3 inch valve plate design

[bentstick]

Sungy, lookin at your pic, the middle valve ( the 1/2 in )looks like it is inline with the upper one, from my understanding your liquid is going to have to be almost same level to drain? Unless there is a valve on the upper line to shut it off and water will build pressure above the ( if I remember) 60% valve and then force it out the lowest valve. Am I making any sense( long day with home owner and and f+*£king designer( 5 hr meeting) brain fried.

[NcHooch]

Looks like a keeper Sungy
Cant wait to hear the maiden-voyage report

[Sungy]

Both outlets from the Dephleg condenser have valves then come together into a common drain. The upper one has a air vent for capacity control. When the upper chamber is air locked the condenser will react faster because there will be less water in use. If required I can flip valves and use the full capacity of the condenser.

Hope this view is better

[bentstick]

[emptyglass]

Ye-haaar!! Beautiful.

I agree with Hooch, don't overthink it.
You gunna have to get a baseline to workwith, your mixing automation with art. Go manual control first, till you get a grip on whats happening in your still. It is a little different with the penny valves, in a good way I feel, could behave like no other known still....?

You will be able to control all valves manually, yes?
Either through the system, or physical override?

[Sungy]

The 3 way valve will be able to run automatically or I can over ride it to what ever value I wish. There is also a manual over ride lever I can physically use to open the valve as well. As far as the operation of this still and its performance only time will tell if it was worth the effort. Worst case scenario I have to make a new sieve plate tree. All the rest of the rig will work regardless of the plates. I have completed the cooling water piping and all seems well so far.
Thanks again for the support and input. Your experiences make my build better.

[emptyglass]

I have no doubt it will work. It may have some unique traits that only you can get right.

I think you should be sweet with some manual control, and I'm sure it will only take a run or two to get it where you want.

Should be rock and rollin' from there.

[Sungy]

Well the Mueller 1 1/2" trap adapters are not available in Canada unless they are brass and threaded on the outside. Little setback but oh well. Ive ordered tri clamps and will be making easy flanges. Gonna look sharp ether way. Looks like lots of copper pounding in my future. Wife is gonna love that part.

Found this laying around.....hummmm
40,000 BTU natural gas water heater burner

Now how much can I turn this baby down before it snuffs out? ............ looks like the BBQ's gonna lose its hose for testing purposes.....

How much space do I need to have between the flames and boiler? Got any ideas?

[acfixer69]

Sungy
I have been very busy with life's crosses to bare and not being more active on this thread. Since I chose to put my 2 pennies in earlier.
I have only made a few runs with my valved plate tree but there were good ones. I use the bubble cap tree more often.
Why? Well the valve plates are a little harder to keep in control. You will need good reflux control and heat control. I use 2- 4500W heaters on a phase angle controller. Only 1- 4500W heater on the run. The plates tend to flood while equalizing. Just needs to be watched. Once set, 18 Amps for me, they consistently will piss out 88% ABV thru hearts. Keep in mind mine is a 3 plate. After that it runs the same as my bubble plates that also run solid 88% ABV with 3 plates.

AC

[bentstick]

acfixer, I have 1 4500 with mk5500 controller and once it gets to temp I back it down to about 16 amps(19 is max), max they are flooded but 16 amps they run smooth, been thinkin putting 5500 element in. I am running 5 perforated plates and run 92/90 abv consistently, want to try bubble caps any suggestions?

[acfixer69]

acfixer, I have 1 4500 with mk5500 controller and once it gets to temp I back it down to about 16 amps(19 is max), max they are flooded but 16 amps they run smooth, been thinkin putting 5500 element in. I am running 5 perforated plates and run 92/90 abv consistently, want to try bubble caps any suggestions?

Dont want ot highjack Sungys thread but a 5500w will get you up to temp faster but 16 amps will still be your sweet spot.
Thought this maybe help full to you too Sungy

AC

[bentstick]

thax sorry sungy!

[Sungy]

No problem guys. The conversation is great. Being a complete noobie when it comes to this hobby, I need all the suggestions you guys have. After all you have been there and bought the T shirt.....lol

Any way as an update to this I pressure tested my cooling system.....ye haw ....no leaks.....
As for control of this rig....the 3 way valve give 100% shut off and can regulate from 1 drop to full flow.....awesome.....I get lots of flow threw the leiberg condenser. Mind you, the rig was setup on city water pressure.

