Building a glass bubble plate column

[arborden]

I'm adapting this to my current keg still, but the issue is I've reached a point in still design that I haven't gotten any better, so it's time.

I'm planning on adapting my keg to have a glass bubble plate column thread into it (while still being able to use my copper one if I want), and thread my condenser into the top of that.

I'll keep you posted with pictures as I go. So far:
1) I have ordered the machined flanges for the top and bottom of the column.
2) Ordered the bushing that they will weld into the keg to give it threads.
2.5) At some point I will also be making my keg electric with a 220V heating element to be done with propane. This will involve them welding a 1' female thread to the side of the keg so I can screw in the 220V hot water heating element. They quoted me $50 to do this.
3) Also I've already started on resourcing the glass sections for it, but I've had some difficulty so I might need to go out of the box on that part. Any thoughts on locating the glass piece for a sight glass would be much appreciated, but I'm probably going to attempt to rig something up. I just can't seem to find 3-4" wide glass that is a foot or more long. I've seen other members with "lab grade" version of this but can't find where they're getting them.

Over all I've just reached a point where I want to go legal at some point and make a bubble plate column as my show piece, so this will be the testing of my design.

[Expat]

A 1.5" or 2" element adapters are common in my experience, and I never saw a 1". I would think it would be difficult to get a ripple element through a 1".

If you're going that route, why not go a bit bigger and make life easier.

[Yummyrum]

Look at science supply companies . Places that supply educational institutes ... IE school suppliers of scientific equipment .
I'm in Australia but I can find a few on line that supply . It's actually quite reasonably priced concidering .
Borosilicate glass tubing may also help your search .

[cranky]

I'm pretty sure the pieces that I soldered onto my boilers for elements are 1" and I'm also pretty sure that's the standard thread size for most American threaded elements.

The glass for my packed glass column came from these guys
http://www.glasscraftinc.com/home/gla/multilist_800_150" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
Borosilicate is often called COE33 (which is it's Coefficient of Expansion)
I'm pretty sure Stilldragon sells short glass sections for making flutes, and all the rest of the parts.

[Expat]

My bad, I read it as though it was a TC element adapter.

[700G]

I've ordered from these guys a few times: http://www.quartz.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[arborden]

Hey guys thanks for the glass resources. I've been pulling my hair out trying to find them.
Any who... I'm going to save those for the future when I need to go professional and continue on with my jerry rigged set up to inspire and learn for myself.

I've got this wine I'm drinking for the bottles which is not tapered. Its straight up and down and has relatively consistent thickness. I used a glass cutter to cut off the top and bottom creating my tube sections. Glass bottle cutting is a difficulty in itself that I've had to learn. From there the hardest part is sanding them down square which is a time consuming annoyance in itself.

I created a jig wedging a pvc pipe that the wine bottle barely fits inside to prevent wobbles to hold it square while sanding. This still doesn't solve the time consuming.

I attempted to create a x shape out of wood that fits inside with wedge pieces shoved inside to grip the glass. This created too much stress and understandable broke every piece I tried it on. Now I'm creating a circular "dowel" piece to fit just inside that I can tape to the glass. This can be attached to a drill to spin it on sand paper so I don't have to drudge through the process. So for now I'm working on something to align my drill with the axis of the dowel to make smooth rotation which is the hardest part. I'm going to turn a block using my table saw (lathe style) To put it inline with the axis.

Gluing blocks

Sharpened all thread to create axis

Screwed all thread into wood block

Cut block to size

[zapata]

Skip the threaded connections and go triclamp, for both column connection and heating element. It will save you a world of grief and is worth every penny, though it isn't that much more expensive. Especially considering you can get fittings that you can solder on yourself and thus save the welding fee. Look at brewhardware.com for their solderable element adapter. Whenever you need to wash the still, move it, replace the element etc you will love just being able to unclamp it and go.

The top of your keg is already a 2" triclamp fitting, so just make the bottom of your column a 2" triclamp fitting. You'll have to slightly modify the triclamp gasket because the keg side doesn't have a groove, but this takes 30 seconds to do with a razor blade or even sandpaper.

[Hoosier Shine9]

I see the woodworking equipment you have.
If you have a disk sander you could use that to square up the glass bottles.
Use a real fine Emory paper......
good luck

[arborden]

I do want try clamps galour when I make my final one. This is just taking up time and giving me something fun. The keg is already at the shop for the flanges and all.
I thought about a disc sander. But I would still need my hug to hold it square while it's going. That might be the easier route to go.

[cranky]

I've got this wine I'm drinking for the bottles which is not tapered. Its straight up and down and has relatively consistent thickness. I used a glass cutter to cut off the top and bottom creating my tube sections.

Since I I know a bit about glass and am a user of what might be considered unconventional materials when it comes to making a flute I feel the need to tell you that this is a really bad idea. I'm willing to guess that you know nothing about the COE of the glass used in these wine bottles, they are definitely NOT borosilicate and they are likely quite thin, this will likely result in catastrophic failure of the glass when running the flute. It simply isn't a safe thing to do.

[Shine0n]

Listen to Cranky, he knows a thing or 3

[jedneck]

https://www.glaciertanks.com/tri-clamp- ... glass.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[The Booze Pipe]

Are these what you are looking for??

https://shop.distillery-equipment.com/c ... tri-clamps" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

OR some of these?

https://shop.distillery-equipment.com/c ... ass-Tubing" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow