Brendan's Plated Column Build

[Brendan]

Drilled the port hole through my first sight glass module yesterday...came out pretty well...basically a custom made tee.

I haven't finished cleaning it up yet, will probably re-flow the solder to ensure a perfect seal and then file and sand it all down neat

[bellybuster]

The Red Eye...
Beautiful build.

[Brendan]

So finally I can upload a little copper porn

I have completed 4 out of the 6 modules for the column, so here's a few pics of them lined up and raring to go!

She may not be the prettiest yet, but there's a lot of blood, sweat and hammer throwing gone into it!!

[Brendan]

Right! So everything that has held me up the last couple of weeks has settled down, and I should now have most of tomorrow and the weekend to get stuck in...so maybe the 9 or 10 Week Bubbler Challenge will come to and end

Here's a little pic of the bits laid out with 4 of the modules:

Full steam ahead now, it needs a good running in over the Easter break

If anyone has got any comments or can see things that need to change, speak up before it becomes permanent

[Brendan]

A few pics from the last few days...

Part of the 180 deg bend hard soldered, as the product condenser will hang from that easy flange, so wanted the extra strength.

Putting together the first part of the 180 deg bend with reducers and an easy flange

Hard soldered together a vent ball/surge breaker

And cleaned up before drilling vent holes

[Brendan]

Soldered the bottom end which will clamp to the bottom of the product condenser, including vent ball

Hard soldered parrot cup and output, nice and strong

Mock up of parrot

[Brendan]

Parrot parts, including ball valve for fores/heads drain threaded onto copper pipe

Parrot and product arm mock-up

Parrot cut to size to make as small as possible and soldered...it's only 160mm long

Testing parrot with some feints

To prevent smearing, I bought the smallest alcometer available and built the parrot as small as possible, but with enough diameter to prevent surging (1")...I've got the total volume with the alcometer in to 70ml

[Brendan]

So did my first SS to copper, for the keg connection. Got a 4" joiner with SS ferrule in one end, and home made easy flange soldered into the other end.

Prepped it up with some wire wheel brushing, and used Ezi-Weld 801.

[Brendan]

Soldered it nice and gentle. Used propane with the little pencil torch that comes with it for a low flame.

It cleaned up nice

Check out the nice bead inside making a beaut seal

And ready for the easy flange

[Brendan]

Here's your first glimpse of the column taking shape finally

And the general external shell just about complete, except for a good lot of filing, sanding, and polishing

[Brendan]

I was meticulous in having everything clean and shiny, which can take a lot of work after hard soldering some larger parts. The black stuff can be easy to brush off externally, but not so eays inside...so as you can see, i've painstakingly got it all immaculate internally aswell...I expect to taste love in the product

This is the inside of the 180 degree bend after hard soldering...

[Jimbo]

She's a beauty Brendan. Nice work!

[Brendan]

Made up a 500mm section to take copper mesh packing for running neutrals. Flared the end of the pipe as per the plate modules, and put easy flanges on the ends.

Yet to be cleaned up

This smaller piece is just for a mockup, but I was just testing a little plate to sit at the bottom of the packed section to keep the packing held within. Drilled a plate with heaps of holes, and used a smaller 1/4" tube ring to hold it in tight...not sure if i'll solder it in yet. It's very tight in there, so not going anywhere...I might leave it as is so that I can use it for other things later...

[Brendan]

Soldered on water connections to the condensers...these 1/2" pipes then got brass threaded couplings soldered onto them to take my John Guest water fittings.

For those not too experienced with soldering, here's a good picture on how to solder one thing close to another join without melting it...use a heatsink to take the heat away from where you dont want it...By clamping the pipe on the side I don't want melted, and I also put a tri clamp around that easy flange, the heat reaching that part keeps moving out into the SS and takes longer to heat that area up...get the heat to where you want it without burning the flux and get in and out as fast as you can

Cut some silicon seals to size for my plates to sit in the modules...

