Three years ago I became slightly obsessed with HD and spent hours and hours on this site. At the time I was overseas courtesy of uncle sam and not in a position to do any building. When I got "home" I decided to build a Bokakob 1.5" dual-slant plate mini-still. I'm not a master craftsman/plumber, but I'm pretty handy with several mediums and felt confident I could do this thing. I ordered 3' of 1.5" copper pipe and picked up the rest from local hardware/plumbing supply. I got to what I think is probably about a 90% completion point and then ended up getting married and moving across the country. I even ran my first batch of mash, don't remember recipe, but a simple sugar mash with wheat germ. It fermented nicely and I kept it around for a couple of months until we moved. Anyway...enough rambling about the back-story.
We did about 4 major life transitions in the span of 6 months in getting married, moving a thousand miles from TX to New England, and both making major life/job changes. So, as you can imagine, all the copper and brewing supplies ended up in a foot-locker.
Earlier this week I went to buy some vodka and Everclear to make what will probably be an overly sweet/flavored Apple Pie "moonshine" recipe...and it just triggered my obsession with distilling...so back onto HD I came. So, I just spent the last several days re-reading a lot of posts, and this entire thread. I pulled out the copper I have and am trying to decide if I want to try to make the thing work or just turn it into a still based off your design, with the reduction in the middle.
I'll post pictures when I get a chance, but here's what I have made.
- I ordered a 3' length of 1.5" pipe
- I cut about 3" off which I cut and flattened to use for the slant plates.
- I'll have to measure, but I cut the slots and soldered the slant plates in somewhere between 1/2 to 2/3 of the way up the column.
- The takeoff is 1/4" coming off the bottom of the bottom slant plate to a needle valve to a coupling that's there to attach a liebig condensor that I already made.
- Liebig condensor is 1/4" running through 1/2" with reducers on either end, and two Ts just inside of the reducers with 1/2 to 1/4 reducers to so that my plastic coolant hose can go over 1/4" nipples
- there's a 1/4 O.D. refrigeration tubing between the two plates as a thermometer port
- I bought a stainless mixing bowl and cut a whole and mounted a sink drain (issue here, as I couldn't find SS and pretty sure the one I initially mounted needs to be tossed and replaced with a SS that I just need to order)
problems to solve:
1. I couldn't for the life of me get the ring nut for the sink drain to solder to the bottom of my column. I realize now it's probably b/c I couldn't find anything other than some crap metal that came with the crap metal drain. My solution was to go to a plumbing store and buy a threaded male coupling that I soldered on the bottom. My plan was to then couple that to the drain. Two problems there: a) even though the diameter was the same, the thread spacing was different, b) the only female to female threaded coupling I could find was galvanized, and I know that's not an option for safety/health reasons.
2. I couldn't wind the condenser coil to save my life. I think I'll give it another try with salt this next time.
3. I bought a small pond pump but it didn't have the head pressure to get coolant high enough when I had the boiler and the still on the stove. This should be solved now as I have a concrete floor in the basement and a utility sink, so the water will pretty much be flowing horizontal...it will just require finding another heat source
4. I realize now that I put the needle valve way too far off the column, i.e., way too much initial distillate will be sitting in that tube without being differentiated
5. I followed the template pretty well, but honestly don't know if I got the plates right.
6. I still don't know how to attach the column to whatever I'm going to use.
So, in that whole initial debacle I also bought a used keg for like $25 off craigslist, it's been sitting in the garage. I just set an old coffee table top on it and use it as a little stool. So, that's one boiler option. Or, I could get something like this
http://www.amazon.com/Stainless-Steel-S ... 05&sr=1-15 and find another mixing bowl that either fits over the edges, or figure out a way to attach the mixing bowl and/or drain to the lid, and then use butterfly clips and flour paste around the lid/pot connection.
If I use the keg as a boiler, I'd have to do some modifications, probably like mounting hot water heater elements in the keg. I'm much more prone to getting a 20qt pot and pairing it with an electric hotplate (looking for feedback if any of these are good or bad or horrible ideas) like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Deni-16310-Stainl ... c+hotplate
So...sorry for all of the details. I felt like I got close to having a usable still, but just far enough away that figuring out the remaining details is a bit overwhelming. I'll have some free time after the holidays and would love to get this thing up and running and at least run my first batch.
Any thoughts on if I should try to make a go of it how it is? After reading this thread, the reason I'm posting here is that as much as I hate wasting copper, I'm almost inclined to just cut out the 3" section with the two slant plates, buy a couple of reducers and a short piece of 1" pipe (it would be fine to go from 1.5" to 1" right?), calibrate the 1 oz. of distillate "pool" in the takeoff area, and then go from there. I like the modularity aspect and scalability, but maybe I should try it how it is. EFFFF. I don't know. Suggestions?
Oh...the other thing...scrubbers/packing. All of the copper mesh scrubbers I could find were just copper coated with steel underneath. I'm sure this is covered extensively elsewhere, but with the column being copper, can I go with marbles only or SS or something else?
Thanks for any and all feedback. I really like the simplicity of your design. I just took some pictures, hopefully I'll figure out how to post them.
