copper sieve plates from the thrift store

[Danespirit]

Some days ago I was going to the local thrift store, to see if I could find something useful.
My eyes catched some hot plate covers from the 70's...not because I thought they were pretty...but they were genuine copper..! (my pocket knife determined that).
For a little less than 2 $ I took them home and started modifying them for my needs.
Some of you may have guessed it already, they make excellent bubble plates...in this case sieve plates.
They happened to have a hole in the middle already, and with some grinding a 15 mm pipe made a perfect fit.
The holes I drilled were 1,5 mm, but after a few test runs, I figured 2,5 mm would be better..
As the sides are slightly conical, the biggest of them makes a perfect sieve plate for my little pot still I use to run small batches and Gin. (12 L stock pot).
The second largest fits perfectly on my milk can boiler. This enables me to run a sieve plate beneath my column or get an additional distillation in pot mode.
The two small I've left will also become part of some project one day...maybe a small section with two plates..

[faste]

Nice find, dimples already in them?

[Danespirit]

Yes..
The middle hole is just about 15 mm and had a dimple around the edge.
That made it very easy for me to solder a nice puddle around the tube to make it sturdy.
The square pattern is original, which again made it easy for me as I didn't have to make any markings for the holes.
I had my doubts about the downcomer with such a small diameter, but I gave it a shot with some vinegar for a test run.
The result was most excellent...
Last weekend I threw a batch of Brandy in the still, the plate really does it's job and gave me a smooth product....not bad for half an hour drilling and soldering.

[Kareltje]

Nice!
That is part of the fun of this hobby: looking around in second hand shops or loppemarkets for things you can make other things of.

[skow69]

You're as bad as I am. I see still parts everywhere.

[Lyonsie]

Nice find danespirit. I was wondering when we would see them.

[still_stirrin]

Very clever Danespirit. Nice build.

Let us know how the plates function, i.e. - proof increase. I imagine it is very good with flavor carryover as well.
ss

[Worm_Drippinz]

Very cool dane.... nice score!

[Danespirit]

Very clever Danespirit. Nice build.

Let us know how the plates function, i.e. - proof increase. I imagine it is very good with flavor carryover as well.
ss

I'll do a Gin run tomorrow and report back how it goes.
The test run was very promising, pulled + 70% ABV from a charge of heads and feints at around 20-30% ABV.

[Danespirit]

Other things in life got in the way, so I didn't have much time to do a run with those plates until today.

I used the biggest of them in my small stockpot still, as shown in the pictures.
The charge was 4 L of 40% ABV neutral and a 150mL of Gin botanicals macerated in spirits, also 40% ABV.
50 mL were taken as foreshots/heads and discarded....after that the run just continued until I hit 20% ABV.

Total amount collected: 2,9 L 43% ABV and 330 mL tails, which I intend to use in the next batch.

0,5 L, 84% ABV
0,5 L 80% ABV
0,5 L 72% ABV
0,5 L 63% ABV

Not much as a surprise the run started with a relatively high alcohol concentration. I "guesstimated" it would be around 75%, but the alcoholmeter read a tad over 84% ABV.
As I learned by the cleaning run, I have to turn the heat down just before the boiling starts.
The reason is, the combined thermal mass of the hotplate and the sandwich bottom of the boiler will continue to raise the temperature for a while.
Once I was familiar with how this setup behaves, it's easy to tell when the plate starts filling and comes online. The trick seems to be, one has to cut the power way back just before this happens.
This causes the plate to be disabled and one can now draw the foreshots as on a plain pot still. As my neutral is pretty clean, the foreshots can evaporate and seep through the holes, without filling the plate.
After the foreshots were gone, I cranked up the power and had it running somewhere between 1500 W and maximum, which is 2000 W.
It gave me a fat pencil lead thick stream and the still was running very stable at that point.
I noticed an ever so slight pulsing in the stream, which must be due to the plate constantly filling and draining.
The product was very smooth, even at such high starting ABV. Note for new distillers: I put my finger in the stream and tasted what was on it...DO NEVER DRINK SPIRITS WITH SUCH HIGH ABV..!
All in all a success for a plate that costs me next to nothing but a little time to fabricate it.
I'll use one of the smaller plates for my milk can boiler and post a picture of it as soon as I've time to do a run with it. (the one with an endcap on the downcomer...it will be on the other side when I run it, of course).
I expect it to work as good as the big one, described in this post.