Still Build

[Greg]

So very new at this but thought I’d give it a try building my own still. Posted a picture if it show up. 30+ gallon pot with 15 gallon thumper. Looking at probable never exceeding 10 gallons. All stainless and copper. Was told needed a temp gauge. Should it be installed on stack or flat top? Another question is how much liquid should go in thumper? Everything needs cleaning and want to just run water through to check for leaks. Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks Greg

[Salt Must Flow]

You'll see plenty of people say you don't need a thermometer which is absolutely true. You do not operate a still by temp.

I like to have a thermowell in the boiler so I can keep track of heat-up. I then move my temp probe to a thermowell that's in the vapor path so I can keep track of how far along I am throughout the run. There's a handy chart on this page that correlates temperature with % ABV.

How do you intend to heat that boiler? Will you be insulating the boiler?

[Greg]

Right at this moment using a propane burner. Seeing how it pressures up, any leaks etc. Sitting here listening to pot just starting to boil

[Pure Old Possum Piss]

Have you got vinegar in it for your cleaning run?
Personally, when I ran a thump I would just put enough to cover the thumper spear. Usually I'd put spent wet grain and bit of mash in there to get the last of the good stuff without having to break out the mop wringer. But that's just one way of doing it.

[Greg]

Only water at this time. 15 gallons in pot, 4 gallons in thumper. 45 minutes burner wide open it has started burping in thumper. At this time no leaks in any fittings.

[cob]

If that hard pipe is stainless, good on ya. Possible issue. what is that big boiler gasket made of.

[Greg]

Gasket is heavy duty material we use to make volute gaskets for large pumps. Real thick stuff. Pipe and fittings are stainless

[Greg]

Thumper perking now. Waiting see when water comes out condenser then calling it a day

[cob]

Gasket is heavy duty material we use to make volute gaskets for large pumps. Real thick stuff. Pipe and fittings are stainless

Bare minimum wrap it well with ptfe tape. Do some gasket research on this site.

[Pure Old Possum Piss]

Gasket is heavy duty material we use to make volute gaskets for large pumps. Real thick stuff. Pipe and fittings are stainless

Bare minimum wrap it well with ptfe tape. Do some gasket research on this site.

thought he whittled down an red oak limb and stuck it in there!

Seriously though, I hope he ain't running it next to that flammable cabinet, electric or propane.

+1 ptfe

[Greg]

Nothing in flammable cabinet but latex paint. Only propane is bottle hooked to burner. Ended up with one leaking fitting, easy fix. Everything seemed to be working. Steam and water came out the worm. Now tear down, clean everything thoroughly. Need to get it out of shop at work before I get myself in trouble. What would be needed for a gasket. I have a gasket cutter available to make something better. Have a spare rubber one I made but after seeing how hot pot gets it will not work. Just remembered I have some Teflon rope like gasket material on my work truck. Sound, OK?
Thanks all, Greg

[acfixer69]

Teflon rope will work but if it has adhesive on it you will need to remove it first.

[cob]

If it is teflon/PYFE you are good. Make damn sure it is teflon

[squigglefunk]

nice boiler!

[Greg]

So, can I ask what is the issue with paper gasket?

[NorthWoodsAb]

Nice build. That's a big boiler.
Cheers

[cob]

So, can I ask what is the issue with paper gasket?

You didn't specify paper. "Gasket is heavy duty material we use to make volute gaskets for large pumps. Real thick stuff."

If it is plain white paper or cardboard ok, but industrial paper gaskets have stiffeners, fillers, colors, etc. added to improve

functionality. All those additives can dissolve in hot alcohol solvent, and end up in your product. PTFE, and flower paste

are accepted in distilling on this site, and even PTFE is not universally accepted here. Look up some of the older locked

gasket material threads. There have been many discussions about multitudes of materials, and only those two pass muster.

That is a nice build.

[Twisted Brick]

It appears your thumper exit pipe is 1/2" soft copper tubing. This small-diameter presents the potential for dangerous pressure buildup should any entrained foam and/or thumper solids collect sufficiently to obstruct the vapor path. It would be prudent for you to fit a pressure relief valve (PRV) of some sort onto your system to avoid making a bomb.

There are a number of thumper threads that address PRV's (and valves to avoid suckback) as was well as expected transfer of boiler/thumper volumes over the course of a run.

[Greg]

Any opinion on were to install a PRV?

[ThomasBrewer]

Any opinion on were to install a PRV?

