The KYChemist Pot Still Build... "Boiler #1"

[The KYChemist]

So... The Mechanic had a working lunch, yesterday. This resulted in not being able to get the condensor coils soldered up. Last night, while watching some Castle, I was able to get the Lyne Arm into shape. I was proud of myself. No creases or anything. This is all handformed, except for the use of a mallet and a 1"dowel, which I used to bend the edges of the long seam over. Wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Just make sure to go slow, and take your time. I'm using varocketry's suggestion of the "Lap Seam", in order to seal it up. Thank you for the quick reply to the PM, by the way. This seem will be placed towards the bottom, so it should barely be noticeable. The tape was used on the one side, to mask off the areas I didn't want to accidentally scotch-brite. And the tape on the other side, same purpose, and to mark where my cuts for the tabs will be. As per mashrookie's rule about dog's here ya go . Most of the pics have been taken at work, so I finally brought a pic of my dog in, to include in the photos.

[The KYChemist]

After I clocked out from work, I cut the tabs and soldered the Lyne Arm together.I have soldered before, but more along the lines of small electrical connections. I replaced all the factory gauge, switch, and door lights in my truck, with LED's. I really wanted to do this piece myself, so I could say I did that I did it, no matter how good or bad it looked. Definitely learned a few things. Everything formed up pretty decently. First thing, I shouldve cut my tabs a little deeper, by about an 1/8th". There was a good overlap, but could've been better. I held it together with hose clamps, after the tabs were in place, and then plannished it. This turned out well. Second thing I learned was don't overheat your joints. There is a little bit of pull apart, in the second photo, but it still seals up. And the third thing I learned, control your solder flow. I got a little puddly in parts. It won't hurt anything, except for the aesthetics.

[The KYChemist]

Okay, okay, okay... After a short little hiatus, we're back at it, sort of. The Mechanic has been doing a lot of off-roading, and Ive been doing a little bit too, not leaving a whole lot of time. I took the Trail-Blazer down to Land Between the Lakes, and the ol' lady didnt have the best time. Mainly since it was the ride we went down in, and she was paranoid about me breaking something. I won't lie, but I had a few pucker moments, myself.



But, at least she ended up telling me I could get a new "toy" . The Mechanic has a few Samurai's, and I ended up buying this one off of one of his buddies. So, he's had a lot of stuff to do, and I've been playing around with this, a little bit.



What's that, you say? On, to the copper-porn!

I did some work on the cap tonight. I believe I stated, in an earlier post, that the cap was the only thing that I kinda mis-measured on. I swear I double checked, but the specs I gave the mechanic didn't include any overlap material. My plan is to butt the ends together, with a small spanning piece on the inside, to bridge the gap. Both ends will be riveted to the spanning piece, and then a bead of solder will be run into the gap, on the outside. I have all the holes for the rivets drilled, and the spanning piece pre-fit, as you will see in the photos. Here is my proposed method, to button it all up. Tips, opinions, and tricks, as always, are welcome. Rivets have been annealed, to make them butter soft. Inside ends, and spanning piece will be scotch-brited. Next, the flux will be applied, but not heavily. Following this, the ends will be riveted to the spanner. Finally, the solder will be run into gap between the ends, on the outside.



The lines, between the rivets, are just pencil. The mark, to the NE of the lower right rivet, is where the cap will sit inside the neck of the pot. That is the reason for the gap between the bottom rivets, and the next set up.



This final shot shows the spanning piece on the inside.



Tell me what y'uns think. Thanks for reading.

[Wewt]

That's some sexy copper bud!

[Samohon]

Nice clean build KYChemist...

Thank man...

[hellbilly007]

Looking good thus far. Keep up the good work. Subscribed.

[The KYChemist]

Still working on the cap, but took a break to work on something else Ive been wanting to do. Ive been trying to find someplace to keep my hydrometers, and test cylinder safe. Couldn't find anyplace I liked, so I decided to build something this weekend. I know its over kill, but I love it. Still have some final assembly and finishing to do. The finish was done with a mapp torch. Then Ill get some hinges for the lid, and a pair of lock hasps. All the pieces that look new haven't been nailed down, yet. That's why they look a little askew. Im proud of this one, especialliy since they will be transported a good bit, between mine and the The Mechanic's place of distillation.

