SPP Machine Begins

[Hound Dog]

Glad you're back. Wondered what happened to you.

[Scribbler]

Not replying to internet posts and pm's etc is a lot different than being ignored at a party!!

I doubt anyone feels slighted In the least.

But if you ever blow up your shop, please have a relative post the news here. I would definitely show up at the memorial (and while everyone is at the reception, I'll be going through the rubble at your shop looking for salvage!!)

[Hound Dog]

But if you ever blow up your shop, please have a relative post the news here. I would definitely show up at the memorial (and while everyone is at the reception, I'll be going through the rubble at your shop looking for salvage!!)

you take the title of Dog with that one! Ha!

[waster]

Swede,

Just a quick update. I've now done several runs with your spp. Although I still intend to do a systematic comparison with other packing, so far I've just been making product. The last run was the best. On my 2" x 36" column filled with spp, I ran 2.75KW of power (measured by cooling water) with no flooding, 2.5L / Hr of product at >94%. The head is a concentric LM. This was on a panela rum wash at about 8%abv. When I opened the valve, flow about tripled, so about 2/3 of condensate was refluxed, 1/3 as take-off. I've never been able to run that fast with my chain-mail packing; it floods around 2.2-2.5 KW.

So far, so good

W

[carbohydratesn]

That sounds just like my experience so far, waster My boiler tops out at right around 2.7kw until I can get a 220v connection, and at a little under that power, I can maintain partial/almost- flooding and pull 2.25L/hr. Might be able to go a little faster, but I'm still getting the hang of it, and going a little conservative to ensure clean hearts has been very worth it so far. Slow is good for learning.

This stuff is great!

[Hound Dog]

Hey Swede, you haven't been around in a while. You asked for feedback and I finally got the first alcohol cleaning run done today. I have to experiment more but this first impression was not the greatest. I used 36" x 3" column with a sight glass at the top of the pacling and a 10% wash of just water and feints. The top was held down by a bit of scrubbie. The bottom retainer is a stainless shower strainer with 1/8" holes and some slots cut in it for extra drainage. I may try changing this retainer as it bay build up excess fluidlike a plate. I say this because once experienced flooding I could not get it to go down gradually. I just had to end up cutting power and letting the column dump then reload. When very gradually increasing power I also experienced surging. My biggest concern was when I did balance things out, the best I could achieve was 90%.

I will try this again soon with a more open retainer system and higher proof low wines to see what hapens. When I do I will keep posted.

Swede, hope you finish your aviation project and come back to the forum. We miss your insight.

[Hound Dog]

OK, I changed the retainer and there were no flood issues. For that matter, I could not make it flood.
This is the old retainer:

Then I made a new retainer from heavy copper ground wire soldered together:

It rests on the rim of my ferrule:

Then I put some stainless scrubbie on it to hold the SPP up:

I placed 36 inches of SPP on top of this tapping the column on a rubber matt on the floor as I filled it about every 6 inches or so to help settle it and pack it. Then followed up with a scrubbie on top to hold everything in place.
Once I got up to 173 degrees I gradually started stepping up the power from 2500 watts all the way to 7000. At that point I smelled a whiff of vapor and checked with my inspection mirror real quick, sure enough some was getting by so I knocked it down to 6200w and it stopped. Unfortunately I never reached flood stage and the temps stuck right at 173.

[Hound Dog]

This is the SPP I used in a 3" column:

Not being able to flood the column or reach azeo leads me to believe that this may be too open of a design. I was using low wines that I had diluted down to 25%. I have another batch finishing up now. I will try running this same configuration with a higher proof low wine and see what results I get.

[DAD300]

The design and size looks good to me. I use ~30" of SPP in a 3" x 36" column, with a couple of inches of scrubbie top and bottom.

I attain the aquatic at approx 3,500watts with 1:1 reflux. At higher power you could be just blowing vapor through the packing.

I've forgotten what the rest of your still looks like. Can you increase the reflux?

[Hound Dog]

The design and size looks good to me. I use ~30" of SPP in a 3" x 36" column, with a couple of inches of scrubbie top and bottom.

I attain the aquatic at approx 3,500watts with 1:1 reflux. At higher power you could be just blowing vapor through the packing.

I've forgotten what the rest of your still looks like. Can you increase the reflux?

It's a Boka so I was doing 100% reflux trying to get the temp to balance. I have sights at the top so I can see floods and reflux also.

The lower plate is walled off and has an elbow to direct the flow down. This helps control splashing.

[humbledore]

I reached a similar conclusion. I was focused more on ABV than attempting to flood the column but I did put a lot of power into it, and I run a 2" column. 25% low wines should be plenty. What ABV were you pulling off during that time?

