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