[pizzaninja]

I like it cool concept. I just throw mine in a tool box. I meen they ain't that hard to comer by here.

[The KYChemist]

The Mechanic and I were able to hook up this weekend, and get some some work done. We were able to get the cap completely done, minus polishing. Took us about three and a half hours, at an easy pace. The side of the cap was flared out, for the lyne arm. The cap top got boogered in a little bit. After it was all soldered up, it got filled with water, and no leaks that we could see. Enjoy the gratuitous copper pics!

[The KYChemist]

The Mechanic was supposed to be out of town, but that didn't happen, so we were able to get some work done. Friday and Saturday night, I got the condensor and thumper prepared to be riveted and soldered. I fit them into their bases, got my measurements, and got the holes drilled and cleaned up. Today, we got together and we got both bodies riveted and soldered, and got the thumper mostly attached to the bottom round, before running out of solder. I also forgot to bring two of the three bottoms, which didnt matter, since we ran out of solder. Still a lot of work left to do, but we're getting there. The solder work looks bad, for now, but will be cleaned up at polishing time.

This is while I was marking and drilling the holes for the rivets. At the top of the picture, you can see the 2.5" 304ss tubing that will eventualy become a column. I was playing around with polishing, that's why one is shiny and the other not-so-much. I'm going to go over both of them and try to get most of the nicks out. The polished one looks good, but could be better.

[Halfbaked]

KY and MR Where do you get your copper? Also you mentioned that it was gonna be cut out with a water jet. I assume that that means you have a pattern. Would that be available? I don't have access to a water jet but I do have access to a cnc router.

[The KYChemist]

We ended up getting our copper from guttersupply.com. 3x8 foot sheet of 16oz for about $170.00. Shipping will be cheaper if you can get it shipped to a business, rather than residential. The Mechanic was able to utilize the water jet, at his part time job. Give me a day or two, and I'll get pics of my measurements posted, in this thread. I drew everything out on poster board first, then transferred those to a sheet of cardboard to show The Mechanic. We ended up having a good bit left over.

[Halfbaked]

I see a funnel in your future with a tri clamp ferule on it and lots of goodies like maybe a mini still for coffee table. Thanks for the info.

[The KYChemist]

Alright Halfbaked... Here are all my measurements, as promised. The only thing missing from the list is the flange we will be making for the tumper lid. Its the same length as the thumper length measurement, and I believe about 3/4" thick. These are the same copies I gave to the mechanic, for the cutting out process. Also, the cap measurements might be off a little bit. The arc says 44deg, but this only gave us enough material to butt the ends together. That's why I had to make the spanner piece. I highly suggest drawing them out on posterboard first, and seeing if they are to your liking. These measurements allowed for overlap material, as well, but I just can't remember how much.

[Halfbaked]

Not only is the build great the instructions are great and pics are wonderful. Thanks KY

[The KYChemist]

All right, all right, all right! Who's ready for the next installment?! This evening, we will be covering the approach we took for making the thumper flange. Why a flange, you ask? Two reasons. 1) The thumper diffuser we built will make it a neccessity to access the inside of the thumper. 2) GreasyDog made a great build, but unlike him, we won't be able to just clean out the inside, with a long handled brush. Again, see reason #1. This was, by far, the one aspect of the build, which had me the most nervous. Its one thing, to just bend down the edges of a round. Its another, when the material you are bending is spreading out, risking a possible split. Good thing we have extra material, and this eased some of my anxiety. Onto the pics, and some "How we did its".

The first thing we did, was to make a form, for the ring we are turning into a flange. After we had the body for the thumper riveted and soldered, we took our flange strip, lined the circumference of the thumper, and clamped the strip. Then, the ends were soldered together. Here is the beginning of the form.


