http://s976.photobucket.com/albums/ae24 ... thead_000/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
Oh! I will finally be posting some pics of my car rim burner tomorrow too. For coming attractions ....tune in tomorrow.

Moderator: Site Moderator
I note you have a stainless column from the photo's, what sort of packing you got? Seems like setup looks good and your collecting in seperate vessels along the way which helps, only thing I would suggest is making sure you have clean real copper packing (not brass or stainless packing, but that is probably stating the obvious). My first pot still was stainless and had a stainless scrubber, swapping it to copper packing made a very noticible improvement. Also give it time to equalibriate and don't push it too hard for a neutral. Try a slower run than you usually do and see if that helps, failing that, revisit your wash recipies. Sorry that's all I could suggest, I sometimes scratch my head when things don't work out as I planned them myself... good luck.My spirots still have a bit of an "off" smell to them when I pull them off though. I am not sure where the smell is from, but it does not seem to go away with airing even. I let my last collected spirits sit out for about 4 days and they still had an off smell. I may have gotten some heads or tails in my product last time, but I am sure I got it right this time, only collecting ~300 mLs/jar and the smell of heads is still present. Not sure what I can do, but I would appreciate some feedback
Hooch, I do have loads of copper in the vapor path. I have the column packed from the top of the boiler to the T where the lyne arm comes off with copper mesh. I am sure I am not getting to 95% because I don't have any plates in the column. I wasn't aware that this was part of the reflux design until after I had built it. I may gotten some heads in the product as you say.mrhooch wrote:+1 on the if you ain't got copper, put some copper in the path. For % remember you need 13 cm of scubbies for each plate, and the jump from 93 to 95 is at least 4-5 plates.
Casper, before you go futzing around, you've got a portal into what your flux coil is doing, with the side attachment. See if the trickle is down the middle or running down the sides.
Are you collecting heads? There are heads in column distilling, as well as foreshots. Heads get pretty stinky. I ran it cup by cup one time and checked where the good stuff was, you might need to do what once or twice.
Hooch.
Kiwi, I was running a bird wash last night. I will definately get those centering rings in there before I run my next wash. I will have to do another cleaning run too, but as you say, it should get me to 95% easily.what wash was this using?
Also, I'd definately go for the centering rings. should get you up to 95% I'd say. Going up from the bottom, put them at 40-50cm spacing. It isn't nessesary to have one right at the top where the ABV is so high (lower surface tension).
hmmm yes use something with a wildly different surface tension to what you actually are interested inmrhooch wrote: Try using a trickle of water approximating the reflux, and see what happens at the bottom, if its running down the sides, it will impact the final percentage.
You collect all distillate until it is that hot. It seems pretty high to me. I read on the parent site that after approximately 180 degrees, the product coming off wasn't worth messing with. After mine got up to around 180 degrees F, the collection rate dropped way down. Even when I bumped up the heat, it still came out at a trickle. What should my collection rate be at so I am still able to get a good neutral product? 5 hours just seemed like a long time to run for an 18 liter wash and I got little product to show for it. Just seems rather odd when I should potentially get around 2 liters of product out of the wash. Any thoughts?mrhooch wrote:I personally use a big ass thermometer in my pot, or you can attach one to the base of the column to tell you when all the alcohol is gone (when it hits 212), I stop at 210, yes there is a bit left in it, but it's crud.