Home Distiller

by rad14701 » Mon May 21, 2012 3:10 pm I've used insulated wire and cordage to maintain coil spacing and both work great depending on the spacing desired... How do you do that with wire or cordage? Wire would seem next to impossible to remove even if properly lubed and cordage would just compress. ...

Thanks for the feedback guys, I thought it would be a major PITA to wind a coil given the rest of the posts on here. I somehow found it remarkably easy, guess i'm just lucky :esurprised: Bonjimmi, the OD is 6.3mm, making it damn close to 1/4". The next size bigger tube is 3/8, but that's about ...

Finally got a chance to have a crack at winding my condenser coil today. No salt, sand, sugar, pipe benders, bending springs or any other sh!t, just hand bending, working on 16 and 32mm pipe formers. Using annealed 1/4" copper tube (cost $45 for a 30m roll, so i can make plenty of practice runs...

Sorry, probably should mention product is coming off at 88%, which is OK, but I am looking for something much better. My last still consistently got 93%+, but it was even slower, and took about 18 hours for a 14% wash.

OK so I finally got around to running my air cooled still, but it's not going as planned. I can't get the input power above 300W without vapour escaping the top of the column. At this power, the boiler temp is 89deg, between plates is 78.5deg, with the temp in the middle of the lower cooling cluster...

Finally finished the wiring of the controller over the weekend. Everything worked perfectly, first time. Actually, that's not quite true, I left the neutral off the 2 relays, so nothing happend first time. Once that was fixed, it worked perfectly. Start/stop, 4 heating modes (auto 1800W, 2400W, cont...

Yep, like you said, better in big pipes, and with viscous fluids, which I have neither of. Cooling capacity is no issue either, I have 0-100% control via a SSR for both a 600W or 1800W element, so all I need to do is balance the vapour speed to the cooling capacity of the head. Got all the wiring fi...

Nice looking control box. :thumbup: Would it help to have fins inside the cooling pipes to allow more surface area in contact with the flowing air? Perhaps insert extruded aluminium tube of the right diameter held in place by thermal grease. This kind of idea: http://www.lv-soft.com/software/fachbe...

Pics and progress now up here http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 32&t=27799

Well, had a productive day today. Morning spent building the new controller, and arvo brazing the column. Controller is based around an SSR, with dual temp sensors to automate heat/run cycle, and shut it down if the column gets to 90deg+. Dual temp thermometer hasn't arrived from HK yet, but will be...

Hey there folks I have been away from my still for a few years now (I know, too long!- discovered the joys of renovating my house and finishing my electrical engineering degree), but am currently putting together my new column. I was a member of the old Yahoo group, and I recognise a few of you from...