diamond plate

[Xnerd]

Ok so, I have a friend that has 2/12, 3, 1nd 4 inch copper for me.
I want to build a nice rig.

If you have ever seen pictures of small artisan distilleries, you will notice that the bottoms of their rigs are always the same.
they are diamond plate and actually look like they a jackets rather than the still itself. I dont know if this is the case or not for sure.


Does anyone know if these are jackets or are the bottoms of the still stainless diamond plate?
I can find no information anywhere regarding this topic, yet they are so common.....

[rad14701]

Those are merely diamond plate protective jackets and not actual boiler walls... They add to the looks as well as durability within the production environment...

[Xnerd]

Ah I have been wondering about that for a long time.
I have see pictures of large AND small still with this diamond plate and wondered.... is it some sort of heating jacket?

I always pictured some sort of heating coil inside this under the interior boiler.
Would save on polishing anyway...

Anyway I have this large copper coming my way and was wondering if 4 inch or even 3 inch would be to big for a little 15 gallons rig.
I dont want to be hasty and waste it doing the wrong thing with it.
If money wasnt so tight I would by the sheets of copper and do up a real nice hand made copper top to bottom rig.
At any rate I don't need the diamond plate as no one is ever going to see the thing

I really like the AG flavors I get out of my pot design....
If I did choose to build a reflux column out of this larger copper would you think that could run it unpacked at say 40 inches and retain all the good stuff (or bad stuff if that is your take on it)


And thanks for that info

[rumbuff]

go with the 4! I'm currently upgrading from 1.5 to 3" and would've done the 4 inch if I could've gotten it cheap. It'll work great for a pot still, or you can go the hybrid route and have some packing. Either way, the big pipe is good

[ohyeahyeah]

Its not actually diamond plate, its just a style of brushed finish on stainless. You will often see a matching finish on the feints and product condensors. And yes they are steam jackets.

[watermelon]

i always assumed it was an insulated protective wall, to reduce energy costs and reduce damage to the soft copper.

If your running a still alot for production, saving enegry on heat loss will add up.

[ohyeahyeah]

http://www.kothe-distilling.com/newsite ... s/standard" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
This is from the kothe stills site.
"Insulated steam jacket or waterbath for fast and efficient heat up and all around heating of mash"

I have seen gas heated Carl stills and they are just copper. No commercial still uses internal electric heat like home distillers do so if you think about it any insulating jacket is going to mean steam jacket or waterbath heat.

[Prairiepiss]

No commercial still uses internal electric heat like home distillers do so if you think about it any insulating jacket is going to mean steam jacket or waterbath heat.

Not true. There are a few commercialy available still boilers that use internal electric.

And most are quilted stainless steel. In both bright and brushed finishes. Not diamond plate. I've seen some more recent made stills that do have diamond plate.

[ohyeahyeah]

No commercial still uses internal electric heat like home distillers do so if you think about it any insulating jacket is going to mean steam jacket or waterbath heat.

Not true. There are a few commercialy available still boilers that use internal electric.

And most are quilted stainless steel. In both bright and brushed finishes. Not diamond plate. I've seen some more recent made stills that do have diamond plate.

Really? Besides the made in china 50gal type hbs sells? Cause i wasn't counting those.

The one i have seen in person wasn't quilted stainless, it was simply an checkered brushed finish. And the many i have seen in pictures look just like that one. But i'm sure you can spec a Carl out just about anyway your want.

[Xnerd]

I have seen some videos where stills were run on steam using steam jackets.
The whole prospect seems like it would be less efficient than electric.....

They used hellacious, expensive steam boilers run off if electricity.
While I can see that steam would be very useful to heat a pot and very controllable, the laws of physics would seem to indicate energy lose above what it would take to heat the wash....

You are heating large amounts of water to a very very high temperature, in order to heal a small amount of liquid to a relatively low temperature.....

Does not seem to make very much sense to me at all. The cost of said boiler to alone seems prohibitive and wasteful.
I am sure that I am not correct in my assumptions, as no one would be using them if I was correct.

I just can't see the advantage at all.

[bellybuster]

Steam is very cost effective and extremely reliable. needs no pumps.
The boilers tend to make steam for other purposes as well. Cleaning, sanitizing etc etc. once you have a need for steam may as well do everything with steam.

That Kothe site has me thinking, need to start scrounging parts and pieces.

[Dnderhead]

"And most are quilted stainless steel. In both bright and brushed finishes. Not diamond plate. "
most iv seen is not either,quilted is broke (bent) one way a slight amount then another.this gives a raised checkered or diamond pattern .this can be done with paper just fold one way open it up and turn 90? and fold gain, most are "fish scales" this can also be done tho it takes a bit of time.all you need is a small rotary sander like used in a body shop.semi polish keg or whatever, now press the sander on the mettle using about 1/2 the pad,leaving swirl ,move so to overlap and do it again repeat until all the way around.the next row you over lap both the side of the preceding swirl and the one above.

[varocketry]

I toured a local craft distiller, Catoctin Creek, recently. They have one still that looked a lot like the KOTHE pictured above. It had electric heating elements which I asked them about but I suspect they heated a double boiler arrangement.
They are building out a new facility and are going with steam there.