Tell us about your mistakes.

[backwoodsboy]

myles,
glad your ok, that would not have been good if you left it burning. did u get leak fixed?

[myles]

Yes. Its right to keep the important things in focus. The leak is fine and the build is progressing - slowly - other commitments getting in the way.

[Aussie Beamophile]

I posted this inthe Novice section and it was suggested I add it here as well so here goes........

Hi all!

I had a dickhead moment over the christmas break that I thought I would share (yes I am prepared for the ribbing I am about to receive ) in the hope that any newbies to this hobby may learn a lesson.

I keep all my "fores" for BBQ starter fluid.

I keep them in a chemical proof heavy duty plastic bottle that looks like a tomato sauce/ketchup bottle with a a pointy spout and warnings embossed on the sides.

Christmas day I was lighting the Weber BBQ, gave it a good dousing of UJSM fores, tossed in a match and we were away and racing. The day was a bit windy and after a few minutes it appeared to have gone out. A close inspection showed it had, so after another splash of fores and another match, we were off again.

A few minutes later, same problem. Another quick squirt of fores and BANG !

The bottle exploded in my hand. It split down the length of the seam in the side of the bottle with a bang that was heard 2 doors down the road.

The flames appeared in the BBQ immediately which suprised me and I had quickly pulled the bottle away.

There was no trail of flame up to the nozzle or anything, it was just the vapour in the bottle that ignited.

Luckily the liquid was still in the bottle and did not ignite or I suspect I would have had more serious problems than just the rather large warm stain in my shorts.

So in summary, my message/reminder to everyone, newbs and experienced alike, is that we know that the liquid we produce is flamable but don't forget that the vapour is harder to see but equally as dangerous (if not explosive).

We play with dangerous and volatile substances here so play safe!

[grunger]

I ferment in my garage and it has been -20C here for the past month. It is heated in the evening when I'm in there working but during the day the heat is turned off.
I use 2 brew belt heaters on each fermenter and have found that they were not doing a good enough job of keeping the temperature high enough. I cut an old sleeping bag in half and placed it over the fermenters to insulate and left the heater beltss going.
First few days it worked great keeping the temp at a solid 24C even though it was below freezing in the garage.
Went away skiing for a weekend and came back to find that the outside temp had risen to -3C and the temp of the wash had risen to 37C.
Killed the yeast, stopped the ferment. Aerated the wash and pitched more yeast once the temp came down to 27C and luckily it took off again. Not sure if I will have developed any off flavors in this birdwatcher sugar wash because of this, but I'm thinking that the reflux still should take care of it anyway.
Lesson learned to pay more attention to temp so the yeast stays happy.

[trthskr4]

I am using "smart" electric blanket that seem to work great. If the temp rises it shuts off before over heating.

[goinbroke2]

This sucks!
Second time posting on this thread..LOL!
OK, latest blunder..doing a stripping run today, all set up and lit it. turned on the water for the worm bucket, everything good. After about 40 minutes, started getting noise like foreshots are coming soon and...oh, oh, I see steam! I put the tri-clover clamp on and snugged it down by hand but didn't do my usual twist,twist,pull,push to ensure the tri clover is seated right. Then I tightened it but didn't "crank 'er" like I normally do just snugged it up.
Turn off the flame, grabbed a rag and grabbed onto the column/adapter and twisted and tightened the clamp another TWO full turns!
Fricken DUH!
Probably lost about as much steam as would fill a 1 or 1 1/2L jar if I held it upside down.
Lit the fire and carried on, starting ABV was 65% took it to 27% or so.

[Godstilla]

My biggest boner to date was dry firing the element in my boiler. Damned near shit myself! Lesson learned: Make sure your element is covered before plugging it in.

[Ugly]

I set the pump to fill the pot still with wine (real wine, for brandy). The phone rang. I went outside to smoke while I talked. I forgot the pump and delivered 100L of casked wine into a 55L pot. Now I cask a size that fits the still. Idiot.

Work shop floors are stained red to this day. I just say it's the blood of the last guy who forgot to bring back a borrowed tool.

