

Got my first perforated plate drilled...

After 3 weeks of hammering until my arms fell off...here is the bain of my existence...

It's finally plumb/straight!! I thought it was at first however I was only checking the level where the plates sit, however when looking from the side, even by eye I could notice a big curve up the side. This had to be the absolute worst part of this build...if you want to make a modular bubbler completely out of easy flanges, be prepared to become one with your hammer

The plate is not flat anymore as you can see from all the center punches, but i'll have that flattened back out after I do the other 5

And after lots of trial and error and plenty of leak testing, my sight glasses are all ready to be attached to the column

Ooh I hope she lives up to her name!

[Hound Dog]

The name of your tower housing this red eye has to be "Barad-dur"or "Lugburz" in the dark speech as this was the name of the tower that housed The Eye of Sauron watching over the black land of Mordor.........

Yea, I know, I was way too into Tolkien....

[Brendan]

Got my 2" shotgun product condenser mocked up yesterday...cut the end plates and vapour tubes and fit them together ready for soldering into the shell...pretty happy with it edit: It's 500mm long

Got most of the major parts together, now left with lots of soldering over the weekend, and to put all the fittings together

[Brendan]

Well it’s obvious now that I did not complete this build within the 6 week timeframe. After a quick start, there were quite a few hold ups towards the end, but that is only to be expected. I lost 4 out of the 6 weekends to family commitments, weddings, and a funeral. All of that aside, I could see the finish line at the 6 week mark and was a great motivation to push on.

Strangely enough, as soon as the 6 week mark hit, my whole week opened up with free time...but i’ll take it where I can get it. At the moment, I see it finished within the 8 week mark, which is still a great result for an amateur still builder as far as i’m concerned.

So to push on, this week saw the condensers put together and boy did they come up a treat. Both the reflux and product condensers were leak free on the first go!

Here’s the 3” reflux condenser, with 4x 1” vapour tubes...this one came together without any difficulty at all.

[Halfbaked]

Brendan don't we know each other. You are my brother. Right?

[Brendan]

The product condenser on the other hand was more of a pain. Due to the smaller area, there were some very thin bits between holes. When twisting the tubes a bit, these started to tear...you wouldn’t know after soldering though, it looks like they are all large areas between holes and the solder is holding strong.

Had to pile on a fair bit of solder to build it up nice and strong, but looks a beauty once all filed down.

It’s a 2” product condenser, with 5 x ½” vapour tubes.

[Brendan]

Here they are side by side

[Brendan]

Brendan don't we know each other. You are my brother. Right?

Haha

[Brendan]

I made the first attempt at attaching a sight glass to one of the modules. The solder ran everywhere and was a big mess, but after a quick 10 min clean up, it looked a lot better.

After dropping the holesaw through the column, I will probably re-flow the solder briefly to make sure there’s a good seal and will go to work filing and sanding to clean it all up.

Here’s the progress of the first attempt.

The mess before a bit of a clean up...

And after tidying it up slightly...

Getting close now

[Brendan]

So got my boiler back the other day as mentioned...welded sockets for elements, 4" ferrule on top for column connection, and a 4" fill port I've already mocked it up with a 4" sight glass on it

Will also add a drain port, and a large dial thermometer this week.

The other keg is my mash tun in progress, with the top cut out of it.

[Brendan]

Drilled the port hole through my first sight glass module yesterday...came out pretty well...basically a custom made tee.

I haven't finished cleaning it up yet, will probably re-flow the solder to ensure a perfect seal and then file and sand it all down neat

[bellybuster]

The Red Eye...
Beautiful build.

[Brendan]

So finally I can upload a little copper porn

I have completed 4 out of the 6 modules for the column, so here's a few pics of them lined up and raring to go!

She may not be the prettiest yet, but there's a lot of blood, sweat and hammer throwing gone into it!!

[Brendan]

Right! So everything that has held me up the last couple of weeks has settled down, and I should now have most of tomorrow and the weekend to get stuck in...so maybe the 9 or 10 Week Bubbler Challenge will come to and end

Here's a little pic of the bits laid out with 4 of the modules:

Full steam ahead now, it needs a good running in over the Easter break

If anyone has got any comments or can see things that need to change, speak up before it becomes permanent

[Brendan]

A few pics from the last few days...

Part of the 180 deg bend hard soldered, as the product condenser will hang from that easy flange, so wanted the extra strength.

