Misplaced...

[lownslow]

I live in this mormon outcamp called Utah. It's a total pain to find good beer, let alone anyone that knows anything about distilling. I have read and reread a lot of the stuff on this forum for the past 2 weeks. I went and picked up 20' of 1/2" copper tubing to make a coil today. I am still trying to come up with a good design for a tower. I want to make whiskey/bourbon and I want to use a stovetop pot still. The coil seems like the easy part, so I'm starting there. I want a tower/column for a little bit of reflux and to keep the heavy pieces pushing down on the lid to ensure a good seal. I'm trying to figure out a good column size, how to attach it to the lid and then how to "bottleneck" it down to fit the 1/2" coil. I've gotten a lot of good info here and realize that running a 1/2" tube straight from the lid to the coil is a bad idea. But I just can't seem to figure out the proper dimensions for the column and how to join the 2. Today I picked up a 2' section of 1/2" pipe thinking I could make a tower out of that but am really struggling with how to attach it to the lid of my boiler.

Sorry to make my first post so complicated. At least it didn't just say "How do I make a still?" I have a good understanding of how it all works, I'm just trying to figure out the specifics of connecting all the parts. This image was helpful:

http://homedistiller.org/forum/download ... &mode=view

Thanks Samohon. But Now i'm stuck trying to figure out how to get from 2 inch copper pipe down to 1/2" for the lyne arm and coil.

I am going to keep researching it here and hopefully a something will click!

Thanks for all the inadvertent help so far! This is a great community and I look forward to sharing my trials, tribulations and successes with you!

LNS

[lownslow]

I think I figured it out and have decided on a good plan. If I could do it over again, here's what I'd have done differently: Buy some small pieces of copper and practice. Take my time and make sure they look clean before I start on the real thing.

I only soldered a handful of pieces together and by the last one I finally had an idea of how much heat, how much solder and how to keep it clean. It's all sealed, but not so pretty.

[Braz]

Sealed is good. Pretty is optional.

I know what you are saying about Utah. It is a great place to ride a motorcycle but damned hard to find a drink at the end of the day.

[banter_king]

looks good if it is sealed. if you want to fell better about your solders take a look at mine

[lownslow]

thanks Banter. got the day off tomorrow to keep working on it. Hopefully I'll get the worm finished and the rest of the tower assembled. keep you posted.