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Stimson wrote:i managed to do all of mine with soft solder using a mapp torch.

Thank you.

+1 on soft solder and mapp torch only.

heksa wrote:Piece of art NChooch . I love it. I have a question about soldering if you don't mind. Did you use soft/hard method or you soft solder everything?
Will MAPP torch will be enough? Thanks.
H

Thanks Heksa,
Ya, just soft solder everywhere, and a MAPP torch . If I had Oxy/Acetylene I woulda used it just for the benefit of the fine-tipped flame, but perfectly doable with a MAPP torch .

hope that helps

+another on the soft solder it has its own cricks, but that is all I knew how to use at the time, learnin other methods, enjoy all the learnin curves of this hobby.

Stimson wrote:NChooch

I recently completed my 3 incher similar to your build.

I also used 1/16 holes (approx 73 each plate) and had flooding issues on each of the 4 plates. I am using 2000w element and had to drop my power to to half to get the fluid level reasonable in each plate. I was achieving around 1litre/hr at 93-94%

I went and made myself another tree but upsized the plate holes to 5/64 (1.98mm) and it works much better. I can now use my full 2000w and achieve over 2L/hr at 95-96%.

I ran 22L of rum 40% low wines thru it yesterday and pulled out over 10L at 94-95% over a 6hr period.

Maybe someone can enlighten me here. After reading this I am assuming by the long 6 hr run to get 10L this was controlled by the deflag to achieve 95%? This isnt any faster than any other 3" VM column I have seen. However he only has 4 plates and only ran 2000w of power. Would this same column with 7 plates and 3/4" downcomers be able to handle more power at a faster take off? Meaning would you increase the take off volume with more plates, more heat and less reflux while still being able to achieve 95%? Reason I am asking is I was wanting to make a column with removable plates for flavor/neutral but I want it to be much faster than 10L in 6hr if I want 95% neutral. I may be laying my head on the chopping block here, but I havent really read of people controlling these with reflux from the deflag and 95% from a 4 plater is also something I have not seen from a flute. I am doing my best to read them all but they are many and many different designs on top of that.

Hey Free,
Stimson's report isn't all that far off the mark ... a good charge in the boiler can usually produce a couple liters/hour. (and he may have refluxed for an hour)... I'm not surprised to learn he was reaching 95% with a 40% charge in the boiler (it's usually easier to collect high proof when you start with high proof).

....although, if you do the math, he shoulda only had 8.8 liters in the boiler, so not sure where the other liter came from.

NcHooch wrote:Hey Free,
Stimson's report isn't all that far off the mark ... a good charge in the boiler can usually produce a couple liters/hour. (and he may have refluxed for an hour)... I'm not surprised to learn he was reaching 95% with a 40% charge in the boiler (it's usually easier to collect high proof when you start with high proof).

....although, if you do the math, he shoulda only had 8.8 liters in the boiler, so not sure where the other liter came from.

to be honest, i was wondering where the extra litre came from too. it just kept coming out
the low wines was from stripping runs thru my pot still from last year, i may have ended up with a higher average abv% than 40%

i probably could have run my flute a little harder to increase my takeoff, not sure, it was only my 3rd proper spirit run through a flute so still learning the ropes.

on a normal 20 L wash run i still achieve around 93-94%

Thanks guys! Now I just need someone with a 7 or 8 plater to chime in on there abv and takeoff speed.

Might wanna raise that question in the flute talk thread , most 3 inchers are just 4 plates

Thought I'd post this up, for future builder's reference.

when I run mine, it goes like this...

Charge the boiler and turn on the coolant to the dephleg.
Turn the burner on high.
Once the heat travels up the column (you can feel the column) to the dephlegmator and starts dripping on the top plate, I throttle down the heat considerably.
Run it at full reflux for 30 mins + or - .
If you start seeing large quantities of liquid on the top plate, turn down the heat.
Then I slowly start turning off the coolant to the dephleg which diverts to the product condenser.
Eventually (10 mins maybe) the dephleg heats up enough to pass vapor though, and then the elbows on top heat up and pass vapor too ....once the vapor gets that far, you start seeing distilate starting to drip out the takeoff tube.
It seems you need to throttle the flow down to near nothing on my dephleg (like trickle-drips) to let vapor pass.
If the dephlegmator is not hot, then it's going to prevent vapor from passing and it'll produce nothing, but you need to balance the heat/vapor from the boiler, and coolant in the dephlegmator for proper operation.
I tend to run mine sorta slow (I can afford to do that with a 5 gallon boiler) because I want to prevent smearing, and I think it works out nice.
hope that helps.