Just a quick shot of the piping.

[emptyglass]

Well the Mueller 1 1/2" trap adapters are not available in Canada unless they are brass and threaded on the outside. Little setback but oh well. Ive ordered tri clamps and will be making easy flanges. Gonna look sharp ether way. Looks like lots of copper pounding in my future. Wife is gonna love that part.

burner.jpg

Found this laying around.....hummmm
40,000 BTU natural gas water heater burner

Now how much can I turn this baby down before it snuffs out? ............ looks like the BBQ's gonna lose its hose for testing purposes.....

How much space do I need to have between the flames and boiler? Got any ideas?

I use an adjustable regulator with a pressure gauge. Gives me consistant supply, unless the pressure left in the bottle is lower than what I run at (empty bottle!)

I don't know if that block on your burner is a reg, or just flame control/saftey shut off. Either way, it will work better with a good regulator. I get as good a flame consistency as you could expect using one. I can vary the heat easily and repeat it pretty closly for each run.

The hotest part of the flame is at the tip of the inner flame (the light blue one).

[Sungy]

Well I got the tri clamps the other day. Been pounding out some flanges and "easy clamps".

I had a friend who has a wood shop whip me up a jig to hold the pipe while I beat the crammmmps out of it. That actually sounds like fun....lol...... six hours later I now have 12 flanges (six sight glasses ) and a boiler connector (easy flange)

Thank you to who ever came up with that ( I used 1/4" soft drawn pipe)

The burner has a pressure regulator on it which will be hi fire ,but I am going to throttle the fuel with a 1/2 " ball valve for lower inputs( has to be rated WOG[ water oil gas] ) should work well I think. I still have a stand to figure out yet. And then there's the fermenting gear to get and alcohol meters and so on and so on....

[bentstick]

Nice work,And patience, coming together nicely for you sungy. Now kick it up a notch and make something I want to know how your trays do.

[emptyglass]

Ohhh man, you gotta get something fermenting.

What you planning to do? Water into wine has been done before. To make a spirit, you need to ferment something.
This thing will do it so fast, you might wonder what happened. And you need some alcohol for some cleaning.

[Sungy]

OK, so my build is doing well, BUT I have to finish the sight glasses (hopefully by the weekend I can have the column come together). I have never fermented any thing and I need to figure out what equipment I need to get for that.
Then there is the "tried and true" section of the website that I must venture into.

Any suggestions for a fist batch?

What size of boiler charge do you need for a 50 liter keg? I'm guessing no more than 30 liters.

Any one got any suggestions for a name for this beast?

[bentstick]

For easy, go with UJSSM,taste good,not much to it. My uj is on about 15 generation and it gets here in the house. But if you are looking for something more like rum start with SF,I dont use store bought,60% cracked corn,20% rolled oats,20% rolled barley,and blackstrap unsulpherd molasses. I do 12 gallon ferments,(finished wash) hope this helps Sungy

[emptyglass]

At minimum, you will need a bucket with a loose fitting lid, but best off with a store bought fermenter. With a flute, I don't think you'll want anything smaller than a 60 litre fermenter. That could be 3 x 20 litre buckets.

They usually consist of a drum with a sealed lid and a hole for an air lock/ bubbler. Air lock gives a visual indicator of when things are finished that is hard to tell with a loose fitting lid on a drum. Also keeps bugs out.

I have a 1 1/8" hole in my lids, I put an aquarium heater set for 20 deg. C in there with a bung on the cord. I find this easier than heating mats. You only need heat if you are fermenting in a cold place. I don't need heat during summer months.

For a fisrt go, I'd make a simple sugar wash. Sugar, yeast and water. It will test your facilities, prove your fermenter and get a bit of that new smell out, and give you some throw away alcohol for your cleaning runs.
Then throw some cracked corn in there for some UJSSM.

I'll say it only because you said you havn't fermented anything before, don't use turbo yeast. Bad stuff.

[Sungy]

May I Introduce you to my little friend...

And there she is ... not quite done yet but I couldn't wait to show this baby off.
Here is a close up of the sight glass. I soldered the sight glasses to the column with soft solder. I then heated the outside of the column and soldered from the inside. Use just enough heat to draw the solder from the inside of the joint under the fitting. Then I used a1 7/8" hole saw. Finished it out with a metal die grinder bit. I still have to order glass next week.