Putting together the first part of the 180 deg bend with reducers and an easy flange

Hard soldered together a vent ball/surge breaker

And cleaned up before drilling vent holes

[Brendan]

Soldered the bottom end which will clamp to the bottom of the product condenser, including vent ball

Hard soldered parrot cup and output, nice and strong

Mock up of parrot

[Brendan]

Parrot parts, including ball valve for fores/heads drain threaded onto copper pipe

Parrot and product arm mock-up

Parrot cut to size to make as small as possible and soldered...it's only 160mm long

Testing parrot with some feints

To prevent smearing, I bought the smallest alcometer available and built the parrot as small as possible, but with enough diameter to prevent surging (1")...I've got the total volume with the alcometer in to 70ml

[Brendan]

So did my first SS to copper, for the keg connection. Got a 4" joiner with SS ferrule in one end, and home made easy flange soldered into the other end.

Prepped it up with some wire wheel brushing, and used Ezi-Weld 801.

[Brendan]

Soldered it nice and gentle. Used propane with the little pencil torch that comes with it for a low flame.

It cleaned up nice

Check out the nice bead inside making a beaut seal

And ready for the easy flange

[Brendan]

Here's your first glimpse of the column taking shape finally

And the general external shell just about complete, except for a good lot of filing, sanding, and polishing

[Brendan]

I was meticulous in having everything clean and shiny, which can take a lot of work after hard soldering some larger parts. The black stuff can be easy to brush off externally, but not so eays inside...so as you can see, i've painstakingly got it all immaculate internally aswell...I expect to taste love in the product

This is the inside of the 180 degree bend after hard soldering...

[Jimbo]

She's a beauty Brendan. Nice work!

[Brendan]

Made up a 500mm section to take copper mesh packing for running neutrals. Flared the end of the pipe as per the plate modules, and put easy flanges on the ends.

Yet to be cleaned up

This smaller piece is just for a mockup, but I was just testing a little plate to sit at the bottom of the packed section to keep the packing held within. Drilled a plate with heaps of holes, and used a smaller 1/4" tube ring to hold it in tight...not sure if i'll solder it in yet. It's very tight in there, so not going anywhere...I might leave it as is so that I can use it for other things later...

[Brendan]

Soldered on water connections to the condensers...these 1/2" pipes then got brass threaded couplings soldered onto them to take my John Guest water fittings.

For those not too experienced with soldering, here's a good picture on how to solder one thing close to another join without melting it...use a heatsink to take the heat away from where you dont want it...By clamping the pipe on the side I don't want melted, and I also put a tri clamp around that easy flange, the heat reaching that part keeps moving out into the SS and takes longer to heat that area up...get the heat to where you want it without burning the flux and get in and out as fast as you can

Cut some silicon seals to size for my plates to sit in the modules...

Drilled the remaining plates I had to do...took an hour per plate, and I did 3 back to back

Buffed them up ready for the downcomers

[Brendan]

Cut up all the bits to make the downcomers. 3/4" downcomers...the 1" cups I could get form the plumbing supply place were very shallow (see base of parrot), so I had this wierd pipe from the scrapyard which had a 1" ID and decided to cut them up to the size I wanted and make my own...& cut some little round discs to put a base on them...

Soldered the bases on, and filed them down flush with the dremel tool

All cleaned up, custom cups ready to go

Downcomers soldered

Everything cleaned up, ready to solder to the plates

[Brendan]

Soldered downcomers onto plates and made sure they were nice and straight

Gave them a good clean up with the wire brush wheel, after grinding away any excess solder.

Plates and downcomers ready for action

[Brendan]

Some shiny bits for the fans

I love the shine

Didn't polish these, just went the wire brush wheel. And then put a clear coat lacquer to maintain that colour.

I didn't want the complete mirror polish with this rig because there's been so much working (hammering), grinding and sanding, that it would show up all those areas and the rest would be a mirror. So this just gives it a nice even shine and blends all the working in a bit

[Brendan]

Okay, time to drop it like it's hot

Ladies and Gentlemen...meet the new rig

Can also swap out the fill port cap for a window

[Brendan]

And here it is all decked out with it's 6 plates and a packed section...

I christen thee...."The Demon"

BOOM!

[humbledore]

Serious hardware there, my friend. How does it run? What kind of power do you have to put into it?