Home Distiller

that only helps for overpressure... i have seen plans for simple cheap two-way pressure release valves.

you have two SS-plates of about 3 mm thick, and 6x6 cm.
one with a groove and one with a rise-up that fits the groove on the other.
weld one of them to a coupling that you can fit onto your still.
make a hole in the plate that corresponds to the coupling.
take a thin copper film and place it on the plate.
put the other plate on in front, with apropriate hole-size.
screw together..

the plates would need to be machined, to achieve the groove and the rise-up, pluss the holes for screws....


Thorin

LHCB,

What design did you decide to go with? LM, VM or a LM/VM hybrid?

Hybrid, 3 feet tall 1.5 inch column with two slanted plates. LM take off on one side and VM take off on the other. It's getting close. I still need packing and a needle valve. I would like to get a union joint in between the head and column also. I just finished a new pot still head with a 12 inch tall 1.5 inch column. The condenser is 2 feet of 1 inch jacketing almost 3 feet of .5 inch. The whole arm comes off with a compression fitting so I can use it on both columns. Haven't ran it yet, I'm stuck on getting it connected to the mixing bowl. I'll post a picture of each in a week or so. My sister in law borrowed the camera.

Sounds very similar to mine.

I have a 2" column 48" of copper packing, a VM take off with gate valve and a LM take off from the lower slanted plate (both plates soldered into column so no re-flux can run down the column).

During the first "cleaning" run and re-run I tested both the LM and VM and both worked great. So far though I have only used the LM for production runs as it takes less water running only one condenser.