Comprehensive Beginner's Guide to Building a Boka

[the_bard]

Great job but it really needs pictures or drawings of all the parts and how they fit together.

[rad14701]

Great job but it really needs pictures or drawings of all the parts and how they fit together.

They will be there once the bug in the Wiki is repaired... The placeholders are there but the images cannot be rendered...

[HeadCase]

They will be there once the bug in the Wiki is repaired... The placeholders are there but the images cannot be rendered...

Definitely off topic... but in response to rad.
But it appears to simply not find the image, so this is either the perms of the folder our preventing active upload or the folder is wrong in your LocalSettings.php

[rad14701]

They will be there once the bug in the Wiki is repaired... The placeholders are there but the images cannot be rendered...

Definitely off topic... but in response to rad.
But it appears to simply not find the image, so this is either the perms of the folder our preventing active upload or the folder is wrong in your LocalSettings.php

That is correct... I think the problem is that the temporary folders cannot be created or the config needs to be tweaked... Husker is aware of the problem but I don't know if he has full access to the server to remedy the situation or if Uncle Jesse will need to have at it... The entire Wiki did work after the migration but I believe it failed after other server configuration changes were made...

[Grehund]

Thankyou Montanadave,

I used your wiki article extensively when building my first Boka. It was indeed very helpful to have all the info in one place, nicely laid out with references. Thanks again!

['SideWinder']

Awesome write up

I just need the pictures now

I want to build my own boka with a 3" width and 150cm column. Although I don't quite understand the plates yet. Will do more research.

[Grehund]

The version on Distillapedia has images.
http://distillapedia.org/index.php?title=Bokakob

[rad14701]

The version on Distillapedia has images.
http://distillapedia.org/index.php?title=Bokakob

Only some of the images display on that page as well... It might be file naming conventions or some other reason why the server isn't displaying the missing images... Some of them aren't named properly for web hosting... All filenames should have spaces replaced with underscores to insure proper functionality across all hosting platforms...

[derick881]

I have been trying to get into the Wiki for several days but I get an error every time I try it.

[clodev]

Anyone have a template for the 2" column and a 1" gap? don't want to screw up the cut.

Got it.
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 0#p6910554" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[razzle308]

Thanks so much for that article.
Pulling bits n pieces from here and there was doing my head in.
Answered so many questions.
Thank you thank you.

[HoozeBound]

The thermometer should be at the same level as the output pipe to the condenser. Also, I would recommend as column packing material glass shards. They are inexpensive, inert and easy to get. Otherwise it is just fine.

[Coaster]

.....I would recommend as column packing material glass shards.....

@ HoozeBound,

Fellow Forum Members appreciate your contribution to the Forum but I believe if you do due diligence and perform research of the extensive data presented in the Home Distiller Forum you will find that the preferred packing for Reflux Stills is either 100% copper or 100% stainless steel packing and not ‘glass shards’.

Regards,
Coaster

[Pikluk]

first ill say great job
as you stated the data is all over
when i build't my boka i had to do a lot of research.
that is why i decided too try and help other and making a post of my own.
but what you did is beyond my capacity.

bravo

p.s.
at that time doing a lot of research wasn't a bad thing for me i did learn a lot while researching.
but your wiki got a lot, if someone read trough all of it id say he's pretty much ready to start safely.

and thank you for including me in your wiki, make me feel i didn't waste my time.
that and the 60k views...
hope i helped a few has many in here helped me.

[yamastill]

What a GREAT write up. in the posts with the fig. # just trying to find the pictures.

[Hownowbrowncow]

Great job.. This is a good read for me and I had to reply when I read this; "This high pressure can cause your still to explode which could kill you, and then the released flammable vapor would ignite and explode and kill you again". Very amusing.

[YummyRummy]

You Sir, deserve a promotion.

thank you

[mwp309]

For everyone's hard work, I sincerely thank you. I am building a 2" boka with the fine information and support from Home Distiller members.
Sent my donation to help keep the site going!

[drovkin]

I would love to jump into this and build one, but this seems very complicated. Maybe it's because I have very little experience using copper pipe, but it's a bit overwhelming.