[Q-bIc]

i have done the same thing with a 44 gallon drum of hydraulic oil, into a 15 gallon tank on my crane....

it's amazing how big an area 29 gallon of oil can cover when it's on the ground

[olddog]

Toasted my oak in her oven, STUNK the place out big time, luckily she is overseas for 3 weeks which will give the place time to air out

[HookLine]

Hope you done a big batch, enough to last till next time she goes away.

[General Lee]

I think I made some good mistakes my first week in the hobby, I've learned a lot of lessons. I learned not to leave the room while refilling the sink for the recirculating pump. I learned that most people think I'll go blind. I learned that if you put your home-made stuff into expensive bottles from your recycle bin, that none of your friends will notice the difference(as long as I use mix - not that good yet). I learned that you will stay up until after 2am if you start your batch after 10pm. I learned that if you don't hook up the water hoses before you need them, that it will take four times as long once vapour starts coming out and you panic. I learned that the product is not as good as I had hoped first time around, but much better than I expected.

A few things I will learn tomorrow morning: We'll find out if 7 liters is enough head room for a turbo sugar wash. I started two 50 liter batches of sugar wine in two 57 liter demi johns a couple hours ago. Looks like it might make a mess and overflow - not sure what to do without wrecking the batches. In-laws are staying at our place for 8 days, starting this week - I'm sure they'll believe the new equipment is "part of my computer stuff". We'll learn if these two 65 year olds were born yesterday...

best lesson: If you call your wife "Daisy" while making 'shine she will encourage you to keep up the good work.

I also learned that if you don't clean your equipment properly before the first run, that you'll just end up redoing it all anyway. Which brings me to my latest lesson - nobody likes cloudy hooch - not even me!

[HookLine]

Good first post, General.

Welcome aboard.

[Scribbler]

I did this when I was 12 years old out in the barn:

(the next bit is background... if you want to hear the story, skip down to "Experiment Six: Distillation..."

I was interested in space flight and rocket thrust. the space shuttles had been going for a couple of years, and I still thought it was cool... (about half the people thought space shuttles weren't NEW anymore...) about 1 in 10 schools were still publicly showing the launches (compared to every school I knew of which showed the first launch).

I had experimented with blowing things up, and burning things, put I could never get anything to produce an extended flame that had any recognizable thrust. I tried the following thing until I hit my last experiment:

1) gasoline in a pot, on a scale. throw a match in. does the pot weigh more? (ie: downthrust on pot)
2) pinched the end of a copper pipe together. poured in gas, lit flame, weighed on scale,
3) took apart dad's shotgun shells, took gunpowder out. gp into tampon tube. wick from firecracker.. ignition.
4) acetylene from cutting torch into paper bag. bage lowered over candle via pulley and string. big bang.
5) acetylene into garbage bag. ignition procedure as per #4
UNITRIED: acetylene into bleach bottle. bury bleach bottle in manure pile, use hobby-store model rocket igniter to set off.
9) UNTRIED: abandoned van in forest. fill with acetylene & ignite.


I never got to 8 or 9 because of what happened after I got busted by my parents after experiment number 6. they were really pissed off, and looking back I guess I can see why... but they made it absolutely clear that I was not to do this kind of stuff anymore... (believe it or not, I was NOT a disobedient child... my folks simply had NO idea what it was I filled my non school time with!!! I new that this stuff was dangerous, and I was as careful as a 12 year old can be. I also knew that my parents would never let me do this stuff if they knew... so I didn't tell them... but I just couldn't lie to them... especially when there is smoke damage and scorching all over the barn. Believe it or not, what I am about to say actually has something to do with distillation! I will call this story:




"Experiment Number Six: Distillation for Improving the Thrust Capabilities of Gasoline"

Working Assumptions: JMK's (me) research into things that burn indicate that the lighter and fluffier a substance was, the better it burned. JMK deduced that paper burned better than wood because it was lighter. wood shavings burned better than wood logs. The best things that burned were things you could not see: porpane, natural gas, acetylene. Diesel fuel burned like shit, but was impressive when mixed with something fluffy like a hay/straw bale. Gasoline was by far the best burning and most easily obtainable and portable material that JMK had access to. It had earlier been discovered that when propane was in a bottle it appeared to be a liquid, but when it came out of the nozzle, it was a vapour.

