NcHooch wrote:Just wanna say thanks to olddog, kentucky shinner and everyone else who's shared their flute build info on the site here.
That's what makes this place so special.
'preciate it,
NChooch
I am just glad to be a help. you have done a great job on your column.
You should be proud of that baby.
KS
mash rookie wrote:NC
It is kind of normal for the top plate to be a little more full than the lower ones. With the dephlag knocking back all the vapor at full reflux there is going to be a lot there. When taking off things should even out.
You might be running her a little hard. If you back your heat down a little you can use less coolant at the dephlag and the top plate wont run quite so full. My thoughts.
Happy to hear that she is up and running.
MR
Good advice Mash rookie,, sounds like your running a flute yourself
Hey NC,
New to the site and have a quick question. Im baseing a flute build off of yours and collecting all the parts I need for next year when Im out of here and have searched all over the site for the slip joints you were writing about. Are they the Grainger 1.5" Trap adapters? Im not incarcerated Im in Afhganastan they look down on building a flute over here. Take care
Shouldve read deeper found it in the post.... Stop scanning read the damn post
I use a propane burner.
I'll run it fairly hard to get it up to temp , then I throttle it WAY down and do the rest of the run with a real small flame.
Back when I had my Bok, I would heat it up to temp on propane and then slide it over to a 750W hotplate for collection.
I've never tried it with this still, (it'd be hard to move) but I bet it would work.
NChooch
Practice safe distillin and keep your hobby under your hat.
I plan on starting a build like this soon, gathering the parts at least. My question is: If you wanted to do this build all over again, would you do it exactly the same or would you make any changes? Example. More plates, less plates; change in the down-comers, change in the defleg, change in the column height, etc.
stillearnin wrote:I plan on starting a build like this soon, gathering the parts at least. My question is: If you wanted to do this build all over again, would you do it exactly the same or would you make any changes? Example. More plates, less plates; change in the down-comers, change in the defleg, change in the column height, etc.
Hmmm ...I'm very happy with the way it turned out and the way it works , but If I was gonna do it all over again?
there's things that could be tried
...you could reduce the length of the dephleg by and inch .
you could make the downcomers 1/2" , or make them funnel shaped on top.
You could also change the bottom plate to a valved plate .
in the end, I think the plates could use another 10-15 more holes, and the downcomers might work better if they were flared on the top.
that's prolly it.
Hope that helps,
NChooch
Practice safe distillin and keep your hobby under your hat.
stillearnin wrote:I plan on starting a build like this soon, gathering the parts at least. My question is: If you wanted to do this build all over again, would you do it exactly the same or would you make any changes? Example. More plates, less plates; change in the down-comers, change in the defleg, change in the column height, etc.
Hmmm ...I'm very happy with the way it turned out and the way it works , but If I was gonna do it all over again?
there's things that could be tried
...you could reduce the length of the dephleg by and inch .
you could make the downcomers 1/2" , or make them funnel shaped on top.
You could also change the bottom plate to a valved plate .
in the end, I think the plates could use another 10-15 more holes, and the downcomers might work better if they were flared on the top.
that's prolly it.
Hope that helps,
Yeah that helps a lot, I don't think I am ready to build a valved plate yet, but I will use your ideas of more holes and bigger down comers. Thanks.
Thank you very much! I hope to join you guys in the near future. After reading all this seems a few things needed changed as discussed recently. How about the bottom plate? Would it help to make the bottom plate valved and the correct size and amount of holes on the rest (without valves)? Since this seems to be in experimental stages still, I will try some things different. However, finding invaluable 4" pipe is a real PITA here, so I am going to stay close on the build. I was thinking maybe same amount of holes just smaller if it has a negative effect I can drill them out bigger.
FS,
don't get confused by what I said on the previous page...the still works excellent .
it's possible some improvement could be made, but there's certainly nuthin wrong with the way it works now ...
85-90% clean , and it puts out really well too, at least 1/2 gallon/hour.
NChooch
Practice safe distillin and keep your hobby under your hat.
