Bokakob build

[dunluce]

I'm curious, did you calculate, or measure the liquid capacity of the "liquid cup"? The sharp angle for the slant plates suggests it might hold a couple of ounces, or 200+ ml. It's not a problem, but it will cause the "cut line points" to be a little more "fuzzy", that is, with a little more smearing. Still, a LM still is really good for compressing the heads, so it should run OK for you (as your first still).

So I keep coming back to this, and realized where I screwed up in eyeballing the plates. It's a 4ft column....should I just chop it right below the plates, and redo them, making a twice-as-short column with proper 30 degree angles?

[Yummyrum]

You will be better off with the extra packing height than sacrificing it to make a new plate section .
If you can get a small piece of 2” to make a new section then you might consider it .

[dunluce]

You will be better off with the extra packing height than sacrificing it to make a new plate section .
If you can get a small piece of 2” to make a new section then you might consider it .

That is a possibility I didn't consider, as I had to buy it in a 10ft piece - would just need a coupler.

[dunluce]

Thanks for the help with this everyone. After a couple of "test fires", I successfully completed a TPW run today.

Appreciate all the advice and help over the past few months on here. While I could absolutely have done this by trial and error, this community has been an incredible resource that has helped immensely in building my knowledge.

[Wozza]

I'm curious, did you calculate, or measure the liquid capacity of the "liquid cup"? The sharp angle for the slant plates suggests it might hold a couple of ounces, or 200+ ml. It's not a problem, but it will cause the "cut line points" to be a little more "fuzzy", that is, with a little more smearing. Still, a LM still is really good for compressing the heads, so it should run OK for you (as your first still).

So I keep coming back to this, and realized where I screwed up in eyeballing the plates. It's a 4ft column....should I just chop it right below the plates, and redo them, making a twice-as-short column with proper 30 degree angles?

The top plate is meant to direct the condensate off the condenser into the bottom one, so there needs to be an overlap. It's a little hard to tell from your piccie but it looks like there's no overlap and the condensate from the top plate would drop down the column.

This is mine - and my soldering is crap so a friend of a friend who is a plumber did the slanted plates for me.

Note the crappy insulation, which is just some foam wrapped around pieces of an old curtain wrapped in tape. I'll be getting some kosher pipe insulation to replace that.

[Saltbush Bill]

Note the crappy insulation, which is just some foam wrapped around pieces of an old curtain wrapped in tape

Your crappy insulation beats hell out of no insulation.
Im constantly amazed at the amount of people running what they consider a "reflux still" with absolutely no insulation.
A packed column without any form of insulation is not much more than a pot still with a tiny bit of reflux in my book.