6kW 100 litre potstill+

[myles]

This is just a notice to get you interested. I am building a 6kw 100 litre keg based pot still.

With a thumper that is going to be fitted with a deplegramator. It was origionaly going to be on the pot, but I had not intended to use a thumper. I have since aquired a nice stock pot for the thumper so it was logical to re-design.

Based on this layout:



It will be aimed at rum. Will get back to you later with pics.

[Samohon]

Looks good myles, good luck man...

[myles]

I have played arouund with several designs and although it won't suit everyone I have decided that there is merrit in specialising. You certainly can build 1 still to do most things but it is a bit of a compromise. I have done the opposite and am building a collection of stills to do different jobs.

This one is for rum. Hence the 100 litre keg. I will only charge it with 50 litres or so as rum wash tends to foam up. I am using more cane sugar and less molasses so its less of a problem and I might end up charging with 60 - 70 litres.

I am UK based so am using 2.25" element bosses. I have already cut 3 holes and have fitted a 3/4" drain. I decided to go down the no-weld route and am using 'Essex' flanges, that are fitted entirely from outside the keg.



With this style boss you cut a hole a bit bigger than the body so that you can rotate the fitting to get the 4 lugs through the hole. You then drop the boss ( on a wire retainer) inside the keg to fit a copper washer and a cork washer before pulling it back through the hole.

I am fitting 2 of 3 kW elements in parallel and the drain.





For the drain I cut 2 copper washers out of scrap sheet. 1 is inside the keg and 1 outside. No sealant inside the keg but on the outside I sealed the screw threads on the compression fitting with a food safe (domestic hot water cylinder rated) silicon sealent. The 2 copper washers will make a good seal against the edge of the hole in the keg. The two big holes are sealed with cork wahers.

This boiler will not get moved much and will be insulated, hence the drain. More to come later.

[Kentucky shinner]

Great I will look and see If i can find any of those here in the states.

[SIXFOOTER]

Thats pretty slick, I like the fittings. Wonder if they are available on this side of the pond?

[myles]

The 'Essex' flanges come in a whole range of sizes and styles. The feature they all have is that they are fitted ENTIRELY from outside the container.

Make no mistake they are a bit 'fiddly', once the body is through the hole you have to drop it inside the tank (on a bit of wire) to fit the backing ring through the hole, and the cork washer. these have to be manouvered onto the body before it is pulled back through the hole for the outer set to be fitted.

I am building a tool to fit through the body to hold the body tight using the lugs so that I can get good pressure on the nut when I screw it up tight. Don't want it rotating when I screw in the element.

[maheel]

what are you using to drill the hole?

i got a few kegs i need to "cut" a hole in...... bu i need to buy something to do it with

[Kentucky shinner]

The trick to drilling stainless is to keep it cool. Stainless will tool harden very quick. Use slow speed and keep it wet with cutting oil. Stainless can be a real bitch.

[myles]

I broke several small drill bits but eventually I remembered that I had I special drill bit hiden away in the tool box. 1/4" Boron bit. Someone told me to make a small circular dam of plasticene, so I did that and drilled through a pool of water. Firm pressure and only about 70 to 100 rpm. That made a central pilot hole.

For the 3/4" hole I used a rigid hole saw. Not one of those adjustable ones, I have a range of solid hole saws in various sizes that fit the same central mandrel. Coarse tooth as they are intended for wood. Again at slow speed with lots of water the (brand new) hole saw tore through the keg with ease.

I didnt have a suitable size for the big holes. Tried a tank cutter that you use on stainless sinks but it did not work. An electric jig saw with a coarse tooth blade did the job. Cut 1/4" then stopped and cooled it down with water. Slow but it worked. Really LOUD. Hearing protection is required. Ease the blade into the steel slowly, it gets very hot very fast, which just makes the steel harden.

[LWTCS]

I use a "step down" bit to drill most of my holes. I have 2 sizes. Habor frieght sells em cheap. Mine are klines,,,,and spendy.
Can go from small to large with one bit.

Typical hole saw will work if it is new and kept cool.

I drill out the stops on the inide of fitthings rather than file out. For this I use a forsner bit.
These sizes are the same as ID within the tubing. Again, gotta keep it cool.

[thepatchworkdoll]

Hi Myles I'm UK based as cwell. Like your idea of the Essex flanges. Can you please advise where you get them. Any comments realy appreciated.
Regards
thewpatchworkdoll

[myles]

Hello again patch, I use BES for virtually everything, although you might need to wait a day or two for the flanges. I fitted two and the second hole I cut a bit smaller. I could just get my hand in through the hole so I fed 1 flange into the keg, rotated it and fed it through the smaller hole from the inside. The other I fitted in the usual manner from oustide the keg.



Sitting on top of the keg is the tool I made in 2 mins from some 5mm iron bar and an angle grinder. It holds the lugs on the inner body so that you can really tighten up on the cork washers.

I did not put any sealant inside the keg, but I did put some on the outside of the keg, between the cork and brass washers, and on the screw threads for the backing nut. Used Fernox LSX which is a food safe sealant for hot water boilers.

Really tightened up well with a 2 foot stilson wrench to put a lot of pressure on the cork seals.

Two 3kw elements fitted and filled to the brim for a leak test.



No leaks on the keg but a slow drip on one of the element washers (rubish plastic job) Replaced both washers with a reinforced rubber compound - but I wound a spiral of PTFE tape over the washer to completely encapsulate it in PTFE. Also used PTFE tape on the element screw threads.

100 litres of water testing the drain valve - seems to work OK.

[Kentucky shinner]

Looks pretty sweet man. I have searched the net everywhere and cannot find any of those type fittings here in the states.
Good job,
KS

[olddog]

What sort of price are those Essex fittings Myles? do they come in various sizes.