I decided to replace the bands with tri clamps. They just look so awesome.
The parrot is just in the mock up stage. Still need to add a vent line. It was something to do last night when I had a few to many beers to be playing with the sight glasses.

Thanks again for the advice on fermenting. Will be looking for some fermenting equipment now.

[bentstick]

Sweet rock on, one nice hunk o copper, ( feels good don't it)wait till the heat goes to it!

[Washashore]

That thing is sick! You gotta a post a vid of that thing in action. Nice work

[RumBrewer]

That thing is sick! You gotta a post a vid of that thing in action. Nice work

Totally agree. Just beautiful!
Can't wait to see it working.... Mostly so I can understand what the hell it is!

[Sungy]

Thanks for the great comments. I just cant wait to run this baby. I'm hoping to make a video of its performance but I'm not sure how to privately post it just for this group not all of YouTube.

Ok so Im not perfect....I got so excited when I received the glass for the sight glasses that I got home and gently installed them with 3 wraps of orange T tape. The clamps were just barely making contact to stop the rotation of the glass. Got up the next day and one was cracked..@%@# $%#$%!# @#%@# ..... and a few more 4 letter words... I ordered a few pieces Monday....Gotta a spare now.. I have also made 9 wraps of orange T tape on all of the glass now.
Live and learn....
Made up my parrot on the weekend as well

There are three 3/8 holes on the top of the bulb at the end of the condenser for prevention of surging in the parrot. There is also a well for the temperature sensor at the bottom.
I also got the control panel made up this weekend too.

The switches are for the plugs mounted below on the right. The top is for the burner and the bottom is for the cooling pump. The two plugs on the right are for the computer and signal converter for the UNT controller. None of this is in its final place as "MY PROJECT'S" room is not ready yet.
I did some flow testing on the cooling water condensers and had a few modifications to do. The Dephleg. condenser has a ball valve on the two outlets but the bypass line on the three way valve does not. This resulted in strange flow patterns. To correct this I installed a valve of the same size used on the Dephleg. outlets in the bypass line. This balances the flow better under most conditions as the pressure drop across all the valves is the same. This does not correct for the Dephleg itself tho, so the bypass line valve can also be used to trim the flow.

Electrically tested the burner and it works very well. Got some natural gas lines to run next week. ( Yes I am licensed )
Have to make a keg stand as well.
Wow I can see the light at the end of the tunnel...

[bentstick]

Holy crap! Sungy you are high tec,lookin good there, should be close?

[emptyglass]

42 cents worth of valves,
$2k worth of control gear.

I like it.

[Sungy]

I made a little more progress, all be it slow.

This is my keg stand / burner support. I know why the gas burner if your planning to run electric? Well I ordered up the parts to build a MK5500 from Newark and am patiently waiting for them to arrive ( after all I have enough experimental concepts in this build ). In the mean time I have been scouring the electric heating control thread ( wow what a long thread ). Some people run propane for distillation, if your running the grains in the boiler. They say this is so they don't scorch the grain in the boiler. I say lets build for the future. I plan on making rye from the old school on the grain recipes. Versatility I say. The stand has 1/4 inch threaded rod and brackets to hold the keg to the stand firmly. The coil on the right may be used for heat rejection in my cooling water loop.

Got a little bored and made a collection jar holder. I ya look just in behind the jar is the handle to secure the keg. They came from a lawn mower handle. They had a 5/16 nut in them. I pulled the nuts out of them and I wanted 1/4 so i braised a 1/4 nut on top of the original 5/16 and put the handle back together again. The bracket is a piece of uni-strut cut to 1 inch long. Works great and looks cool.
Scored 3 - 20 litre water cooler jugs that I can use for fermenting. A few sheets of 2 inch Styrofoam and a light bulb will make a nice fermenting box to regulate the temp. It gets a bit cold up here in winter and my basement is cool all the time (70'f).
Found 5 cases of collection bottles in the basement behind the furnace. Boy I'm glad the dishwasher works.

[RumBrewer]

Got a little bored and made a collection jar holder.

Oh for Christ's sake! Now you're just showing off! JERK!

(Don't tell anyone how cool I think that is! )

[Sungy]

ROFLMAO......

Got a little bored and made a collection jar holder.

Oh for Christ's sake! Now you're just showing off! JERK!

(Don't tell anyone how cool I think that is! )

Nope just waiting for my parts to arrive.... but thanks for the compliment I think.