My first ccvm still build, from the Uk

[Mereside]

I would like to see if there's any advantage to some mesh on the bottom of a CCVM coil.
Maybe use it to "detune" the coil and make the height adjustment less critical?
Possibly force more of the vapor to exit the column, instead of condensing as reflux?

I can try this as well, see how it goes and show results, regards Wayne

[Mereside]

Quick update, bracket made for the servo, copper mesh came and scrubbers, the mesh I rolled and slipped into the spools does it look ok one end a little tighter than the other, one slides in and holds itself the other touches the sides but can fall out but when packed each spool can easily be blown down without struggling, scrubber also added to the centre condenser, regards Wayne

[kimbodious]

Looks good!

[Yummyrum]

Glad you are doing this Wayne .Everytime I use the 3D printer at work , all I see is a way to not have to climb on the roof to adjust my 4” reflux still .

[Mereside]

Glad you are doing this Wayne .Everytime I use the 3D printer at work , all I see is a way to not have to climb on the roof to adjust my 4” reflux still .

That’s what gave me the idea having a printer myself although the ballscrew and nut was a spare for my lathe I have been doing, I have a simple forward reverse board from an annealing machine I knocked up, so I am pulling all the spares I have together, if you hadn’t noticed already you will see I love building and making things, regards Wayne.

[Mereside]

Liebig on now that the clamp came, my top spool was too wide to tig the tri clamp fitting on so I have ordered a short 200mm piece so I can finish off the stepper motor brackets and then can stoke her up, , regards Wayne.

[Deplorable]

I would like to see if there's any advantage to some mesh on the bottom of a CCVM coil.
Maybe use it to "detune" the coil and make the height adjustment less critical?
Possibly force more of the vapor to exit the column, instead of condensing as reflux?

Not that this is scientific comparison, but I find mine more effective (1/4" copper single helix) without the copper mesh woven into the middle of the coil. What I ended up with was a small beard on the end to channel the majority of the condensate down the middle of the column. Without it, I had a good wall of liquid running down the sides of the sight glass.

OP, you'll likely spend a few runs deciding what works best in YOUR shed. I know I did, and frankly, Im not done yet, but my neutral from AG whiskey feints is pretty damn good.

[kimbodious]

It doesn’t pay to overthink the scrubbers in the RC coil thing. Just as long that there’s contact between the RC and the walls on the reflux chamber somewhere.

Here is my RC made with corrugated stainless steel tubing. It isn’t pretty but it gets the job done.

[Mereside]

I would like to see if there's any advantage to some mesh on the bottom of a CCVM coil.
Maybe use it to "detune" the coil and make the height adjustment less critical?
Possibly force more of the vapor to exit the column, instead of condensing as reflux?

Not that this is scientific comparison, but I find mine more effective (1/4" copper single helix) without the copper mesh woven into the middle of the coil. What I ended up with was a small beard on the end to channel the majority of the condensate down the middle of the column. Without it, I had a good wall of liquid running down the sides of the sight glass.

OP, you'll likely spend a few runs deciding what works best in YOUR shed. I know I did, and frankly, Im not done yet, but my neutral from AG whiskey feints is pretty damn good.

Thanks for the reply, is the aim to have the refluxed liquid fall rather than run down the column?, I am assuming this is to go through the packing properly?, regards Wayne.

It doesn’t pay to overthink the scrubbers in the RC coil thing. Just as long that there’s contact between the RC and the walls on the reflux chamber somewhere.

899F6B07-DF4A-4A24-A3A9-C890F4EAAC93.jpeg

Here is my RC made with corrugated stainless steel tubing. It isn’t pretty but it gets the job done.

When I get it running I can tune how it works, the coils are just touching the sides but I can see how it performs and adjust as I go, regards Wayne

[Deplorable]

Theoretically you will get better reflux if the spirit is being channeled down the middle of the column rather than the sides.

[Mereside]

Theoretically you will get better reflux if the spirit is being channeled down the middle of the column rather than the sides.

Ok brilliant thanks for your help, I will aim for that then, regards Wayne.

[Mereside]

A little update as I have been working away but one day left before I break up for Xmas so I can finish her and get her running, got the servo running, tigged the spool and bracket for the servo, mocked up the controller and where I want it.
I just need an m4 tap for lead screw bracket to fasten the lead screw nut and I can set the height on the plates, not long now, regards Wayne.

