bottom of reflux

allen42 · Post by **allen42** » Sun Nov 14, 2004 6:50 pm

hi again , yes its the redneck newbie AGAIN lol

i made the still tonight , got a buddy to solder it up for me ,, he did a good job !!

i used tony design & on the bottom of the reflux tower he used screen copper mesh to hold the resin rings in , well from everything i read , alot if not most perfer stainless scrubbies and i too plan to use them

do i still need the screen wire over the bottom of the tower or could i just use a brass or copper rod solder over the bottom to hold the scrubbies in the tower ?

nzbourbonhead · Post by **nzbourbonhead** » Sun Nov 14, 2004 8:09 pm

On my new setup my tower just slots into a brass fitting at the top of my boiler. I made a copper plate drilled with lots of 3/16th holes which just sits between the tower and boiler. I use stainles scrubbers which actualy tend to stay up in the 2" column anyway Probably just as well as just looked on my bench next to my still and noticed the plate sitting there and have almost finnished my 50 litre run lol. First run on this still as only just completed yesterday and had a few probs with cooling water and after getting vapour coming out the top we cut off the heat removed column took out a scrubber to place above condensor. Think I left the plate out after doing a steam/water run to clean out flux. Will be interesting to see if there are any scrubbers in my boiler when run is finnished.

AkCoyote · Post by **AkCoyote** » Sun Nov 14, 2004 8:47 pm

If you can put the scrubbers in and stand the column upright without them falling out, chances are that they will stay in during the run.

AkCoyote

knuklehead · Post by **knuklehead** » Sun Nov 14, 2004 10:23 pm

allen42 wrote:hi again , yes its the redneck newbie AGAIN lol

i made the still tonight , got a buddy to solder it up for me ,, he did a good job !!

i used tony design & on the bottom of the reflux tower he used screen copper mesh to hold the resin rings in , well from everything i read , alot if not most perfer stainless scrubbies and i too plan to use them

do i still need the screen wire over the bottom of the tower or could i just use a brass or copper rod solder over the bottom to hold the scrubbies in the tower ?

First of all good choice on not using the rings. I have a bag full in my basement I have never even opened. Scrubbers give you much more surface area in a small column and I also just clamped a peice of wire onto the bottom of the column to assure me that the packing would not fall during a run. One word of advise though would be to use copper scrubbers or copper mesh for packing insead of stainless steel if you can. I am still using stainless but I do intend to switch to copper mesh on my next order to brewhaus.

fish · Post by **fish** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 1:27 am

Why do you intend to switch?

I am the cat curiosity killed

pothead · Post by **pothead** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 8:12 am

I don't know how much the mesh costs at brewhaus, but I just picked some copper mesh scrubbers up at wal-mart for $1.88 for a 2 pack. Unrolled, each scrubber is about 2-3 ft long.

I am trying to figure out how much I should use in the 18" column that I am going to use for my potstill.

Post by **Grayson_Stewart** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 9:03 am

Pothead,

Place a magnet on those scrubbers from Walmart and see if they are magnetic. I've never been able to find any at Walmart that were really copper, they always appeared to be copper coated.

You will need alot more than two scrubbers to fill a 2" column over three feet long. Yopu can get enough real copper to fill two columns for about $10 to $15 per 100 foot roll at Amstat Industries, Inc.

I've tried both this and brewhaus, and this stuff is less expensive and works great. Unroll about 24" and cut, then re-roll the 24" section to the shape of a cylinder and stuff into the column. Place enough cylinders to fill the column.

pothead · Post by **pothead** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 9:45 am

Damn. I wasted about $4.00 on magnetic scrubbers. Oh well, thatnks for the advice Grayson. The thing that gets me is that right on the package it says that they are "copper mesh scourers". False advertizing. It should say "copper colored mesh garbage"

Post by **Grayson_Stewart** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 9:59 am

Money is never wasted at Walmart

They have 50 lbs. bags of corn or 10 lbs. bags of sugar at Walmart here for $3.95....and a no-questions asked return policy.

nzbourbonhead · Post by **nzbourbonhead** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 10:23 am

coper scrubers I found in pak & save here in New Zealand are marked copper / zink alloy so I went with the stainless Stainless were far cheaper to budget brand $1.75 for 2

Post by **Fourway** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 4:58 pm

Grayson_Stewart wrote:Money is never wasted at Walmart

unless you want to live and work in the usa for the next few decades.
Walmart has a demonstrated policy of using a modified version of the "double lever" con to force mid sized US based manufacturers to move their operations to China.
They are a fiscally malignant force within the US economy.

But yeah... you can't beat their price on sugar.

Post by **Grayson_Stewart** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 7:17 pm

I don't think the sugar or corn comes from China...just the sucky copper scrubbers that Pothead needs to return, but I get your point.

knuklehead · Post by **knuklehead** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 7:37 pm

fish wrote:Why do you intend to switch?

