spiral still

lucky_jkl · Post by **lucky_jkl** » Sat Jan 29, 2011 6:23 pm

Anyone seen the spiral still where a coffee cup immersion heater was used with a copper coil of tubing. I was wondering how do you ground the heating element in the bucket? Would just drilling a hole and tapping a metal bolt inside the pail suffice if heater submerged and bolt summerged in the mash? Or is it still possble current will go to copper coil? What would be a good way to ground the immersion heater in this set up. A quick search about spiral still will show you what I talking about...

Post by **Samohon** » Sat Jan 29, 2011 6:44 pm

Heres a link from HD's large resource...

The Spiral Still...

Don't know how you would ground it, but that would be the least of my concerns...

You can very easily build a Bokakob Slant plate in a few hours... A lot safer and it works...

Have fun and stay Safe man...

Post by **rad14701** » Sun Jan 30, 2011 7:13 am

lucky_jkl, your time, money, and efforts, would be better spent on a real still rather than just re-proving that disparate parts can be thrown together to make an inadequate still...

Here's one hint why I'm making that statement... No plastic or rubber in contact with high proof alcohol...

Please do ample research into the theory of distillation, New distiller reading Lounge, and The Rules we live by...

aqua vitae · Post by **aqua vitae** » Sun Jan 30, 2011 12:45 pm

One of the most common still for newbies in Sweden. I don't think anyone grounds it.
But do consider rikus post there.

short bus · Post by **short bus** » Tue Aug 02, 2011 10:29 am

I have been using a crockpot based spiral still for many years now. It's production is painfully slow, especially with a 5 quart broiler! I make 4 gallons of mash/wash at a time in a 5 gallon bucket. I get about 8 oz off my first run, using

rads gerber wash. I then refill the broiler with mash add the distillate from the previous run and fire it up again. I repeat this process again (I get 3 still charges from 4 gallons). I end up with about 20 oz decent 150-160 proof moonshine. It definately has a slight off paint thinner smell. After a couple small sips it grows on you very quickily, everyone likes it, many love it! I know I do!

SB

short bus · Post by **short bus** » Tue Aug 02, 2011 10:52 am

BTW, it has no plastic at all in its construction. Just one rubber grommet! Since it is made out of a crockpot and a SS bowel it is very discreet, save the coils which are small enough to hide easily.

I can definitely understand why they are so popular in Sweeden.It is truly a labor of love though. It takes a whole weekend to make less than a dang quart of shine!

SB

Post by **myles** » Tue Aug 02, 2011 2:58 pm

The spiral still in the reflux mode can be adapted to be a perfectly viable reflux still FOR SPECIFIC SITUATIONS.

Essentially this is a low power, slow, stealth, air cooled reflux still. A 5m coil of 10mm tube will cope with about 300w of boiler input. Add a shroud and a fan and you can boost this to about 1kW.

I have used one of these with a swamp cooler on both coils to increase the power input capacity a bit - BUT - this remains a speciality item. You would not wish to run one of these every day unless you really needed to. For routine production there are better alternatives.

Adding vanes to the coils helps a bit / lot, dependent on the situation.

I am toying with a pot still version (with a 1" diameter coil) but again the intention would be to run that in a very specific way.

Home Distiller

spiral still

spiral still

Re: spiral still

Re: spiral still

Re: spiral still

Re: spiral still

Re: spiral still

Re: spiral still