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I am just confusing you, where you have the reducing coupler from 3 to 2 that holds your coil. Mine cold go down as far as I wanted it to because it is all made from 2" pipe.I am just asking what is the most ideal place to have the coil[bottom of it] I always assumed it is right above the t I think this is correct. Sorry for the confusion. Chub

Copperhead, Go and log into this site and check your messages, I sent you two yesterday with a total of about 9 pictures, let me know if you find them, if not I can resend them, there is a picture of my condenser, and by the way it is 13", and I said that in the message that I sent you, Let me know, I have to leave for a few hours, but will be back on later tonight, but will leave again early Sat. morning, going to Costa-Rica, to go Scuba Diving for a week.

Well I got my valves in tonight that is the last thing I have to do before I get the copper packing. Now for a question ,have any of you ever looked down the column and put water in the condenser column and watched the reflux tube in action. And played with the valve to see what happened? Now pretend your running a real batch and your still is in full reflux how much will be going back into the column? Would it be a drip a flow or a steady flow. The reason I am asking this is because I dont understand when some folks said they open there reflux valve 4 turns when I opened mine 2 turns it flowed very steady and I doubt there would be any to collect if I did this. I am just trying to understand this before I do the real thing.Chub

your reflux qty or % changes depending on packing density column diam and length.

the avrage is between 20-30% of you final output.

altho the temp at the top of your column should be controled by the amount of vapour you generate "size of element or heating" and by the length of the reflux column.
you can also use your reflux to controll the output head temperature by small ammounts, the more reflux the lower the temperature at the top of your column.

i havent seen any designs here that sample the basae of the reflux column but to be realy affective you should be able to catch and sample the liquid near the base of you reflux column and test the % of ethanol at that point.

with reflux turned almost off say you get 45% ethanol if you turn your reflux up so you start geting about 47-50% ethanol this indicates your reflux liquid is working its way to the bottom of your packing and you are utelising the entire length of your reflux column.

turning the reflux up beyond this point will increase your output purity but at the same time lowering your output volume.

Chub wrote:Well I got my valves in tonight that is the last thing I have to do before I get the copper packing. Now for a question ,have any of you ever looked down the column and put water in the condenser column and watched the reflux tube in action. And played with the valve to see what happened? Now pretend your running a real batch and your still is in full reflux how much will be going back into the column? Would it be a drip a flow or a steady flow. The reason I am asking this is because I dont understand when some folks said they open there reflux valve 4 turns when I opened mine 2 turns it flowed very steady and I doubt there would be any to collect if I did this. I am just trying to understand this before I do the real thing.Chub

Hi Chub, Say, once you are all set to do your first run, just dump in 5gal. water and fire it up and just play with it for a few hours, you can play around with the valves to see how much comes out of the valves, just see what it takes to get about 1/3 out put and 2/3rds reflux, you need to clean out the copper before you do a real run anyhow, then go and buy one of those large cheap bottles of wine, I think they are about 1gal. and pour 4gal. of water into your boiler, and then dump the wine in there also, now fire it up again and pull the alcohol off the wine, there you have now learned a little about your still, and you are only out 1 bottle of cheap wine, and no time into making up a wash that might not work right cause you did not know how the still would work. Sounds like a good practice run to me.

Chub wrote:your still is in full reflux how much will be going back into the column?

Being under full reflux will be when everything you are condensing is going back down the column. This is dependent on your particular system and how much heat you are applying to the boiler. It's a different volume for different people.

The only sure way to know is to fire up your still and measure the rate the still produces distilate with zero reflux back to the column. Say you get 10 ml/minute....then when you later make a run with the still and you choose to reflux 90%, you will adjust the take off valve so you only collect 1 ml/minute and the rest goes back down the column. The reflux ratio is a ratio you select based on the maximum rate your still produces distillate.

Chub wrote:The reason I am asking this is because I dont understand when some folks said they open there reflux valve 4 turns when I opened mine 2 turns it flowed very steady and I doubt there would be any to collect if I did this. I am just trying to understand this before I do the real thing.Chub

There is no telling what kind of valves you or someone else have and just how acurate the valvse are. Don't depend on a given number of turns on a valve, whatch the rate of flow from a valve. Thats why people describe their rate of takeoff in drops per second. Its consistent becase we all know what a second is and the distillate is going to have the same surface tension in Florida as it does in Norway. Because of this, 10 drops a second for 1 minute will yield the same volume in both locations.[/quote]

