VM Column Build

[NZPete]

Got sent this by my fabricator today - finally! Guess I should be in the money early next week, just in time to run my first wash

[Yummyrum]

Thats a tiny boiler mate

[NZPete]

Thats a tiny boiler mate

Hey Yummy - I think the 200mm ferrule on top makes it looks smaller than it is - it should be 50L to the bottom of the conical top, allowing some headroom... unless things have changed jn the workshop

[NZPete]

Well - all welded up, polishing to be completed tomorrow - ahead of time for my first sugar wash!

[ThomasBrewer]

Thats a tiny boiler mate

Hey Yummy - I think the 200mm ferrule on top makes it looks smaller than it is - it should be 50L to the bottom of the conical top, allowing some headroom... unless things have changed jn the workshop

It was more the forced perspective with your hand in front "for scale".

[The Baker]

Is the lower of the ferrule thingies on the side, where you plan to fit an element??

If so it looks a lot too high.
You need the element as low as possible so that it does not get dry and burn out.

Geoff

[NZPete]

Hey Geoff,

Yeah it is - looks like the fabricator didn't quite get the memo on that. I'm not too worried about it, it'll be fine for my first run as I'm not going to strip it (one and done), so the water level shouldn't dip below. I'll have to get another ferrule added and blank that one off before I do too much more

[The Baker]

Don't, maybe, get the fitting WELDED over, you can get a blanking ferrule fitting if you want.
And if you want you could get say a 3,000 watt element and put in there.
That would blank off the hole, and give an element to use if the other dies. Instant turnover.
Probably even work okay without running through the controller...

Have fun.

Geoff
edited, I had said amps instead of watts. Not an electrician, me. G

[NZPete]

Don't, maybe, get the fitting WELDED over, you can get a blanking ferrule fitting if you want.
And if you want you could get say a 3,000 watt element and put in there.
That would blank off the hole, and give an element to use if the other dies. Instant turnover.
Probably even work okay without running through the controller...

Have fun.

Geoff
edited, I had said amps instead of watts. Not an electrician, me. G

I've got a few blanking caps here so I'll throw one of those on in the meantime and look at another element long term, appreciate your input Geoff

[Yummyrum]

It’s a beauty NZPete . Love the legs and Handles

[Salt Must Flow]

Very cool boiler build.

If you have a long nut welded to each foot, you can screw in swivel locking casters. I love being able to roll my boilers around.

Another option would be to make a platform with castors to set the boiler on top of. I put all my fermenters on wheels and it's really convenient.

[BrewinBrian44]

Wow beautiful boiler! Very nice work. Looks professional!

[NZPete]

Wow beautiful boiler! Very nice work. Looks professional!

Thanks Brian but it was built by a fabricator, not me - so your comments are spot on!

I picked up the finishers boiler today so I will be looking to do a cleaning run tomorrow if family life permits

[NZPete]

I went to put my still together this morning. Unfortunately I think i left my 8" clamp with the fabricator so that's on the backburner til Monday now, but I assembled it as far as I could anyway.

Remaining items to do:

Wire up controller and element
Replace compression gland and fit thermo
Clean everything
Vinegar run
Sacrificial wine run
Run my sugar wash

Getting close. It seems like I'll never get there but I think I'm inching closer!!

[Salt Must Flow]

It sure is coming together. Curious ... what is the left side of that tee for?

[NZPete]

It sure is coming together. Curious ... what is the left side of that tee for?

I've got it set up with a compression gland for the thermo, so it doesn't get splashed with falling reflux

[Salt Must Flow]

It sure is coming together. Curious ... what is the left side of that tee for?

I've got it set up with a compression gland for the thermo, so it doesn't get splashed with falling reflux

Got it. That's what I thought. I'd ditch that elbow and put the thermo directly into the tee as long as it is short enough to not be in the falling reflux. You could try it both ways to see if there is a difference in temp, but if there is any difference in temp it would likely be within 10ths of a degree F. I don't know if there would be any difference or not. I put my thermowell between the tee and my gate valve to monitor the vapor takeoff temp. I'd be curios to know if either placement would make a difference.

[Salt Must Flow]

It sure is coming together. Curious ... what is the left side of that tee for?

I've got it set up with a compression gland for the thermo, so it doesn't get splashed with falling reflux

Got it. That's what I thought. I'd ditch that elbow and put the thermo directly into the tee as long as it is short enough to not be in the falling reflux. You could try it both ways to see if there is a difference in temp, but if there is any difference in temp it would likely be within 10ths of a degree F. I don't know if there would be any difference or not, maybe it's my OCDm. I put my thermowell between the tee and my gate valve to monitor the actual vapor takeoff temp. I'd be curios to know if either placement would make a difference.

[NZPete]

It sure is coming together. Curious ... what is the left side of that tee for?

I've got it set up with a compression gland for the thermo, so it doesn't get splashed with falling reflux

Got it. That's what I thought. I'd ditch that elbow and put the thermo directly into the tee as long as it is short enough to not be in the falling reflux. You could try it both ways to see if there is a difference in temp, but if there is any difference in temp it would likely be within 10ths of a degree F. I don't know if there would be any difference or not, maybe it's my OCDm. I put my thermowell between the tee and my gate valve to monitor the actual vapor takeoff temp. I'd be curios to know if either placement would make a difference.

