New to the Still Design thing

[crazyk78]

Hi All,

Firstly before I go on further, this design is not mine but I'm looking at making it. I got it out of the "Step by Step buide to building a home distillation apparatus"

My fist question is: (reference to below pic)
1) the condenser tube head noted in this design is 3", is this necessary? Can you use 2" the same as the main reflux tube? If so would this then mean I need to make the condensing tube section longer?

2) The coil condenser tubes that are 1/4", how long a piece would I need, is there a formula? the book says to make about 10loops and put it inside the 6" section of 3" tubing. I'm sure this design works, but is that enough? Ive read quite a few posts on here and people tend to have an inner and outer condensing loops.

3) can you have too many condenser coils?

4) how far from the condenser head tube inner wall should the condenser coils sit? what I mean is that if the ID of the tube is 45mm the gap to the coils should be 3mm so the condenser coils have an OD of 39mm?

5) Lastly, I'm from Melbourne Australia and am not sure where to find all the hardware required. I've been to Bunnings and they only have domestic 1/2" stuff.

Thanks in advance for your replies.