Well first off I lost so many pictures I hope I can explain well enough that it will make sense. I wanted to make a shotgun condenser but I dont have many tools to do something real fancy. I wanted a shotgun on top of the LM I was building first because of height a second just because. So to start with I had some 2" copper left over ans also some 3/8"od x 1/4 ID tubing. I looked at many design and all had a top and bottom plate to hold the tubes and separate the cooling water from the condensate. I needed to find a way to do this same thing without having to find copper plate or need to machine this disk with the holes to hold the copper tubes. Here is what I did. This is going to take some x-plaining since I lost the picts. I took the 2" about 12" long pipe and placed it into a very large cup. I then filled up the cup and pipe with sand maybe up 4-6". Then pulled the 2" pipe out 2" so there was 2-4" of sand from the 2" pipe to the bottom of the cup. I then inserted the 1/4" tubing into the 2" pipe and sand down to the bottom of the cup. I arranged them with even spacing. The 1/4 tubes were of random lengths from 4-6" above the 2" pipe after insertion. I then filled up the 2" pipe with more sand to about 3/4" below the top of the 2" pipe. So if we can picture what I have.... A large cup with sand holding a 2"x 12" pipe up with 12 each 3/8"x1/4" tubes extending below the 2" pipe by about an inch or two and above the 2" by some 2-3" using the sand just below (3/4") the top of the 2" pipe to hold it all. By the way all pipes were cleaned and the sand was cleaned play sand. I then used water soluble flux on the 3/8 pipe and id of the 2" pipe making sure I didnt touch the sand with the brush. I then used a torch to heat the top and started to flow solder ( no lead, drinking water) to the top of the sand. Formed a nice puddle around all the 3/8s inside the 2" maybe making it 1/4" thick. Let cool and pored the sand out. Turned the 2" over and then filled the 2" up with sand between the 3/8" tubes up to again just 3/4" short of the now top of the 2". Again fluxed and flowed solder to about 1/4" thick. I now have a 2" x 12" pipe with 12, 3/8" tubes coming out both sides. Sand trapped between the inter sides and topped with the 1/4" cap of solder. I sure hope all can see this in their mind.
Test pieces to see if I could flow solder on top of sand:
Fluxed tubes just before solder:
Tubes after solder:
I took 2 1/2" NPT couplers and radius one side close to the OD of the 2" pipe. I did this first with a round file then wrapped sandpaper around the 2" and rubbed the pipe fitting till I got a very close fit. Did a test silver solder on them:
Looks good! I then soldered the two couplers to the 2" pipe on both ends just above and below the solder plates:
Took a drill and poked holes the id of the couplers through the 2" pipe being careful not to hit the 3/8" tubes. Please note if I do this again i WOULD DRILL THESE HOLES FIRST AND USE TAPE TO COVER THEM SO THE SAND WOULD NOT LEAK OUT. Pored the sand out and ready to pressure test:
All looks great. Cut the 3/8 tubes close to flush on one end and did a little design on the other:
I cleaned up edges on the tubes . I will get pict later. I did a test run running water through the condenser and boiling the keg a very fast rate and I got no steam on a test mirror coming out the top!
With this on top of the still I think I will call the still Thunder Mountain.
Got to go, thanks.