Sounds like an experiment waiting to happen

[NZPete]

Fellas!! Finally, vinegar run today. Missing the thermometer fitting still (next couple of days hopefully) but figured I could run some vinegar at least!!

[Salt Must Flow]

Looks gorgeous! I look forward to hearing how it runs with that SPP. By the way, is that a 2" or 3" column. It's hard to tell scale with that FAT boiler.

[NZPete]

It's official, goes good on the vinegar run! A couple of observations:

- Lots of steam out the top but hopefully this is just the vinegar
- the only leak appears to be occurring at the PTFE 8" gasket at the top. Anyone got any suggestions? I've tightened the shit out of it but there's still a wee leak in one place

SaltMustFlow - it's just a 2", bit of a baby!

[Sporacle]

Maybe, mark the leak spot on the top of the boiler, on the clamp and the concentric reducer. Check everything with a small straight edge in the long term. Short term a wrap of Teflon tape and rotate the tri clamp around to a different spot and see if that solves it

[Salt Must Flow]

The ferrule warped during welding. I had this happen with some fittings I had TIG welded. In the end ... silicone gasket worked flawlessly. Of course some might say that only PTFE gaskets are approved. Yeah, well they do not work and cannot work in this case. Some might recommend wrapping your PTFE gasket with teflon tape to help it conform to the warp. Sure, but I'm not willing to do that over & over year after year.

[Salt Must Flow]

- Lots of steam out the top but hopefully this is just the vinegar

I wouldn't worry about it, but I'd keep your eye on it when you do your first sacrificial run. IF you vapor is bypassing the reflux condenser, you can tease out a couple of stainless scrubbers or copper mesh to stuff within the coil to help diffuse the rising vapor and encourage it to condense. This is common. Hopefully you won't have to. It would be nice to keep a perfectly clean look, but not big deal of you have to.

[NZPete]

The ferrule warped during welding. I had this happen with some fittings I had TIG welded. In the end ... silicone gasket worked flawlessly. Of course some might say that only PTFE gaskets are approved. Yeah, well they do not work and cannot work in this case. Some might recommend wrapping your PTFE gasket with teflon tape to help it conform to the warp. Sure, but I'm not willing to do that over & over year after year.

Thanks mate. I swapped out the gasket to a silicone one and reran the vinegar, sure enough the leak stopped. Not sure where that leaves me but I'll marinate on it!

Now that's sorted, I've got 0 leaks and I guess I'm ready to push into my sacrificial run. Unfortunately I'll probably have to wait for the thermo compression gland for that!

[NormandieStill]

If the warp is not too extreme you can correct it with a small sheet of glass and some sandpaper. That would be a better solution.

[Yummyrum]

The ferrule warped during welding. I had this happen with some fittings I had TIG welded. In the end ... silicone gasket worked flawlessly. Of course some might say that only PTFE gaskets are approved. Yeah, well they do not work and cannot work in this case. Some might recommend wrapping your PTFE gasket with teflon tape to help it conform to the warp. Sure, but I'm not willing to do that over & over year after year.

Great , a Silicone gasket works . Unless you wrap it in Teflon tape , we don’t want to hear about it on this Forum .

I can’t see why you would have to rewrap it time after time . Surely you don’t need to remove the 8” lid every time you pack down .

Even if you do , Teflon wrapped gaskets can be reused over and over again before needing a rewrap .

[Salt Must Flow]

The ferrule warped during welding. I had this happen with some fittings I had TIG welded. In the end ... silicone gasket worked flawlessly. Of course some might say that only PTFE gaskets are approved. Yeah, well they do not work and cannot work in this case. Some might recommend wrapping your PTFE gasket with teflon tape to help it conform to the warp. Sure, but I'm not willing to do that over & over year after year.

I can’t see why you would have to rewrap it time after time . Surely you don’t need to remove the 8” lid every time you pack down .

Even if you do , Teflon wrapped gaskets can be reused over and over again before needing a rewrap .

My lid is 6" and reduces to 3". My 3" column is filled with small bits of lava rock over top of some copper mesh. The lowest 3" gasket supports the packing. When I break down my still, I remove the PC, the VM head and I'm left with the vertical column on the boiler. I remove the 6" clamp (all packing retained) so I can simply pour out the lava rock. It is much easier and safer to do it this way rather than try to detach the 3" column from the 6" lid and risk losing packing all over the floor. SPP is far more expensive and not worth risking.

Teflon tape is the weakest link. It's weak, flimsy, deforms, compresses and would be the weakest link. I'd sure hate to have to worry about that gasket every time I fire up the still.

[Salt Must Flow]

There are PTFE Envelope gaskets. PTFE on the exterior and soft EPDM on the interior. This would be far superior to PTFE wrapping the largest gasket on your still and worrying about it every time you fire up your still. Wrapping with tape is not a good long term solution for a joint you intend to be removable.