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rednose wrote:

Kentucky shinner wrote: The bubble cap design is much more suited for Vodkas and gin perhaps.
KS

What of the quoted text makes you think this?

What CM said is that they use continious perforated stills for stripping and bubbled stills for spirit runs.

Can you link me to any commercial batch flavor still with perforated sieves?

why then do they use perforated for stiping runs? i assumed if they used the bubble plate it would be more like running a fully packed bok and would not cary over as much flavor. I am so happy with mine I just dont want to mess with it.. Kind of like why fix it if it aint broke.
Do you think the bubble cap will carry over as much flavor? Maybe I am thinking wrong, but I would think the perforated plate would work little more like a pot still. I have not reseached this though. I do know of a distillery here in ky that makes a wonderfull whishky and all they run is a pot still, No reflux at all. I have not made it over to Makers Mark burbon distillery http://www.makersmark.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow yet but plan on Ridding my hog over there this spring for a visit. When I do I will find out what they run. I know they have some pot stills but they may also have a plated column as well.
I have not found any comercial distillery here in Kentucky " the home of Burbon" that tells what kind of still they run. I am just going by photos. Most just advertise tripple distilled, that I have seen.

rednose wrote:

loneswinger wrote:
I have a question for you rednose, how did you make your bubble plates leak so that you can drain the column while not in use?

-Loneswinger

It has a small 1.00 mm hole near the center of the plate, enough to drain but small enough not to act as a mayor vapor pass.

Hope that nobody comes now and says that I have perforated plates.

BTW: it doesn't leak while running, only if I shut the heat off.
Can't see neither if it bubbles through that hole.

I think you have the best of both worlds there Joe...

rednose wrote: It has a small 1.00 mm hole near the center of the plate, enough to drain but small enough not to act as a mayor vapor pass.
Can't see neither if it bubbles through that hole.

Thanks.

-Loneswinger

Ok, first off. Awesome thread, love this place. Have been busy last few months but have some stillin' time again and have been reading all the juicy threads I missed. Have a questions and a couple of comments.

Question. Where do you get those sight glasses? they are insane.

Comment 1. Awesome stills guys, it really drives me to improve my ones. Love the bubbling plates and sight glasses certainly more pretty compared to a column packed with scrubbers.

Comment 2. I have read through this thread and it was mentioned briefly before but no one really commented on it, you guys have tried running insulation of some sort on your columns right? Of course this only applies to anyone with a copper column (since it is approx 20 times more conductive than stainless steel). I run a 3", 5' long copper reflux column packed with scrubbers, and insulating it all the way to where the condenser coils starts made a huge difference in terms of how much heat energy I needed to put into the system to make it run, how quickly it gets to temperature and it even seems to make it transition from heads to hearts and hearts to tails much more completely and rapidly. Not sure if this will get your bottom plates bubbling or not but it is definitely worth a try. BTW I have run this column approx 30 times, the first 10 times without insulation and the rest with. So I can assure you the insulation does make a difference (don't be fooled by my number of posts ).

I don't find the insulation makes much difference on my pot still.

All I do for insulation is wrap a few towels around the column and put a bit of tape on them to keep them in place.

We make the sight glasses out of couplers, hereis the link showing how it's done, http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 7#p6833967
I don't see the need for insulation with this type of column, you never see it on commercial built columns, and it would be a pain to remove it if you wanted to run the column in potstill mode.


OD

Thanks for the link re sight-glasses!

Re Insulation: Commercial columns are usually stainless steel (much lower conductivity), and are much wider diameter columns so the effect is far less. Seriously try it the way I suggested, using towels wrapped around the column and secured with tape (make sure the tape just touches the towel NO part of the still), it takes me less than 5 minutes to use towels to insulate my still which I do just before lighting up the gas on each run. At the very least it is going to save you a few cents for gas or electricity running your still.

No insulation on this one, and you can't get much taller.
OD

I see no need at all to insulate mine. My column runs absolutely perfectly with out it. if it aint broke dont fix it
ks

olddog wrote:No insulation on this one, and you can't get much taller.

Carl column.jpg

OD

Haha, looking at the shine on that copper and the number of sight glasses there is a bit of a mix of functionality AND showiness in that still design, plus I am guessing they don't care if their first plate bubbles or not since they have 20 others........

Kentucky shinner wrote:I see no need at all to insulate mine. My column runs absolutely perfectly with out it. if it aint broke dont fix it
ks

I also thought my column ran 'perfectly' before I started crudely insulating it, now it runs better. My suggested method of insulation is virtually free (unless you include the cost of a few inches of tape), takes almost no time to setup and requires no modification to the still............

Don't get me wrong I am also a firm believer in "if it aint broke dont fix it", but don't forget "It's what you learn after you know it all that counts."

