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shadylane wrote:The pressure seal is the shaft bushing being immersed in the wash
The homemade top seal stops the little bet of leakage

I once had a few drops fruit must squeezed slowly up through between the bushing and the shaft when I had overpressure, because must was puked into the packing. I had to stop the run. Not because of the agitator seal, but because of column flooding.

Mtr_Distiller wrote:You could consider using a pneumatic powered tool for the mod. You want to have very low rpm though.

I forgot to say thanks for the idea
Found this idea on the internet, It's a simple way to run a stepper motor on AC
It uses a Capacitor to supply the 90' phase shift needed to drive the motors B winding
Don't know if it will work yet

whatever design you settle on, it will be worth it. i noticed a dramatic reduction in smearing when i added an agitator...and then again when i added a bigger one.Getting the whole mash to temperature, instead of just the layer around the heat source seems to be one of the keys to improved booze/

i used a sealed 220 vac AC motor into a right angle 100:1 reduction gear box onto some big propellers. all home made and salvage from other dumb ideas- the bearing seal that i bought was pretty dear though... over a 100 as i remember it... the whole thing turns at only 17 rpm but the fins are big enough to move the mash thoroughly.

HDNB wrote:whatever design you settle on, it will be worth it. i noticed a dramatic reduction in smearing when i added an agitator...and then again when i added a bigger one. Getting the whole mash to temperature, instead of just the layer around the heat source seems to be one of the keys to improved booze

The capacitor driver is a bust, kinda figured it would be.
Here's a prototype driver that works
Now I need to stuff it in a box

Here's the latest development on the electric agitator

Looking good, man. I was thinking about this earlier tonight, looking at the steam kettle I just dragged home.

The thing is, I was just thinking it’d be nice to have the agitator for mashing, I didn’t even think about using it while distilling. That’s pretty cool.

How big is that stepper? Are you just leaving it on continuously?

The stepper motor is a nema 17 running on 24v @ 2amps and it runs continuously
As expected it shortened the warm up time.
And it really helped cut down on smearing
Next build will have a much bigger propeller and the motor to drive it.

mine increased warm up time. prolly because the juice around the steam jacket would start to produce as the heat worked into it.

mixing the whole mass it all boils at the same time.

You right, on my boiler with an internal electric heater. An agitator did slightly increase the time for it to start dripping

shadylane wrote: ↑Wed Aug 15, 2018 9:18 pm The stepper motor is a nema 17 running on 24v @ 2amps and it runs continuously
As expected it shortened the warm up time.
And it really helped cut down on smearing
Next build will have a much bigger propeller and the motor to drive it.

Are you still using the same unit as in this thread or did you step things up Shadylane?

its so nice seeing other peoples ideas and yours kinda match up im looking to take an old kitchenaid stand mixer and add a mash paddle and mount it to the top of a 15 gal cook keg...obviously i see you guys doing it in the still for on grain stillin of fruit but the same idea works for my stuff. very slick idea with the da sander

cayars wrote: ↑Sun Jan 19, 2020 5:04 am

shadylane wrote: ↑Wed Aug 15, 2018 9:18 pm The stepper motor is a nema 17 running on 24v @ 2amps and it runs continuously
As expected it shortened the warm up time.
And it really helped cut down on smearing
Next build will have a much bigger propeller and the motor to drive it.

Are you still using the same unit as in this thread or did you step things up Shadylane?

I'm currently using a "modified" drill motor,
It's pulsed on for 5 seconds and off for a minute.