[Mereside]

Just need to cut the rod and ballscrew to length and tig the rod to the plate but it runs up and down nicely, not long now

[MooseMan]

Hi Mereside

I'm also in the UK and also built a CCVM following lots of reading on here and lots of absolutely priceless advice and guidance from some of the guys (You know who you are!) here. My build thread was a good while ago but you may have seen it.

As I never seem to have enough spare time to actually make my first alcohol run, I'm yet again looking to run it over the Xmas holidays, the last time the still saw the light of day was January, when I did a boil and vinegar run to clean!

I just wanted to say that I love your idea for precision movement of the RC on yours, it looks awesome.
I did consider using a manual screw system to do the same on mine when I was building it, but just wanted to get it finally finished!

[Mereside]

Thanks for the comments mooseman, I am itching to get her running, I will tig up the rod on monday so it’s all stable and cut the Lead screw to size then it’s just water pipes to sort and crack on with the cleaning, I too am hoping to get it running over the holidays, fingers crossed you get your spirit run done, your project looks mint, I did read it but have just gone back through it again, I have so many pages and threads bookmarked to keep going back too and yes there are so many on here willing to help and guide people like me with no idea, I have a few questions to ask shortly once the builds complete but I will hang fire till it’s done so it’s all in one place for a start to finish thread.
I am getting excited now it’s nearly done and already want to do more regarding building and I need the tig practice anyway it’s been a long time and I have really struggled with stainless for some reason I find that ally seams to be far easier for me but I know it’s just practice, regards Wayne

[MooseMan]

I can't wait to see pics of the finished Still setup Wayne, and hear all about your runs of course!
I'm sure with your engineers approach you'll be coming up with all sorts of useful little tweaks and additions that we can all benefit from.

If I do get the time to run my rig I'll post about it.

[Mereside]

Here we go finally sparked into life and fitted up, if I get the condenser pipes connected I can start cleaning and vinegar run.
I left the gap at the top to give a little more height to raise the coil as I’m thinking once I know everything runs right I can add an internal spool so all you see is the spool portion moving and it will be totally covered this could also have copper scrubbies added if it needs them,
I also need a solid coupler with a rubber buffer to take the whine out of the servo, once the kegs full of low wines it probably won’t make as much noise as it’s empty at the minute and sounds louder than it is but happy with the first result, now to get it fired up, regards Wayne.

[DAD300]

Don't get worried about centering the reflux. It doesn't matter, as it will drop down until it vaporizes again. People used to screw up the vapor speed by trying to put washers in the column to force reflux to the center. It was NOT efficient.

You could increase takeoff, if you decide you need to, by making the takeoff 90 deg down the same size as the horizontal takeoff.

Looks good.

[Mereside]

Thanks for your input DAD300, I desperately searched for the stainless corrugated tubing but couldn’t find it here in the Uk so ended up rolling the copper tubing but it ended up ok in the end, can’t wait to run it now and learn how to use it, regards Wayne.

[MooseMan]

Worm drive looking very good Wayne!

I think that will be great to allow you to make micro adjustments through a run without having to stretch up and mess about, I love it!

[kimbodious]

Can you make very small adjustments using the worm drive? The adjustment between equilibrium and drawing of foreshots/heads is usually very slight.

[Yummyrum]

Can you make very small adjustments using the worm drive? The adjustment between equilibrium and drawing of foreshots/heads is usually very slight.

I’d imagine it is very fine adjustment . Those steppers have around 200 steps per revolution .If the pitch on the worm is 1mm , then thats 0.005mm height increment per pulse to the motor .

I do like the stepper/ worm drive idea . Even if the motor/ drive circuit fails , you can still spin the worm easily with your fingers and control the RC in the unlikely event of a failure mid run .

Wondering if there would be any advantage to having a limit switch to ascertain a home position ?

[Deplorable]

Okay, Im not a techy type person, but I have to say, thats pretty darn cool.

[MooseMan]

Hell yeah it is!

