Home Distiller

Here's progress report on Stumpy, all the main assembly is now done, I still have the water system plumbing to do, make the glass lens's for the sight glasses, build a new parrot, final assembly and polish.
This still will be controlled by a single 3 way valve, which will control the flow to the dephlegmater and to the shotgun vapor condenser, and will automatically relieve pressure when cutting the flow down to the dephlegmater, diverting the excess water pressure to the output of the shotgun condenser. This will make it easier than juggling two valve controls like the ones on the original Flute This is the progress so far, it should be interesting to see how this one works.


OD

very cool. i can see this heading towards a smaller scale, easy to build, hobbyist favorite. seems like a couple generations away.

you could even put together plans and kits with the hard to source/fab items for people and make a whole lot of folk super stoked...prolly make a few buck for yerself as well.

sick. keep it up.

Stumpy Flute specs so far, Single 2"bubble cap plates, with weir downcomers
Drop in inbuilt shotgun dephlegmater
Laminare (directional fin plates) above the dephlegmater to direct vapor to side takeoff
Single lever cooling control
Shotgun product condenser

I had some odd lengths of copper tube lying round from previous builds, I just wanted to build something to try out a couple of ideas, it will be interesting to see how they work out.


OD

OD
How long is the shotgun and what's inside it?
Regards

The shotgun is 14"long with 4 1/2" tubes inside.



OD

olddog wrote:The shotgun is 14"long with 4 1/2" tubes inside.

do you think that four 1/2 inch tubes is enough? how big is the shell?

is there any particular reason why the condenser hangs so far off to the side? if so, what is that reason?

inquiring minds want to know

i think that at 14", 4...1/2" tubes are a little under for full power, judging by what my 19", 3...1/2" tube "vapor shredder™" gets done.

and as far as it hanging off to the side, yeah, could use some tightening up.


but, i think this is the start of something big (or stumpy as it were).

like i was saying, with some fine tuning, i think this might be the hobby build of the future.

Izzy_Britton wrote:do you think that four 1/2 inch tubes is enough? how big is the shell?

I don't know, I will find out soon.

Izzy_Britton wrote:is there any particular reason why the condenser hangs so far off to the side? if so, what is that reason?

The control lever for the valve needs that much room when the lever is switched to the side for the dephlegmater, other than that it would look better a bit closer.
This is something I am playing with to use up all my offcuts of copper I have lying around, so I thought I would use it to experiment with things like the weir downcomer, single 2"cap, and single valve control. Could be a complete disaster, or could be good.


OD

I was talking with my welder yesterday about the difficulty of finding 4" copper pipe. I said for anything larger you can just forget it completely. He asked if it had to be "legal" pipe. I took this to mean plumbing style (language barrier) pipe and I said no. He took me over to a rolling machine and put a 4" x16" piece of aluminum into it and adjusted the rollers several times and eventually hit a button that rolled the sheet back and forth and created a near perfect (as far as I can tell with only 4" in height) ring waiting to be welded up the side to make a pipe.

He said he can make them in very large proportion large tanks and such


Has anyone thought of using this method for going bigger than 4", not that anybody here is looking to go bigger than 4".

If someone wanted to go ground up commercial would this be a viable method for producing a distillation column similar in size to a Christian Carl or Bavarian Holstein? (~12")


I don't know how accurate these things are over a distance, if anyone knows, please let me know. I would hate to make a tube then have to custom make each plate for the specific point in the tube.

Wow, please let me know how well the 3way valve works, I have not yet put my setup together yet and its not too late for me to incorporate a 3way.

If it simplifies everything to a single control while maintaining the same control over the product, it would be ideal and even easier to produce consistent spirits.

Ben Stillin wrote:Wow, please let me know how well the 3way valve works,

The valve should work well, it works like one of those fancy mixer valves you get in those hotel showers, just one lever to control the hot and cold water.
With the lever in the central position, it lets a full flow out of both outlets, if you gradually move the lever to the left say, it will maintain full flow to the left hand outlet, and cut down the flow to the right hand outlet, the more you move the lever in that direction, the more it reduces the flow to the right hand outlet, until you have the lever fully turned to the left and you have full flow to the left and now have no flow to the right. Turning the lever to the right has the same effect but cuts down the flow to the left.
This could also have a use for the VM operators to control the flow through their coil condensers and product condensers, without having to bother bleeding off pressure.


OD

Wud jew pay for that valve Mike?

Ones I wuz lookin at were a couple hundred (American) $$

And BTW,,,,,,Luv it.

I paid $15 off OZ Ebay, I directed KS to some on US Ebay which were $9. Just do an Ebay search for "3 way valve "


OD

Don't forget,,,according to a higher source,,,,a dephleg-oh-mater only has to acheive partial.................. other wise one gets lumped into the Beverly Hillbillies pot of outhouse possom stew.

