SBB's Six Inch Column Build

[Corn Cracker]

Wow, your very skilled, sir. It looks amazing.

[Saltbush Bill]

It's my forever still Corn Cracker,

[thecroweater]

As ya know i got some 6" , were it worth all the work to go from 4 to 6 , the fun of building aside ?

[Saltbush Bill]

I guess that is personal choice Crow, as with many things distilling.
Because of product output speed i spend much less of my life sitting next to a still..
It's much much easier to keep the barrels full.
It also performs better in otherways than the first plater I that I built.
Much more stable to run ,due mostly I think to the downcommer design, you can't flood this one.
The plates being completely sealed by being soldered in , instead of the old school plate tree also makes a difference.
Those reasons alone make it worth the time and effort.
It's just a faster and much nicer/ well behaved still all around to run.
I wouldn't go back.

[Roo]

It's just a faster and much nicer/ well behaved still all around to run.
I wouldn't go back.

Colour me impressed, nice work. Could I ask a couple of Qs?

What is your boiler size and how long does it take to get up to temp? (Trying to estimate the equivalent power input)

What is the minimum batch size can you run?

[Saltbush Bill]

The boiler capacity is 30 Gal, what you see is not the actual boiler size but a stainless cover to hold the insulation in place......pretty sure there is a post about that somewhere on the forum.
An hour and a bit usually sees it pretty close to operating temp. I use a large 4 ring gas burner and an adjustable regulator, so can pump the heat in pretty hard and fast.
I have no interest in going electric and have no idea what the equivalent would be in watts when it's at full throttle.
Are you planning on perforated plates or caps? I'd be interested to know.
Minimum batch size will depend on how your running, pot mode or as a plated column.
In column mode I've never run under about a half boiler from memory.........really no need to.

[Roo]

Cool, plugging your numbers (plus some assumptions) into the calculator suggests that your set up might be between the equivalent of 6-9kW. I might face some slower heatup times pending getting a sparky in to run another dedicated circuit.

I am going with bubble plates, I have acquired some sections already with more coming. But I guess they can be converted to perf plates if I wanted to change or experiment.

Based on your experience, do you think it is worth adding a short (500mm) packed section above the plates for neutral? I have struggled to find info on that, there are various posts across various forums that hint at possible issues, but not definitive.

[Saltbush Bill]

There is probably as much info on packed sections above plates on empty glasses forum as anywhere. " Australian Home Distiller "
Plenty of people have run packed sections above plates quite happily.
It's just not a method that has ever been popular here.
If it were me, I'd consider reducing to 4 inch for the packed section.
Cap plates won't require as much power to run as perforated plates do.

[Roo]

It is more a 6" packed section above 6" plates, perhaps I missed the detail but I thought most talk was 4" plates and column.

Do you think it worth trying 4" packed section above the 6" plates? Certainly would take a bit less packing.

[Saltbush Bill]

4 above 6inch is what I meant......number of plates as long as 4 or more is your choice.