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Hey newbie here,
I want to build a still. I have a pot and 10 feet of 1/4" copper tubing with some cuplers. Thats leftover from an old project(unopened). Can I use this to make a still? Should I add a thermometer to it and if so whats the best placement?

The 1/4" tubing is too narrow for safe operation no matter what you have seen elsewhere on the interwebs. I'd suggest 1/2" soft copper would be the minimum. If the tubing is too small you risk a blockage and the vapour moves too fast for effective condensation. Save the 1/4" for something down the road, it's a good size for other types of condensers.

Your couplers should ideally be copper or stainless. Brass is one of those marginal materials that is not really recommended here. Even the lead free or zero lead actually can / do contain small amounts of lead.

It will also hinge on what your pot is made of. If it is all stainless with a lid that fits well that you could seal with flour paste or an 'everlasting gasket' that would be fine. Aluminum, enamelled steel or cast iron are not suitable and neither are pressure cookers due to the gasket most of the reasonably priced ones invariably have.

You will find we encourage new distillers to learn the basics without a thermometer. After you are more experienced and have developed a functional understanding of distilling you might find a thermometer desirable. Too many people start off with a thermometer and end up obsessed with it to the detriment of their learning.

Go through the new distillers reading lounge and read. Take in the info here and use the Google search option to see if you can find answers. The old guard here don't like questions that almost certainly have been asked and answered many times over. Asking informed questions will get you the best results.

maxw wrote: ↑Sat Jan 16, 2021 6:55 am Hey newbie here,
I want to build a still. I have a pot and 10 feet of 1/4" copper tubing with some cuplers. Thats leftover from an old project(unopened). Can I use this to make a still? Should I add a thermometer to it and if so whats the best placement?

You need to do some reading mate, how can you walk into a room with a bucket and a roll of copper tubing and expect to build a still..?
You need to make the effort before people can assist....Do some reading,learn and come back with what you want, i will go out of my way to help...good luck...

As mentioned , 1/4” is too small and dangerous to use as a condenser for a pot still .
But don’t through it out . It would make a good reflux coil or Deflag coil iff’n you wanted to make a reflux still .

I built a 2” bokakob and the product does come out a little hot. Could I build a small Liebig condenser to add to the end of my product outlet to cool it down a bit?

BigJames wrote: ↑Sat Jun 26, 2021 7:00 am I built a 2” bokakob and the product does come out a little hot. Could I build a small Liebig condenser to add to the end of my product outlet to cool it down a bit?

Question is…..”can you”?

A liquid (condensate) heat exchanger will help cool the product, sure. And it doesn’t need to big. A 3/4” over 3/8” Liebig 10” to 12” long will work adequately for you. Others have done it….if you’d search for it, you’d find this information.
ss

I’ve seen where someone used a 2” cap and made an acorn condenser. I just had the fittings for a small Liebig condenser so I’m gonna try that. I have read until my eyes are nearly bleeding. Trust me, I have done the research, just wanted a little go ahead to try it. Getting ready to solder the pieces together this evening. Thanks for the feedback

I’ve seen where someone used a 2” cap and made an acorn condenser.

I've never heard of an acorn condenser.

Can you tell us more? Do a rough diagram?

Thanks.

Geoff

newbie here, so have patience please.

For building my first still, I would like the simplicity of a pot still, but perhaps a little higher proof, "purer" product.
So I was thinking maybe a bit of a hybrid would be good. A pot still with a little reflux action too.

I was thinking maybe a 2" copper column/neck with some copper packing, and the ~1" lyne arm angling back into the column, to get some less volatile condensation dripping back into the packing. Or do you need an actual pre-condenser to get reflux?

something like the attached drawing

Copper packing without a reflux condenser on top of it wont make a scrap of difference.

Salty is right. Clawhammer tried to claim that packing the neck of their pot stills would increase proof, but thats marketing BS meant to upsale. You will get some passive reflux, but only until the packing and lyne arm come to temp. In a 2-4 hour run you'll get 15 min of reflux possibly. The copper packing IS helpful removing sulfides if your boiler is stainless, but not for reflux in that configuration.

I am a chicken. My metal working skills are non existent! I bought a cheap 3 pot still from amazon! The worm is light on coils, but I think it will work, if not I do know a plumber!

Running a 12 litre kettle on a camping stove powered by propane!

The Baker wrote: ↑Sat Jun 26, 2021 7:16 pm I’ve seen where someone used a 2” cap and made an acorn condenser.

I've never heard of an acorn condenser.

Can you tell us more? Do a rough diagram?

Thanks.

Geoff

I think Joe Rednose used one (though he called it an egg as I recall?) as a PC for his little Bok.