Drilled the remaining plates I had to do...took an hour per plate, and I did 3 back to back

Buffed them up ready for the downcomers

[Brendan]

Cut up all the bits to make the downcomers. 3/4" downcomers...the 1" cups I could get form the plumbing supply place were very shallow (see base of parrot), so I had this wierd pipe from the scrapyard which had a 1" ID and decided to cut them up to the size I wanted and make my own...& cut some little round discs to put a base on them...

Soldered the bases on, and filed them down flush with the dremel tool

All cleaned up, custom cups ready to go

Downcomers soldered

Everything cleaned up, ready to solder to the plates

[Brendan]

Soldered downcomers onto plates and made sure they were nice and straight

Gave them a good clean up with the wire brush wheel, after grinding away any excess solder.

Plates and downcomers ready for action

[Brendan]

Some shiny bits for the fans

I love the shine

Didn't polish these, just went the wire brush wheel. And then put a clear coat lacquer to maintain that colour.

I didn't want the complete mirror polish with this rig because there's been so much working (hammering), grinding and sanding, that it would show up all those areas and the rest would be a mirror. So this just gives it a nice even shine and blends all the working in a bit

[Brendan]

Okay, time to drop it like it's hot

Ladies and Gentlemen...meet the new rig

Can also swap out the fill port cap for a window

[Brendan]

And here it is all decked out with it's 6 plates and a packed section...

I christen thee...."The Demon"

BOOM!

[humbledore]

Serious hardware there, my friend. How does it run? What kind of power do you have to put into it?

[Brendan]

Well I normally run it with 2x 2400W elements on heat up, and can control them by power controller over the run.

Quite often, it runs comfortably below 2400W though, and I only use one element during the run

I've taken it as low as about 1800W before it drops the liquid on the plates...

If needed I also have a 15 amp socket and can run a 2400W and a 3600W element for a toal of 6000W...but I don't ever see that being needed the way it's been going.

[Brendan]

Here's a pic from the first sacrificial alcohol run Pretty happy with that!

I will get some videos up of the beast in action later tonight

[humbledore]

I keep waiting for someone who knows flutes to chime in here, because I don't. But I asked about power because I had no idea how much juice you had to put in there to keep a 4" column full up and running. I'm trying to think of the right way to ask this...isn't there a balance between column size (takeoff throughput) and boiler charge size? Meaning, isn't this still oversized for the boiler? Either way it is a beautiful still and well documented thread, thanks for doing it.

[Brendan]

isn't this still oversized for the boiler?

I'll start here. No it most definitely isn't oversized...a keg boiler is the most common boiler across the home distilling hobby for a 4" plated column. On some of our other international forums, i'd say that's what 95%+ of the members use that have gone to these columns

isn't there a balance between column size (takeoff throughput) and boiler charge size?

No. there is a balance between column size and boiler power however.

I'm trying to think of some extremes for comparison...lets' take a pot still with a MASSIVE width column for example...if you had a really low power element (say 1000W), your wash would eventually get up to boiling temperature. At that point the amount of power delivered in the boiler will determine the amount of vapour (or vapour speed) pushed up through the column. With our little 1000W element, this would be minimal and a very slow rising small amount of vapour...due to our MASSIVE column (say 36 inches diameter), the amount of copper in the column would all but just about condense the rising vapour on the walls of the column before it got anywhere (due to the large amount of copper being a heat sink and convection of outside air temperature). Now obviously that is a ridiculous example, but the size of the boiler would not change the speed that vapour is being pushed (although a bigger boiler means longer heat up time without altering the element).

edit:As I re-read over this, obviously there is a point where a massive column would hold so much distillate on it's plates that a tiny boiler would not have enough wash in it to keep running and the elements covered. But this is not even close at this scale...the column at most probably has a litre or two circulating within it at full reflux, and probably not even that much (with a 40L boiler charge).

