Home Distiller

bitter wrote:This is an old thread on that stuff

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 34&t=33128

I would not use it

B

Thanks, I was about 6-7 pages into the search when I came across this thread, guess I should of kept going.

Looking for a good source for a sweet feed now Search the individual Tractor Supply Stores in your area using your computer. Not all their stores carry it. SKU # 5021132 is what you want. I was at Central Tractor today and pick this up.... http://i812.photobucket.com/albums/zz42/vladio007/dd11a9db-...

My water is below 65 degrees. Gonna have to warm it up some.... Did you get this working? I went to Central Tractor and picked up a bag of sweet feed today. I asked whether it was pellet and the sales girl said no but I just cut open the bag and it's pellet. :wtf: It doesn't say anything on the bag.

Hi all. I am building a pot still from a 15 liter (4 gallon?) SS stock pot soon. And I was just after a little advice. I have seen some people on YouTube make some horrible stock pot stills by using no go materials such as aluminium, and toxic sealants/silicon like products to seal the lid on to th...

It is amazing how people get hooked on the hobby, next you know they are either making modifications or new stills to meet their need as they grow with knowledge. Bearriver hit the mark with the size and hotplate but I think you will likely grow out of both. I did! I've kept my cost low so far, I w...

Swedish Pride wrote:famous last words

Exactly! I only wanted one kid, have 3 boys. Like whiskey, they're fun to make!

Thanks for the feedback! Since I'm the only liquor drinker in my house (The Mrs. likes her dark beers) I think I'd stay around 5 gallons. On a side note, I used a 1.5k watt hot plate that I gutted and rebuilt, along with a home-made temp controller and only ran it at 800 watts for my first run. It r...

I did my first run the other night, I ran two boxes of wine. I have an inexpensive stainless pot that I'm heating with a mod'ed hot plate, the pot is 16 quarts. I'm going to upgrade to a bigger one, I'd like to do runs in the 5 gallon range, at least that's my thinking now. As I'm shopping this even...

I started with a $20 Target hot plate, it was one aisle over from my $20 target stockpot... It did a great job of getting me started (once I hot wired it to just run full-bore). There's nothing quite like having an element immersed in the wash, though. Especially with 220v behind it. Instead of hea...

Your Cadco hotplate was considerably more expensive if I remember right. I think they were $150 or so? I have less than $25 in my hot plate...If I like distilling and want to keep doing it I'm going to go with a heating element in a bigger pot, if I don't like doing it I'm out $25. I won't cry over ...

I post this stuff just for anyone in the future that might be working along the same line as me... just something to do during Snowmageddon '16™ Today, believe it or not, I found some high-temp 12 gauge appliance wire. It's really nice and heavy with the fiber/teflon shielding - the sales guy said i...

At 48 I've seemed to gravitate with this way of doing things instead of putting a lot of money into something then have it fall out of interest for me then collect dust. That's one way of looking at things... Another is that perhaps you like pissing away good money after bad, making hobbies more ex...

I'm not ruling out an internal setup. I have very little invested in both the hot plate and an el cheapo stainless pot from Walmart. My intentions are to give it a try and if it's something I like doing upgrade to something much better. At 48 I've seemed to gravitate with this way of doing things in...

I'm still not sure why I bypassed everything then hooked it back up. I think the first time I had it running there was a smell of stuff burning off inside, maybe a coating on the coil, so I thought why not hook it back up but set it to the max setting and it'll "trip" in the event of a sev...

I use a modified hotplate for my gin still. I removed the on/off switch and the temperature adjustment as it indeed has a thermal shutoff when running continuously (a safety feature for most stovetop cooks). In place of those controls, I installed a triac controlled circuit, heat sink, cooling fan ...

I finished up the triac temp controller and have it running a new 1500 watt hot plate. I've cranked it up and it gets hot and works well. Tonight I put the pot I'm going to distill with on the hot plate with 4 gallons of water and was going to do a test run and take it up to 180ish degrees. After a ...

RedwoodHillBilly wrote:As I said. Gate to MT2 (via your current limiting resistor) to turn on the triac, Gate to MT1 to turn it off. You were turning off the triac and expecting it to turn on.

Yes Sir, you are correct. Thank you!

I switched the connections of MT1 and MT2 and it works. I swear I tried that last night but I was a few Maker's Mark's into the evening when I was trouble shooting the problem.

Thanks for the feedback! Tomorrow I'll test the hotplate, I should be good to go though.

Much appreciated, fellas!

What is the make and model number of the triac...??? I have made just about every triac circuit commonly available so I may be able to be of help... Triacs can be tested, yes, but it depends on which one you are working with... That resistor is overkill... You must be going by an old schematic and ...

I've followed along with a schematic from another thread to make a controller for a hot plate I'd like to use. I did a mock-up of the circuit loosely on a table top just to make sure it worked prior to making an enclosure. I can't seem to get the triac to work. I thought the dimmer might of been at ...

Hi fellas, I've read about 16 pages then realized there's pretty much no end to this thread. I'm just starting out, I bought a hot plate and someone suggested I build a controller as the hot plate cycles on/off. I'd like to make one for 120v and have the schematic that was earlier in this thread. An...

Make sure that electric hotplate is modified so that it does not cycle on and off or you are going to get surging and major smearing. Thanks for the advice! I didn't know that. I did find the thread to mod the hot plate, it doesn't look very complicated and I'm handy with the soldering iron, anyone...

I kept looking at the unwound roll today thinking it wouldn't make a big enough coil so I did a mock-up with rope and I'm only getting three times around, that's not going to be enough. I've seen a 5 gallon-sized bucket used a good bit, does that seem too small? I was hoping to keep everythng as com...

I'm sorry all, I've been searching and reading for some time this evening for the answer to a simple question and have got so many answers I'm not sure what's right. I'm making a simple still, I bought 10' of 1/2" copper for the condenser that I'm going to put in a lowes (blue) 5 gallon bucket....

was going to use sealer between flange & dome then between the mixing bowl & lid where the large ring of fasteners are Hey machineman, nice piece of engineering you did there! I'm just starting to put mine together - is that a WalMart pot you used there? It looks like the one I just bought....

This pot has worked out well for me. If I had to do it over, I might buy something a little bigger but the quality of it isn't a concern. I don't have any choice at the moment as far as heat source so whatever pot I have will be heated by an electric range, so there might not be much difference in ...

On the pot issue, I'd love to hear more feedback. I'm holding onto the walmart pot for now but would think a higher-end commercial pot would be more consistent with a heavier, clad bottom. I thought about setting the pot on my cast-iron skillet too. I guess we're all on the same "wave length&qu...

Hey guys, I went to WalMart today, finally, and started to pick up some of the supplies I'm going to need to get started building. First up was the pot. I picked up a $12 stainless, 16 qt with lid. While driving home and after looking the pot I was thinking of the suggestions to use gas and not elec...

I'd love to go gas but have to go electric, at least to start.

First, I'd like to thank all u good folks for your help without the usual arrogance that is pervasive on a lot of forums. I was raised to appreciate others help so thank you. My idea was to start out relatively small. Like I mentioned, I would like to use a stainless pot in the neighborhood of 16 qu...