funkdittle wrote:careful with that aluminum foil where the vapor passes by, I added a bit of foil just passed my lid where my column attaches in order to cover up a galvanized steel flange and the two runs I ran with the foil in there I had fires, the first fire wasnt too scary but the second one pushed the lid up abit and was spitten flames for about a minute until the pot cooled. right when i saw the flames i flicked off my heat source and poured water on my lid. After this second incident I looked up if aluminum promotes combustion and sure enough it does, it's used in rocket engines to promote combustion and is also not supposed to be used as piping in ethanol fueled cars because it promotes sparks. I took that junk out RIGHT AWAY!
Aluminium in a non faris metal. Which means it will not spark. So I have no clue how it could promote sparks?
And if you had a fire. It wasn't the aluminium foil. It was an alcohol vapor leak. Aluminium foil is not a good sealing material.
And galvanized steel flange? Should never been used to begin with. And aluminium isn't any better.
I really don't understand the need to have the inside of the still shiny clean. There is such a thing as to clean. It's like a good old cast iron pan. It needs to be seasoned. And kept seasoned. Or it doesn't work as good as it should.
If it wasn't black when you did the first cleaning. Then its not flux. Or burnt flux. Because you would have seen it then. It's just the patena that is good for proper seasoning of the still.
Unless it was actual less solder used? Which will turn a dark grey. That may look blackish to some. So did you use lead free solder?
And as dad stated silver will tarnish black. Again seasoned for good operation. As it has the same properties as copper does.
Just sayin'.........