Ah got it Mike.
Ones I was looking at were all SS for the vapor path.

Here is a pichure for you.
OD

what are ya hopin to get out of this OD?
i cant wait to see just how compact you (a person) can get one of these columns.
spooky

Mr.Spooky wrote:what are ya hopin to get out of this OD?

I Honestly don't know Spooky. Being retired without much to do, I get all sorts of ideas, I had enough copper left over from other jobs, so I thought I would just throw it together, incorporating a few ideas just to see how it would turn out. I should have it ready for cleaning run next week, then I will have to wait for ferment to finish to see how it goes with a proper run. It could be good or it could be a failure we will just have to see, but all of the principles are correct so I think it should be OK.



OD

I like Stumpy quite a bit, OD.
Will look forward to seeing the driving test results.

Good idea on the valve.
Any Delta style single lever kitchen sink valve should work as well for cooling mix and control.
exon

g,day to all

I am contemplating a flute build
I have read a lot and am nearly ready to have a go.
I have been totally impressed with the builds I have seen on this site and the knowledge that is freely offered to any reader by all you guy,s.
I would like to ask a few questions.

Can you use bathroom silastic as a sealer in the vapor path and the liquid path? (The original boiler that I purchased from a brew shop used it to form a squashable gasket between the lid and the drum)

If I have a go at this build I would like to share the build experience. Where would be the right place to post the thread?

Regards

prdbrissy wrote:Can you use bathroom silastic as a sealer in the vapor path and the liquid path?

I would defintely not recommend it.
If your going to build a Flute, post it in this thread.


OD

Just got a 1" Apollo 3-way on eBay delivered $22

Can someone explain to me why a flute still has sight glasses in them? I mean it is obviously cool, and takes the monotony out of distilling like a glass door on a laundry machine, but should they be there? From what I've gathered people like them to see what kind of reflux is happening?

BTW, HD needs a new category in the forums entirely dedicated to disambiguation. I find my questions hard to find answers to at times; I am not always sure what to search for and most hot words I think to use yield so many threads . . . and I have so many questions!! I'd like to see more clarification on terms and designs, e.g. articles kind of like what Kiwistiller wrote:
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... t#p6816986

For what its worth, I found that to be the most revolutionary topic on HD to my understanding.

EscarpmentDew wrote:Can someone explain to me why a flute still has sight glasses in them?

Yes, they are cool. But a sight glass also allows you to view the still behavior at any given point during the run.
The behavior does change as the run progresses. Certainly reading a thermometer can help gauge the run too, but the use of the sight glass is just one more tool that can help the stiller drive their still as efficiently as possible.

And they are cool.

Hi guys. Has anyone involved in flute building used stainless steel 4" pipe. Where I am SS pipe is a fraction of the cost of copper. Any advice greatly appreciated.
Regards
Thepatchworkdoll

I think stainless is a very good option. I think if you make your plates from copper you would have plenty of copper in your vapor path also. I dont really have the tools for working with stainless.

Here is my latest build. I call her big eyes.. She has 2 inch sight glasses with concave glass in the windows.I also used 1" tube from the 90's into a shotgun final product condenser. The condenser houses 8 -1/2" tubes 12" long. I plan on doing the cleaning runs on her tomorrow. Then I will do some final clean up and put the sealer on her.

KS, your work is beautiful... It is second to none... well, second to one... O.D.

I'm still lovin my flute! The only thing I want to do is add a drain on the bottom of the parrot so I never have to take it apart.

So are those site glasses 2"? I might be able to hook you up with some 2" diameter THICK glass heat tempered glass lenses... email me later on and I will go into more detail...

BG

I was putting drains on the bottom of the parrots, but was having trouble with the cheap needle valves I was using. I will look for some better valves. If you would like I will put you a drain on your parrot if you want to send it to me. Second to none i liked better, but I guess second to OD is not all bad. He is The master, I am only still a grasshoper
KS

OKAY KS, you are number one in my eyes... Ive never seen or run any of O.D.s stills... but, I had to show respect to the man. After all, you did tell me he was your mentor... A grasshopper perhaps, maybe still a little green... soon enough you will no longer be wet behind the ears...

Hell, I am happy as hell with my flute, and I just saw your latest work... I got a little jealous! Those big site glasses... mmmm... I like a woman with big pretty eyes... She is SEXY!

What was the name of the cartoon character with the big eyes and long eye lashes??? Im only 30, so its before my time... Is it Betty Boop??

Swut I dun on mines own (for Shinner's benifit).

(Translation) This is how I solved my parrot drain issue.