HbPs' lil modular thumper. Tips and pointers welcome.

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Hillbilly Popstar
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HbPs' lil modular thumper. Tips and pointers welcome.

Post by Hillbilly Popstar »

Scored a free 5 gallon stainless keg on the side of the road.

So why not a thumper to mate to my 8 gallon milk can?!

I also had a bunch of 1.5" DWV and a small section of 2" copper pipe on hand, so that pretty much dictated my sizing on everything.

Main boiler reduces to 1.5" lyne arm, which then reduces to a 1" pipe to shoot steam down into the thumper/secondary.
Then the head on that is a short modular 2" column.
The plan in the future is to add 2-2" 90s and run this to a shotgun condenser.
Shout out to Michigan Corn Husker for the inspiration and the numerous others who have gone before me with amazing modular steamer/thumper builds!

I pretty happy with everything and will braze it all up this week. The only parts I am unsure about are the lyne arm length and whether or not the 2"x2"x1" tee should be a little higher off the top of the thump keg?
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Kareltje
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Re: HbPs' lil modular thumper. Tips and pointers welcome.

Post by Kareltje »

In such a long Lyne arm you lose a lot of heat, so it will be harder to heat the thumper.
The position of the 2x2x1 T depends mainly on the size of your hands and tools. And of course a higher postion will cause some passive reflux.
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Re: HbPs' lil modular thumper. Tips and pointers welcome.

Post by Dancing4dan »

Looks like you are going to have this up and running soon. My steam system runs a long Lyne arm as well. After everything is confirmed leak free I insulate boiler, Lyne arm and thumper.

You should put a pressure relief valve between the boiler and thumper in my opinion.
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Re: HbPs' lil modular thumper. Tips and pointers welcome.

Post by Yummyrum »

Looks good Hillbilly :thumbup:

Only suggestion I could make is to add another triclamp in the lyne arm . I found that slight miss alignments and uneven ground etc sometimes made it difficult until I added it .
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Re: HbPs' lil modular thumper. Tips and pointers welcome.

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Kareltje wrote: Sat Jan 15, 2022 1:37 pm In such a long Lyne arm you lose a lot of heat, so it will be harder to heat the thumper.
The position of the 2x2x1 T depends mainly on the size of your hands and tools. And of course a higher postion will cause some passive reflux.
A. I intend on insulating the lyne arm as well as the thumper.
B. Passive reflux may or may not be a myth... its debatable.
But even on the slight chance that passive reflux is even a real thing, I guarantee that ts likely to occur above the point at which the 90 turns down inside the riser. The lyne arm, 90, and steam injector will always maintain a higher temp than the riser coming off the column. This makes any hypothetical "passive reflux" impossible below that entry point. Mayne I you should do some more reading before opining on someone else's build.
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Re: HbPs' lil modular thumper. Tips and pointers welcome.

Post by Hillbilly Popstar »

Dancing4dan wrote: Sat Jan 15, 2022 2:54 pm Looks like you are going to have this up and running soon. My steam system runs a long Lyne arm as well. After everything is confirmed leak free I insulate boiler, Lyne arm and thumper.

You should put a pressure relief valve between the boiler and thumper in my opinion.
Absolutely! A pressure release is next on my list of things to add.
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Re: HbPs' lil modular thumper. Tips and pointers welcome.

Post by NormandieStill »

Hillbilly Popstar wrote: Sat Jan 15, 2022 8:08 pm
Kareltje wrote: Sat Jan 15, 2022 1:37 pm In such a long Lyne arm you lose a lot of heat, so it will be harder to heat the thumper.
The position of the 2x2x1 T depends mainly on the size of your hands and tools. And of course a higher postion will cause some passive reflux.
A. I intend on insulating the lyne arm as well as the thumper.
B. Passive reflux may or may not be a myth... its debatable.
But even on the slight chance that passive reflux is even a real thing, I guarantee that ts likely to occur above the point at which the 90 turns down inside the riser. The lyne arm, 90, and steam injector will always maintain a higher temp than the riser coming off the column. This makes any hypothetical "passive reflux" impossible below that entry point. Mayne I you should do some more reading before opining on someone else's build.
Passve reflux is not debatable. It's a simple property of physics. Its impact on your proof may not be as high as you'd like and it's not something reliable for generating high proof with packing, but any uninsulated tube where the temperature difference is high enough is going to generate some passive reflux. I'm assuming though from your certainty that you've evaluated some mathematical models and can be certain that no amount of tube below the tee could ever be cooled enough by the ambient temperatures to cause some internal condensation? :wink:
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Re: HbPs' lil modular thumper. Tips and pointers welcome.

Post by Hillbilly Popstar »

NormandieStill wrote: Sat Jan 15, 2022 11:03 pm
Passve reflux is not debatable. It's a simple property of physics. Its impact on your proof may not be as high as you'd like and it's not something reliable for generating high proof with packing, but any uninsulated tube where the temperature difference is high enough is going to generate some passive reflux. I'm assuming though from your certainty that you've evaluated some mathematical models and can be certain that no amount of tube below the tee could ever be cooled enough by the ambient temperatures to cause some internal condensation? :wink:
I am certain that for all intent and purposes its not worth mentioning in practical discussion.
You mentioned the key words there, "high enough".
Obviously anywhere there is a temperature differential you're going to see some condensation, but I'd wager it's no appreciable amount. Also, the vapor from the lyne arm is getting injected straight into the liquid charging the thumper, does it really matter if a tiny amount of it condenses prior to hitting the liquid charge below? It's all about to get condensed and redistilled anyways.

I've run my still enough with/without packing to know it makes zero difference on the proof of the distillate.
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Re: HbPs' lil modular thumper. Tips and pointers welcome.

Post by Kareltje »

Tips and pointers welcome?
I later thought of some device that is very helpful for me, but now I will start reading some more before telling you.
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Re: HbPs' lil modular thumper. Tips and pointers welcome.

Post by Hillbilly Popstar »

Got her all welded up. Did a vinegar run, washed with soap and water, did another vinegar run, then wrapped up the sacrificial alchy run tonight.

She's ready for steam and service.
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Now I just gotta learn how to drive her. This thumper rig responds WAY different to heat input than I'd expect.

I also think I am getting a bit more passive reflux than usual through a potstill column. It seems that the tri-clamp fitting halfway up the thumper column is insulating some of the heat transfer up the column. The upper half of the column seems (by touch) significantly cooler than the half below the Teflon gasket. Maybe with some packing I can use this to my advantage. I also suspect this is something that would only work on a cold night... At any rate, more experience and testing is needed.
"Making likker with a hydrometer and thermometer is like measuring the length of a 2x4 with a clock"
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