My girls

[effyeah]

So these are my two stills..The stil on the left is a 3 inch boka LM reflux still and the one on the right is a 4 inch pot still on a 100L keg. Iv been using the bok for a year now and its served me very well, but the 100L keg was offered to me cheap so i thought id build a nice pot still head for it. My plans on putting 4 plates in the middle of her has been put off because i broke my wrist and im off work and im broke. Anyway these are my girls let me know what you think . Oh and thanks for the motivation from all your work especially the plated column builders, I know im not plated yet but soon. cheers.

[Bushman]

Nice set up, that 4" copper must of set you back a pretty penny! I just bought some 4" for dephlagmater that I purchased by the inch off ebay, my 4" column is 50" ss that came from the dairy industry with ferrules on both ends. It amazes me that copper is like gold and more expensive currently than stainless.

[effyeah]

i was lucky enough to swap my brother for that 4 inch copper for some stainless pipe i had...it better suited him for his still. But yeah copper prices are insane especially on the hobby scale buying by the meter. I didnt know you could buy by the inch of ebay, might be worth a look.

[effyeah]

Does anyone have a good online source for copper sheet for my perferated plates? Having some trouble finding some. cheers

[Bushman]

I purchased mine at a scrap yard $4.50 a pound.

[effyeah]

Got a bit done today. finished my reflux and product condensors except for the water inlet/outlet. The relux condensor is is about 120mm long with 14 1/2 inch tubes....probably overkill i know. Product condensor is 7 1/2 tubes about 350mm long in 3 inch jacket. No polishing yet but let me lmow what you think.

[effyeah]

Checked my condensors today. My product condensor was fine no leaks, but my reflux condensor had a heap so i spent a bit of time fixing that up. In hindsight i shouldnt have put so many tubes in there. Sat the sightglass flanges on to see what it would look like.

Im going to run mostly 4 plates for whiskey but run 5 for rum....is this about right?

heres some pics anyway.

[Bushman]

Thanks for the update and pictures, my original plans where for that many tubes through the dephlagmater but I opted to reduce the tubes and increase the size of tubes. Not sure which is better but my dephlagmater is a drop in so maybe in the future I might experiment with a new one to compare the difference!

[effyeah]

yeah i think i would go for 3/4 tubes next time..way less fiddly.

Bushman i nearly went for a drop in deflag but would have needed another 100mm of pipe, this way i have a 5th plate option.

[Bushman]

yeah i think i would go for 3/4 tubes next time..way less fiddly.

Bushman i nearly went for a drop in deflag but would have needed another 100mm of pipe, this way i have a 5th plate option.

I have a stainless steel 4" column that is 50" long that I believe came from the dairy industry, ferrules on both ends and welded on both sides so that is why I think it was industrial use. Purchased it from another member. I bought a 4" copper pipe off ebay that I could purchase by the inch. Took 6" and with a cut along the length of the pipe was able to bring it in slightly to fit inside the 4" column. Thinking that I will also get some reflux between the dephlagmater and the column with the small amount of opening so will serve as an extra opening.

[effyeah]

so iv been doing a little maths and i think its right, trying to work out how many holes and placment for my perf plates.

not sure if this is right.

Area of 1.5mm bit = 1.76mm2
Area of plate = 7854mm2

So 100 holes = 2.24%
200 holes = 4.48%
300 holes = 6.72%
400 holes = 8.96%
500 holes = 11.20%


if i drilled these holes on a marked grid of 5mm it would = 314 holes and a 4mm grid would be 490 holes.


not too sure if this is right but i do need some help with this plate stuff. i think i want to go for a greater number of small holes compared to fewer large holes.

[effyeah]

So i got my plates started today, got my dad to turn them on his lathe and im really happy with the clearance..they are damn snug inside that column. I marked the holes and went for 1/16 or 1.6 mm holes on a 5mm grid. its about 280 holes each plate. Need to get some more drill bits as i broke 10. Didnt take a photo of the drilled holes..Very time consuming drilling that many holes..

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[Bushman]

Man that is just time consuming work, you have a lot of patients to do that all manually. I am lucky I have limited access to a small CNC machine, still takes a long time but you are not having to move and drill at each marking.

[effyeah]

Man i would kill to use a CNC for this. I reckon there was nearly 4 hours work in drilling those holes. Im hoping small holes works well.

I know this isnt even finished yet but i was thinking of building another set of plates maybe bubble plates or valved plates just to see the difference.. i should probably finish this first.

[effyeah]

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[Bushman]

In what I have read the small holes are better!

[Bushman]

In what I have read the small holes are better!

[effyeah]

i have been thinking about being able to adjust my plates mid run.. i know this has all been done before but what i was thinking was instead of the downcomer going straight into a 90 degree bend..have it straight into a T, one side of the tee would exit the column and go into a valve but the other side of the T would go the the normal 90 J bend. If it worked i could bypass the distillate from reaching the plate below and run between 1 and 5 plates by turning valves.

My only problem with this idea is attatching one side of the T to the valve on the out side of the column and keeping the plate tree removable. it would be easy to solder everything permanently but i would like it removable. possibly small tri clover fittings? a 3/4 " ferrule on the side of the column????

hope this makes sense.

[effyeah]

ok so i searched the shit out of plate drains and plate disabling and pretty much myles with the hexagonal thump still is what .im talking about...i thought i might have been onto something there but i think there all over it