Goofy things I do

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cranky
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Re: Goofy things I do

Post by cranky »

Me too, that sucks Frodo, Hope everything works out well.
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raketemensch
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Re: Goofy things I do

Post by raketemensch »

frodo wrote:my wife is really bad sick, they are running a bunch of tests,,

it has put a stop to any builds for awhile,

lotta copays and special diet
Thoughts are with you, frodo.
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Re: Goofy things I do

Post by Hound Dog »

Best to you and her Frodo.
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Re: Goofy things I do

Post by Danespirit »

I hope she will be alright soon, Frodo..
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bearriver
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Re: Goofy things I do

Post by bearriver »

Frodo, you and your wife will be in my best wishes and thoughts.

Bless the both of you.
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cranky
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Re: Goofy things I do

Post by cranky »

I ran my flute the other day and had a leak :( This thing is a real pain to take apart but this morning I went through the process to take all the rods loose, remove the dephleg, remove the top and 3rd mug, wrap them both all over again and put them back in. As long as I had it out I figured I would go ahead and remove the top plate and replace it with a coupling, that I happens to have from the original incarnation so it has already been through all the cleaning runs. It's all back together now and ready to go. I hope learning the sweet spot on 3 plates isn't too difficult verses 4. :)
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cranky
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Re: Goofy things I do

Post by cranky »

I found my SS flux today :D Unfortunately it had fallen on the floor, rolled underneath some stuff and leaked most of it out :( I hoped it still had enough to do what I wanted and I set about soldering everything. That went OK for the most part and they now look like this.
DD#3 - C.JPG
DD #1 - C.JPG
I hooked them up to my pump and the one that will be the top one worked fine with no leaks but the other one leaked. So I dried it off and re-soldered it and tested again and it leaked again :evil: So I used the last of my flux and re-soldered again and it seemed to work ok until I closed the valve to add pressure and it shot a stream of water all over my shoes :evil: :evil: :evil:

Now I have no more flux to try to fix it again and I need to clean it up to see if I can get it to solder when the flux I just ordered gets her.
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Oldvine Zin
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Re: Goofy things I do

Post by Oldvine Zin »

Hey Cranky I just got a big bottle of stay clean flux - do you want some ? More than happy to send some your way
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cranky
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Re: Goofy things I do

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Oldvine Zin wrote:Hey Cranky I just got a big bottle of stay clean flux - do you want some ? More than happy to send some your way
Thanks Oldvine Zin but I ordered some last night and it will be here in a few days. In truth I am a bit frustrated at the moment and probably need to take a break from it. I made a mistake this morning cleaning them up and nicked the CSST on the one that didn't leak and now I have to try to fix the holes in that and I am very close to shelving the project for at least a while. In the mean time I have a lot of stuff to work on like the 55 gallon fermenter and the apple stuff and setting up the garage to be more user friendly and as always I have to work on the porch, bathroom and kitchen :roll: .
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Re: Goofy things I do

Post by cranky »

So I guess I just can't leave things alone. This morning I took an acid brush and managed to get enough flux out of the bottle to try soldering once more. I just tested them and both condensers now seem to be leak free. I still need to clean up the one I knicked because the solder is a real ugly mess at this time and I need a smooth area for the glass to seal but at this moment there are no apparent leaks :)
Last edited by cranky on Thu Dec 31, 2015 6:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Goofy things I do

Post by yakattack »

Ladies and gentlemen, distillers from around the world. I'd like to award cranky with the award for most stubern/persistent builder on a shoe string budget award.

Yak applauding as he accepts the award.
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cranky
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Re: Goofy things I do

Post by cranky »

Thank you Yak, It's not like I really need a new product condenser but I really need something to keep my mind occupied and hands busy during the slow times at work :roll: and I was frustrated with the problems and cant stand failing. Hopefully now I can get this cleaned up and start bolting it together soon.
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Re: Goofy things I do

Post by Bushman »

I'll second the award and getting on with the Goofy things I do....I would say flying from the west coast to the east coast on New Years Day.
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cranky
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Re: Goofy things I do

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Bushman wrote:I'll second the award and getting on with the Goofy things I do....I would say flying from the west coast to the east coast on New Years Day.
I hate traveling. but usually holidays are the best days to do it. I have to work so I can't stay up and they are saying tonight will be a good one to see the northern lights :(
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cranky
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Re: Goofy things I do

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I've been having some trouble with my condensers :( it turned out I made a slight measurement error on the top CSST and it is a little wider than I had planned to make it. This makes the fit of the CSST a little tighter to the mug than I want but at this point there isn't much I can do about it. There are two problems with this #1 I have to be very careful to get the solder smoothed as close to the CSST as possible so the mug will fit. Problem #2 is the potentially biggest problem, with the glass this close to the cold CSST it could cause uneven heating of the glass which depending on a few factors could possibly stress the glass causing it to crack which would make all the work I have done largely pointless. That would be a worst case scenario of course but a real consideration and would require an extension piece to be made to move the glass away from the CSST to fix if it does happen.

