Just seen this.
A few months ago I extended my T500 which I've had for years with a 450mm SS 2 inch spool and SPP from Poland in the extension and the original T500 ceramics in the original T500 column.
A non welded bulkhead to 2 inch (64mm) triclamp on the pot lid. Then sightglass, then a triclamped strainer basket (Got big holes in it, not a mesh with a bit of copper scrubby on top - purely to stop the SPP dropping out) then the SPP filled to the top of the spool .Then a double 64mm tri clamp ferrule to 1.5 inch BSP into the original T500 column. A triclamp joint works perfectly as the seal between the top ferrule and the T55 column base when screwed in.
With the SPP the column becomes heavy so the column needs support being on top of a relatively flimsy pot lid.
When the SPP was in the top part it didn't seem to like it. With the ceramics in the top part and SPP in the bottom spool it was ok in some circumstances at full power.
I only generally make neutral, so don't do stripping runs as such. Just run the reflux still hard on the wash but take strict cuts.
When running the original wash at say 12% I could run it flat out ok.
When doing a spirit run at 40 pcent start it didn't like it - I'm assuming the reflux condenser was overwhelmed as it is pretty small relative to what a self build would install. The product would stall then gob out in floods. I reduced the power input using a controller - only by a small margin and all was ok again. When the hearts came through I was able to ramp up to 2kW again (full power).
The improvement in the neutral was quite noticeable. 96 pcent easily reached at a decent take off rate through the hearts on the spirit run.
As an aside, I often wondered why people keep saying that reflux condenser water outlet temp on a coolant managed still is no indication of potential product quality. Because it is on a T500. Even with the extension I could drive it much the same as with just the original column, except that instead of, say 50C outlet temp to get 93 pcent product, 60C outlet gave 96 pcent at a much higher flow rate. I suspect that it's because the reflux condenser on the T500 is working towards its capacity being small, so the water flow through is reflected on the outlet water temp. Whereas a large condenser (see below) has much less flow through it so the outlet temp of the water is only half a degree or so lower than the vapour outlet temp.
As an addendum without doing any calcs I wonder how much extra flow is possible through the 54mm copper as opposed to the 50mm SS as the ID is 3-4mm difference.
Since then curiosity got the better of me and I made a spool from 54mm copper with a (drastically oversized - I should have looked closer at the spec before buying) reflux condenser. So, the column is now 1m filled with SPP and ceramics as above with a 10 inch condenser on top into a 600mm leibeg. This will rattle out 96 pcent at 1.8 to 2 litres per hour and a smidgen below this at 2.4 to 2.6 litres per hour in the hearts as it did a couple of days ago.
I'm primarily a brewer and must admit i find the actual distilling process a bit boring, so am looking at a 3 inch column to get the boring bit out of the way faster
Before then the plan is to convert to a VM/LM on the 2 inch just to see what the fuss is about which will decide which way I go on the 3 inch. It will be modular, anyhow. I believe that some people use the LM to collect the fores and heads then switch to VM to collect the hearts.
One lesson learned was that the 2 inch SS ferrules are slack in the 54mm copper tube. This makes them a bugger to soft solder. It was easier to silver solder them.
