3” vm build, could use advice

[passiton]

Pot still mode. Not sure how many columns to run in this mode? But this was my guess.

1255F6E8-7C97-4EDD-A8E1-E4969B1D671F.jpeg

I would put the sight tower immediately after the boiler and use a much shorter column in a pot still configuration.

Ok, glass is moved, column lowered, and a new parrot. How does this height and set up look?

[passiton]

I must say, even being a novice I can appreciate the modular design as you can do so many things with it.

[passiton]

Otis, shady lane and yummy rum, thanks for all your help. I have read so many of all your current and old posts. SALUTE & CHEERS to you

[kimbodious]

I must say, even being a novice I can appreciate the modular design as you can do so many things with it.

See that join on the lyne arm? That is where the gin basket goes !

[passiton]

I finally had a chance to run the DW wash this weekend, I Split the 22-24 gallons of wash into 3 runs for practice. I stripped down to about 18-20% for better or worst and the start of the collection run was about 65%. Pics are jars from all the runs. Next weekend I’m planning on doing the spirit run. I have no idea what to expect other than what I have read from you guys and gals on this site, should be a learning experience, hopefully a good one. Lol.

[Deplorable]

I am intrigued by that apparatus on top of your cooling water vessel. What is that?
Nice rig by the way. Love that polish on the keg. Thats a lot of work.

[passiton]

I am intrigued by that apparatus on top of your cooling water vessel. What is that?
Nice rig by the way. Love that polish on the keg. Thats a lot of work.

Thanks Deplorable, it was a lot of work to somewhat polish the keg and copper.They will probably never look so nice as I doubt I’ll be polishing them in the future. On top of the cooling barrel is just a board with two ports for cooling lines (I have two pumps) and two dump valves. The dump valves are there so I’m not over working pumps and have them fail prematurely. They are large fountain pumps with high flow. So my theory is that if I decide to restrict flow of cooling return lines, I can open dump valves and dump excess flow back to the reservoir, and pumps won’t be over pressurizing them selves. At least that’s my theory. One pump is for product condenser and the other is for the reflux condenser when used.

[passiton]

I do need to find a better way of keeping water cool. I did have to add 2 of these 3gallon frozen jugs of water like giant ice cubes. I really don’t want to have to be adding cold city water during a run. If I could find an old window ac unit I might try bending the cooling fins down into a cooler or look for other options. To bad I don’t have a creek running through my yard.

[passiton]

Sorry for all the added comments but I have a question: when I stripped my 22-24 gallons of wash, I kept in separate jars from my stripping runs about 16oz or 475 ml combined of four shots from the 3 stripping runs. When I do my spirt run, do I need to collect four shots again? Or should I just put the collected four shots back in when I do spirt run and cut them with the heads? For this vodka run.

[zed255]

I personally always start up slow, wether stripping or spirit run, and collect the nastiest fores with each and every run. Even if I collect a generous amount on the strip there will still be some in the spirit run to take.

[passiton]

One of those quarts will not make it to the spirt run. Lol the Death wish recipe is really good even on the stripping run. Can’t wait to taste the spirt run.

[passiton]

SUCCESS!! I just completed my very first ever VM run and I’m pleasantly happy. This contraption actually worked and produced 95% from a few strip runs watered down to 40% I couldn’t be happier. And I’ve learned so much. I was surprised at how the leftover liquid in the keg looked after the vm spirt run. It was changed with clear 40% low wines from the striping run. And after the vm spirt run it looked nasty, almost the same yellowish color of the mash for the striping run. But I’m guessing the column did it’s job and clarified the spirt even more leaving behind all the leftovers???

THANKS GUYS FOR ALL YOUR HELP. This site and people are great wealth of knowledge.

I would like to come up with a better cooling method, that’s my next project.

I guess this brings this thread to end. Thanks again for the help.

[subbrew]

Passiton - thanks so much for this thread. I am new myself and have been collecting parts for a build. I had planned on one very similar to what you have so I gained a few pointers from what you did. I believe you soldered everything, no TIG, is that correct? And if so any problems with the 6" ferrule handling the load of the column?

You seem to have thought through a lot of options so I will ask you this. Did you consider glass marbles for packing? I see I could get 3/8 or 1/2 by the 4 lb bag for a cheap enough price. It seems they would clean easily if you had a run that left residue.

[passiton]

Passiton - thanks so much for this thread. I am new myself and have been collecting parts for a build. I had planned on one very similar to what you have so I gained a few pointers from what you did. I believe you soldered everything, no TIG, is that correct? And if so any problems with the 6" ferrule handling the load of the column?

You seem to have thought through a lot of options so I will ask you this. Did you consider glass marbles for packing? I see I could get 3/8 or 1/2 by the 4 lb bag for a cheap enough price. It seems they would clean easily if you had a run that left residue.

Subbrew, sorry for the late reply, I haven’t been around in a while. I have considered marbles but have not tried them. I have only tried two types of packing, copper mesh and lava rocks. I found the lava rocks to produce the highest ABV, I smashed them with a hammer and collected the pieces that were 3/8” and filled the whole column below the sight glass and used some copper mesh at both ends to hold it in.

[passiton]

Passiton - thanks so much for this thread. I am new myself and have been collecting parts for a build. I had planned on one very similar to what you have so I gained a few pointers from what you did. I believe you soldered everything, no TIG, is that correct? And if so any problems with the 6" ferrule handling the load of the column?

You seem to have thought through a lot of options so I will ask you this. Did you consider glass marbles for packing? I see I could get 3/8 or 1/2 by the 4 lb bag for a cheap enough price. It seems they would clean easily if you had a run that left residue.

The 6” ferrule, I brazed it on using safety-silv 45-45% silver 1/16” brazing rod. With stay-silv white paste flux and a acetylene plumbers touch. I have had no problems with it holding the weight of the column. I also used the same rod and flux with some of the ferrules on the copper column sections, but this process requires high heat. I later used stay-brite #8 solder and stay-clean liquid flux on some ferrules to column sections and found it to be much easier and u can use a propane torch as it takes way less heat to solder vrs braze, but it is weaker than brazing.This all worked for me but was a learning experience and I practiced on a lot of copper and stainless before doing it to my still parts. if you can tig weld that would always be better but I have had no problems with the process I used. I wish you all the best.

[passiton]

Brazing and soldering are two very different things and take different fluxes and heat. Copper and stainless heat at different rates and flux is very easy to over heat. I am no expert at either, practice,practice,practice until you are comfortable with it. Good luck, you can do it!

[Salt Must Flow]

Passiton - thanks so much for this thread. I am new myself and have been collecting parts for a build. I had planned on one very similar to what you have so I gained a few pointers from what you did. I believe you soldered everything, no TIG, is that correct? And if so any problems with the 6" ferrule handling the load of the column?

You seem to have thought through a lot of options so I will ask you this. Did you consider glass marbles for packing? I see I could get 3/8 or 1/2 by the 4 lb bag for a cheap enough price. It seems they would clean easily if you had a run that left residue.

I bought 2 bags of this 3/8" Lava Rock from Home Depot. I found a plastic kitty litter scooper worked like a 3/8" sieve/screen. Whatever fell through the screen I separated out and kept what stayed inside the screen. I'm just not willing to handle each piece individually so this worked out very well for me. One bag just wasn't enough, but I have a good amount of extra, proper sized lava rock. My 3" VM column has 4-5 rolls of copper mesh then 40" of lava rock and produces 95%-96% consistently and have reached as high as 4 lph at 3025W (55% power with 5500W element). I think that's close to how people say SPP performs. I have had no flooding issues at all either.