[Mereside]

Hi guys thanks for the comments. It’s very controllable in terms of speed or adjustment, I had it fairly quick so you could see it but there will be no issues setting it to where it needs to be, I don’t even think it needs a limit because set in slow I can just stop at the same places once I set markers
Once I get some vinegar to do a cleaning run I will show it properly running with adjustments.
I just need to run if and figure out where it needs to be, for full reflux I’m assuming it’s just full way down but to anyone running one I also assume after running full reflux I raise the condenser so it’s half and half then raise to be fully open?.
So for my first question regarding my still and what I would like to achieve is the cleanest neutral I can possibly make and I know it’s going to be a learning curve so I am happy to go slow to learn, I am starting out with shady’s sugar shine and over the last few months done tons of reading and the main consensus is to run a stripping run and then a slow spirit run but I did come across some posts on here were people run with reflux on a stripping run as well, for me to start out on my journey to get the cleanest product which method would be best, I fully understand I need to learn the still to get the best from it but would a slower refluxed stripping run be the way to go or just go to one section without copper in pot still set up and do a stripping run as quickly as she will go, all advise is greatly appreciated and thanks again for all your help and comments so far,regards Wayne

[kimbodious]

You should be able to get very high purity product on a “one and done” (spirit run from a wash). The thing is that it will be a long run for a small amount of product. I found it is more efficient time-wise to do a number of very quick stripping runs in pot still mode and then a spirit run from the collected low wines. I typically do 3 or 4 stripping runs for every spirit run.

Ok so running a CCVM on a spirit run, here’s how I operate mine. I bring it up to boil fairly slowly. I have the condenser in the lowest setting. I turn the coolant water on when I feel the heat rising up the column. You mightn’t be able to feel that through the insulation but there’ll be other clues like the change in sound from the boiler from heating to boiling.

Coolant water is set and forget, you can leave it as is as long as it was sufficient for putting your system in total reflux.

I leave the system in total reflux for quite some time, usually around 45 minutes. Again there will be clues when the system is as stacked as it is ever going to get. In my case it is a visible decrease in the amount of condensate in the sight window and a slight decrease in temperature in the reflux chamber.

I then raise the reflux condenser a very small amount, around 25 millimetres, until I get roughly two drops per second of output. I collect roughly 150 millilitres (of the foreshots) at this rate. I then slowly raise the RC incrementally over the next say 45 minutes until the RC is in the high setting and the output has only just reached a steady trickle. I am collecting in 300 ml samples at this stage (heads). I’ll collect 1500 -1800 mls in 300 ml samples before switching up to 600 ml or even 1000 ml samples for the hearts. At this stage my 2’ system is putting out 1200 mls per hour at maximum ABV.

There’s only about 125 mm between lowest and highest setting for my RC.

My CCVM is at peak ABV and efficiency when the heating power level is 1450-1600 Watts. I use this setting for bringing the boiler up to the boil. I reduce the power level to 400 Watts for the total reflux stage and then slowly back up to 1450-1600 Watts for the rest of the run.

That is just how I operate my system as an example, your system will be different and you will find the best way to run yours but the principles will be similar.

Water+vinegar vapour behaves completely differently to ethanol. Don’t expect to be able to trial operating your still using water+vinegar!

[Mereside]

You should be able to get very high purity product on a “one and done” (spirit run from a wash). The thing is that it will be a long run for a small amount of product. I found it is more efficient time-wise to do a number of very quick stripping runs in pot still mode and then a spirit run from the collected low wines. I typically do 3 or 4 stripping runs for every spirit run.

Ok so running a CCVM on a spirit run, here’s how I operate mine. I bring it up to boil fairly slowly. I have the condenser in the lowest setting. I turn the coolant water on when I feel the heat rising up the column. You mightn’t be able to feel that through the insulation but there’ll be other clues like the change in sound from the boiler from heating to boiling.

Coolant water is set and forget, you can leave it as is as long as it was sufficient for putting your system in total reflux.

I leave the system in total reflux for quite some time, usually around 45 minutes. Again there will be clues when the system is as stacked as it is ever going to get. In my case it is a visible decrease in the amount of condensate in the sight window and a slight decrease in temperature in the reflux chamber.

I then raise the reflux condenser a very small amount, around 25 millimetres, until I get roughly two drops per second of output. I collect roughly 150 millilitres (of the foreshots) at this rate. I then slowly raise the RC incrementally over the next say 45 minutes until the RC is in the high setting and the output has only just reached a steady trickle. I am collecting in 300 ml samples at this stage (heads). I’ll collect 1500 -1800 mls in 300 ml samples before switching up to 600 ml or even 1000 ml samples for the hearts. At this stage my 2’ system is putting out 1200 mls per hour at maximum ABV.

