New (1st) build: build liebig or buy this shotgun

Anything cooling/condenser related.

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Bee
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Re: New (1st) build: build liebig or buy this shotgun

Post by Bee »

Good point about a bucket handling overflows. Another plus in it's corner.

From what I've witnessed, vapor is fairly heavy so it sinks and as it fills the bucket, it rises up out of the bucket, like an overflow. If the bucket isn't there, it is going to immediately drop to ground level and spread.

Nothing wrong with a long Liebig if that's what you like. Also nothing stopping a guy from lengthening the output portion of a shotgun.
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Re: New (1st) build: build liebig or buy this shotgun

Post by The Baker »

Bee wrote: Tue Feb 09, 2021 8:04 am Good point about a bucket handling overflows. Another plus in it's corner.

From what I've witnessed, vapor is fairly heavy so it sinks and as it fills the bucket, it rises up out of the bucket, like an overflow. If the bucket isn't there, it is going to immediately drop to ground level and spread.
Gotcha. And someone somewhere said there would probably be some diffusion into the air with attendant risk.

Nothing wrong with a long Liebig if that's what you like. Also nothing stopping a guy from lengthening the output portion of a shotgun.
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Re: New (1st) build: build liebig or buy this shotgun

Post by Deplorable »

Bee wrote: Tue Feb 09, 2021 8:04 am
Nothing wrong with a long Liebig if that's what you like. Also nothing stopping a guy from lengthening the output portion of a shotgun.
I have a 20" long length of 1/2 inch copper pipe added to the length of my shotgun for safety and conveineince of collection. Not that I think Im going to have uncondensed vapor escaping my condenser, but you never know when Murphy's law will strike. That's also reason enough to not rely on a slip fit of the reducer on the end of your shotgun sitting over the top of a glass collection jar. Even running electric heat and no exposed flame, the loss of a jar full of hearts would be enough to keep me from taking the risk, but you do what ever you want in your shed.
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Re: New (1st) build: build liebig or buy this shotgun

Post by Saltbush Bill »

To lengthen the out put end of a shot gun to any degree you will also have to run it at quite a shallow angle.
This in turn will cause spirit to pool within the shotty, which in turn can cuase smearing.
You can modify the way the tubes are set in the shell to avoid such things but its just more work and complication for something that can be achieved with a simple liebig build.
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Re: New (1st) build: build liebig or buy this shotgun

Post by Bee »

You should try slipping a 2"x1/2" reducer over a piece of 2" sometime. The chance of it slipping off is about zero. It's tough to pull off. And I don't think it's just the pieces I happen to have.

I'm also glad that I didn't mess with trying to get a 2" ferrule soldered into the 2 1/8" ID female reducer.
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Re: New (1st) build: build liebig or buy this shotgun

Post by Yummyrum »

I run an extension on my shotty . Can angle it up /down .
Shotty stays vertical .
8DD5EA0C-96B8-45F4-9D9A-584056EAD93F.jpeg
I built my long Liebig after my Flute . In hind sight , could have used the liebig on the flute but at the time , Shottys on flutes were all the rage .
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Re: New (1st) build: build liebig or buy this shotgun

Post by Saltbush Bill »

See your point Yummy yes works fine on a taller column,
I was thinking a potty with short column.
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Re: New (1st) build: build liebig or buy this shotgun

Post by Yummyrum »

Saltbush Bill wrote: Tue Feb 09, 2021 12:07 pm See your point Yummy yes works fine on a taller column,
I was thinking a potty with short column.
For sure that can be a problem . Last weekend I was using Flute with three plates and the elbow was nearly halfway down the keg , could only just fit a flagon under the funnel .
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Re: New (1st) build: build liebig or buy this shotgun

Post by RC Al »

Dont get me wrong, I love my liebig and am itching to hook up some more GG's to see how fast it can actually go.