[Conoco75]

So... I'm working on a Boka. I have a 15.5 gallon keg with a 2'' ss 40'' long column. so far so good. I also made my condenser out of 1/4'' ss tubing it is 6'' long. (About 15' of 1/4'' tubing was used.) My question is about the condenser. Is my condenser going to be long enough? What would the ideal condenser lenght for this set-up? Does it matter if my condenser is a tight fit (really tight) or should it be loose. Should it be touching the column walls? If someone could explain if and why it matters then I could start having real fun like the rest of you

[COOKINSUMTIN]

well I finally have everything I need. After making a mistake on buying a crappy piece of SS for my column I stopped at the local scrap yard at lunch today and found a 4' piece of brand new shiny 3" copper!!!! was a happy man especially when I paid scrap price for it!! Going on a snowmobile trip in the morning but I plan on giving it a full day Sunday. Hope are high about now!!!!

[Usge]

I would love to jump into this and build one, but this seems very complicated. Maybe it's because I have very little experience using copper pipe, but it's a bit overwhelming.

It's really not as bad as it looks/sounds. The hardest part really was the coil/condenser. And that was mostly because of my own expectations. Mine kept flattening more than I anticipated...but in the end...it flowed "plenty" of water and worked fine. As complex as it sounds..it's actually a pretty straight forward design/build.

[Usge]

So... I'm working on a Boka. I have a 15.5 gallon keg with a 2'' ss 40'' long column. so far so good. I also made my condenser out of 1/4'' ss tubing it is 6'' long. (About 15' of 1/4'' tubing was used.) My question is about the condenser. Is my condenser going to be long enough? What would the ideal condenser lenght for this set-up? Does it matter if my condenser is a tight fit (really tight) or should it be loose. Should it be touching the column walls? If someone could explain if and why it matters then I could start having real fun like the rest of you

The purpose of that condenser is to knock down any/all the vapor you send up the column. That's the ultimate test for it whether it fits looser or tighter or longer or shorter. So long as it does that under all the conditions that you run it (heat levels)..it's good. Fifteen feet sounds right. Wound to 6" long sounds like its wound a little shorter/tighter than avg..but should be fine so long as it's not kinked or limited flow wise. Given what you "don't" want is for vapor to blow through the condenser...having it fit "closer" to sides is not inherently a bad thing. People often put copper mesh around their copper ones that have large gaps to make it fit better and transfer cooling better. BUT, you don't want it so tight that it seals up the tube entirely..like it's capped. It needs to be open to atmosphere going out the top for safety reasons. It's the job of the condenser to make sure nothing passes. Sealing this up....along with the output...could allow the column to pressurize to unsafe levels. So long as this is not the case...it sounds fine to me!!

[Tennessee coon]

First time post long type snooper. The link is not working for me. Anyone else have this issue?

[Husker]

I have turned off the wiki for now. It will get turned back on, but the site was being hit SOOOO hard by the drive by surfers from the moonshiner show, that they killed the site. I disabled the wiki until the usage drops to where we are sure the site will not crash from the excess users.

H.

[Stillatryin]

I have turned off the wiki for now. It will get turned back on, but the site was being hit SOOOO hard by the drive by surfers from the moonshiner show, that they killed the site. I disabled the wiki until the usage drops to where we are sure the site will not crash from the excess users.

H.

Thanks for letting us know, Husker. I wish I'd downloaded or screen saved the wiki page. I passed the wiki site along to several friends who are interested in the craft. When it comes back up, I need to print the templates for my 2" copper pipe. I've got the cap, the flange ring, and the plates, I just need to build the condenser, cut the slots for the plates and solder it all in. One of my issues is soldering. I've got a butane torch, but it is not big enough to solder the 2" stuff... it just barely solders 3/4" pipe.

[Usge]

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... &start=180

The original template that the wiki links to is in this thread (about 1/2 way down page).

[Husker]

The wiki will get put back up at some time. I am monitoring site usage, and when it appears that the tidal wave of drive by surfers goes down, some of the more CPU intensive parts of the forum will be put back up.

Also, there was a new spider/bot hitting the site. The bot is banned on the forum, and accessing the parent site is not a problem, since it is static pages. But I do not have great ways to throttle bad spider/bots on the wiki. That is one of the main reasons why that program has a habit of bringing the entire server down.

I looked right now, and here are the stats for users:

In total there are 153 users online :: 34 registered, 1 hidden and 118 guests

That is still pretty damn active.

H.

[Tsunami60]

I noticed that the Wiki page was down. Looks like I got my bokakob column built just in time! Would still like to access some of the great info on there. I'm to the point of actually using this thing.

[LoC]

it was great work (before it got taken down!) but thankfully someone posted the slant plate template!