There’s only about 125 mm between lowest and highest setting for my RC.

That is just how I operate my system as an example, your system will be different and you will find the best way to run yours but the principles will be similar.

Water+vinegar vapour behaves completely differently to ethanol. Don’t expect to be able to trial operating your still using water+vinegar!

Thank you for your brilliant reply that will help no end as a bit of a guide to know how to start off, I did see some posts about the vinegar run not being the same so thanks for reminding me, I have my water pipes connected now and I am awaiting 1 tri clamp to arrive and my yeasts been lost in our postal strike so I need to source some local to get my washes running, everything else is good to go so I need to get to the shops for the final ingredients/ vinegar to get things going, now I have slowed the speeds down on the servo everything has quietened down and also now I have soldered the copper condenser pipes to the stainless plate it is all nice and rigid so very pleased with the outcome, it’s time to get her running, thanks for everyone’s help and I will post on here with progress and fingers crossed a decent product to go with my labels I have just done to finish off my bar, regards Wayne.

[kimbodious]

Wayne, all good.

There’s trial and error stuff you have to work out for yourself, namely power settings and the packing in the column.

The main thing to watch for is condensate building up in the sightglass area. If you start seeing that you will need to slowly reduce heating power until you can get the condensate level to stabilise. It is a bit of fiddling to get the compromise between the packing and heating power levels just right.

One last comment that heating power levels will be different for low wines and wash.

[Mereside]

Wayne, all good.

There’s trial and error stuff you have to work out for yourself, namely power settings and the packing in the column.

The main thing to watch for is condensate building up in the sightglass area. If you start seeing that you will need to slowly reduce heating power until you can get the condensate level to stabilise. It is a bit of fiddling to get the compromise between the packing and heating power levels just right.

One last comment that heating power levels will be different for low wines and wash.

Thanks again for this, as it’s going to help no end and I think I need to make lots of notes from the start so I can understand what’s working and if I’m going the right or wrong way, cheers Wayne

[MooseMan]

You should be able to get very high purity product on a “one and done” (spirit run from a wash). The thing is that it will be a long run for a small amount of product. I found it is more efficient time-wise to do a number of very quick stripping runs in pot still mode and then a spirit run from the collected low wines. I typically do 3 or 4 stripping runs for every spirit run.

Ok so running a CCVM on a spirit run, here’s how I operate mine. I bring it up to boil fairly slowly. I have the condenser in the lowest setting. I turn the coolant water on when I feel the heat rising up the column. You mightn’t be able to feel that through the insulation but there’ll be other clues like the change in sound from the boiler from heating to boiling.

Coolant water is set and forget, you can leave it as is as long as it was sufficient for putting your system in total reflux.

I leave the system in total reflux for quite some time, usually around 45 minutes. Again there will be clues when the system is as stacked as it is ever going to get. In my case it is a visible decrease in the amount of condensate in the sight window and a slight decrease in temperature in the reflux chamber.

I then raise the reflux condenser a very small amount, around 25 millimetres, until I get roughly two drops per second of output. I collect roughly 150 millilitres (of the foreshots) at this rate. I then slowly raise the RC incrementally over the next say 45 minutes until the RC is in the high setting and the output has only just reached a steady trickle. I am collecting in 300 ml samples at this stage (heads). I’ll collect 1500 -1800 mls in 300 ml samples before switching up to 600 ml or even 1000 ml samples for the hearts. At this stage my 2’ system is putting out 1200 mls per hour at maximum ABV.

There’s only about 125 mm between lowest and highest setting for my RC.

My CCVM is at peak ABV and efficiency when the heating power level is 1450-1600 Watts. I use this setting for bringing the boiler up to the boil. I reduce the power level to 400 Watts for the total reflux stage and then slowly back up to 1450-1600 Watts for the rest of the run.

That is just how I operate my system as an example, your system will be different and you will find the best way to run yours but the principles will be similar.

Water+vinegar vapour behaves completely differently to ethanol. Don’t expect to be able to trial operating your still using water+vinegar!

For Wayne, myself and lots of others, this post and several others you have made sharing your knowledge of running CCVM is absolutely golden. Thank you again.