1/2" Copper tube "drip rate"

[CornMealKid]

Hello,

I recently build a Bob Lennon (StillMaker) Valved Reflux still and was fairly dissatisfied with the results.

Since a few runs with that, I've decided to "get back to basics":

The best still (the most reliable and expedient) I've operated was a stove top stainless steel pot still (stock pot, fitting to copper coil).

When I ran this thing (the stove-top still), it'd usually take about eight hours to produce a half a "forty" (slang for forty ounce bottle up here in Canada). But it ran SLOW and I wouldn't even bother with a spirit run... It was good enough to satisfy my tastes at that point; Good corn flavor, maybe exited the coil at 130 Proof at best... Barebones set-up to say the least.

Folks would laugh at me, saying it should take much less time to gather this amount of distillate.

They'd say "you're wasting your time"... Which makes sense when I only have to flour putty the 2" boiler neck on the keg, as opposed to repeatedly on the wide rim stainless pot. But...

Here's my question:

When I run a keg, full-size, 15.5 Gallons, what should my "drip speed" (I know this is probably not the correct term) be???

It's running in pot still mode...

Before when I had the three Gallon stainless stock pot, 3/8" stainless compression fitting to 3/8" copper coil, I'd get about a drip a second, I'd get good liquor but it'd take a hell of a long while...

Now, if I run an 8% wash through a 15.5 Gallon boiler (Full-Size American keg) with a boiler-to-keg adapter (from Rainier Distillers), short piece of 2" DWV (1-2') then end it with 2" DWV cap, to 1/2" Stainless compression fitting... Off to a 1/2" copper tube run into a garbage can full of cold water... What should I expect to mimic my stove-top pot still (as laughable as it may be)????

I just want my old liquor back... The Valved Reflux was good if you've got a babysitter who can watch it and operate various pumps, waste a ****load of water, etc... I just want my damn cheap corn liquor.

What would my "drip speed" be? A drip per second like with the stock pot??? A constant flow because it's a larger vessel???

I realize that the run's length relates to the temperature of the water in the worm bucket and the boiler temperature. If someone could ballpark it, given that I'll adhere to my boiling temperatures (174F, 182F, 185F, 188F, stopping around 195F) how long will it take to complete my run??? What would my theoretical "drip speed" be (amount of drips a second)???

[googe]

A small pencil lead size stream is good, don't make it to hard on yourself by over complicating it. For get the thermo, yay adjust your heat till you get that output. Only if your worm.can handle that heat, if it doesn't, turn it down till it does, and then look into a better cooling system if you want faster takeoff. good luck.

[Tokoroa_Shiner]

As googe said. Small pencil lead stream. No need for a thermometer in a pot still for a novice. Crank the heat till it starts flowing then back it off a bit to maintain your flow rate.