side by side columns

Distillation methods and improvements.

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side by side columns

Post by jedneck »

LWTCS wrote:So here is a diagram of my thoughts for one of our rigs.
We were debating on putting an experimental rig into production to do a side by side and see what the outcome would be.
to not take the still porn thread off topic figured id start here.

It started with me posting a pic of my wall mounted sxs columns and lwtcs posted this.
my thougths are whats gonna keep the vapour from feeding straight through the thumper drain?
On my wall mount each column and the boiler is seperated with a trap. Will get a pic after camera is charged.

My rig is boiler remote feeding a plated column on top of an inline thumper, with the plated column feeding a packed column. The reflux drains return to boiler

I kniow googe built a sxs and there is a few others on other furoms
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Re: side by side columns

Post by jedneck »

Here is a pic of mine. From boiler is fed with 1" line into an inline thumper with plated column on it, can have anywhere from 1-6 plates. Plates feed a packed column via a 3/4 and 1" line that is adjustable for length.
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Re: side by side columns

Post by bitter »

darn thats sexy!
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Re: side by side columns

Post by LWTCS »

Thanks.
Yeah sorry for side tracking the other thread.

Can you diagram that?
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Re: side by side columns

Post by jedneck »

Quick high dollar sketch. not shown is the trap on the return to boiler

My theory on the thump is keep the alcohal oin the columns long as possible :think:
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Re: side by side columns

Post by shadylane »

Keep going jed :thumbup:
If your idea of side by side columns works
I won't have to make a hole in my shop roof :lol:
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Re: side by side columns

Post by The Baker »

shadylane wrote:Keep going jed :thumbup:
If your idea of side by side columns works
I won't have to make a hole in my shop roof :lol:
It definitely works, it's not all that uncommon in the pretty pics of professional stills.

But I dunno HOW it is made to work.

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Re: side by side columns

Post by Copperhead road »

Looking good Jed, time to light a fire under that big boiler...... :clap:
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Re: side by side columns

Post by Danespirit »

Looking good Jed..!
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Re: side by side columns

Post by bluefish_dist »

The only downside of a split column is for full effiency I think you need a pump to pump from the bottom the last column to the top of the first. If both return to the boiler you don't get full performance compared to a single column.
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Re: side by side columns

Post by jedneck »

It does work. On sac run had problem with thump being that violent it was disablin bottom plate n flooding. Removed bottom plate n no issues. As set now its 3 plates on inline thump feeding 33" of packed. Next run i gonna move site tower to under the packed. Wanns see what packed reflux drain is doing
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Re: side by side columns

Post by googe »

Be cool with the glass under the packed jed :thumbup:
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Re: side by side columns

Post by jedneck »

googe wrote:Be cool with the glass under the packed jed :thumbup:
Glass is under packed now. Also added a 90 on the thump reflux drain. It was just a 3/4 in the side, thunkin drain pointin up is gonna work better.
All goes well on this run glass will go under plates and add 4th plate back in
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Re: side by side columns

Post by acfixer69 »

jedneck wrote:
googe wrote:Be cool with the glass under the packed jed :thumbup:
Glass is under packed now. Also added a 90 on the thump reflux drain. It was just a 3/4 in the side, thunkin drain pointin up is gonna work better.
All goes well on this run glass will go under plates and add 4th plate back in
It will definitely work better Jed you may even need to add a little riser to that 90. There is more vapor pressure to overcome then most of us think, as we are told that there is no pressure in the boiler. That's bull it's the vapor pressure that makes it move. Nice job it looks great. :thumbup:
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Re: side by side columns

Post by jedneck »

Spent the day in basement. Day started out good, charged the boiler with uj and hit the switch. Y'day when tried to run wire contact burnt off, controller still worked but wasn't gonna chance high voltage. Bypassed the scr so this run is 2000w on 120 or 4500 watt on 240 or 6500 total. Run started off well but then i noticed packed column wasnt draining. Extended drain down into boiler so now is 8" off bottom. Before it stopped at top of boiler. Fiddled with it for a bit with no improvement. Would fill n flood at 2000 watts so it wasnt power related. Figured fuk it n got the saw out and removed plated column from wall n put directly on boiler. Figured that removing one drain will eleminate a variable.

Powered back up and started off good but then packed column drain started filling again drained trap and started over. Same shit drain not draining, fiddled some more n no joy. Fuk it turned reflux off and hit it with 6500watts n stripped it.

After strippin finished put packed into full reflux to see what happened. Drain seamed to be working.

