A few questions

[ZakZHoe]

Hopefully you read up on it before you went shopping... scoria needs to be sized to match your column diameter if you want thing to work properly. Like SBB said you will want copper under it and a way to keep it all in place and out of your boiler. It is impressive and affordable when done properly.

im not gonna run it without looking more into it, ill just get some more copper mesh for now.

[shadylane]

does everyone use mesh only? ive seen people using copper pipe cut offs and pennys from like the 70s, do those work??

My 2 cents worth.
Pipe cutoffs will work but not as good as mesh that's been properly stuffed.
Copper pennies would tend to lay flat on each other and restrict the flow of vapor and reflux.
Thats not a good thing.

[quadra]

Look into it. The best part of this hobby is finding your way with what you have.

[ZakZHoe]

does everyone use mesh only? ive seen people using copper pipe cut offs and pennys from like the 70s, do those work??

My 2 cents worth.
Pipe cutoffs will work but not as good as mesh that's been properly stuffed.
Copper pennies would tend to lay flat on each other and restrict the flow of vapor and reflux.
Thats not a good thing.

that makes sense, thank you.

[ZakZHoe]

Look into it. The best part of this hobby is finding your way with what you have.

ill be messing around with a few things LoL