Putting older posts here. Going to try to keep the novice forum pruned about 90 days work. The 'good' old stuff is going to be put into appropriate forums.
I spent Sunday afternoon cutting an 8" circular hole in the top of my keg with a jig saw,where I'd used a 4" angle grinder to cut the valve out see :- http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5854
I then used paint stripper to take off the keg lettering followed by wet/dry sand papering the scuff marks off, followed by a stainless steel scrubber with ceramic hob cleaner paste polishing. I then spent the rest of the day with an ear to ear GRIN. Is this normal
very normal! Nothing like the satisfaction of nailing some milestone in construction!
That's a great collection of bits there, excatly what you need. It's also normal to wakeup at 3 in the morning with some brainwave!
It''ll be great to see your progress, keep having fun,
Well never mind Zen and the art of copper pipe coiling - after I'd worn a groove in my knee and kinked a couple of turns I went away and gave it some thought and came up with this "idiot" proof simple jig :-
3 bits of wood the two uprights with holes for the winding pipe , to suit the size of coil and these with a brace across the bottom.The winding pipe has a few holes through to pass a piece of wire through to stop the coil turning.Twisted tight when the pipe is in place either parallel or at 90*.Stood on a small step ladder and filled the pipe,from both ends,with salt.Then pushing down on the pipe with one hand and rolling the winding pipe the other via a couple of bolts through it as levers produced :-
hope this might help and put a little back for all I've learnt so far
cheers all Danny
Almost worthy of its own thread here in the forums too... Great work, QDanT... As long as you have the jig built and have the methods down you might as well go into the condenser business... Seems a shame to let a good jig go to waste...
I have an idea for for a possible improvement... Maybe an adjustable arm with a pulley or a roller on to to hold the copper tube tight and would walk up automatically as the coils are wound... Sure would save your hands... All you'd need to do is crank... I've had the idea in the back of mind for a while now and seeing your jig helps firm up the concept...
Two suggestions: 1) Leave some space between the successive winds on each coil. 2) Leave some space between the two coils, put a mandrel over the inner coil once you have wound it, before you wind the outer coil, and wind the outer coil over the mandrel.
you have to admit it is pretty.
I agree one for the wiki.
I didn't have room in my column for a mandrel between coils. I had 3.4 inches to work with and 3/8 inch copper to ft in there. I managed to get enough to knock down 4500 watts with 21 feet. But it was tight. A copper mesh in the center made it work.
That is a real nice d=coil for either an inline or offset head.
Hi you can still buy 1/4" copper pipe in the UK but then it goes metric.So my column is 54mm, I wound the coil onto a 22mm piece of pipe as any smaller was flattening the coils too much, but then coiling it back upon itself didn't allow for any gap between the coils, if it was to fit into the 54mm.Maybe open the first coil up with a spacer when winding then back up in the gaps is the way to go(cheers Hookline) though this would result in a longer coil. R&D who said this hobby was addictive
cheers all Danny
I thought I'd share the results of another productive weekend :-
Note the use of Thermalite building blocks as a welding/soldering bench they reflect the heat back at the underside of the job whereas fire bricks absorb the heat.The copper keg top bowl has a 1.5" brass back nut silver soldered to it as do the 2" pipes then I've sawed the threads off a hex nipple which gives me two joiners and cuts the amount of brass inline down.I silver soldered six counter sunk stainless steel set screws to the keg using "Tenacity" flux which is speacially for stainless it worked a treat it came from http://www.chronos.ltd.uk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow.
The connections to the water jacket are a hoselock splitting block one hose into two unscrewed and silver soldered on I used a brass elbow not only for stripping down but also to allow hight into collecting jar alterations, here its set up as a Liebig
and here with a 39" 2" pipe that has a 9" condenser head screwed to it as a Reflux
I've yet to fit the condenser angled plates and the reflux needle valve but it's coming along
cheers all Danny
Yes Yorkshire(lead free) solder rings.It goes from the copper bowl at 1.5" brass back nut to 54mm copper pipe to 54mm to 35mm reducer to 35mm to 28mm reducer to 28mm pipe to 28mm shallow bend to 28mm pipe to 28mm 90* presstex with olives brass bend to 28mm pipe to 28mm to 22mm reducer to 22mm pipe to 22mm to 15mm reducer to 15mm pipe which goes through a 28mm water jacket with 28mm to 15mm reducers and 28mm,28mm,15mm T's. All soldered with the propane blow torch shown in the photos.I could have silver soldered with it but the whole job was getting too hot so I used bottles shown in my 14ft x 10ft shed :-
Apan round the shed :- (and remember a "tidy shed" is the sign of a deranged mind ! )
cheers all Danny
Is this normal
I went away and gave it some thought 
and came up with this "idiot" proof simple jig :-
