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gwizard wrote: ↑Fri Jul 10, 2020 7:32 pm They should really attach instructions to these things.

Couldn't have said it better myself

IMG_3283.JPG Havent looked at this thread for a bit, holy shyza thats a gorgeous column Thanks. IMG_3495.JPG Its been a tough road to walk trying to make stills locally. I've always believed that copper stills represent the best return on your dollar. I don't care where you get a still from, as lon...

A bigger still of any design will make more than a smaller one assuming its got the same charge and boiler

Here we are many years later.

Best way to improve a boka is toss it in the bin...

I mean no disrespect as they are able to do the job they do well, they are just very slow

I am interested in trying to understand why many North American distilleries so miserably fail to make Scandinavian style aquavit. In my book, there is no other style of aquavit. They probably wonder why swedes cant make cars? :wtf: Come here, take what you need and leave a little if you can. But d...

Its taken a while but they are back in stock.

You can't pot still neutral. Unless your ass points up to the sky and you can ride a broomstick. Just not gunna happen unless you like shit dirty neutral. Go pot still your crap 5 times and it wont be clean. But you can tell every one you messed up 5 times trying to clean something that was never go...

do a search on "entrainment"

many folk here utilise reflux control via pid and temp feed back.

yeah, but your just running a still dude.

programming a 1980's VHS video recorder is harder

Your bang on cayars.
You got this shit nailed dude.

So if you have a 10% ABV wash then it will boil around 93 C and will output at roughly 54% ABV.

Don't think too hard about it. There is heaps of science but nothing matters like how it tastes for you. it pays to focus on that first

Heres my take. Don't matter who you are. You can't change the temp that water boils at. Most of us know its 100c at sea level. Less at high altitude. Ethanol boils at 76ish C. While your ass points to the ground you cant change this. What you can change is how much heat you put in (heat = energy, be...

Nice lamert

you do fine work.

you will do just fine

ok. lets go back to tin tak's. A plated column is designed to do what a pot still can but with less labour. It is designed to give you multiple distillation cycles in one run. Hence avoiding the need to do seperate stripping and spirit runs. They can also act like a pot still. Just turn the RC off. ...

@pope. Its not a true "fractionating" still. Not on a hobby level. A pot still catches flavour because it runs fast. A column still can make vodka/neutral because it runs slow. Its not that hard when you think about it. If you push it through fast you will capture flavour. great for brown ...

hypnopooper wrote: ↑Mon Oct 14, 2019 5:07 pm In the end, it's mine and I know I haven't taken any shortcuts.

Nice

You're pretty screwed without sight glasses when you first start running. You really need them at first. they show you whats going on.

After a while you dont really need them at all.

No amount of sight glasses will teach you how to ferment, cut and age what you make

Regarding your question on rejoining the copper with solder . If it were me , I’d cut both ends straight and either use a copper coupler or as you say make it a tri-clamped section . Although there probably is enough strength in doing a soldered butt joint as far as a basic still is concerned , it ...

Freeze drying is energy intensive. The results of freeze drying or drying meats/veg are not disputed. Manu, You have presented everyone with a potentially new process. As you know, some may disbelieve and challenge the idea. I ask them to prove or disprove their point of view, or present a construct...

I've always loved your vacuum work Manu. You have shared much

This lifts it to another level.

Well done friend.

What are your thoughts on the taste of your products compared to traditional methods?

IIRC, Sungy used copper leather rivets in a valve plate design that worked well.

Roofing nails could work if you addressed how they seal on the plates

A triclamp will cost you a few $.

Any other way will also cost you a few $.

Dont be afraid to shell out a few bucks. It will come back to you

Thats a tack to keep it in place. The lip is a weir.


@yummy, thats why I've stuck with soft solder for sight glasses. Those early days of brazing them on caused more problems than it ever helped with.

Its a case of control, or lack of it. If the plates dont seal, how do you know how much each plate is leaking? One plate may leak more than another, so you loose balance and have plate activity thats not correct for its position in the column. Assuming each plate leaks the same amount the still may ...

There is many more than one Chinese still makers out there. They all have their own approach. Would have to have seal details to have a say on how good their approach is. I'f you are using a plate tree system it can be done and in the right hands can be made to seal well enough. Gasket type systems ...

I should clarify what I meant. A combination works well when the target is neutral or vodka or other white spirit. I've found packing is helpful for white spirits but not much good for brown spirits. Plates alone seem better at that job. I've found this to be pretty true above 4" diameter. Unde...

A combination of both works well.

Plates dont work well till you get to 4" dia. or thereabouts.

Stilling been around since before any of us got old. Theres not a lot thats new

happy to say 8" still is a winner. mechanically its proven. Any doubts I had about the pressed tricover flanges are suitably satisfied. They work well its passed all the tests. it can knock out a crazy amount of hooch for the size. being modular, it has more than one trick it can do I'm still t...

make sure there are no burrs. form a chamfer on both parts. clean and add flux. use some wood as a buffer and hammer it in Solder as required. You can get small flap wheels that will fit in a drill chuck that match the size of your tube. under $5. you can use these to enlarge the hole but you can fo...