A small start on a bubble ball

[Anthoney]

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[Anthoney]

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[Anthoney]

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In reality it took several passes with each of these tools in various turns to get a good fit on both flanges. I'm sure there is a tool out there that would just do it great in one pass but with what I have I just carved it to fit with successive alterations.

[Anthoney]

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May need to adjust the groove some more when the silicone gasket (from cookie sheet) is in place but feel like it is working so far.

Thanks to YHB for pointing me to the easy easy flange to anyone who knew about it and watched me struggle on for weeks without suggesting it. I know I mentioned the joy of discovery but really, I also asked for ideas.

Thanks also to YHB for the inspiration to consider wood in the build. His wood clad boiler with wooden clamps for the lid of a water urn is a work of art.

[Rockit]

Ahh,good job on th flanges both with th work on th thin tray & copper tube&wood. You've just saved me cutting up some ss sheeting @ .8mm. Hoho,of corse,2nd handy shops 4 th ss I need. Iv bn lookin @ work in th scrap bin. Somethings I'll just hav 2 pay 4, I hav taken on th "It ant free it ant 4 me" motto atm.I have been under th impresion that using th fire extinguisher as some kind v 6"(or was that bigger?) flute barrel,get a heap of plates in that 1 & would make a cleaner product faster? Or that's th next build? Or am I missing th whole ball thing? I get that they hold more& provide a practicable large surface area. 2 ticks in that box. & they look cool. Another tick. Thanks 4 th visuals,am seeing how&not just reading. Nice sight glass trick 2,saved me there 2. Anyways how's it comin along

[Anthoney]

Been busy with life so moving slowly. Got the mesh skirts on the caps. Not easy to braze up but perseverance and practice get there in the end. Made some soft solder stainless flux from conc HCL and zinc from dry cell battery electrodes. Will do more and post pictures and results when I get time. I'm not good at reading phone speak but if I have understood... I am not using the bulk of the 7" dia fire extinguisher yet. Yes you could build a flute in it but I am building a hybrid. The ball replaces the bottom of a packed column with a plate. The bottom of a packed column is inefficient because of low % alcohol in the vapour at that stage. The plate is efficient with this low concentration vapour and increases the concentration so that the packed column above can work efficiently from the get go. This shortens the column and gives good results with a neutral spirit that plates alone do not provide. Plates retain flavour even at high ABV. Packed columns can produce neutral, flavourless, spirits.

[Anthoney]

Well two years have gone by with this gathering dust in the corner while I was busy but I finally got around to finishing it, more or less. First thing I did was discard the stainless plate I had made and replace it with a copper one. Even with the zinc chloride flux (which is awesome by the way) it was too much of a PITA to get the temps just right to soft solder it all together. Copper plate came with bonus pic of a galleon etched on it for extra pirateiness. As before I will just let the pics tell the story. It went very easily really and didn't take long once I had the copper plate.

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[Anthoney]

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Still have to seal in a sight glass and make a silicone seal between the two halves but both are trivial task. I have also taken out the dings to the top from when I let it fall off a table but not worth documenting that until it is all finished and shiny.

I expect the gauze skirts to be sensitive to fouling and only suitable for well cleared sugar wash but it is now easy to separate for cleaning and if they don't work or are too much of a PITA to work with or clean then they can be replaced easily enough. Such is the nature of experiment.

I'm working on an SPP machine at the moment. Pics after I finish for that one I think. Then you won't have to wait two years for the end of the story.

[bluc]

Well its been two years any chance of a shiny pic