Boiler is good place. It's the shortest path to relief from the steam generation.

[Greg]

PRV sounds like some good advice but where can you find one? Looked on net but really found nothing. Might be using wrong search words?

[HDNB]

PRV sounds like some good advice but where can you find one? Looked on net but really found nothing. Might be using wrong search words?

pressure and vacuum relief valve for sale

[Twisted Brick]

You'll find a number of options available for a viable pressure relief valve. Start with PRV's sold by distilling shops and look at PRV's for boilers or water heaters, but you want one that is 5psi or below. Other methods include a manometer, a cork, and a floated ball-bearing.



homedistiller PRV

homedistiller thumper pressure safety

homedistiller manometer

[Greg]

I really appreciate the help from all of you, I'm sure I'll have a bunch of questions as I move along on this project.

[Greg]

Words of Wisdom - After receiving a warning about my pot gasket I decided to do a little investigating to see if I could find what it was fabricated out of. Turns out material was made by Anchor Packing Co. which used asbestos in manufacturing of their products. There out of business now. This gasket was made from an old sheet of gasket material which was listed as one of their products containing asbestos. Needless to say, it's in the garbage now.

[Steve Broady]

I’m glad you caught that, Greg. Well spotted. It reinforces the lesson, in my opinion. The rules here are based on an abundance of caution, because unknown materials contain unknown and potentially dangerous substances. You might be safe breaking the rules, but you will be safe following them.

[haggy]

Greg,
Nice build, looks like you are almost ready to run with mash/wash.
Here is a post by Yonder on a good way to run your pot/thumper rig:

Re: liquid collecting in my thumper during a run...why?
Post by Yonder » Tue Sep 27, 2022 12:33 am

You should begin with about 1/3d charge in the thumper. I prefer to charge with clean feints from previous runs cut down to 30 or so abv but you can always use low wines, same as your boiler charge. The thumper’s purpose is to redistill what comes from the boiler. I routinely begin output in the low 80’s, run like hell until the (hearts) start then cut back to get a thin stream that takes about 15 min to fill a pint jar. At 40 abv or so I fire it up again and run like hell to the 20’s or 30 for new feints. But that’s just me.

This run starting with mash in the pot and 30% ABV in the thumper will get you a high ABV % in the product. The hearts made down to 40% ABV out the spout should average in the low 60's% ABV.

Of course your first run will not be with 30% low wines or faints, but 5 gal of wash in the thumper will get a good product. Even water in the thumper the first time will work, but the distillate product ABV will be slightly lower, just do not use too much water, maybe 3 gal.

And since you fire with gas, you do not know the exact watts going into the pot. But a way to determine the watts is to keep a constant flame on the pot and measure the time it takes for the amount of wash to get to a boil. Record the starting temperature of the wash, the ABV of the wash and the time it takes to get to a boil. Then put that data into the HD Haggy Calculator ( I describe it next ) and you can find the watts that give the time for the pot to boil.

To get an idea of what to expect in runs with your rig, see the post " Haggy's Pot Still + Thumper Calculator" by Uncle Jesse in "Pot Distillation/Thumper and Design". A thumper calculator is available to see the expected results of a run with your specified input data. The thumper calculator is in the HD Calculator Section. An Excel spreadsheet file is also available in the post. Details of another good thumper run by tjsc5f are in the post, and he also shows where his temperature probes are located.

By using the calculator before you make a run, you can test different starting fill levels and ABV % in the thumper and see the expected take-off rate and distillate product ABV. You can see how the distillate product ABV changes with run time to get an estimate of when to make cuts. You can test different pot initial charges and heating levels and see how long a run should take.

So, for an example of the calculator, here is a screenshot of a run with wash in the thumper.
First the Input Data;

Some of the results:

And a Table of Key Data vs Run Time:

We are all waiting to see your run posts and good results. Good luck with your pot / thumper runs.

haggy

[Greg]

I appreciate the help, but a lot of the language above is foreign to me.
Here are a few things.
mash = wash ?
Clean Feints
Low Wines
Hearts

[haggy]

Those are very basic terms.
What do you intend to put in the pot to distill?
Suggest you do a lot more reading in the New Distiller Reading Lounge and Novice Distillers before you run something other than water and cleaning. You need to know the language.
Also, with your gas burner wide open, it would generate about 6000 watts to heat up 15 gal of water to boiling temperature in 45 minutes.

[Greg]

You hit it right on the nose. Did a 15gallon water run to check fitting etc. out and 45 minutes to get it boiling.