All Stainless CM Still

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Kraqa
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All Stainless CM Still

Post by Kraqa »

So my friend and I built a simple pot still to test whether we were going to get into this. Were hooked. So i began collecting parts to build a Keg based reflux still.

the specs:
-58 Liter Keg
-3" column
-8" shotgun condenser
-38" Leibig condenser


this is what we made
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the shot gun
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still needs the water port fittings

the 180
the hole is for a compression fitting for a temp sensor
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the leibig
the top its a few cones from 2" down to 1/2"
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the outside os 1.25" this inside is 1/2"
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still needs the water port fittings

the column
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this hole is for a temp sensor as well

the boiler
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3" column and 3" clean out
Last edited by Kraqa on Mon Sep 29, 2014 7:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Kraqa
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Re: All Stainless Still

Post by Kraqa »

here is the inside of the shotgun condenser
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skow69
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Re: All Stainless Still

Post by skow69 »

Nice friggin job!
Distilling at 110f and 75 torr.
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moosemilk
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Re: All Stainless Still

Post by moosemilk »

Fantastic build! It never ceases to amaze me and always inspires me seeing the works that come from the members of this site. She sure is purdy!
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still_stirrin
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Re: All Stainless Still

Post by still_stirrin »

Kraqa,
That is one fine looking machine you got there. I can hardly wait 'till you get it fired up.
Whatcha' got bubbling?
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Re: All Stainless Still

Post by rad14701 »

Looking good for all stainless CM rig...!!! That's a lot of welding... Keep us posted on how that rig performs...
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Da Yooper
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Re: All Stainless Still

Post by Da Yooper »

Wow. Very nice
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Kraqa
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Re: All Stainless Still

Post by Kraqa »

thanks guys.

it still needs a bunch of plumbing and i need to wire up the control box.

Trying to make an all in one controller for the electrical and the water control. 2 separate sealed boxes with a common control panel cover.
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Re: All Stainless Still

Post by waster »

dang that's beautiful.
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Danespirit
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Re: All Stainless CM Still

Post by Danespirit »

Clean looking rigg.You did a very nice job there..respect. :)
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Groddi
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Re: All Stainless CM Still

Post by Groddi »

God i love clean SS, looks really nice.

How cold is you coolant or you cooling liquid?
This is on my to do list, the shotgun condenser, that is.

Good job!
Over engineering is underrated. Automate the hell out of everything if possible!

My still running at 40 degrees Celsius at -0,83/-25 bar/INHG
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 50&t=44081
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Re: All Stainless CM Still

Post by Stainless dude »

Nice looking work Kraqa, always nice to see folk take pride in their work..Bet she'll make a fine drop :thumbup:
Kraqa
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Re: All Stainless CM Still

Post by Kraqa »

bake from the dead. been busy with other projects. Wintertime is for building trucks. but i have a run of oatmeal mash i need to get going so im going to need this thing working asap.

got all the stainless fittings and i think i will weld up the water ports and temp sensor ports this week. hoping to get to wiring soon.
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Re: All Stainless CM Still

Post by Kraqa »

I scrapped all the fittings i bought for this and machined my own out of some 1" stainless round bar.

turned the OD down to .874 to slip into my .875" holes.

3/8" NPT for the shotgun condenser
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1/8" NPT for a temp sensor between the Shotgun and the liebig
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another 1/8" NPT for the temp sensor in the column just below the shotgun
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i machined the NPT port to have an overhang to deflect the cool drippings from the bottom of the shotgun condenser and prevent them from landing on my temp probe
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these are the probes i am using. 1/8" J type
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3/8" NPT on the liebig
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all the parts

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tomorrow i will get the boiler all taken care of. after that its just some waterlines and electrical.
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Re: All Stainless CM Still

Post by bellybuster »

kick ass!!
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LWTCS
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Re: All Stainless CM Still

Post by LWTCS »

Really nice work.
How many man hours do you figure from start to finish?
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Kraqa
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Re: All Stainless CM Still

Post by Kraqa »

Thanks guys.

Total time including design is about 24 hours so far. Me and a friend are building this.
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humbledore
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Re: All Stainless CM Still

Post by humbledore »

:clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: beautiful.
Kraqa
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Re: All Stainless CM Still

Post by Kraqa »

i got the ports in the boiler all tig'd today. pics will follow. the guy who is sharing this build with dropped off some doetch connectors for the control box.

-a 6 pin connector will be for the two boiler thermal probes (liquid temp, steam temp) and a high pressure LED for inside the boiler.
-another 6 pin connector for the 2 thermal probes in the column (pre shotgun and post shortgun) as well as a thermal probe inside the parrot. the parrot thermal probe will have an additional 2 pin connector so it can be disconnected when we aren't using it.
-a 3 pin 100AMP connector for the heater element.

my question to you guys is the following:
my original plan was to use a potentiometer on the solid state relay to control the heater. I have an AMP meter to show the heater current. now i got to thinking. what if i was to use a temp controller with 2 thermal probe inputs. input 1 would be the thermal probe after the shot gun condenser, input 2 would be the thermal probe inside the boiler (the liquid temp). you set the controller so that the thermal probe after the shotgun becomes the process temperature and the liquid temp becomes the high level shutoff.

