3 inch valve plate design

[LWTCS]

Waiting on ya tuh tell us how them teeth chatter

[LWTCS]

Sight glasses are for people that do not have super duper x-ray vision

[Sungy]

Sight glasses are for people that do not have super duper x-ray vision

Wouldn't that be great....hmmmmm

Waiting on ya tuh tell us how them teeth chatter

Its cold up here for sure. Just another reason to stay indoors and build my new system.

[LWTCS]

No,no, no we want ya tuh run the still and tell us how them valves work,,,,,don't you speak the talk yet??

[bentstick]

Are you going to put to put sights in it? Looks good,when are you going to put it through its paces?

[emptyglass]

Looking sweet.

Gunna sound like a bag of coins

Have you thought of putting a thermo port below the deflag?

[LWTCS]

Money bags,,the wallet,,,the purse,,,the coffer,,,,,,,,,,Lincoln,,,,,,,,chump change,,,,,legal tender,,,,,,,,Penny,,,,,,,,,,,what ya callin this still BTW?

[emptyglass]

"Penny banger"?

[Sungy]

If you look in the pics. I have a thermometer and pressure gauge I acquired. Its going under the dephleg. I'm going to put a thermometer well in the top and bottom of the column for electronic temp probes.

Just made a deal for a keg. I'm going to get it after work tonight. Yea for me. Now to figure out how I'm going to heat it.

There are plans for six sight glass to be installed. Gotta have them. They add the WOW factor. Besides for a beginner like me they are gonna help. Just have to find a source for them around here.

As for the name of this rig, I'm not sure yet. I like the money references.

Cheers to all.....raises glass for a sip of the good stuff.....

[emptyglass]

There are plans for six sight glass to be installed. Gotta have them. They add the WOW factor. ...

Yeah, baby!!!


You won't need the pressure gauge. If you wanted to know the "pressure" inside, you would need something that can register 0-5 psi. I reckon it would be confusing too. Too much shit to watch. Its a still, not a pressure cooker.

A pressure release valve is a different story.

[NcHooch]

It'll be clankin away in no time!, keep up the good work Sungy.

[acfixer69]

If you look in the pics. I have a thermometer and pressure gauge I acquired. Its going under the dephleg. I'm going to put a thermometer well in the top and bottom of the column for electronic temp probes.

Just made a deal for a keg. I'm going to get it after work tonight. Yea for me. Now to figure out how I'm going to heat it.

There are plans for six sight glass to be installed. Gotta have them. They add the WOW factor. Besides for a beginner like me they are gonna help. Just have to find a source for them around here.

As for the name of this rig, I'm not sure yet. I like the money references.

Cheers to all.....raises glass for a sip of the good stuff.....

Sungy
I highly recommend the sight glasses for the valved plate column as mine is very sensitive to heat input and being able to see what is going on is essential to running it. Your valve plate is similar to mine except I used rivets not pennies. Downcomers are the same style. To much heat at warm up and vapors will blow thru the downcomer and bypass the valves and flood very rapidly.
This is mine very similar

[Sungy]

Thanks all for the encouragement. This is coming together nicely. The thermometer is a combination temp and pressure. The pressure part is fudged, that's how I got it. I have a pressure gauge from a cleaver brooks boiler ( 0 to 35 inches water gauge or 0 to 20 ounces per sq. in.) I was going to install across the plate tree just to see what kind of pressure differential I have. Lots of that stuff in my trade.
I have a bunch of old NG furnace burners and a few NG water heater burners. Though I might play around with them. ( no worries folks this is my field of work ... not gonna redneck all over the place here ) I service and repair very large burners for my employer.

What is your opinion of gas VS electric?

Is below the dephleg. the right location for the thermo well or is it supposed to be on top of the dephleg.?

I have heard there are different diameters of alcohalometers (sp- hope I spelled that right.) For a parrot am I safe to make it 1 inch diameter and 11 inch deep? Im thinking the feed tube needs to be 2 or 3 inches higher than the float tube. Am I right or way out of whack? If I'm right, then I don't want it to hold any more liquid than needed or it will not be as accurate (something about smearing). Not enough liquid and the rush of fluid makes the readings deflated???

What are your thoughts on this?
Thanks for your help, you guys really helped to raise the bar. Makes me take a step back ...rethink and try again....

