Copper worm

[Fiddleford]

So I was doing some cleaning with my worm today which involved me corking the bottom and filling it with vinegar, I let it soak a few hours then uncork it and pour out the slightly blue vinegar. I then went to rinse it out with hot water which is a new step I didn't know you had to do that beforehand, I have one of thous shower heads with the hose attachments so I ran the water hot and put it through the coil and what came out of the coil was alot of a copper colored liquid which was a curious find. I had thought nothing of it because I did a molasses run and it puked a little so I just thought it was molasses. I let it sit and dry for a while, I got curious again and ran hot water through it again and the copper colored liquid came out again so I collected some in a jar. It's settled and it looks like copper powder and when I stir it it just stirs.

I don't know what to think of it but a few things come to mind, though I'm no chemist

[Fiddleford]

I didn't know where to put this so to be safe I threw it in off topic

[NZChris]

I have a copper worm that I like to dry thoroughly as sometimes it can be a long time between runs. I built it a blower using an old 12V CPU fan that can be fitted to blow air through it overnight. It gets rid of a lot of the fusel smells too.

[Fiddleford]

I'll have to make something like that, I got a shit tonne of old IBM machines and the fans work on em so I can recycle that eh.

[contrahead]

Many people initially clean a new still by cooking vinegar; running the steam through everything -without coolant. It stinks. The first stripping runs afterwards will likely show a little blue. Subjecting copper to acetic acid (vinegar) as you did, creates copper sulfate also.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper%28II%29_sulfate" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
https://sciencing.com/effects-oxidation ... 13905.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

I use a worm; a 20' coil of tubing. Usually I am happy that I use a worm because it ensures that the ethanol vapor will have maximum surface contact with copper. A “longer conversation” with copper is beneficial because more impurities are drawn out of the product. But where do those impurities go?

A drawback to using a worm is the cleaning aspect. Over time you'll build up a slime that clings to the packing of your riser and possibly to the walls of your worm also. This happens much faster if your still pukes. The efficiency of your still will drop and on later runs your product might start coming out murky with lipids and fatty acids that haven't been trapped. Sodium hypochlorite rinses will help remove that slime. Lye (sodium hydroxide) is even more caustic and should do better at removing these oils and paraffins. But dry or not the inside walls of the worm will likely remain dark and oxidized. You can't get in there with steel wool or sandpaper to rub the oxidization off.

If you collect your fore-shots instead of throwing them away because they may contain methanol; then you might soak the inside of the worm with this. The next link explains that dirty copper is reduced by ethanol. (Reduction is the opposite of oxidization). The last link is just a parallel topic from out of the past.

https://melscience.com/en/articles/meth ... oxidation/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=22828

[Fiddleford]

when I made the worm I filled it with a vinegar salt solution which I always use and it always cleans my copper very well, never have any problems with left over discoloring, I still have the jar of liquids its blue as coolaid. Then I did a sacrificial run and the distillate was clear but I disposed of it anyway. I think it may have been the molasses run puking because there is no particulate in the bottom of the tub. So is it possible to use the heads/ fores to clean the worm, just let them sit in there for a while collect them and store em. The brown liquid seems to have stopped so it may have actually been stubborn molasses. Thanks for sending me those topics especially the one on the bottom

[Pikey]

So I was doing some cleaning with my worm today which involved me corking the bottom and filling it with vinegar, I let it soak a few hours then uncork it and pour out the slightly blue vinegar. I then went to rinse it out with hot water which is a new step I didn't know you had to do that beforehand, I have one of thous shower heads with the hose attachments so I ran the water hot and put it through the coil and what came out of the coil was alot of a copper colored liquid which was a curious find. I had thought nothing of it because I did a molasses run and it puked a little so I just thought it was molasses. I let it sit and dry for a while, I got curious again and ran hot water through it again and the copper colored liquid came out again so I collected some in a jar. It's settled and it looks like copper powder and when I stir it it just stirs.

I don't know what to think of it but a few things come to mind, though I'm no chemist

Assuming you have clear water going in and mucky water coming out as you say - there is muck stuck in the worm which yu are washing out.

It's not blue so it sn't copper sulphate.

Personally, I'd keep washing it until it was clean - but others like to run a mucky still.

[Fiddleford]

Assuming you have clear water going in and mucky water coming out as you say - there is muck stuck in the worm which yu are washing out.

It's not blue so it sn't copper sulphate.

Personally, I'd keep washing it until it was clean - but others like to run a mucky still.

I ran hot water through it a few times to see if it happened again, it didn't it ran clean so I think my worm is clean. smells like copper and backings still but I'm not worried yet. I'm running the thing on a fire I'm not expecting top notch stuff just as good stuff as i can make it

[The Baker]

WAY, WAY back in the day there was no alternative to running a still 'on a fire'.

And some of them made some pretty classy stuff.

Look up Charentais still.

So don't get a complex, just get it right.

Geoff

[Alchemist75]

I know when I do my cleaning I get some pretty nasty stuff coming off the insides of the plumbing. Hot vinegar and salt flushes followed up with scrubbing with long brushes and a final water rinse. The brushes come back outta there with yellow stuff on em after the vinegar flush. I'm probably excessively anal about how I go about it but I'd sooner be thorough than risk getting copper smut showing up in my product.

[Yummyrum]

-+1 The Baker

Also my tuppence . I’ve not found vinegar all that wonderful for soaking . Best used as a steaming cleaner.
Citric Acid or better still , dilute Sulfuric acid make better soak cleaners .... but really , you onky need to do it once when you first build a still , after that a rinse with a hose is all that needed .

[Fiddleford]

-+1 The Baker

Also my tuppence . I’ve not found vinegar all that wonderful for soaking . Best used as a steaming cleaner.
Citric Acid .

So in still related hardware with copper I should just use citric acid solution for cleaning instead of vinegar. that must be why ketchup would clean my copper pipes beautifully

[Fiddleford]

I'm pretty sure water distiller detergent is some mixture of Sulfamic acid "not sulfuric" and citric acid, I have some left over from my water distiller days because I never used the stuff, I could probably use that. I've seen people use sulfamic on copper and not have any problems, I'm going to be doing some upgrading to my still so I may use this stuff if my tests go as planned

[Pikey]

-+1 The Baker

Also my tuppence . I’ve not found vinegar all that wonderful for soaking . Best used as a steaming cleaner.
Citric Acid .

So in still related hardware with copper I should just use citric acid solution for cleaning instead of vinegar. that must be why ketchup would clean my copper pipes beautifully

I've got a piccy somewhere of some 30 year old copper pipe which I cleaned up for use. just standing in citric acid solution for a couple of hours made the end few inches look completely different - like new !

[Fiddleford]

my word I had a few copper joints that were rather old and I put it in the detergent solution and they almost have a shine after hardly 5 minutes

[NZChris]

I know when I do my cleaning I get some pretty nasty stuff coming off the insides of the plumbing. Hot vinegar and salt flushes followed up with scrubbing with long brushes and a final water rinse. The brushes come back outta there with yellow stuff on em after the vinegar flush. I'm probably excessively anal about how I go about it but I'd sooner be thorough than risk getting copper smut showing up in my product.

If you've done three or four stripping runs you should have plenty of patina built up and any loose copper and oxides that have come through are in the low wines. From then on, all you have to do is not stuff up your good work by aggressive cleaning.