Chub wrote: The reason I am asking this is because I dont understand when some folks said they open there reflux valve 4 turns when I opened mine 2 turns it flowed very steady and I doubt there would be any to collect if I did this. I am just trying to understand this before I do the real thing.Chub

Chub, are you using 2 vavles? I use two valves and when I do a reflux run I open the reflux valve all the way. I leave it open all the way for the whole run, I do all my adjusting on my output valve. I know what my maximum output is so I just take off 1/4 of the maximum output and everything else drops back down the column.

a few questions:

first, is whats the easist way to attach the column (copper) to the bioler (ss)? I havent bought a torch (propane is good enough for copper, but not ss), but I would like to not have to get a more expensive torch just for that one solder, is there another alternative?

also, who should i heat my boiler? a heating element, hotplate, or gas stove? obviously the stove is the cheapest, but is there too much of a risk of fire? assuming is check for leaks with water, etc, should i be fine?

my boiler is a 5gal ss stockpot

thanks!!

To attach column, just go to your local plumber or mechanic workshop etc.. they might charge you $10-20 and its done..

the risk of fire is low expecialy with the qty you will be doing..

ig go with the gas, cheep and quick...

keep the output of the condensor about 30cm or more away from gas flame..

you should be ok...

Hey guys my stuff came from brewhaus today,great guys to deal with thanks for the tip. Now for a couple of questions,Iam pretty sure with there copper the guys on here said to start with 48"pieces and adjust from there.Also how close to the bottom of the reflux tube would you want your packing about one inch from the drip edge? Next thing just to clarify when to get rid of the fist 50ml of distilate, Is this after the device has been running in full reflux for a half hour or,so or is this as soon as it collects?Given that I am at sea level what temp should I be shooting for 76-80c? Lastly that neoprine thread has me worried that my cork may not be good,should I do my test run with water and inspect the color and smell it or just disregard the cork? I was thinking about slicing off a 1/16" piece of wood and cutting a donut and using that for a gasket. Any thoughts on that. Once again thanks to all the helpfull people on this site. Chub

Sorry that last post was me I forgot to sign in. chub

Anonymous wrote:Hey guys my stuff came from brewhaus today,great guys to deal with thanks for the tip. Now for a couple of questions,Iam pretty sure with there copper the guys on here said to start with 48"pieces and adjust from there.Also how close to the bottom of the reflux tube would you want your packing about one inch from the drip edge? Next thing just to clarify when to get rid of the fist 50ml of distilate, Is this after the device has been running in full reflux for a half hour or,so or is this as soon as it collects?Given that I am at sea level what temp should I be shooting for 76-80c? Lastly that neoprine thread has me worried that my cork may not be good,should I do my test run with water and inspect the color and smell it or just disregard the cork? I was thinking about slicing off a 1/16" piece of wood and cutting a donut and using that for a gasket. Any thoughts on that. Once again thanks to all the helpfull people on this site. Chub

You can have your packing go right up to the drip tube. All you want to happen is the that reflux drips over the center of the packing so even if the packing touches the drip tube it will do this. The reason you let your column reach the equilibrium is so that you will have separation inside. Once you have vapour the temperature will start to drop slowly to a point where it will stop. This point will be under the boiling 78 C of ethonal, possibly around 76 C. After you have let it sit for an amount of time running under full reflux that is when you want to take off the forshots and discard them since they will all be sitting right at the top of the column, the temperature will indicate that. Remove them slowly, one drip per second , doing this you will be running a really high reflux ratio but then you can really draw off only what you want to discard. During the time you are slowly drawing this off you may notice about a 10th of a degree change in head temperature, maybe a bit more but not much. Don't worry about knowing exactly what temperature you are looking for, 76-80C. Rather watch for head temperature changes, as long as you are close to the temperature you think you should be at you will be fine. Thermometers can be out, the probe may not be in the optimum position and as you brought up, altitude can all affect the reading you get so don't rely to much on what the reading is but on how it changes. About your gasket, run it with water for sure. Then get a cheap bottle of wine, add water and run that all for practice or maybe make a practice wash and use that. Learn how your still works and in the process you will find answers to your gasket issues. I doubt it will give you trouble.

Do any of you us a "safety valve" on your boilers?? I have seen referrals to 2-3 lbs. valves, I would think this would be a maximum.. and thoughts???

I use a safty valve on my potstill. It is there in case there is a boilup that clogs my lyne arm. I haven't needed it yet (thank goodness). I just use a cork in a T fitting.

my boiler already had a fitting
and I just put a cork in the hole