My difficulties lay more in my stilling area lay out and my laziness in re organising the shed and adding appropriate shelves n stuff.

My liebig dose indeed hang from the ceiling, but currently theres about 6ft of 2" going into a 4" product condenser, also hanging by wires from the roof in its place though.

I do use a loose small stainless sink most times under the cut jars, but no plug, its just to catch little spills. The idea of filling a bucket with vapour and letting it over flow? madness, you then have a concentrated pool of vapour to go bang around the jar of high test booze.

Yummys is held on by a lovely stainless compression union :thumbup: very different to slipping an reducer on, I build some of my stuff, im fully aware you can make a slip joint very tight (store bought reducers are generally not tight), you could most likely do some ptfe tape to seal it up really well, but I am not comfortable with that - this aint water. Hell ive even seen clamp on bits with a breather for parrot extensions, count me out there too on gas.

At the end of the day for gas a long liebig is better, you are only going to end up using more small tubing to get away from the flame with a shotty, that you could have built the liebig with.

I wouldnt mind building a double barrel liebig, the one posted last year seems to work fine and I would like to explore if it would be more resistant to huffing than a single (Im fine, I fixed my huffing issues a long time ago, that needle valve was kinda expensive though lols), hmm, think i have time this weekend, clean shed or build stuff... :roll: :lol:
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Re: New (1st) build: build liebig or buy this shotgun

Post by Demy »

I don't know if it helps but my liebig has a detachable and adjustable end. I built it years ago, I believe that liebig or rifle is the same as long as it breaks down the vapors, they are 2 different tools that we can adapt to our needs but they do the same job.
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Re: New (1st) build: build liebig or buy this shotgun

Post by Twisted Brick »

Saltbush Bill wrote: Tue Feb 09, 2021 11:43 am To lengthen the out put end of a shot gun to any degree you will also have to run it at quite a shallow angle.
This in turn will cause spirit to pool within the shotty, which in turn can cuase smearing.
I haven't experienced this with my shotty, Bill. It appears there is simply too little area to collect anything to smear. The distance between the shotty wall and the lowest oriented vapor tube is 2mm. This follows the standard shotgun vapor tube pitch layout for 4 x 1/2"ID tubes in a 2" shell, which really is the only way to configure four tubes. The endplate in this pic represents a 2" shell oriented at 35° to horizontal, 10° more shallow than where I run mine.
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Endplate .jpg
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I didn't think twice about possible pooling until I saw this post on shotgun smearing and still_stirrin's assessment of the fluid dynamics involved. Now curious, following my next strip run I quietly snuck up on my shotty (sshhh!) and performed an examination. I pulled my shotty off the still, carefully maintaining the angle it which it ran. There were a few drops resting in that 2mm space, maybe the result of post-shutdown residual vapors from the boiler on a now-cooled condenser. Seeing that made me think the push of the incoming vapors from the boiler (through a 2" tube) and the pull of collapsing vapor as it hits the (4 x 1/2") cold vapor tube walls must create a sort of suction into the condenser. The fact that the condenser shell is way too hot to touch where it clamps to the lyne arm, and then sharply becomes cold about 2" in suggests this vacuum might have a significant 'tugging' effect on the vapor coming its way.

Maybe an engineer or someone more knowledgeable could confirm if this happens.
Last edited by Twisted Brick on Sat Feb 13, 2021 6:45 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: New (1st) build: build liebig or buy this shotgun

Post by Saltbush Bill »

Your tubes are very close to the shell wall TB so probably no problem at all in that regard, point I was trying to make is that not all are made so well and some could have the potential to pool.
I still say that a liebig is more than adequate in most cases and a whole lot easier , faster and less frustrating for a first time builder to construct.
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Re: New (1st) build: build liebig or buy this shotgun

Post by Bee »

There's nothing to speak of pooled at the end of a shotgun at the end of a run, even if it was at an angle. You get more smearing collecting in 1/2pt jars.
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