I asked about power because I had no idea how much juice you had to put in there to keep a 4" column full up and running.

Yeah tht's fair enough, and it comes down to few more factors than 'just' the column diameter. Not all 4" columns are equal. To achieve full reflux or 'balanced plates', the reflux condenser has to be capable of knocking down the vapour that is pushed up from the boiler, and enough vapour has to be pushed up from the boiler so that it can be condensed by the reflux condenser and maintain cover on all of the plates. Mine being a sieve or perforated plate may have more surface area for holding distillate than a bubble cap of the same diameter, as some of that space is taken up by the bubble caps. The same would apply if the downcomer cup is sitting on the plate below, where mine are elevated leaving more active wet surface area or free space. They are all different.

To give it to you simply, on average, between 2000W and 4000W is 'usually' needed to run a 4" plated column, and each owner finds their rig's sweet spot through trial runs. But once dialed in, they are a thing of beauty

Either way it is a beautiful still and well documented thread, thanks for doing it.

Thanks mate

[pounsfos]

dayum, thats coming along beautifully

We like pictures

[Jimbo]

I'm very curious to hear about the product you make with that. Please come back and give us some product reviews after your runs.

[bellybuster]

that is one fine piece of machinery!! This thread is making me sick to my stomach, no one should have a still that purty when I don't have one myself....call me selfish.

[Jkhippie]

Hey, Brendan, beautiful work! I read the whole thing, but did I miss something? What's that little conical-like bit below the PC and above the parrot? Some sort of vent?

[Brendan]

Hey, Brendan, beautiful work! I read the whole thing, but did I miss something? What's that little conical-like bit below the PC and above the parrot? Some sort of vent?

Hey Jkhippie, it's what I would call a 'surge ball' (you may have a different name for it here).

But yes, it is a vent for the distillate after the PC. Without it, the distillate's first exposure to the atmosphere is at the top of the parrot which can cause a surging up and down, giving an erratic output. The little vent just keeps everything smooth and flowing nicely

[Brendan]

I'm very curious to hear about the product you make with that. Please come back and give us some product reviews after your runs.

Hey Jimbo, I've been running it for 9 months so what do you want to know?

When I ran my first few batches of neutral, which was actually a Weet-Bix/All Bran wash, it did what it was designed for and produced 95-96%ABV across the hearts. (Think the first collection run was 9L at 95-96%ABV ). This was running with 6 plates and the packed section (with copper mesh).

Although it did a great job, I have since come to the conclusion that vodka which has been distilled to this purity is 'too clear', and lacks character. I'll be doing another vodka batch maybe after Christmas, and I'll be trying a strip run followed by a 6 plate run without the packed section, just to see how it comes out. But hey, we used to say that plated columns/flutes were no good for making neutral, but that's been blown out of the water...just make them modular!

I've also done quite a few batches of whiskey, using cereals (corn flakes, all bran wheat flakes, and LME). These are quite remarkable through a plated column, distilled to a high proof but with flavours still coming through. Have had some on different types of oak (different chars) for 6 months, and it's smelling pretty good These were done on a single run with 4 plates without a strip run (8%ABV wash, 90%ABV output). Although good, again my next batches will be aiming to introduce more character, and I'll be moving to all grain mashes which will be stripped and then run with 1 or 2 plates (much like quite a few craft distilleries do). At the moment, I am finishing my mash tun and corn cooker (kegs, nothing fancy) so that my setup can move towards all grain experiments, which I'm really looking forward to!

The best thing about making a completely modular unit like this, is the options for experimentation are endless. You don't have to remove a plate tree or anything, just clamp on the sections you want to run. I also have a gin basket in the works which will clamp on, so should be able to do vodka, gin, brandy, whiskey & rum all on the one unit!

I'm curious why you want to know about the runs Jimbo...it's the same as every other 4" plated column or flute, except that its a modular design. Is there something that makes you think it would have problems?