OD

[myles]

What sort of price are those Essex fittings Myles? do they come in various sizes.
OD

Olddog they come in all sizes, metric and imperial. Some come with a compression fittting attached at the element end for attaching tube to containers. Some are also available without end stops so the tube can go straight through.

They are not cheap - but how much compared to the price of buying stainless couplings and having them welded on?

Link to store website for examples - just scroll down: http://www.bes.co.uk/products/103.asp

Flange for 2.25" element costs about £30 or about $46 US dollars.

[kiwistiller]

Lookin good there myles! Thats an awesome keg. Wonder if I can find a biggy like that...

[myles]

Lookin good there myles! Thats an awesome keg. Wonder if I can find a biggy like that...

Kiwi you can even get a 150 litre one - but they are a rare find.

Here it is on its new stand so I can get a bucket under the drain.



Pot neck reduces from 2" to 1.4" which will go all the way to the thumper. The refil port / vacume relief valve (for the end of the run) is in 1". This will all be insulated. The 1/2" fitting is for the thumper overflow line.

[Kentucky shinner]

Nice looking set up.

[Samohon]

Sure looks good man...

[LWTCS]

Looking good Myles.

After all your mods and builds, you have a personal scrappy in your shop I recon.

[myles]

Looking good Myles.

After all your mods and builds, you have a personal scrappy in your shop I recon.

Re-build and re-use. The copper dome off an earlier version double boiler has been cut off the redundant stock pot (the pot developed a crack) and is being re-used to make the thumper for the new still.

All my old fittings are carefuly stripped down, cleaned and reused. Same for copper tube. The only thing that goes for scrap is small offcuts. It all sits in a plastic bin so that I can rummage through it for bits. I have lots of boiling chips, washer sized offcuts, 2" lengths of copper tube etc.

When I installed the drain fitting I made two copper washers to go either side of the hole in the keg, tightened up the compression fitting to get a good seal between the copper and the stainless with no need for any other sealant.

With a good compression fitting and copper washers you can get a good seal without needing to solder stainless steel.

[olddog]

Nice job Myles, can't wait to see the full rig.



OD

[LWTCS]

Nice job Myles, can't wait to see the full rig.



OD

Yeah and with the dephlag and return,,,,I'm a dyin to see how much high proof you can pak into that thumper.


........................U dun yet??

[myles]

I am getting ready to build the thumper. What I thought at first was to fit a copper top to a stainless stock pot.
Was going to cut off this dome and fit it to a new pot - the existing pot cracked after a few months use. It is so easy to overheat thin stainless when soldering so that faults develope later on.



But I am also building a new all copper inner pot for my glycol double boiler that is going to look like this.



So far I have only built the lower pot and the start of the lid, have not put on the upper wall of the pot.







The inner pot is going to be fitted from the inside of the upper wall and the two rivetted together before soldering.





So what I am thinking now is as I don't use the double boiler that often, how about modifying the inner pot so that it can also be used as a thumper. It will be bigger than origionally intended for the thumper, up to 50 litres dependent on the height of the upper wall section of the pot.

What do you think? Are any of you using bits you have built for more than 1 function?

[Kentucky shinner]

Nice work.. I really like the copper rivet look. Do you think they will leak though.

[myles]

Nice work.. I really like the copper rivet look. Do you think they will leak though.

No chance. The seams are cleaned and fluxed before rivetting - a bit messy but what the heck, then soldered too. Also soldered over all the rivet heads on the inside of the pot. Not nice and pretty on the inside - but functional.

[Kentucky shinner]

really nice work. I think it looks pretty cool

[Pikluk]

i'm really curious about those flanges.
there's a washer and a cork seal inside and outside?



how do you get the inside washer in? you bend it?

[myles]

Hi pikluk, the hole in the container is cut just big enough that the body of the flange can be rotated to feed in the 4 lugs, one at a time. You then drop the entire body inside the container - on the wire retainer - so that you can pull it back up later.

The copper washer has 1 split in it so that it can be fed into the container and then positioned on the body of the fitting. The cork washer will bend just enough to get through the hole, and then be positioned on the body of the fitting.

Next you pull the entire lot back through the hole, fit the external cork and copper washers and screw on the compression rings. You need to centre it in the hole as it is bigger than the body of the fitting. If you can fit some sort of spacer ring inside the hole it makes this a bit easier.

I found that to get the fitting realy tight so that it will not move when you screw in the element, that you need to hold the body when you screw on the compression nut. It is easy enough - and only takes a minute or two - to build a tool out of steel bar that you can use to engage the lugs and really compress the cork washers.

It is a nice home build option. Not cheap but then neither is buying stainless bosses and having them welded on.

[Pikluk]

It is a nice home build option. Not cheap but then neither is buying stainless bosses and having them welded on

thats why in really curious about it.
in the way you describe it i could use a nipple 2 nuts 2 washer and 2 cork wash and do the same.
its not that i i don't think its worth it but i checked and couldn't find then in america.

picture this grind off two of the side of a nuts so it will go trough the the hole and a washer with a dent/slut
a threaded nipple and washer and nuts outside.
kinda like a a bulkhead fitting.


one worry is a treaded nipple is a lot big in the middle and won't be able to tighten them enough

how big is the entry of a sanke valve?
if i have to get stuff inside from there.

how big is the treading of a water heater element?

getting error from my thinking there nipples anrt treaded inside to srew something like a element.
treading something in my point of view is less trouble then a s/s welder.
still do able
just need the right tap.

do those guys from uk ship to america?
even if its not the right treading standard i could get elements from there?
50 or 60 cycle doesn't matter on element doesn't it?

its just i might finally get my hands on a keg and welding the thing i a major concern
i can't use gas since i distill in my basement.