In this photo, we have a preliminary fit of the thumper flange. After the hole was cut out, it was gradually opened with a sanding drum for the Dremel, till it just barely fit. The 1/2" plywood is screwed onto a pair of 2x6's. The masonite round, was cut the same way as the hole, and belt sanded till I could just get it into the hole. The masonite is 1/8" thick. I needed to use it as a riser, since the flange is 3/4" thick.


Here we have the finishing of the form. A 3/8" round, cut down and sanded, to be able to fit tightly inside the flange. Why all this trouble, you ask? Well, the bottom half of the flange has to remain vertical. Without the inner round, the bottom will want to rise, towards the center as the top half is pounded on. Essentially, twisting the ring. The inner plywood is also level with the outer plywood. Just in case you didn't catch that, from the measurements.


Here, we have the Mechanic putting the finishing touches on the flange. Don't be fooled. I did most of the work. I made the form, and did most of the hammering. He took over, so I could take a pic. As with the rounds, you want to only bite off a little bit, at a time. I formed it, to start, with the ball end of a ball-pean hammer. I did 3 rounds, and we took it home on the fourth round. Took it down 10deg, 30deg, 60deg, and then flat. You can switch to the flat side, of the hammer, once you get to about the 60deg point, to take it home. The stud was used to hold the flange down, while hammering. It was laid across the center, of the flange. We were fearful of the side ,opposite the side we were hammering, being prone to rising.


And now, the fruits of our, mostly my, labors!





Needs a few finishing touches, but I think it came out fantastically! Thanks for reading... I know, this post was looooong

[The KYChemist]

The wife is off, at a wedding planning party, for the fiance of a family member. This gave me a chance to get the thumper body polished, since we got the flange soldered on. We had a little mishap, while doing that. During the soldering, the flange joint got too hot, and popped apart. It was a little sickening, and disheartening. It was one of those uh-oh moments, that make you think your hard work may have been all for naught. We were able to get it back into place, and all is good. Little tip... Clamp that joint down, during soldering, to keep this from happening. The joint I'm referring to, can actually be seen in the last pic, of my last post. She looks nice and shiny, but I still want to take my Dremel, and some polishing rouge to it. There are some scratches that need to be buffed out. The micro-swirls, I can live with, but these I can't. The Dremel also works well to clean up the area around the rivets, as I found out, on the cap.





I also filled it up with water, because I was curious about the overall capacity. 53 cups(3.3125 U.S. gallons). I also did this to check for any leaks. So far, so good. Now, I have never doubted the reasons, or needs, for cleaning runs. The following picture will show why. Even after polishing, and a mild dish-soap washing, this funky stuff made its appearance known. It looks a lot worse in the pic, because its lit by a flashlight, than it actually does. Still, I would in no way, want to drink any of this. Hope you guys are enjoying our hard work, and check another part off the list.

[Doubler]

I may have missed it, but what thickness copper you using? Super awesome work by the way, cant wait to see it all put together. Almost nothin purdier than a clean sheet of copper.

[The KYChemist]

16oz copper, from guttersupply.com. The 16oz refers to how much one square foot weighs. It bends easily, which is nice for building, but its strong enough when things get built. I used to know, what the measurement of the thickness actually was, but can't remember. A quick Google search should find it.

[Halfbaked]

Dang it man you look like you done this before. Does your wife know you out sharin copper porn with all your buddies?

[The KYChemist]

Dang it man you look like you done this before. Does your wife know you out sharin copper porn with all your buddies?

LOL! Yeah...She knows. But nope, never done this before. This is my first build, as well as The Mechanic's. We just made sure we did our research on build techniques, and tried to copy design ideas we liked. We also go over every aspect 1mil times, so we can build the best thing we can. Not just some half assed, slapped together rig. We decided it had to look good, as well as perform.I guess the slow pace of our build has been a good thing.

[Doubler]

16oz copper, from guttersupply.com. The 16oz refers to how much one square foot weighs. It bends easily, which is nice for building, but its strong enough when things get built. I used to know, what the measurement of the thickness actually was, but can't remember. A quick Google search should find it.

Nice, I just ordered some 16oz from guttersupply yesterday. If I recall correctly, its 24g, .021. Thats what we always used to build our smaller stills out of.