Home Distiller

Jimbo wrote:Bummer you have 12 awg to your garage. Do you have an electric dryer hookup nearby?

Nope. NG house.

I'm contemplating replacing the 12 ga with 10ga since the run to the garage is about 30' and in conduit. I'll need to dig up a small sub panel first though to do it right but may have one stashed somewhere.

Where there's a will...and summer's coming.

tp

haha, if youre gonna do that run 8, then you can run 2 5500 elements balls out. i generally do double 'stuff' to make best use of my time sitting there for hours. A run and a beer, or a run and cook grains bla bla Arent I just a freakin model of efficiency eh

Jimbo wrote:Arent I just a freakin model of efficiency eh

Yeah you are.
8ga won't go in 1/2" btw, but 10ga certainly will.

tp

Pull that 12 though with a 10 taped to the other end. Maybe 8 depending on what you have going in the garage or future plans.

Rad mentioned he uses coconut oil for sex lube....might help with pulling your wire too.

Rad uses coconut oil for sex lube? Not sure I needed to know that.

Where do you buy that?

IrishEnigma wrote:Pull that 12 though with a 10 taped to the other end. Maybe 8 depending on what you have going in the garage or future plans.

I have no future plans for this place as far as much upgrading. I'm in the same boat as you are. A 30 amp 240v feed is as big as I'll bother with here.

bellybuster wrote:Rad mentioned he uses coconut oil for sex lube....might help with pulling your wire too.

I have proper wire pulling lube, thanks. I also have a pretty good idea what your username really means to convey, btw.

tp

Ahh man now you got my mind in the gutter. Now thats all im gonna think about when he posts.

another one off my Xmas list, getting cheaper every day.

I feel the same way TP. I have everything to build my controller, and I have the wire, and I have a nice idea for a controller that won't look like a controller for a moonshine still. I also plan to put a second element in and just plug a 110v extension cord on a different circuit into it like PP used to do for a faster warm up. I'll probably finish most of the work on it this weekend and make a thread. Boiling 14 gallons with my current propane set up takes 1 hour and 45 minutes without the shroud.. I made a shroud out of a metal trash can, and with that over the keg it takes about an hour to an hour and 15 minutes. Its much faster but sometimes I can't turn it down as low as I'd like it to be with the trashcan shroud. I'm hoping with the two electric elements to be running in a half hour. I'm also hoping the garage stays below 120 Fahrenheit..

I have been working on this as well, now I am all in. My panel is 5 feet away and I hate waiting for the warm up. Looks like I am going to the electrical supplier tomorrow. I was just discussing this with my electrician buddy today.

White lightning, my electrician said if this works, mount the fins going vertical and you won't need a fan to cool it.

If the controller is in a box, fin orientation wont help. Since the potentiometer on SCR's are mounted to the main PCB, the whole controller generally gets mounted inside a box unless you do some trick mods.

Jimbo wrote:If the controller is in a box, fin orientation wont help. Since the potentiometer on SCR's are mounted to the main PCB, the whole controller generally gets mounted inside a box unless you do some trick mods.

Here is the one I am going to try out, It left Hong Kong last nite according to fleabay, it doesnt have an analog potentiometer, It has a led screen (Im assuming volt meter since it is a "voltage regulator") and up and down buttons instead of a pot. Either way tho Im going to put it in a box that I already have and will be doing my best non-electrican attempt at adding a PC fan as well. I think Jimbos thread has the information I need to acomplish this.

White_Lightning_Rod wrote:Either way tho Im going to put it in a box that I already have and will be doing my best non-electrican attempt at adding a PC fan as well. I think Jimbos thread has the information I need to acomplish this.

You have two choices.
You can get a 240v fan and connect it right to the line voltage or get a 240/12v transformer and use that with a 12v PC fan.
I'll be opting for the 240v fan if I decide to use one.

tp

Theres a 3rd choice. Use a 12V (or 9V or 6V) 120V transformer and drive a 12V PC fan. Youll need neutral in the box to make 120. The lower DC voltage options will run the fan slower (and quieter). I use a 9V transformer. Fan blows plenty fast enough to keep 2 working SCR's in the box cool.

