Tell us about your mistakes.

[blind drunk]

I took my setup apart after my rummy spirit run. Then I lifted my boiler to flip it upside down and my left hand was stuck to the very hot keg ring. It sizzled and I almost got the grill marks. Ouch. My hand is throbbing in pain. What a dumb ass.

[LWTCS]

You are using carrots to make alcohol?

Lots of sugar in carrots PP

You should see Damien's outfit. I'll find it

[Ian Jay]

You are using carrots to make alcohol?

Lots of sugar in carrots PP

You should see Damien's outfit. I'll find it

I make carrot and beetroot wine, but have never ran it through the still. It tastes surprisingly good, but needs laying down for six months or so. Perhaps next year I will disitl some?

[Odin]

Went away for a minute to get me a cup of coffee. Came back and saw one of my hoses had come out of the 210 liter vessel I use for cooling. Allmost a swimming pool in the room. Around 30 liters got out. Not the way to impress the Mss.

Odin.

[DamianRyan]

Sorry guys, I posted the photographs of my leg, or thought I did, were they taken down by the administrators? I would certainly understand as they are "graphic" as saying goes, or did I load them up and not post the reply?

[Ian Jay]

Went away for a minute to get me a cup of coffee. Came back and saw one of my hoses had come out of the 210 liter vessel I use for cooling. Allmost a swimming pool in the room. Around 30 liters got out. Not the way to impress the Mss.

Odin.

210 Litres!

You have a production plant there, buddy!

[Odin]

No, I only have a 30 liters potstill and some smaller ones. A 50 liter version is under construction. 210 liters is the vessel I keep my cooling liquid in.

Odin.

[WalkingWolf]

You should see Damien's outfit.

Damianryan -- sorry to here about such an unfortunate injury. Hopefully the healing will give you back "most" of the function you enjoyed before.

As Larry mentioned, your setup is worth mentioning (and viewing) again. The link to DR setup.

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 9#p6788870

[The Baker]

It hurts to even think about the accident.

You certainly have my best wishes for a speedy and complete recovery.

[heartcut]

That's rough, DamianRyan. Hope you get better fast.

This one didn't hurt, but I had 6 gal rum dunder in 2 old HDPE carboys, dropped one in the garage that we ferment and store in. When a corner broke out of the bottom I dropped the other one trying to stop the spill and it broke too. Dumbass. It takes a lot of time and energy to get rid of 6 gallons of stillage and a couple more passes with a mop to get rid of the smell. The wife isn't pleased.

[The Baker]

A while back I was throwing out a bucket of boiling hot spent wash.
And I threw it all over my leg and foot.
Next to me was an open top 205 litre, full, container of cold water.

Well, I've never been quick on my feet but I would have made a ballerina proud, the speed and grace of the high leg lift as I submerged my leg in that beautiful cold water!
The foot was a bit scalded but soon recovered completely.

[Prairiepiss]

You should see Damien's outfit.

Damianryan -- sorry to here about such an unfortunate injury. Hopefully the healing will give you back "most" of the function you enjoyed before.

As Larry mentioned, your setup is worth mentioning (and viewing) again. The link to DR setup.

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 9#p6788870

Thanks for the link WalkingWolf. And well worth the look. I see what you mean Larry.

[LWTCS]

Not often ya git to see a legal still with a house attached to it.

[mash rookie]

Damian, You have my most sincere sympathy for you pain and injury. Please tell me you will be alright and walk and ride your bike again? When in the hospital recovering from life threatening burns I shared a room with a guy that had a similar accident to yours. After falling off his riding lawn mower it some how reversed and macerated both of his feet. He had been there two weeks, had two surgeries before I arrived and was scheduled for two more just to try to reconstruct his feet after I had left. Having survived my experience I went home to recover always wondering if he would ever walk again.
Sometimes bad things happen to good people. It’s the luck of the draw.
All My best, Be well. Mash Rookie

[DamianRyan]

Damian, You have my most sincere sympathy for you pain and injury. Please tell me you will be alright and walk and ride your bike again? When in the hospital recovering from life threatening burns I shared a room with a guy that had a similar accident to yours. After falling off his riding lawn mower it some how reversed and macerated both of his feet. He had been there two weeks, had two surgeries before I arrived and was scheduled for two more just to try to reconstruct his feet after I had left. Having survived my experience I went home to recover always wondering if he would ever walk again.
Sometimes bad things happen to good people. It’s the luck of the draw.
All My best, Be well. Mash Rookie

Thanks Mash, Time will tell, things are looking good, I'm in a wheelchair at the moment as I don't have a hip in my right leg so can't walk on crutches as my right leg can't support me. I'm seeing the specialist tomorrow and see what he has to say, I'll let you know.

