New build a few questions...

[kstinson]

I have been lurking for awhile soaking up some information, so now its time to get down to business.

I am working on building a simple pot still, i am not one for neutrals so this is going to be used mostly for whiskey and possibly a little brandy.
So far i have built most of the column. My fabrication skills and equipment aren't the greatest but so far i am happy with what i have made.
Here's what i have started now.



Parts and pieces i started with



This is the column after soldering



This is the condenser fitted together



This is the column and condenser soldered and cleaned up a little. Still needs a few tweaks but its close.

My next hurdle will be to fix this to a stainless steel mixing bowl, does anyone have any suggestions as to which solder and flux to use.
I am currently using Lenox Lead Free silver solder and water soluble flux with a propane torch. Will this work well for attaching the copper
to stainless? Also i am planning on using a hot plate to heat this, however all i have is a 1000 watt hot plate. Would it work ok, or would
i be much better off trying to fix water heater elements in the bottom of the stock pot and build a circuit to control them?

Thanks for the input, i am really looking forward to cleaning this thing out and getting a run of the praised UJSM everyone on here talks about.

[Hawke]

Looks to be 1 inch into 1/2 inch?
May be a tad small for the column, but should work ok.

I don't see anything wrong with your construction skills so far.

There is a sticky post on soldering copper to ss somewhere. It takes a soldering iron to make it work. They do make a tip that fits over the end of a propane torch.

Whether it's a potstill or a reflux, the more consistant the heat source, the better. A hotplate uses an on/off thermostat, so unless your rig can handle the full power, (high is the only setting that doesn't cycle), it will cause problems. Pintoshine has a Triac controller that you can build to replace the T-stat. It controls the voltage instead of cycling. Another possible fix is if you can find one of the 1500 watt dimmer switches.

Good luck,

[junkyard dawg]

I'm a big fan of the keg boiler and propane heat. If you must put the element in the stockpot, just use it to heat the keg boiler...

[kstinson]

Well the keg boiler was my orignal plans, i was thinking of doing it with water heater elements but living in an apartment makes it difficult to find the space. Since i will be purchasing a home soon i am just going to use a flour dough seal to hold the column to the bowl so i can remove it later and redo the boiler. For now i am using a 16qt stainless pot, with a stainless bowl for a lid. Here it is ready for a few leak tests (minus the seals.)




I am going to go ahead and get a hold of a sankey and the propane burner equip for when i move, i might even build a new column for the sankey and just keep this one for smaller runs.

[Pita]

Looking good! The water in/out nipples - were those hard to attach? Do they screw in or did you solder? It's very clean looking.

Pita

[Oaty]

For methods of attatchment to a keg read...http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... =15&t=7153. Looks nice and 'purty. When you move into the house though I think you might scale up to a larger diameter.

[Pita]

Looking good! The water in/out nipples - were those hard to attach? Do they screw in or did you solder? It's very clean looking.

Pita

Anyone?