The official 5" Flute build...

[Richard7]

If the coil is in the liquid level of the parrot it will slow down the response time due too the volume of the coil, But if it was higher it would help in the cooling, but I don't know if you need it after that great liebig! Your build looks great, just thought I would in my $.02 worth on the coil before it was set in solder! Hope I was not too late, but I don't think it would make that much of a difference on a build like this one. I think I am getting flute envy! I know where my next build will be going. But that will be after my build has saved me enough to do it! Maybe next week! LOL!

Edit to say shotgun instead of liebig, I called that one wrong!

[bentstick]

I belive he is using the coil as decoration on the outside of the parrot!

[jimmyjames1981]

If the coil is in the liquid level of the parrot it will slow down the response time due too the volume of the coil, But if it was higher it would help in the cooling, but I don't know if you need it after that great liebig! Your build looks great, just thought I would in my $.02 worth on the coil before it was set in solder! Hope I was not too late, but I don't think it would make that much of a difference on a build like this one. I think I am getting flute envy! I know where my next build will be going. But that will be after my build has saved me enough to do it! Maybe next week! LOL!

The coil is going to be on the output of the parrot so it will have no affect on the abv reading in the parrot, I added the coil so I can get that "twist" on the output stream like guys with a worm get

[Richard7]

[fullhouse]

Prolly said it b4 but ...DAMN Dude that is one Awesome build!

[jimmyjames1981]

Thanks for the comments, hopefully.it turns out as nice and functional as others on here

[jimmyjames1981]

looks great man, what was the hole count on the plates and what size?

If I remember right it was just shy of 200 holes and are .063" (1/16"), I figured the number of holes that most people use on a 4"6 plate and multiplied it by the.difference of surface area between the 4"and 5", let me tell ya its going to need some heat in the boiler to get this thing going

[jimmyjames1981]

Nice progress. I like the patina of old pipe. And its less work.

Well when I'm done I'm going to polish the shit out.of it, and probably clearcoat it

[emptyglass]

Nice progress. I like the patina of old pipe. And its less work.

Well when I'm done I'm going to polish the shit out.of it, and probably clearcoat it

A stich in time saves nine.

Any polishing you do before soldering won't be a bad thing. If I'm going to polish a rig, I polish most of it before soldering. It really lessens the burden of post solder polish.

A bit of tube is easy to polish before you solder anything on to it. Once its soldered, its hard to get into all the nooks and crannys of say, a sightglass mount.

I mirror polished mine, all of it except the plumbing. The condensors have taken on a pink hue, the hot parts have gone a beautiful orange (after clear coat)

Buy the way Jimmy, I hope you have something fermenting, as you are going to need it soon.

[Dan Call]

I think this represents the largest "flute" build to date. 5 inch 8 plate, amazing. That dephlag, even though I'm tell myself it's 5 inches in diamteter, looks like a coffe cup compared to the collumn.

A video of this thing in action would be great. I'm just imagining what size stream this thing will throw at fill tilt.

Excited to see this, and yet another "I gotta build a flute" series of personal thoughts.

Thanks for sharing too!

[jimmyjames1981]

Yes it is going to be big, the only reason I went 5" is because I used materials that I could find really really cheap, the 10 foot piece of 5" cost me $100 from an old time plumber that used it for drain west and vent on a job years and years ago, I could not find any cheap 4" to save my life, every bit of stuff on this build is second hand or from the scrap yard, to date I have about $230 into the build plus solder cost. If I were to do it over again I would wait for 4"to come available, the biggest problem with 5" is the ferrules for the column and also clamps, also a 4" column would produce more than enough product to supply me, the 5" just means I won't have to run it as much but each batch will cost me more, not to mention having to run 2 heating elements instead of 1 and also running a 50amp circuit just to run it, to be honest I don't see any need.to go over 4" unless you intend to sell product which is definitely a no no, a 4" can supply you with 10 gallons in a day and that's alot of likker, but I used what I could get and I love building stuff and I always build everything over the top, that's just the way I am, I see some people around going further asking about building a 6" and 8" columns which in my mind is way past the hobby stage, just the equipment needed to run a column that big is crazy, a 6" column could easily do 4 gallons per hour.... another downfall of a larger column is batch sizes, my batches will have to be bigger and I won't be able to run as many different recipes and types of linker.

[Dan Call]

You may also have a record for getting the most materials for the least money. I've been poking around scrap places. I can't seem to come across any good supplies. Are you looking in scrap metal businesses or junk yards?

Do you have a time frame for your first run? It would be great if you took a video, I'd love to see that mash dance on those big plates.

Just one question, did you get sheets for your plates?

[jimmyjames1981]

There's a non ferous scrap metal yard that I stop at alot, bought everything there, the plate is 12the gauge copper that I also got at the scrap yard, I got enough plate to make all 8 of my.plates and also the plates for both condensers for $30

[effyeah]

Wow I have about 270 1/16" holes for my 4 inch. Might need a bit of heat I guess.

[jimmyjames1981]

If you put the 1/16" holes on a 1/4"stainless grid its impossible to fit 270 holes on 1 plate, Mayne you meant total on all of your plates?

[jimmyjames1981]

dang i butchered that previous post, i posted it from my phone and autocorrect is a bitch...... Well work on the column has been slow, i did get the sight glass tubes soldered on today, i didnt drill the holes in the column yet, i left that for last so i can hole saw it after the tubes are soldered and then use a flap wheel on the die grinder to get a perfectly smooth transition between the column wall and sight glass tube, also not drilling the holes first made it easier to solder, the 5" column is big enough to where i can reach in there with the torch and heat the back side. Now i need to get a new 1/2" drill so i can hole saw out the holes, my drill took a dump when i plugged it in today.......

[jimmyjames1981]

Stopped by the scrapyard today and my oh my... there sitting on the floor was 10 pieces of 12" copper pipe all about 6' long... they were getting ready to cut it up into smaller pieces so they can put it into they're bailing press, they said it was from a local artist that makes things out of copper and sold everything he had, he had pallets of I'm guessing 14 gauge copper sheet, all different sizes of pipe from 1" to the 12", too bad everything was already bailed and ready to be shipped out.... I didn't buy any of the 12" but it was really neat to see such a big pipe, the walls on it were probably 1/4" thick.... and each 6' piece probably weighed 120-150lbs..... by now I'm sure that pipe is a mangled cube .... rip big pipe....

[Richard7]

Its not often you read such a sad post at HD. Yes, rest in peace big pipe, I never knew you yet I dream of what could have been

[jimmyjames1981]

I wish I could have bought some of it but at $600 per 6' piece it was way out of my price range and I probably would never use it for anything, its too big for a hobby column and too small for a boiler, maybe somebody going legal and doing some artisan distilling could have used it but I don't know too many people doing that....