Ditching the T500 column

[Dathhu]

Hi everyone,

Bit of background info:

Been brewing AG beer for quite some time, played around with distilling over the years with borrowed equipment. Usually store bought stuff, mainly reflux designs.

Managed to pick up a T500 setup 2nd hand relatively cheaply a while back, ran some of the usual turbo crap and wasn't overly happy.

Tried some birdwatchers out, learned about cutting heads and tails and was very impressed with the results.

I've since bought a voltage controller and 2" pot head to fit onto the T500 and am ultra happy with it, made some damn good gin (thanks Odin!), and just started on some rum, with the results looking promising. The shotgun is already paying its way on some fast stripping runs, using WAY less water than the T500 and half the time.

Just wondering what everyone would recommend to replace the old T500 column? After stripping it out and looking at what its actually made from I'm really not wanting to run it anymore. I'd still like to be able to make some neutral occasionally, if only for gin.

For reference, my pot still is a 2" X 500mm column with 2" shotgun condenser. All connections are tri clamp, making it easy enough to swap bits in and out as needed.

I'm thinking a packed column, maybe add another 500mm section with a dephleg? This would probably be easy enough to run for me as it would in theory work similarly to the t500. Or would you recommend another design? My metal working skills are not the best, probably looking at something off the shelf unless it's really simple to build.

Thanks everyone,
Dan