Cleaning up the sloppy soldering job so the mug fit properly resulted in a small seep of cooling water. My flux arrived yesterday so I worked on trying to fix the seep and got a leak :evil: Eventually I managed to get the whole thing leak free and the mug to fit over it :D Then I tested the lower section one more time and it also had a small seep :evil: but it was on the outside so it wouldn't contaminate the product if I couldn't fix it. Fortunately I did manage to fix it :ebiggrin:

Now I'm getting close to being able to assemble and test this whole thing, close enough to to give you guys an idea of what I see in my mind.
DD#7 - C.JPG
The parts have been scrubbed and will be going through the dish washer today or tomorrow and I should be able to start assembling the whole thing for cleaning and testing soon.
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Oldvine Zin
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Re: Goofy things I do

Post by Oldvine Zin »

Looking cool Cranky!!!!!!
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cranky
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Re: Goofy things I do

Post by cranky »

Oldvine Zin wrote:Looking cool Cranky!!!!!!
Thanks :D I can say an art still can be a lot of work and frustration but I think this will have some serious cool factor and finally match the column.
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Re: Goofy things I do

Post by Oldvine Zin »

:thumbup:
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Re: Goofy things I do

Post by Copper Thumper »

I like it cranky, thank you for a post with lots of PICTURES!!!!


I think using mugs is hilarious, and you certainly found the "bottomless" mug. Haha


I have a defleg on my flute too- I love showing pics of the bigger still without it hooked up and having someone see all the plates and tell me how I'm an idiot. ;)



(AND NO MODS- I WAS NOT INSINUATING THAT CRANKY GAVE ME A HARD TIME ABOUT MY FLUTE.)


Sorry crank...I made a comment once to croweater about how crow tastes ok but I only recommend eating the breasts because it's greasey and I got threatened with a ban- no I'm not lying lol.

I'm going to check the rest of the thread out but I think it's COOL.
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cranky
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Re: Goofy things I do

Post by cranky »

Thanks Copper Thumper,
I like my posts like this to me both entertaining and informative, When I see a build thread I like to see lots of pictures so I try to post like I like to see them and it gives people an idea of how to do things cheaply, my biggest expense is solder, I used almost another half pound of it on this condenser alone.

Of course I have to give credit where credit is due, the original Idea of the mugs was Mash Rookies, his builds inspired a lot of people and I've always liked the medium of glass. I do like adding my own crazy spin to things and it is funny and fun :ebiggrin: Another thing I was considering since I took a plate out was making yet another dephleg and using that plate to make a single plate mini-muggles :crazy:

I actually really like this flute, I can see virtually everything that's going on, the handles give me something to hold onto when I set it up and take it down or fill the boiler, and it does a really nice job.

Before I do my next cleaning runs I think I'm going to add a 1" fill port to my boiler to make it easier to refill for multiple runs. When I initially set the boiler up I never really intended to move past a simple pot still and boka which were easy to disconnect for filling, boy was I wrong :roll: If I had a fill port I would probably already be finished with all my apple runs and maybe even the rum.

I ran the parts through the dishwasher last night so I am just about ready to start assembling them but I realized yesterday that the pieces of all thread I have are too short so I need to go buy another rod or two before I can put this together.
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Re: Goofy things I do

Post by cranky »

Today I assembled my new double dimroth muggles condenser :ebiggrin: Here are some pictures from different angles.
DD#8 - C.JPG
DD#9 - C.JPG
DD#10 - C.JPG
It is very heavy so it may require a support but we will just have to see. I'm pretty excited about being so close to finished and really want to do testing, cleaning and make a run but I need to be patient and I would prefer to do a unicorn sweat or cheerios run through it but I don't have any ready at this time and my garage is too cold to ferment anything right now so it may get to do the rum for it's inaugural run.

As I was putting this together it occurred to me that it looks like a steam punk weapon so I have started looking at plasma balls on Amazon and plan on making a cage around one that attaches to the inlet of the condenser so it can be displayed on my desk or on a shelf when not in use :lol:
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Re: Goofy things I do

Post by raketemensch »

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why this is such an aptly-named thread.

It'll be interesting to watch condensation happen -- I've seen a million videos of vaporization, but none of condensation.
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cranky
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Re: Goofy things I do

Post by cranky »

raketemensch wrote: It'll be interesting to watch condensation happen -- I've seen a million videos of vaporization, but none of condensation.
That's what I thought, it should be very similar to what the dephleg does and I think two coils is real overkill but it will be cool to watch. I hope to get a video of it but feel a little uneasy about asking Scow69 to host another one of my videos but I would like to share it so maybe I will ask for one more.
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Re: Goofy things I do

Post by Monkeyman88 »

cranky wrote:
raketemensch wrote: It'll be interesting to watch condensation happen -- I've seen a million videos of vaporization, but none of condensation.
That's what I thought, it should be very similar to what the dephleg does and I think two coils is real overkill but it will be cool to watch. I hope to get a video of it but feel a little uneasy about asking Scow69 to host another one of my videos but I would like to share it so maybe I will ask for one more.
I'd happily upload it for you. I'm in New Zealand so no worries of any law man.
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cranky
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Re: Goofy things I do

Post by cranky »

Monkeyman88 wrote:
cranky wrote:
raketemensch wrote: It'll be interesting to watch condensation happen -- I've seen a million videos of vaporization, but none of condensation.
That's what I thought, it should be very similar to what the dephleg does and I think two coils is real overkill but it will be cool to watch. I hope to get a video of it but feel a little uneasy about asking Scow69 to host another one of my videos but I would like to share it so maybe I will ask for one more.
I'd happily upload it for you. I'm in New Zealand so no worries of any law man.
I'll have to let you know when I get the next one together. :D
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Re: Goofy things I do

Post by Monkeyman88 »

cranky wrote:
Monkeyman88 wrote:
cranky wrote:
raketemensch wrote: It'll be interesting to watch condensation happen -- I've seen a million videos of vaporization, but none of condensation.
That's what I thought, it should be very similar to what the dephleg does and I think two coils is real overkill but it will be cool to watch. I hope to get a video of it but feel a little uneasy about asking Scow69 to host another one of my videos but I would like to share it so maybe I will ask for one more.
I'd happily upload it for you. I'm in New Zealand so no worries of any law man.
I'll have to let you know when I get the next one together. :D
No worries :-)
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Re: Goofy things I do

Post by Oldvine Zin »

Love the look cranky :thumbup: and would like to see it in operation
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Re: Goofy things I do

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Oldvine Zin wrote:Love the look cranky :thumbup: and would like to see it in operation
Thanks :D I'll try to get a video when I run it.

This might be better placed in HDanon or maybe the steal my thread thread but today I came home to a dead computer. Last night my mouse froze and I did a forced shut down to let it rest and when I got home this afternoon it wouldn't turn on :evil: I just spent the last hour and a half on the floor of my home office tearing apart 3 different computers to get back up and running so I can talk to you guys :D I do have a laptop but I like sitting in my comfortable expensive ($35 at goodwill or $4000 in the store so not expensive to me but expensive just the same :moresarcasm: ) office chair with my feet up and cat on my lap when I talk to you. I guess 8 years is about the limit for one of these things so I am going to have to break down and buy a new computer I'm not very happy about it though because I don't want windows 10
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Re: Goofy things I do

Post by RedwoodHillBilly »

cranky wrote:I'm not very happy about it though because I don't want windows 10
+1

I still have a new copy of win7 pro that I'm going to use to upgrade a win 8.1 machine to. You can still get win7 pro http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product if you are comfortable doing the install. Just be careful about a couple of the "updates" that nag you go "downgrade" :evil: to win 10.
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Re: Goofy things I do

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cranky wrote:I guess 8 years is about the limit for one of these things so I am going to have to break down and buy a new computer I'm not very happy about it though because I don't want windows 10
You can still order new PC's and laptops with Windows 7... I just received a text saying that a Windows 7 Professional Dell laptop has shipped... I order them all the time... Windows 7 or Windows 10... If anyone has Windows 8 or 8.1 they're better off upgrading to Windows 10... If you have Windows 7, keep it rather than upgrading... I use a utility that permanently disables OS upgrade offers on Windows 7 computers and removes all the Windows 10 nag crap...
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