I am the cat curiosity killed

What THM said

knuklehead · Post by **knuklehead** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 7:41 pm

pothead wrote:Damn. I wasted about $4.00 on magnetic scrubbers. Oh well, thatnks for the advice Grayson. The thing that gets me is that right on the package it says that they are "copper mesh scourers". False advertizing. It should say "copper colored mesh garbage"

Sorry for laughing pothead but may I just say to you "join the club". If you did not yet have these "copper colored mesh garbage" laying around under your kitchen sink then I think it was just about time. I use mine to scrub my internal element after a molasses run, lol. Copper mesh form brewhaus.ca cost $19.00 Canadian for a 36"x2" packed column. I think that's a fair price.

pothead · Post by **pothead** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 8:24 pm

Fourway wrote:
Grayson_Stewart wrote:Money is never wasted at Walmart
unless you want to live and work in the usa for the next few decades.
Walmart has a demonstrated policy of using a modified version of the "double lever" con to force mid sized US based manufacturers to move their operations to China.
They are a fiscally malignant force within the US economy.

But yeah... you can't beat their price on sugar.

There is a show being aired on PBS about this. I want to see it.

knuklehead · Post by **knuklehead** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 8:38 pm

Pothead, are you talking about the biography on Sam Walton the founder of Walmart? I just watched it last night.

allen42 · Post by **allen42** » Tue Nov 16, 2004 3:57 am

my wife picked up the SS scrubbies last night from wally world ! she got 3 boxes , with 2 in each box ,,

the plate seems like a good idea THANKS !!! , it would be easier to have a plate of sorts rather than extending the colum below the bowl i think !

nzbourbonhead · Post by **nzbourbonhead** » Tue Nov 16, 2004 5:42 am

allen42 wrote:my wife picked up the SS scrubbies last night from wally world ! she got 3 boxes , with 2 in each box ,,

the plate seems like a good idea THANKS !!! , it would be easier to have a plate of sorts rather than extending the colum below the bowl i think !

only six scrubbers I put 24 in mine and still need another ten I would say to fill it

knuklehead · Post by **knuklehead** » Tue Nov 16, 2004 4:14 pm

I agree with NZ. How tall is your column if you are only using 6 scrubbers. If you have a scrubber that when made into a ball it is around 2 1/2" think it should take up about 3" in a 2" diameter column. So if your column is packed 36" and is 2" in diameter then you will need 12 scrubbers if it is packed 48" and 2" diameter then you will 16 scrubbers and so on. I would imagine that if your column is only 1" diameter each scrubber would take up 6" in your column so with 6 scrubbers you would get up to 36" of packed column.

Post by **Grayson_Stewart** » Tue Nov 16, 2004 7:05 pm

Is it a linear graph where the same height of scrubbers gives you an additional plate each time? I get a huge jump in initial purity from two scrubbers (from 140 to 170 proof initial) and then have to pack the rest of the column to (46" total) to reach 190 proof. I've never graphed the proof increase with each additional scrubber but it would be interesdting to know.

Professor Duck · Post by **Professor Duck** » Tue Nov 16, 2004 7:09 pm

Grayson_Stewart wrote:Is it a linear graph where the same height of scrubbers gives you an additional plate each time? I get a huge jump in initial purity from two scrubbers (from 140 to 170 proof initial) and then have to pack the rest of the column to (46" total) to reach 190 proof. I've never graphed the proof increase with each additional scrubber but it would be interesdting to know.

I think it is linear, but each plate is less effective than the one before it.

Post by **Grayson_Stewart** » Tue Nov 16, 2004 7:35 pm

If each theoretical plate is less effective than the preceeding theoretical plate then it wouldn't be linear would it? The purity would be aproaching the asymptote and you would need an increase in height of scrubbers to achieve an equal step in purity.

Professor Duck · Post by **Professor Duck** » Tue Nov 16, 2004 7:42 pm

Yeah, but I wasn't talking about increases in purity, just plates.

AkCoyote · Post by **AkCoyote** » Tue Nov 16, 2004 9:27 pm

My column is 1 1/4" and I easily get 9 scrubbers packed into a 38" height. And they are not even packed tight.

AkCoyote

allen42 · Post by **allen42** » Wed Nov 17, 2004 11:42 am

thanks for the scoup! i thought , yes thought lol that i had read 6 per 36" colum & *tease* them out ,, going to get 12 more !!!

thanks again

Post by **Fourway** » Wed Nov 17, 2004 11:56 am

allen42 wrote:thanks for the scoup! i thought , yes thought lol that i had read 6 per 36" colum & *tease* them out ,, going to get 12 more !!!

thanks again

it all depends on the size and composition of the pads...
Real copper pads are a sort of sock ball made from tubular copper mesh. Its best with these to break the one little spot where the ball is bonded to hold it closed un-ball it, smooth it out and roll it loosely.
Stainless steel scrubbers are usually one continuous spiral winding all jammed together... like a tangled spring. These you want to tease out into the longest shape you can make that will fill your column.
In general the stainless scrubbers are far too dense to use as is.
There are also two main types of stainless scrubbers, the small household ones which are finer filiment and come in balls about an inch and a half in diameter and the professional resturant/industrial ones which are heavier guage and the ball is three to four inches in diameter.

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