Gotta wait till next ferment is done to see what happens. If still floods i gonna tie drain into boiler drain.

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Re: side by side columns

Post by jedneck »

Tis that time of year that build bug bits again. And i blame googe for this madness :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
C5C0778D-1F45-4C69-B5C4-0A225FFC1BDB.jpeg
7D9D207D-A9BF-4ACF-8F6C-92F4A9A888E5.jpeg
Right side will have 4 plates feedin packed on left.

Fingers crossed it gonna be. Voddy/neutral pissin beast
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Re: side by side columns

Post by jedneck »

The vapor feed for packed will feed into the back of the 4” of the left 4x2. Thats a trap thay is hangin down.
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Re: side by side columns

Post by jedneck »

7A57EB1E-E191-4FF1-87AE-6CC1E15DC6DA.jpeg
the pieces pulled apart to see inner workings
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Re: side by side columns

Post by Windy City »

I built a side column system and found a couple of things important to the design.
I had placed my bottom plate 12"min above the boiler max fill line. I was told by a commercial distillery equipment manufacture that this is needed to compensate for pressure build-up at each plate. Let's say you have 6 plates at 1" fluid depth per plate that would equal to 6" of water column (this is just an example using easy numbers)
My side columns drain down at each column into a 4" x 3/4" reducer and then into a deep trap.
The three traps then tie into one single line of 1 1/4" size feeding back to the boiler. The connection at the boiler brings the condensate in below the liquid level in the boiler.
BTW the system had complete clean in place (all the yellow valves at the bottom) and the plastic buckets were there just for that purpose.
I would never collect distillate in anything other than glass or stainless.
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Re: side by side columns

Post by Bushman »

Wow Windy, that’s a lot of copper! Thanks for your explanation I hadn’t thought about the pressure build up. I know LWTCS has also built side by side columns and may want to weigh in.
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Re: side by side columns

Post by Twisted Brick »

Windy City wrote: Wed Jun 17, 2020 4:55 am I built a side column system...
Yeah you did! Must be quite a ride when she's tuned and pumping out the pride of Chicago. I can't imagine the number of hours you have in design, much less construction. Thanks for sharing.

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Re: side by side columns

Post by jedneck »

Dayum windy. No wonder I couldn’t find copper
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Re: side by side columns

Post by Windy City »

jedneck wrote: Wed Jun 17, 2020 3:19 pm Dayum windy. No wonder I couldn’t find copper
Yeah it is good to own a fairly large plumbing company in this hobby :lol: :lol: :lol:
To be honest I love the build as much as making a great quality product to sip and share with the family.
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Re: side by side columns

Post by Hambone »

Good Lord Windy...nice
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Re: side by side columns

Post by Bushman »

Windy City wrote: Wed Jun 17, 2020 4:14 pm To be honest I love the build as much as making a great quality product to sip and share with the family.
Like this comment, I am currently building my 4th still all dedicated for different functions :thumbup:
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Re: side by side columns

Post by jedneck »

8ABF0076-93A5-4517-888C-D7DE4D567405.jpeg
Just need vapor feed to tie columns together. Thinkin a 3 way valve on top of plates. On side feed packed and other to run as just plates for flavour or heads removal on neutral runs :wtf: :wtf:
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Re: side by side columns

Post by Yummyrum »

jedneck wrote: Tue Jun 16, 2020 6:14 pm 7A57EB1E-E191-4FF1-87AE-6CC1E15DC6DA.jpeg
the pieces pulled apart to see inner workings
Cunning Jed 👍..like your thinking .
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Re: side by side columns

Post by jedneck »

B1CA6482-F997-4238-9E2F-E7DA0B2D552E.jpeg
Had 3 way valve for few weeks now but finally made time to heat copper. Built a mini reflux condenser for on plates. It just a 4x2 reducer with 2” ran threw it. Still need to tap the inlet and outlet n solder fittings in.

Depending on time of year my coolin water is 42-55*f. Don’t take much to keep plates loaded
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Re: side by side columns

Post by jedneck »

17111F17-6883-4280-9694-E62364342112.jpeg
Here quick sketch of plann.

Packed column will have a lm/vm head on it and plates with be cm
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Re: side by side columns

Post by jedneck »

3E6A07EC-411A-406A-8D97-9DBCCBFE89A3.jpeg

Lil more atoneness with copper. Got vapour feed mocked up. And rebuilt my lm/vm head. Plates and vm gonna share same product condesor
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