If you set the desired temp to be the boiling point of alcohol and the high temp shut off to be the boiling point of water. In theory the still would run in auto mode. it would heat it enough to push alcohol past the shotgun condenser, but shut off when the boiler temp reaches the boiling point of water.

am i lunch or does thing actually sound liek ti woudl work?
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Danespirit
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Re: All Stainless CM Still

Post by Danespirit »

Your idea about running "automode" is brought up time after time. It will not work. Laws of nature forbid that.
The liquid in your boiler consists of water, ethanol and several other stuff with very different boilingpoints. So, the combined boilingpoint will be somewere between the lowest (probably 62C) and the highest 100C (water).
To control the still that way, you will have to know the exact BP at any given time, because naturally it changes as alcohol depletes from the boiler.
By the way..unfortunatly the ethanol we are going after, is easy solutable with water..and all the stuff we don't want. It has a strong bond, so some of the water will evaporate with the ethanol too. That's why we can't just make a simple potstill, put 78,3C into it and get 100% ethanol out of it.
Take a look at the vapor chart, for a better understanding of what i just explained. Then you will see there is a relationship between temperature and vapor/liquid. Keep in mind this chart is ONLY for ethanol...but there are a lot of other components in there too.
vapor_chart_c.pdf
(56.63 KiB) Downloaded 202 times
Edit: Vapor chart added.
Kraqa
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Re: All Stainless CM Still

Post by Kraqa »

I am well aware the change in boiling temp as the solution changes. I don't see how that is an issue if you have a high point thermal probe in the boiler. You can set it to turn off at any temp you want. Is there a good thread discussing this?
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Danespirit
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Re: All Stainless CM Still

Post by Danespirit »

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=51759" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow here is one suggesting a PID control.
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 65&t=16635 an explanation why it would not work.
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Re: All Stainless CM Still

Post by Kraqa »

not to beat a dead horse. I understand their logic on a PID that is based on a NO/NC relay for the heating element controller. If you ran a PID with a varriable resistor and had programmable heating curves i don't see how this wouldn't work.

the boiler probe is ONLY a shut off set it for what ever you want. 100C 95C anything. it is not the process value set point. if your controller regulated the heat (same way guys do it with a potentiometer and a SSR) using the probe after the shot gun how is this any different than manually turning up of down the dial on a manual control box? you program the heating curves to always run on the lowest Ohm value you can while still maintaining the designed PV. set the reaction time for raising the temp slow and the reaction time for over temp to fast.

i am new to CM stilling. I am fairly new to distilling been doing it for about a year now with a pot still. I am not new to process control/automation and heating and cooling systems. I work for a polymer processor and we design and build heating and cooling tank farms for reacting polyol's and pre polymers. I don't understand how a properly programmed controller cannot do the same thing as a guy standing there.

now that being said. after all this discussion. i highly doubt i will take this build as far as i am talking. the controller i am talking about is about $650.00. i don't need it to do what i want. I will never leave a still running un-attended anyways. It was more of a would be nice to have since i have gone this far.

Would be nice is we had some feed back from someone who works in say...a Smirnoff distillery. i can't imaging they are running a company based on a guy sitting there taking cuts off an industrial still and adjusting the heat all day long. there has to be some automation.
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Brutal
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Re: All Stainless CM Still

Post by Brutal »

Running it is fun man! I don't get the automation thing at all. If you build a bad ass truck would you just want it to be on auto pilot or do you want to put the hammer down manually? I know what Brutal would do.

You have some very very good metal working skills. I hope you like this hobby and stay in it. I am personally hooked good. I love this hobby and plan to continue indefinitely. I wouldn't be surprised if you get a few pm's asking for your skills. I don't need anything right now but when I do I want it to look like that.

Keep it on bubba and keep us posted.
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Kraqa
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Re: All Stainless CM Still

Post by Kraqa »

thanks for the props.

i'm not set on the automation thing. it was just a though at the time.

the construction continues on. i ordered up my High Temp LED's today. I need to make some housings for them that thread into an NPT port to light the inside of the boiler.
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Re: All Stainless CM Still

Post by T-Pee »

Kraqa wrote:...i ordered up my High Temp LED's today. I need to make some housings for them that thread into an NPT port to light the inside of the boiler.
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This I gotta see!

tp
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Re: All Stainless CM Still

Post by bentstick »

Without innovation,some of us would not be doing what we are doing!!!!! TADA :crazy: :crazy: I know but It is what it is, he may have a in on this! Maybe? And by the way nice build ya have talents!!! cheers to you
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The KYChemist
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Re: All Stainless CM Still

Post by The KYChemist »

Beautiful build... Makes my Boka look like it came out of a Cracker Jack box.
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Kraqa
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Re: All Stainless CM Still

Post by Kraqa »

ok guys i manage to set some time aside tonight.

the high pressure LED light for the boiler.

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this end will be where the wires come out. i need to machine the final stainless steel piece to cover the plastic internal parts.

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so here is a the spread.

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i started with a 1/2" NPT male to 1/2" compression tube fitting. i bored out the ID to 0.550" then got a quartz lense (1/8) thick. high temp high pressure rated. then a high temp 12mm LED. the next part is a spacer, then a cap to separate the leads, then another spacer with a hollow voild in it. the idea is that i will solder onto the leads and put a crimp on the wire. the crimp will act as a strain releif and but up against the small hole in the end of the fitting. this way the wire can not be pulled out.

close up of the end cap and the cap with holes to separate the leads.
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when it comes time to assemble i have high temp electronics potting epoxy that i will use. this project was fun because we need a few of these at work for our chemical tanks. Also, the plastic used as spacers is PEEK. its really expensive but i had a piece lying around.

this should look nice plumbed into the boiler.
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