Horny's firewood Maxi-ministill

Vapor, Liquid or Cooling Management. Flutes, plates, etc.

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hornedrhodent
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Location: Nth coast NSW

Horny's firewood Maxi-ministill

Post by hornedrhodent »

Here's the pics
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Underexposed image of complete still showing poor contrast between still and background trees
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Out of focus image of complete still
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Firebox waterjacket and boiler
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Firebox and water jacket showing header tank for jacket
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Boiler assembly
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Boiler, lid and clamp ring
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Ministill type head and cooling coil on top of column
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Column showing copper packing and aluminium casing for rockwool insulation
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Double 1/4" coils connected to 1/2" riser up centre
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Ministill type head and cooling coil

Hope that doesn't exceed any limits.
stoker
Distiller
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Post by stoker »

nice, that boiler makes me think about the real oldfashion moonshiners
is it wood heated? <edit>, stupid question, it was in the title :?
what's the inner boiler made of?
I have also a removable ministill head, looks like I'm not the only one.

and does it work propperly? do you have a draft or something?
-I have too much blood in my alcohol system-
copperhead
Swill Maker
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Post by copperhead »

whats the size of your boiler and is it stianless if so nice set up i really the old shinners way as long as its safe.
hornedrhodent
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Location: Nth coast NSW

Post by hornedrhodent »

The boiler is stainless - it was a water filter - I had to cut a bronze casting off the bottom and silver solder a stainless patch over the hole.

The 2" pipe was a piece I found somewhere and had to panelbeat to get enough straight bits. I used a piece of steel exhaust pipe as a tool to expand the copper ends so the connections are a 'slip in' fit sealed with flour paste.

It takes a lot of attention to run on firewood. I added an extra thermometer where the copper comes out of the boiler lid to help prevent column flooding. It's surprising how small a fire is needed when it's up to temperature.

Sorry I made the pics too wide - I forgot to allow for the width of the column on the left hand side of the screen. I'll try to get it right next time.


All the info I needed to build it came from this forum and the homedistiller.org site. Thanks for the help everyone.
C.S.S. Shenandoah

Post by C.S.S. Shenandoah »

Beautiful still. This is the kind of still I like to see, it's kind of crude, in a good way. Just like the good old days.
hornedrhodent
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Post by hornedrhodent »

Bump for Murphy
nanosleep
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Post by nanosleep »

As the run progresses the alcohol content in the boiler should get very small. In this case the boiling point of the liquid in the boiler is almost the same as the boiling point of the water in the jacket. Do you have trouble getting enough heat into the boiler without boiling the water jacket dry? Ever tried another liquid for the jacket? Oil?
hornedrhodent
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Post by hornedrhodent »

nanosleep wrote:
As the run progresses the alcohol content in the boiler should get very small. In this case the boiling point of the liquid in the boiler is almost the same as the boiling point of the water in the jacket.
Things really slow down towards the end and the jacket may be boiling and producing steam before I've collected all the tails I want to.

Do you have trouble getting enough heat into the boiler without boiling the water jacket dry? Ever tried another liquid for the jacket? Oil?
I use a small header tank (about 1gal) to maintain the water in the jacket. (see background in 4th pic.) The output from the condenser goes into the header tank which overflows to the ground to maintain the watertable.

The idea of the water jacket is to increase thermal mass and even out temperature fluctuations with variable heat input (firewood) and to limit it more as the temperature increases. Water has a much greater specific heat capacity and a greater latent heat of evaporation than oils so does a better job. When your boiler gets to 100degC it's finished.
Rotgut
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Post by Rotgut »

i love it i want to build something like that someday
Uncle Jesse
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yep

Post by Uncle Jesse »

very nice, it gets my seal of approval
If only the best birds sang, the woods would be silent.
marryanne
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Joined: Mon Sep 13, 2010 5:18 pm

Re: Horny's firewood Maxi-ministill

Post by marryanne »

I use a boiler machine.!but it made me think that making a new generated
Maxi-ministill bio fuel machine could be possible.

make money online
Esie
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Joined: Wed Oct 20, 2010 10:15 pm

Re: Horny's firewood Maxi-ministill

Post by Esie »

hi.''
nice, that boiler makes me think about the real oldfashion moonshiners
is it wood heated? <edit>, stupid question, it was in the title :?
what's the inner boiler made of?
I have also a removable ministill head, looks like I'm not the only one.

and does it work propperly? do you have a draft or something?


regards,,''
Esie
how to deal with depression
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