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On any of the designs that would use an ssr it will need thermal paste and a heat sink. Thermal paste can be gotten at most any computer store. The pid will not need a heat sink. it draws little to no current so creates minimal heat. I am doing some internal drawings of what we are going to try and ...

OK if i do not have 3000 posts so I do not know what I am doing. I thought the thread was about temperature control circuits and I chatted on the subject. Would someone let me know how many posts makes me experienced enough in distillation to chat about stuff? Lets assume I know nothing about distil...

I was sitting here chatting with one of the engineers in my office and he brought up an interesting idea here as well <word snip> . pids will work but phase angle / variac style is easier and works exactly how is needed If you read my notes I intend to have one of them work with a phase angle , tri...

OK i am about to vent a bit. Why in the he world is it if someone brings up a different idea in these forums they get asked if they have a still or to use a proven recipe. I really thought this was an open forum to discuss different methods of doing things and to share ideas, concepts and sources. W...

I was sitting here chatting with one of the engineers in my office and he brought up an interesting idea here as well On another account has anyone looked at controlling the condenser with temperature or humidity sensors. Increasing the cooling water if until no humidity is detected at some point in...

Cheap watlow Is there any reason why you want to run 2 elements? one 5500w is all ya need. Be less complicated I think. Unless you cant do 220v? That is exactly correct. Between the dryer the air conditioner and the hot tub I have used all 220 vac circuits and my service is 150 amps and it is too f...

OK I may have the solution. The first element. I get one of the 40 dollar kits I talked about earlier. It will just shut off the element when to wash has ramped from from room temperature to almost boiling. I get the same kit and run it in manual but this time I add in the ssrman-1p that Mule kicker...

Mule kicker There is no question at all that the watlo and the Omega controllers are the cadillac. They are a bit pricey though. What type of coin are you dropping on them? I worried that the logic in the pid may be a bit tough to work with but my thought is with 2 elements I can put an alarm limit ...

i could be wrong but for the price it is a fun experiment. The price of the watlo's make the plan silly but for 40 dollars or even 100 dollars like another option i am looking at is a cost effective experiment. Depending on the PID I would think that it can trigger the ssr fast enough to keep the di...

I know I am not the first to mention this as a possibility but I would not mind a bit more in depth chat about it. I think I read that mulekicker did something similar would love to here his experience with it. My intentions in my new boiler are to run 2 electric heaters. I will run both to ramp up ...

Why don't you just go to the tried and true recipe section? Birdwatchers is good. Just saying you should use a known good recipe. Instead of trying to throw stuff together and home it works. Isn't the fun of this to try different things and try to get a product of our own. If not why are we doing t...

Why don't you just go to the tried and true recipe section? Birdwatchers is good. Just saying you should use a known good recipe. Instead of trying to throw stuff together and home it works. Isn't the fun of this to try different things and try to get a product of our own. If not why are we doing t...

Huh ok perhaps I am making a mountain out a mole hill as my Pop used to say.

Tks for the advice guys.

just trying to cover my safety concerns before I fire this toy up .

Forest there has to be some pressure. Now I am new and just about to fire up the new toy but it would seem to me that even if there was no top on the condenser the pressure inside the column has to be over atmospheric pressure. In my case I am boiling liquid (or will be) in a 15.5 gallon barrel. I t...

Oh and you said a hole in the top would release any and all pressure . That kind of depends on how big the hole is. I but a fairly small hole in the top. So i guess I will need to figure out how big it should be as well. I did purposely not solder a couple of the fittings together so I also had a br...

2]Why? Surely a hole in the top will allow any/all pressure to be released. How do you know your pressure valve will work correctly? The hole(s) will also allow you to monitor the effectiveness of your condenser via a mirror and any condensate forming on it. More searching needed young man! :ewink:...

I am a bit confused. As I said I would do, I went and tried to find a bottle of Downslope Distilling Whiskey and try a dram. I looked all over town and was unable to find a bottle even though I am less the 60 minutes from Denver. I went to downslopes website and it said . Currently Double-Diamond wh...

I have been reading these forums for days but am confused about 2 things. Well to be honest confused about a lot of things but that is part of learning. I can find mention of but no real information of the following 2 items. 1. Flour paste. I know there must be a good topic on it but there so many m...

many metals are used to make heating elements. Some are made out of more then one material in order to create the resistivity that is desired. Since we do not know what your element is made of their is always the chance that there is lead aluminum etc. It is unlikely but since when it blew up it dis...

after doing some research i am wondering if it would be better to build a triac or a phase angle controller. the phase angle seems like it would hold a heavier electric load whil the triac would not but if someone has any information that could better explain the pros and cons of each it would be g...

Wow thanks that is good reading. Thanks for the information.

i appreciate the welcome. Look forward to learning and maybe get lucky and help someone else.

199proof any links on the temperature controller you are working on. would love to see it.

Pony I am working on a controller as well. I am not one to want to recreate the wheel. If you have some information about what you are doing I would love to hear it.

. what would i use to drill into stainless is there any special tools or just a drill \... because after researching ive read that it is pretty hard to do. also if you have pics of your still do you mind postin i would greatly appreciate so i can see the welds. once again thx and i shall return soo...

Give it a go NC. Let me know how you like it. I'm thinking about starting another jar. Using a more expensive cinnamon stick. If I can find a good source for them. I'm not paying 8 bucks for 5 sticks less then 3" long. What I think I will do is start it in another qt jar. See if there is a dif...

Good Point rad. I myself am working on that now. temperature control solution. i am not certain how i want to do it yet and I am sure that is a topic for a different thread. I was just pointing out that if he keeps blowing his breaker it does not matter how fine of control he has since if the breake...

Is it me or did he say his element popped and it was in his wash at the time.i read it to say that it smelled disgusting etc. if there was even a possibility that this caused the discoloration i personally woul fix the still. Scrap the was and continue with another batch. The element was obviosly ch...

Let us know gow the first run works.

Are you going to pack the tower or ?????

Wow you may have just inspired me to make one. Sadly mine will not look as amazing as that.