Hypothesis: changing Gasoline via distillation into a vapour will improve its usefullness as a rocket fuel.

Problems: How to contain the refined / vapourized / strengthened gasoline as it exits the still?

Solution: none could be found. according to the hypothesis, the gasoline leaving the still would only be a liquid when very very cold, or under pressure. reworking the problem came up with a new solution: do not STORE the distilled gasoline, distill it as needed immediately before ignition!

Materials:
1 large metal oil container with domed top and metal cap.
20 feet of yellow rope
3 feet of bendy copper tubey stuff
1 gallon of gasoline
1 propane torch
1 handful of plasticene modelling clay
1 ladder
1 barn
1 day without parents.
9 lives


Thrust Apparatus Building Procedure:
1 smash hole in cap from can big enough for bendy copper tubey stuff.
2 wiggle copper tube into hole in cap. use plasticene to seal it up. pinch nozzle end closed a tiny bit.
3 screw cap onto can, bend copper tube around and under the can so opening in centered, and about 1/2 inch beneath the bottom of can.
4 tie rope to copper tube.
5 tie other end of rope to roof beams.
6 place ladder underneath the Thrust Apparatus.
7 position propen torch on ladder aimed at Thrust Apparatus
8 adjust heights until maximum heat from propane is achieved at the centre point of the Thrust Apparatus, in front of the copper tube nozzle.
9 put gasoline into can
10 light the propane torch
11 obervse the results and draw conlusions.



uh oh... my wife is calling me for sick children duty. well, you can probably guess what was observed and what conclusions were drawn, but if I have time, I will finish this later...

JMK

[grunger]

you sound dangerous.
Hope you ain't distilling in the garage near your kids or wife.

by the way what you did back then wasnt distilling. It's a bomb

[eternalfrost]

@ martenskoop

Jesus christ.... <backs away slowly>

I dont think anyone here is really interested in the exploits of a teenage nut-job pyromaniac

The thread is called "Tell us about your mistakes." not tell us insanely stupid and dangerous things you did as a teenager that should have gotten you killed long ago presented in the guise of a scientific experiment....

[Scribbler]

Conclusion to the Gasoline Experiment:


Observations: I have heavily edited this bit out... suffice it to say, that for a variety of reasons it did not explode, and the barn did not burn down... but it was the scariest ten minutes of my life. I remember it every time I get a 'neat' idea.

true, this was not real distillation, but as a kid, that's how I thought of it. I have been interested in steam, and distillation ever since, ... Looking back, I think that it is a miracle that I survived... especially when you think of how many children are killed or maimed on farms through innocent accidents. to give my 12 year old self some credit, I DID think about safety issues. I tried to take care of every safety question that I could think of... the problem is, that no one can ever think of all the angles, and I highly doubt that ANY twelve year old is capable of knowing what all the safety questions ARE, especially not a twelve year old who is excited and wants to try something out! I am sure that a bright 12 year old could probably solve most safety questions, but if they don't know to ask them, they won't know to solve them... there is a big difference between wisdom and intelligence.

as a result of this first hand experience on the effects that excitement can have when a person is pursuing a 'neat' idea, I never do anything odd or questionable without running it by others for critique/approval first... (truth be told, I haven't done anything crazy since then, unless you count using Napster ALOT back when it was around and free.

regarding current distillation and safety: I am currently reading everything I can find about safety issues. (which is why I am reading this particular thread at the moment). I am in the process of procuring the materials I need to build a still. I am excited, but not in a hurry. if I can have the still ready for a water test in July, I would consider that to be very fast. I inted to do all of my distilling outside with no chance of concentrated vapours. I also intend to make sure that my output and condenser are a considerable distance from my double boiled wash... (I am scared enough that I do not even want to expose my pot directly to the heat!!!)

well, anyway, I have certainly learned a lesson. and hearing all of the stories here certainly makes me thankful for the resources available from the collective experience. My earilier experiences taught me that it is crucial to draw upon others for insight. gone are the mythical tribal days when the strongman can be the wisest, smartest, strongest, fastest, bravest, and then rise to the top... today we need to work together to keep each other from sinking.

