Hey guys

[BokaBakla]

Sorry I would post pictures of my setup but I'm scared to be honest with the laws the way they are. Basically I use a boka with a full 6 foot reflux column. It's modular by design and I actually had a lot of fun building it. Getting the copper coupler silver soldered to the keg top was probably the most challengin part of the build. It ended up just having the right flux did the trick. Used some 308L to create a lip too. I took a lot of tips from your build section when building it including the cardboard ring wrapped in ptfe (who would have known). Good cork sheets without rubber are so expensive.

I made a pretty cool centering ring too and found a used box of copper scrubbers (just returns- they were all new without a box) for 23 bucks which turned out more than enough to fill the column. The condenser is a cold finger design around 10" long that turned out practically perfect thanks to the salt trick. Actually friend of mine asked how much it cost me- thought it was mass produced But having put all the love into the design and building and insulating for the cheapest I could. I still found it cost me a little over 400 dollars in the end. I bought two identical ss kegs both off craigslist- one for 10 bucks from a college student (unbelievable I know) and cut the tops out- one bigger than the other. The bigger ended top is used for the boiler top and sits on the smaller holed keg with the ptfe ring for a seal and drilled out 2 holes for ss bolts and wingnuts to lock it down. The other made a good 40L ss fermenter which cut out a top for using a old cutting board.

Some day I would like to make the top clear and sit the sg meter in there for monitoring. I use a cheap 10 dollar walmart aquarium heater and wrap the keg in the insulation used on the boka for the ferment. I also sit the keg on bricks which seems to help.

For all purposes it's a really nice modular still.. Run half or full column or pot with no column. The thing is the neighbor thinks I'm distilling water and I want to keep it that way. I love how people have no idea what they're looking at. I just make enough for friends and family and am so paranoid I stash the good stuff where noone would find it. And even if they did find it I have a cover story all made up about it being seagrams vodka. I always run safe with flour paste on hand and never had to use it. Have a fire extinguisher. Are any of you this paranoid? I have this dream that I'm getting fleece johnsoned in prison. Hell I'm jumping through a proxy for this site!

The laws are so messed up. I can actually order everclear here but I can't distill it? I have gasoline cans full of gas and gas/oil but I can't have a bottle of ethanol? Oh wait I can but it has to be made by a distillery. I built this still after pricing a 750ml bottle of 190 which costs $30 shipped. I will not be robbed to make some apple pie for christmas.

You guys are great and learned a lot. Just wanted to say thanks.

[Sparhawk]

Welcome!

Sounds like you have a functional rig. Only using 2 bolts to hold the lid on might not be enough, four or eight would put more even pressure on your PTFE Gasket.

I get the paranoia, I suffer from it myself. But then again everything said on this site, except from the people in NZ is hypothetical and doesn't really happen. At least thats what it says in my signature.

Be safe and don't sell your product. Your neighbors won't think its water when they smell what your doing.... Some times the best place to hide is in plain sight...

[BokaBakla]

Welcome!

Sounds like you have a functional rig. Only using 2 bolts to hold the lid on might not be enough, four or eight would put more even pressure on your PTFE Gasket.

I get the paranoia, I suffer from it myself. But then again everything said on this site, except from the people in NZ is hypothetical and doesn't really happen. At least thats what it says in my signature.

Be safe and don't sell your product. Your neighbors won't think its water when they smell what your doing.... Some times the best place to hide is in plain sight...

Surprised when I was building it.. Drilled 2 holes for the top plate with the intent to have 4. Did a cleaning run to test for leaks and the gasket held fine. It's a rounded fit on top and the kegs were identical.

Really tempted to post pictures (it's taller than the gutters) =] I guess I could post them and say it's only had water in it. But really Guess I could post some of them. The main ones have pics of the house ect. I don't think it's a good idea. I don't think I'd like penis noir.





Tinned all the brass parts inside with silver solder. The wash only touches plastic once through the siphon. Spent a lot of time making sure everything is safe. The centering ring turned out really good. It's angled 1/4 od copper cut in half that acts as a gutter to a 3/8 cut in half for the centering around half way down. I use a condensation pump and shower head to cool. It's up higher nowdays than in that pic and runs down a extra tile I had laying around to cool a bit better. The speed isn't bad on the boka- but you have to watch it carefully and adjust the speed through the hearts. You can get a lot of 95% fast early in. It's not hard to keep it there with a high column though. Well then I wake up right.. None of this happened lol

[rad14701]

Greetings, BokaBakla...

Nice build, especially the well documented condenser build... Perhaps a bit bigger than you'll need but better too much than not enough...

Good luck, stay safe, and enjoy the journey...

[BokaBakla]

Thanks .. Yeah that's what I figured when making the coils. Maybe its overcompensating for other things!

[marshrunner757]

Very nice build and writeup! Congrats!

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