The way my stilln room is laid out I plan on wiring my 220V 20 amp receptical on the ceiling in the center of the room and a 110V receptical right beside it. My controller box will have have two input leads, one 220 that will go to the SCR and a 110v extension cord input that will go to a wall wart inside the box that will output 12v DC that will power my fan.

Typed same time as Jimbo

White Lightening. If you use 10/4 instead of 10/3 you will have Neutral in the main cable and you can skip that 120V outlet and second cable into your box. L1 or L2 to N make 120. You can do that inside the box to make the wall wart supply voltage you need. (Thats what I did).

Jimbo wrote:White Lightening. If you use 10/4 instead of 10/3 you will have Neutral in the main cable and you can skip that 120V outlet and second cable into your box. L1 or L2 to N make 120. You can do that inside the box to make the wall wart supply voltage you need. (Thats what I did).

Ive studied and contemplated that as well I guess my final decision will be when I go to the local hardware store to pick up my wire. It will depend on what they have and how the prices work out.

And I also need and will be wiring in an additional 110v outlet in the room either way. Part of the reason I was thinking of going that way.

You have to show picks of your controller when completed. I am dying to see. I ordered one first thing this morning as well, I couldn't resist, it is cheap and when someone has already done the shopping for you,you may as well buy it.

The confusion in another thread has just reared itself, sorry for the interruption. What you call 10/4 Jimbo, we Canadians call 10/3. The ground is not counted. Explains why you and I were not on the same page on another thread. Solved...

So in Canada you buy 3 wires and get the 4th free? LOL

Yes all wire I have ever seen is labeled wire gauge- # of coated wires, and a bare ground. example 10/3 would be typically one white coated 10g, one black coated 10g, one red coated 10g and a bare 10g copper wire.

http://www.lowes.com/pd_70413-295-13059 ... facetInfo=" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Jimbo wrote:So in Canada you buy 3 wires and get the 4th free? LOL

Yes Sireee

In Oregon, it would be considered 10/3 as well, eh. I just bought 250ft of it.

Red Rim wrote:In Oregon, it would be considered 10/3 as well, eh. I just bought 250ft of it.

In most places the ground is not counted. Therefore 10-2 is one hot and one return (neutral), 10-3 would be two current carrying conductors and one return (neutral) and for Truckinbutch, 10-4 is "Ok, good buddy!"

tp (10-6 and 10-100)

Newark electronics has a 5" - ish 240V fan that I can vouch for as being very nice in every way, and only a few $$ in cost.

http://www.newark.com/multicomp/mc19697 ... dp/70K8580

I paid $7; not sure why they are now $15...

They also have a slew of 120mm fan stuff to dress up a unit, like filters and fan guards for very low cost. I spent 2 hours making my own fan guards from stainless mesh, only to learn later their fan guard is 95 cents. Anyway, I like Newark, good place to place a bulk order for just about anything you'd need for a controller.

Enclosure: Bought a Chinese plastic box on eBay. A total and complete POS, thin, bad in every way. Went to Home Depot and found a great selection of thick PVC junction boxes that are perfect, very easy to work with, cut holes in.

I'm very interested in hearing how that digital eBay SCR device performs.

BigSwede wrote:
I'm very interested in hearing how that digital eBay SCR device performs.

me too, planning a simple controller for my brewing boil kettle.

They perform flawlessly. Something that cant be said for many cheap Chinese electronics. I have 2 of them and have done multiple runs with them, at all power levels, never had a single glitch.

Ive go two 12v dc fans already, a 120mm one and one that is about half that size, also have a 9.5v transformer to step the power down a little, after tinkering with everything last night I think I am going to wire the transformer in the box like Jimbo did using both the 220 and 110 coming in on a single 12-3 wire since my element and plugs are only rated up to 20amps.

Quick question the transformer I have came from a portable DVD player on the box itself it lists input and output, the input reads "100-240vac" and the output reads "9.5vdc".
This is not it, but it is very similar Am I correct to understand that I will not neccisarily have to supply this from 110v the way Jimbo did. Could I not just wire this to the 220v before my input goes to the SCR? Or would I risk overheating it supplying it from 220v instead of 110v?