[DamianRyan]

Oh for heavens sake Damien. I do hope you'll recover as good as one can........

I would consider the pics a dern good learning tool...Is that bad manners on my part?

Feel better and thank the good lord that you are still with us.

Tater took the pics down and believe me I sympathize with his point of view. If your interested give me an Email add and I'll send you the whole lot. The wound sister took photographs every three days when she did the dressings and it is amazing to watch the the progress and how amazingly the body repairs itself.

[blind drunk]

Take care Damian and I wish you a speedy recovery. Terrible accident.

[DamianRyan]

Take care Damian and I wish you a speedy recovery. Terrible accident.

Thanks mate, with a name like that I would advise you to go nowhere near farm implements. LOL

[yankeeclear]

Damian - I am sorry to hear of this tragic accident. It is incredible how fast things can go wrong when working with machinery and/or flammables. My sincere hopes for a speedy recovery and also that all community members heed the warning and take an extra moment or two to ward off complacency in all they do. I certainly will.

[primuss]

About a month ago I put together a Mulekicker PSR controller and set aside till I could upgrade my garage electric. Got around to changing out the main lug in the garage this morning, put in a new 220 line and was all excited to try out my spankin' new controller. Since it was a first run on a homebuilt controller, I had the breaker shut off, plugged everything in and flipped the breaker. I was rewarded with a loud pop and a tripped breaker. Opened the controller box and got the expected curl of smoke. Turns out that one of the posts from the analog meter was long enough to arc to the lug on the PSR25. Moral of the story is check your placement on components unless you want a $60 firecracker. It literally blew the face off the PSR. Now to find a new PSR.

Dead short of PSR25

[rad14701]

. . . . Turns out that one of the posts from the analog meter was long enough to arc to the lug on the PSR25. Moral of the story is check your placement on components unless you want a $60 firecracker. It literally blew the face off the PSR. . . . .

Man, that sucks... But it is definitely a good reminder to check, check, and triple check, all circuitry before applying mains power...

[mash rookie]

That sucks. When I assembled mine I was concerned with how close the lug was going to be. I put a piece of cardboard in between. Before using it I opened it up and changed to 1/8" rubber just to be sure it was insulated. There is not a lot of room in there. I thought about shimming the amp meter out some.

[Dnderhead]

if you have a question about "hidden" clearances,,,place a gob of modeling clay in questionable place ,,assemble,,take it apart and see how much the clay has crushed.

[Husker]

Very good point/method DH. it often is hard to guage just how close clearances are, when the box is open, and no way to visibly observe once closed.

H.

[Prairiepiss]

Placing a good insulator things in question is a great insurance. I've used heat shrink on many buss bars.

[primuss]

I got the new PSR in ($56 from Newark) and milled out the back of the box so I could move some things, but I think I'm going to find a bigger box to house things in. That 4x4 is just too close for comfort.

On a side note, Newark was extremely helpful, even called me to check up and gave me a discount code to pass around till the end of January if anyone is interested. Fifteen percent off. PM me if interested.

[blind drunk]

Siphoned up a mouthful of hot-ish water from my worm bucket

[klondike_bar]

did a tastetest on my distillate during the eraly hearts, when it was dripping out 80%+ abv.

i practically sprayed it across the room next step: dilution

[Melkman]

I spent the past 3 hours reading this post, from start to finish.

Being a noob here I don't have any stories about distilling yet, I do however have some on brewing...

It seems to me the two most common mistakes are:

1) Leaving the still (even for just a moment)
2) Not thinking things through

Seriously, the more I read on here the more I realise how much there is still to learn, and of course from this thread, how important safety it.

Thanks for all the time and effort you all put into this.

Now for a brewing story.
I was bottling one of my 1st batches into 340ml screw-on bottles. Ended up doing about 60 bottles. Since I was still new at this I decided to keep one bottle in the house & store the rest of them in the garage to prime.
About a week later I get home & decide to check on my handywork in the garage. I get there and everything had exploded (too much priming sugar). There were pieces of glass imbedded into the wall and ceiling. It was also clear most of this must have JUST happened. Realising there is still one more bottled INSIDE my house (in the kitchen) that could explode any moment, and the missus already home, (probably cooking in the kitchen of course) I ran up to my house and got everybody out as quickly as possible.
Now being scared of this bottle exploding while I take it out I decide to put on my full motorbike kit, helmet & everything, covering my throat as well (just in case) and took it outside.
For some reason this bottle never exploded and about two weeks later I put on my full getup again to open the bottle. The top flew off like a champagne cork and everything spews out, leaving about 50ml flat beer in the bottle.
I have refined my beer making procedures since then…

[staggerlee]

The brewing version of "The Hurt Locker".