[1fourme]

martenskoop
Exactly how many months ago did that happen?

[Scribbler]

months? I am incensed! ....two



just kidding, let me figure it out... Seriously, I can't remember. But I am very very sure that it was before the Challenger explosion. -not a hundred precent sure... I wouldn't bet my first born on it, but I would bet a hundred dollars on it, or the output of my first palatable distillation victory! Challenger was 1986. I am going to guess that all this happened in 1985... certainly not BORE 1984, and not AFTER 1986...

[1fourme]

martenskoop

Was just kidding... but at least I didn't ask how many days ago...

[IdahoMole]

I have been at this hobby for a bit over a year now. Made some neutral in the early days and started playing with flavorings. I wanted a pepermint schnapps so mixed a little pepermint extract in a 750ml bottle of neutral. I didn't like it so it sat around on the shelf. Well.......last month I fermented 10 gallons of sugar wash and threw it into the boiler along with some feints, a few other item I wanted to re-distill, including the pepermint stuff. That damn schnapps contaminated the whole run. I turned 1 bollte of crap into gallons of equally crappy stuff! I will never re-distill anything with an artificial extract again.

Mole

[tinboat]

dropped a half pint jar of 150pr heads onto my wood floor.... sand tac rag coat sand tac rag coat sand tac rag coat sand tac rag coat bummer

[Mr.Spooky]

after reedin martenskoop thread,,, drinking a bud ,,, and sprays out of my nose all over my dog (Mr. Spooky) . LOL

[KornSkweezer]

Be careful with turbo yeast! learned this one the hard way. Most of yer Turbos are high in nutrients (food for the yeast) adding this to a nutrient rich base like i did, cracked corn/malted barley/sugar, produced a high alkaline, "blue spirit", that smelled like Ammonia! the alkalinity leeched copper from my still, hence the color. nothing much you can do with it, perhaps use it as a high quality toilet bowl cleaner or windshield washer fluid I foolishly thought that bad stuff only happens to other people and that the turbo would just speed things up for me. back to EC-1118 with tasty results! now I only use turbo yeast in sugar & water runs. its fast and produces a "nuetral" spirit".

[nh_yankee]

OK!

Mistake No. 1: Didn't read the parent site 2-3 times (4-5 times even better)
Mistake No. 2: Believed the YouTube video that showed how easy it was to use an air still to make hooch!
Mistake No. 3: Bought an air still...
Mistake No. 4: Used an air still to make Rum from 7 gallons of wash
Mistake No. 5: Not making “cuts”
Mistake No. 6: Not putting air still on Craig's list or Ebay

Oh!, my head hurts!

Go ahead and laugh! I can take it.

[rad14701]

We won't laugh, nh_yankee... We probably won't even say "we told you so"... Just consider it a learning experience... Some folks just learn a harder way than others, that's all... Just goes to show that Free advice can be Good advice...

Good luck as you move forward in the craft...

[violentblue]

biggest mistake I made was listening to the guy at the home brew shop, who supposedley has "forgotten more about distilling" than the experts.
the guy doesn't have a friggin clue. after agtting some real information on the subject I was talking to him about making cuts, and he told me (not joking here)
"if you use turbo yeast it ferments so clean you don't need to make cuts"
took me a while to unlean the crap he told me.

[nathan]

I filled my pot still too full about 3/4. i let it boil and it started distilling water, the only thing that smelled like alcohol was the vapor it emitted. what a pain. i'm an idiot sometimes.

[punkin]

I filled my pot still too full about 3/4. i let it boil and it started distilling water, the only thing that smelled like alcohol was the vapor it emitted. what a pain. i'm an idiot sometimes.

Vapour?????

[nathan]

the steam that emits from the lyne arm, my arm was too short and didn't have enough length to cool back down into a liquid. or least thats my guess