Samohon wrote:Found a company in the UK that sell RJT fittings for the sight glasses, their even sending me one on approval... Heres a look...

RJT.jpg

http://www.lantechsolutions.co.uk/produ ... gs_rjt.php

They go up to 4", but I have a 2" one coming...
The shoulder/Ferule on the male component did'nt look long enough, but they have assured me that they have longer ones should I require them...
Asked me what I was going to do with them, told them I was making a bio-fuel/diesel system, well its only a small one...

Not too bad on price either, £3.65 - ($5.63US) for the whole assembly, comes complete with PTFE seal...

Guess I'll just wait an see what its like.... What do you think guys....?

Looking at them myself but wondering wouldnt you need to get two seals to joint the glass between? Cheap price though I would only want 1" though im goin 2 1/2 flute verrrrry slowly.

Holy fracking hoppity heart stopping crikey and struth!
That is one hell-a-lot-a-copper-porn right there!

Just when you thought you had a lofty goal someone turns your world upside down!

Bloody beaudy mate *thumbs-up*

Haha, looking at the shine on that copper and the number of sight glasses there is a bit of a mix of functionality AND showiness in that still design, plus I am guessing they don't care if their first plate bubbles or not since they have 20 others........

Those aren't sight glasses they are magnifying glasses and that a solar powered column !!!

wow, what a read. Its got me thinking of building one myself. Glad to see you got the number one plate figured out. All videos are great. Everything...
Cannonman

still crazy wrote:Those aren't sight glasses they are magnifying glasses and that a solar powered column !!!

Nah that's one built by Christian Carl
OD

here is my little family so far.. am adding 2 more to it and will post them later..

KS, you need to edit that picture of my flute... thats a dimple, not a dent... She's smilin' at ya!

bgrizzle wrote:KS, you need to edit that picture of my flute... thats a dimple, not a dent... She's smilin' at ya!

I think your right

Kentucky shinner wrote:here is my little family so far.. am adding 2 more to it and will post them later..

Me want but me cant have...

Wow, what an awesome read. This thread has taken me all day to read and really made me think. I can see another build in my future, just not yet.
Some beautiful work posted by many talented and knowledgeable people. Thanks.

Love the flute threads. Really got me wondering about learning some copper smithing.

Very much a beginner here and am trying to understand the process. What happened to Kiwi's suggestion of priming the J tube liquid trap in the downcomer from the bottom plate?

I was just watching the airlock on my fermenter and it seems to me that it doesn't take much pressure to bubble up through that. Wouldn't it likewise not take much pressure for the vapour to bubble up through the bottom downcomer? And if vapour is following the path of least resistance and coming up through there, would that explain the bottom plate not bubbling?

Would a simple flap, like a valve, that allowed liquid to flow out but prevented vapour entering help or would it really have to be an airtight valve to make a difference?

Mulitpleg wrote:Love the flute threads. Really got me wondering about learning some copper smithing.

Very much a beginner here and am trying to understand the process. What happened to Kiwi's suggestion of priming the J tube liquid trap in the downcomer from the bottom plate?

I was just watching the airlock on my fermenter and it seems to me that it doesn't take much pressure to bubble up through that. Wouldn't it likewise not take much pressure for the vapour to bubble up through the bottom downcomer? And if vapour is following the path of least resistance and coming up through there, would that explain the bottom plate not bubbling?

Would a simple flap, like a valve, that allowed liquid to flow out but prevented vapour entering help or would it really have to be an airtight valve to make a difference?

The bottom plate not bubbling has been fixed. It was simply not a nice enough fit of the bottom plate. I have started using plates that are made on a lathe and sealing them against the wall of the column with solder... Problem solved.. they bubble like hell now.. No need to prime the j tube.
thanks for the input though..

Thanks KS. These flute threads have me thinking of learning to make one. Seems sort of a natural progression from cigar box guitars which I've been doing for a while.

Thanks to all for the inspiration.

Mulitpleg wrote:Thanks KS. These flute threads have me thinking of learning to make one. Seems sort of a natural progression from cigar box guitars which I've been doing for a while.

Thanks to all for the inspiration.

Ever hear of an ilimba ?
Never seen one but I read about it. Made from a cigar box or maybe similar, with several springy steel pieces (made, I think from steel umbrella ribs) of different lengths fixed (maybe screwed) to the box. Played with the thumbs? Sounds like it would be fun.

Multipleg, you must smoke a lot of cigars!

Here is a short clip of the 6 plater I built for bgrizzle.. It is 6 perforated plates.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvqNdFhGFxE" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Very nice work.well done

Here is the newest member of my little family.. I call her Big Eyes..

Well KS, Looks like the time to quit your day job.
ArkyJ

Very Nice Kentucky S ..great stuff

Thank you for the compliment.. I am very proud of my work...