[Hound Dog]

I reached a similar conclusion. I was focused more on ABV than attempting to flood the column but I did put a lot of power into it, and I run a 2" column. 25% low wines should be plenty. What ABV were you pulling off during that time?

The top of column temp was 173. This left me with around 180+ proof. The distillate was a little warm ànd I did not do temp corrections. I was reading 190 or so.

[Hound Dog]

The design and size looks good to me. I use ~30" of SPP in a 3" x 36" column, with a couple of inches of scrubbie top and bottom.

I attain the aquatic at approx 3,500watts with 1:1 reflux. At higher power you could be just blowing vapor through the packing.

I've forgotten what the rest of your still looks like. Can you increase the reflux?

After an initial heat up and the heat started traveling up the column, I cut back to 2500 watts being a new medium I was un sure what to expect. When it leveled out and would not get below 173, I increased 50 volts at a time letting it settle down to see if I could get the temp to drop more and achieve better numbers. I stepped it all the way up to the 7k mark then back down. I was expecting to be aquatic at around the 3500 mark like you point out based on other posts of running a 2 inch at 2800.

I am going to give it a shot again next weekend with SPP and then perhaps switch to lava again for a comparison. Now that I am electric I know how much power is being applied. (Provided my meters hold up. Burned one up already).

[Hound Dog]

Well, I gave it a go again last night. I tried with higher proof low wines this time right at about 40%. Once up to temp I killed the top burner and cut the bottom back to half. Now that I have been enlightened that the volt meter can't go on the output side of the SSR I still don't understand how to calculate the wattage but full on is 22.4 amps so I just judge from there. I cut the bottom element back to 18 amps and it hung at 173.6 or so degrees. So I cranked the element all the way up and leveled out at 173 or so. When I turned the top burner on to 12 amps I leveled out at the magic 172 even. Great! Tried a bit more to bring the aquatic to the top and back it off but could not flood the column. Could not get it to hold steady with more than a quart per 30 minute takeoff. That was just too slow. I shut it down.

This morning I added a 16" section and took out the SPP to fill it all with lava rock. I will run it later this afternoon and see what results I get.

[Hound Dog]

Much success last night with the lava rock! Got up to temp, brought a little flood up to the top of the packing, backed the power down so it went down in the column a bit. I could her the rocks rattling from the steady boil in the column. Temps held at a steady 171.9. Bled off some fores and then two quarts of heads. Had the top element turned off (thanks Cranky for the heads up on the switch)and ran the bottom wide open. Pulled 15 minute quarts holding a rock solid 171.9. When it finally started to creep up to 172, it was still tasting smooth but I put 5 amps into the top element to boost a little reflux and she dropped so I kept collecting and started smelling and tasting for tails as it was getting closer to the end. Once they started, I cranked it up and let her rip to pull a couple big jars of tails before shutting down for the night.

I really love the electric conversion. I did not have much success with this SPP though.

[Patching246]

BigSwede doesn't look like he's been around a while. Does anyone know if he's still selling SPP?

[Hound Dog]

Check ebay. That's where he listed it.

[NakiMoonShine]

Hello I am trying to make my own SPP but not having much luck. The wire doesn't want to peel off, it just wind on top of each other and won't peel off the mandrel. What am I doing wrong? Wrong type of wire? Wrong shape of mandrel? I tried making a square pyramid one and the a triangular pyramid type and both were "shyte". Just got a "birds nest" mess. Not much on the internet as the the shape and size of the mandrel. This is probably the best thread I have found so far but still not a lot of details in making the mandrel. Any help or suggestion appropriated.

[manu de hanoi]

Hello I am trying to make my own SPP but not having much luck. The wire doesn't want to peel off, it just wind on top of each other and won't peel off the mandrel. What am I doing wrong? Wrong type of wire? Wrong shape of mandrel? I tried making a square pyramid one and the a triangular pyramid type and both were "shyte". Just got a "birds nest" mess. Not much on the internet as the the shape and size of the mandrel. This is probably the best thread I have found so far but still not a lot of details in making the mandrel. Any help or suggestion appropriated.

you need hard wire so it springs back, and very little slope (or no slope ) on the mandrel. The "birds nest" is often due to lack of tension in the wire, in other words the rotating mandrel need to pull the wire with a enough tension to push the loops of wire on the mandrel. That's my experience with thin SS wire (0.25mm) factors need different adjustements for different types and size of wire

[NakiMoonShine]

Thanks Manu de Hanoi. I don't quite understand when you say "very little slope on the mandrel". What do you mean by that?

[manu de hanoi]

I mean the 3 sides of the mandrel should be nearly parralel

[cob]

Bump because of all the recent SPP discussion. start at the beginning.