From the picture that I saw it was two 2” copper caps with a small winding of 1/4” copper tubing coiled inside almost like a tiny worm condenser. I’m thinking he used a small aquarium pump to pump the cooling water around the coil. Looks pretty ingenious to me. I’m sticking to my tiny Liebig arm condenser on my output line. It seems to work well for my purposes

The acorn condenser is on the first post in this topic on the bokakob picture that Rednose has pictured. I really appreciate all the information I have found in this forum. I will continue to read until my eyes bleed until I am the best damn distiller that I can be. Thanks again for all the support

BigJames wrote: ↑Sat Jul 17, 2021 6:28 pm The acorn condenser is on the first post in this topic on the bokakob picture that Rednose has pictured. I really appreciate all the information I have found in this forum. I will continue to read until my eyes bleed until I am the best damn distiller that I can be. Thanks again for all the support

Thanks, Big James.

Geoff

Seems that way back at the beginning of this thread people where being told to avoid these stills as they where already outdated and poorly designed 11 years ago.
Crazy bit is we are still warning folk away from them , and some commercial sellers are still making and selling them to unsuspecting Newbs. The Stills below are right up there with them in my opinion, They are just plain out cheap n nasty, Ive had the misfortune of running one once, helping a newb out who had bought one. One of the worst distilling experiences Ive ever had. You get exactly what you payed for when you buy one of these things,.

this might be the case with that still but this one works pretty dang good, a nice and cheap way to get into this for some.

How long have you owned and run that still ?
What other stills have you ever run?
What experience have you to compare it against stills that may be far better?

i used my friends 8 gallon "hillybilly stills" milk can still with a simple pot still configuration for years before buying this. The end product is very good from both. I am sure there are far better stills for certain products. For making simple whiskeys and moonshine I am pretty pleased with the above.

I was able to locate some 1950ish stainless steel double wall coffee pots with glass inserted 3-1/2 gallon
Pot with a stainless still top I modified into a pot still spent a lot of time boiling the glass tank with citrus acid to get the coffee stains out after countless hrs and many setbacks I just bought a 8 gallon milkcan pot still from MD in CO and fell in love with the hobby

I have recently purchased a dephlegmator still out of stainless and am curious how to run water to the condenser and the dephlegmator. I guess my question is is it ok to run cold water in at bottom of condenser and the out the top of condenser to the reflux cooler?

Dcastor wrote: ↑Sun Nov 28, 2021 11:44 am I have recently purchased a dephlegmator still out of stainless and am curious how to run water to the condenser and the dephlegmator. I guess my question is is it ok to run cold water in at bottom of condenser and the out the top of condenser to the reflux cooler?

Yes, but IMO it's not optimal. I run two independent cooling lines. One valved line for the PC and one valved line to the RC. I can control the PC temp to keep a good gradient of heat from the top down to the bottom, and still tun cold water to my RC and control the flow to efficient heat transfer and minimize water usage.

What exactly is a dephlegmator still?

probably means a CM still?

What sort of CM ?

Looking for some advice from this group.

I'm a solid intermediate, with about 100 l of product (minimum 2x distilled) over the past 18 months since starting. Lots of research before building my first pot, 30 l, all modular 53 mm riser to custom frustum and 900 mm liebig, running on propane.

My tastes lean towards flavor with whiskey predominating, but I've done 3 @ 4X distillation runs to make a clean neutral.

What is a logical next step, and will help me take the next step in my learning? The way I see it I have 4 different paths, two which are refinements to what I'm doing now, two which will take me in new directions.

1) move to a 60 l pot
2) go electric
3) build a reflux head
4) build a modular thumper

Bigger or electric might change process a bit and simplify or speed up production but don't really add much to technique

Thumper potentially creates new avenues for different spirits with more/different flavor components such as brandy

Reflux and associated processes seem like the most different from what I'm doing now, I've also got at least 25l of 'heads' that I'd like to see if I can clean up

Any other options or something that I should know about one of the 4 I'm proposing?

Thanks for your opinions. Drifter

Go for the bigger pot and electric... nothing wrong with propane but lectric is just so much more constant.

Other options.... 4" flute.

3 and four would be my choices , 3 probably wins out because its a whole other side of distilling.
You can do many things with a reflux still, they can be run many ways and can open the door to making fine neutral without all the mucking around of triple and quadruple distilling.
That in turn opens up opportunities to many other things.
1 would be my next choice ..a bigger boiler is always helpful and allows for more ageing stock in a shorter time more easily.
2 would be my last choice , the thing that will teach you least.

Setsumi: Yes, I think that electric brings a whole different level of process. I've got enough DIY electrical that following some of the threads here I could build a top notch controller. Couple of complicating factors, I'd need to run a 220 circuit to my garage, but I've done 110 before so I'd just need to up my game a bit. That said, my boiler that is electric ready is only 12 l so I'm going backwards on volumes.

Saltster: I think the column is a good option too. Early on, I went back and forth on whether to build reflux or pot as I planned my build. Ultimately, pot won because that product was what I most wanted to craft. I understand the basic mechanics of reflux, it's just the details of 'knowing the still' that I need to figure out and practice. And I figure that working on twisting up a coil would be a great little engineering project in and of itself.