[Sungy]

Well I have a boiler now. Here is a pic of the outlet.

and a pic of the tri clamp adapter and the boiler connector. Notice the 1/8 difference in size. Will a tri clamp work with this connector as I dont have one yet? Im told it is a S connector on the keg. Its threaded inside but its not 2" or 1 1/2"

Or can I silver solder 45 % the two stainless pieces together, taking the top one and flipping it over then solder.
What do you think?

I could make 2 easy flanges and solder one onto the keg connector

[emptyglass]

If you have a choice, go electric.

I run gas and last run I sprung a window leak. Was very nervous with naked flame.

[Sungy]

Well I finished manufacturing parts for the Leiberg. condenser. Its 32" long. 1/2" inside pipe and 3/4" outside.

I flattened a piece of 1/4" pipe and twisted it with the vice holding on to one end and me pulling with a 4" C clamp on the other. I put an arc in the twisty bit to stop the rattling. Im gonna have enough of that already. Down the center pipe it goes. I then got SMART and wrapped a 12 GAUGE piece of copper wire around the 1/2". Soldered it in place every 4". The ends of the wire wrap around the water in and out holes to guide the water into a swirl.

All was great till I tried to put the center pipe in the 3/4". .........@#$#...$%@$ ............and a few other 4 letter words. Yup.... to big to fit in. YUP.... SHOULD HAVE USED 14 GAUGE. After some grinding with the Dremel tool, it now fits.
As grandpa used to say "better lookin at it than lookin for it". While the Dremel tool was in hand, I ground down the inside stop for the end pipe to side right through. Here it is assembled, no soldering just yet.

Have to start working on the sight glasses.
Was at the motor shop today and found a 10 amp DC motor controller used $50. Should work well to power a 2500 watt element at 230 volts. Then a second element with a two pole 30 amp relay. Plop it all inside a 6" x 6" metal box.

[acfixer69]

Before you let the smoke out of that motor controller. I dont know how a DC controller can regulate AC current.

AC

[Sungy]

It converts ac power into pulsed dc. I'm not sure how many cycles per second but they are capable of this task. So I have been told by my pal at the motor rebuilding shop.

On a side note I dug threw my junk drawer and come up with a bunch of valves and fittings. Then to the plumbing supply for a couple of reducing couplings and threaded adapters.

There are two choices for dephleg. condenser valve. 3/8 needle valve or 1/4 full port ball valve. not sure yet.

Edited: cause I cant spell

[faste]

great looking build, ill be keeping my eye on this hope works like a champ.

[emptyglass]

I dunno man, just my thoughts, but I think you are going to have trouble getting enough cooling.

If you got big pipes, you can always throttle them back, small pipes can't get bigger.

A 1/4" hole in any valve sounds just a bit small for good flow. Remember, its a shotgun, not a coil.
A needle valve often dosn't give the same maximum flow of an equivalant size ball valve, so I believe your 3/8" needle will only open up to about the same as your 1/4" ball. Its not control I'm concerned about, its overall flow.

I'm interested to see how the leibig goes too.

Its looking good.

[bentstick]

Sungy looks like you are getting things close . I do how ever have a couple of ?'s. are you thinking of putting valves on the input sides of your cooling? If so why? You should only need them on outlet side.And what size inlet and outlet fitting are going into the shell of your reflux&product condensers? Mine are 1/2" and I could have went bigger. Think more flow more cooling capabilities. all in all lookin sharp EG beat me to it, was typing as he posted as far valve size I would not go smaller than 1/2"

[Sungy]

bentstick & emptyglass

You both make good points. Got me rethinking things a bit.I have a few 1/2 inch valves around and I'm gonna have to visit the junk drawer again. Point one ditch the inlet valves....gotcha. I have a three way valve (its electronic 1/2", but I can put a handle on it or hook up a controller and sensors.) I think they are in the junk drawer too... Big drawer eh..... Just thinking out loud...

