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Just finished building my pot still condenser worm, it's 18ft of 15mm diameter copper pipe , the wound coil size is 200mm diameter , condenser stands up at 24'' high and have 3'' between coils, will sit in a 60 liters of water (Refuse Bin) , I will be doing 5 Gallon washes,

Do you recon this condenser worm will work OK, I keep thinking that I have the coils to close together, wont disperse the heat , there is about 10 coils in the worm.

I would really appreciate any adavice on this, I Had hells work winding this worm, I cant really open the coiles wider I have soldered support rails down the sides of the worm on every coil.

I use the same type of water container for use with my leibig condenser on a 50ltr keg, I can get a full run with no worries.

Sounds good to me

The air gap (water gap) between the coils shouldn't be all that critical... As long as all of the coils have a downward slope, and have enough gap for water to circulate trough, convection will do its job and maintain a cooling phase from top to bottom/bottom to top...

Excellent , thanks for that,

I poured the tiny trickle of water down through the worm, and waited ,thought to myself It's not going to come out the other end, then about 30 seconds later out it come , so there cant be any low spots in there , all should be OK.

The coils in my run are about 1 1/2" inches apart in a six gallon bucket. The distillate always comes out cool. You should be fine.

Old timers like atleast 7 turns on their worm. I found when your done and ready to run,take a ball bearing small enough for your worm and let it go in it. Itshould run freely thru. That way you know there isn't any restrictions or coil raised too high
in the coil.

Little Lukie wrote:Old timers like atleast 7 turns on their worm. I found when your done and ready to run,take a ball bearing small enough for your worm and let it go in it. Itshould run freely thru. That way you know there isn't any restrictions or coil raised too high
in the coil.

Nice to see ya back posting again Lukie... how did all the other stuff go?

Stillin again. or just cruisin through?

I'd presume that to be 7 turns for luck more than anything... Some of those old timers were pretty superstitious...

Ihaven't fired up in awhile.Just laying low.You know this stuff gets in your blood.

Little Lukie wrote:You know this stuff gets in your blood.

usually through the digetive tract.

Little Lukie wrote:Ihaven't fired up in awhile.Just laying low.You know this stuff gets in your blood.

Yep.

I'm out in the shed most afternoons, even when i'm not runnin, i'm doin somethin related.





HopeSheSettlesDownPunkin

dont know why you guys go so big

CLICK THE PIC


see my worm condencer on the right

its 4Mt of 12.5mm coiled to fit in the 60mm tube and the water flow i need to keep it cool is less than the thickness of a match stick

Sounds fine to me. Had an almost identical setup using 10~12ft of half inch pipe and sitting in a 60L plastic bin of water. From a cold start it got warm, but if you use some large blocks of ice this will help. I find soft drink or milk bottles work well, just cut away the plastic to let you get to the ice and let a few float in the water. I ended up going air-cooled because I find it more conveniant.

Cheers - boingk

G'day everyone, I used to run a pot still and I felt bad about all the water it was using so I made a worm condenser. I got a piece of 1/2" copper, 6 meters long and wound it round an oxy bottle. I cant remember what size, maybe 8". I found a 20 gallon steel drum and fitted it inside, brazing it in place. I used it like that for about 5 years only having to top it up before each run as a litre or two would evaporate. The top 1/3 of the drum would get quite warm during the run but the other 2/3 was stone cold. It saved a lot of water in the time I used it, so I didn't feel bad about drinking a lot.

I have 3/8 tubing with 4 coils at 8" diameter and about 3" between coils in a 5 gallon bucket. I could run 5 gallons fine but my boiler will only hold 3. So when I refill it I refill the bucket as well. I think it will work fine.