Yeah after reading the drill bit size again I dont see needing smaller holes 1/8" is pretty small and I have extras of that one I guess since this is one post that isnt 64 pages YET I will start a thread on building mine as soon as I get some pipe. If I get 4" I guess I will do 6 plates with 3 or 4 sight glasses. If i only come up with 3" Im thinking maybe 8 plates to get a fine neutral. And making it break apart via triclamp at 4. Thanks for the write up, along with the others, helped a bunch
I have reallly been enjoying reading about these flute builds, i havent read them all of course, in time i hope. I have really got the feever for a build. i have been on the look out for some copper for over two months now, yet to see a pice of copper over 1 inch. i will probablly have to bite the bullet and order some by the inch. ouch. i have followed yours and mash rookies builds. they both look to be great designs. I would love to do a 4" inch but the cost of everthing is about tripple.
My question i guess is would you recomend doing a 3 " build over a 4? thnks fastE
I recently completed my 3 incher similar to your build.
I also used 1/16 holes (approx 73 each plate) and had flooding issues on each of the 4 plates. I am using 2000w element and had to drop my power to to half to get the fluid level reasonable in each plate. I was achieving around 1litre/hr at 93-94%
I went and made myself another tree but upsized the plate holes to 5/64 (1.98mm) and it works much better. I can now use my full 2000w and achieve over 2L/hr at 95-96%.
I ran 22L of rum 40% low wines thru it yesterday and pulled out over 10L at 94-95% over a 6hr period.
I haven't got to try mine out yet but, I hope I don't have this problem. My plates are soldered in and getting them out would be rough. Mine is built pretty much the same way as NChooch's so we shall see. I'll post results if I can ever run across a keg.
Flooding for me was when the top two plates were over half way up the sight glasses with the full 2000w on in full reflex. I could turn down my wattage and all 4 plates would fill and bubble nicely, but when i tried to switch it back to full power the top two plates would fill (flood), and the two bottom two plates would reduce down to only a small amount of bubbling liquid.
Even when i was taking product off i was having a hard time trying to keep the bottom plate with what i thought was a reasonable amount of liquid on it bubbling.
I got the feeling that the smaller holes was kind of choking it a little and having the next hole size up would allow the column to breath a little. I found it worked much better with the larger holes. All plates staked and bubbled nicely. My take off and abv% was better also because I could now use the full 2000watts.
My thoughts came from looking at other fellas builds and viewing thier video posts of thiers running and how a column look with all plates stacked and bubbling and they were using up to 5500w.
I reckon the 3 inch build that i plagiarized off your build works great and a little cheaper than doing a 4 incher.
Stimson wrote:Flooding for me was when the top two plates were over half way up the sight glasses with the full 2000w on in full reflex. I could turn down my wattage and all 4 plates would fill and bubble nicely, but when i tried to switch it back to full power the top two plates would fill (flood), and the two bottom two plates would reduce down to only a small amount of bubbling liquid.
Stimson wrote:Flooding for me was when the top two plates were over half way up the sight glasses with the full 2000w on in full reflex. I could turn down my wattage and all 4 plates would fill and bubble nicely, but when i tried to switch it back to full power the top two plates would fill (flood), and the two bottom two plates would reduce down to only a small amount of bubbling liquid.
Agreed Olddog
too much power for the size of the downcomer.
NChooch
Practice safe distillin and keep your hobby under your hat.
ok, thanks. I thought by using 1/2 inch as my downcomers this would not happen. I was originally going to use 3/4 inch downcomers, but when i drew it on the plates with 1 inch cups it looked HUGE and it would reduce my plate hole numbers (although i guess i could have squeezed the holes together more)
Anyway, it appears I also solved my problem by increasing my holes sizes with no reduction in quality.
Piece of art NChooch . I love it. I have a question about soldering if you don't mind. Did you use soft/hard method or you soft solder everything?
Will MAPP torch will be enough? Thanks.
H
Take care
YET I will start a thread on building mine as soon as I get some pipe. If I get 4" I guess I will do 6 plates with 3 or 4 sight glasses. If i only come up with 3" Im thinking maybe 8 plates to get a fine neutral. And making it break apart via triclamp at 4. Thanks for the write up, along with the others, helped a bunch 