Currently the water connections are 1/2" for the 3" dephleg.
Dephleg 3" diameter x 11"length 7....1/2" x 9" vapor tubes 2 outlets (60% or 100% capacity)
Leiberg 32" long 1/2" water connections 1/2" x32" inner vapor tube with 3/8" spiral twist inside( 1/4" pounded flat ) and 14 Gauge wire rapped around the outside in a gentle twist and 3/4 outer jacket
column 6 valved plates with seven valves in 1/2" holes
length of column 29 1/2" diameter 3" plate spacing 4 3/4 plate to plate 1/2 downcomer and 3/4 cup

[acfixer69]

There are two choices for dephleg. condenser valve. 3/8 needle valve or 1/4 full port ball valve. not sure yet.

You may want to post a cooling water plumbing flow diagram that you are planing. From the pic's you probably will have a problem controlling the still.

With only 2500 watts input I don't have a condenser size problem but you do need to get water to them. Full 1/2" ball valve would be wise. After all reflux condenser is a pre-product condenser during product take off by limiting amount of product to be condensed.

Still don't understand the DC controller on the AC element but I'm looking to learn. I have worked mostly with VSD so I will be wanting to see.

AC

[emptyglass]

Get yourself that 1/2" 3 way and jam it in there.

It dosn't matter if you control the input from the supply or return- the result will be the same. It's just plumbing theory there, not distillation theory.
And anicdotally, it dosn't matter if you plumb supply to the bottom or the top of the deflag, ask OD and/or Larry (or read their threads)

But you gotta get cooling. And control of it.

And you can automate the 3 way once you gather your parameters, but you gotta get them first.

With that done you, your borderline commercial.

[Sungy]

Here is the water supply configuration I'm planning on using. Did I get the idea right?

[emptyglass]

Thats pretty much it.

[Sungy]

Went to the junk drawer again. I found the three way valve and a controller. Scrounged around and found a bunch of sensors and a three pole contactor with aux contacts.
Tested the valve and it works well.

The software will control the reflux valve inlet water flow buy the dephleg outlet vapor temp sensor. For warm up and plate stacking I can over ride the valve open ( has handle for manual control ).
The sensors are strictly because I'm new to this and want to know what is going on inside my still.

This just makes it easy to monitor all the points at once. (still have to calibrate all the sensors )
Looks cool too....

[Sungy]

So I'm digitizing this build for ease of monitoring the fluid temps. If I am going this far I may as well get the most accurate measurements I can. So I made these little baby's.

The coupling is 3/4" the flairs pipe is 1/2" flared very heavily. Silver solder (45%) was used for the 3/4" to 1/2" joints. I then took a piece of 3/8" pinched the end over and welded with silver. then 95/5 was used to solder the 3/8 into the 3/4" coupling. This gives me a place to put my sensors where the tip will end up surrounded by the fluid I want to measure. A little heat sink compound and we are off to the races.
I Then tackled the column to dephleg joint. This is the column stack band I made.

The little strap was wrapped around the pipe then I put on a stainless steel gear clamp to hold things on one side. I then took a 1" long piece of 1/4" copper and straddled the joint between the strapping ends(note the ends of the strap overlap by 1") applied a little solder paste and soldered the ends of the 1/4 x 1" piece leaving the section where the overlap is unsoldered. I then removed the gear clamp and do the same solder stuff to the 2nd 1/4" x 1" piece. once done cut the 1" pieces to remove a 1/4" from where the overlap is. Tap one side of the column stack band pieces ( I used #10-24 tap and bolts) and drill the inside of the the other side so the bolts can slide in nice.
This will give you a band that will be perfectly shaped and the bolt holders will line up right. Nice and tight joint. I'm planning to wrap a few turns of Teflon tape around the column before I put the column stack band on.

[NcHooch]

There are two choices for dephleg. condenser valve. 3/8 needle valve or 1/4 full port ball valve. not sure yet.

Edited: cause I cant spell

Sungy,
the 1/4" will be fine, that's what I use on my 3" flute and there's more than enough cooling there....you could bump to 3/8" just to be safe, but 1/2" is way overkill.

Try not to over-think it, you could very easily control the cooling with a single valve on the middle output tube in the center of your diagram (open that valve full and all the water drains away from the dephleg ....close it and the water flows through the dephleg as well).

[Sungy]

Well just a pic for ya. Got most of the cooling water piping done. Ran out of 1/2" pipe. Man do I have a lot of copper to clean. Gonna take a while. Waiting on some trap adapters for sight glasses. Had to order them in as all they have in stock are brass. Oh well all in due time.