Thanks for this write NC! I'm planning on making s very similar still and this helps considerably!

one question, is there a reason that people only run 4 plates on 3" ?

syn wrote:Thanks for this write NC! I'm planning on making s very similar still and this helps considerably!

one question, is there a reason that people only run 4 plates on 3" ?

...got tired after drillin 4 plates.

seriously, prolly no special reason, other than 4 plates gets the job done.

Nc, how long does it take you to do a run?

Say, from starting to condense vapor, to when you pull the pin.

And how much do you get out of it?

emptyglass wrote:Nc, how long does it take you to do a run?

Say, from starting to condense vapor, to when you pull the pin.

And how much do you get out of it?

a couple hours from the time it starts raining on the top plate, until I pull the plug.
most of my runs yield a quart of 85-90%

Hi hooch i am attempting to do a build the same style as yours
and the imformation you have here is just fantastic there is a question i would like to ask
Do you recomend to use 1/2" downcomers and stay with the 64 x1/16"holes
its for a 3' flute oh should i flare the top of the down comers.
i have made the shot gun and it came out pretty good with the help of my mate Andy [thanks mate ]
as per your drawings
i was going to shorten the deflag to 4"
i hope i am asking in the
right thread i have uploaded some pics in photo bucket

http://s1271.photobucket.com/albums/jj6 ... e%20build/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

deejay wrote:Hi hooch i am attempting to do a build the same style as yours
and the imformation you have here is just fantastic there is a question i would like to ask
Do you recomend to use 1/2" downcomers and stay with the 64 x1/16"holes
its for a 3' flute oh should i flare the top of the down comers.
i have made the shot gun and it came out pretty good with the help of my mate Andy [thanks mate ]
as per your drawings
i was going to shorten the deflag to 4"
i hope i am asking in the
right thread i have uploaded some pics in photo bucket

http://s1271.photobucket.com/albums/jj6 ... e%20build/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Hey DJ,
Looks like things are comin along nice ...I don't think it would hurt if you wanted to go with 1/2" downcomers, but I also don't think it's necessary either. Flaring the top of the downcomer is easy to do if you anneal the copper first. .
I'd recommend increasing the hole count in your plates to to 80-90 holes / plate... 64 limits how much heat you can put into it during the run.

Lastly, as long as you have a good pump (or good flow through the dephlag) you should be able to shorten it to 4" and still knock down all the vapor to stack your plates.

Thanks hooch
I might go the 1/2" down comers and it looks like
the drilling goes on another 20 or so holes ( broke 4 drills last time)
this time i will do 2 plates at a time and i will make sure that i have good flow
to the deflag , I was thinking of joining the deflag with tri clamps and what size
pipe is it from the shotgun to the parrot

thanks for taking the time to answer me back
cheers DJ

deejay wrote:Thanks hooch
I might go the 1/2" down comers and it looks like
the drilling goes on another 20 or so holes ( broke 4 drills last time)
this time i will do 2 plates at a time and i will make sure that i have good flow
to the deflag , I was thinking of joining the deflag with tri clamps and what size
pipe is it from the shotgun to the parrot

thanks for taking the time to answer me back
cheers DJ

Heh ...ya breakin drill bits sucks . I have better luck when I take it slow.
The little downspout tube is 1/2" copper, I annealed so I could bend it.

thanks again mate i will post some more when i can
get to it
cheers


http://s1271.photobucket.com/albums/jj6 ... e%20build/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

DJ, using larger downcomers helps. Flaring the top helps give the top a bit more surface area than the rest of the tube, helps with drainage. Like Hooch said, anneal them first.
Not sure if its too late, but if you stack drill all the plates together, you will ensure all the plates have the same ability to pass vapor. Can you drill them on a drill press?

just acquired 8ft of 3in! should be doing a build very soon once i get everything else! 8ft for free, man i love my friends!

I'd love those friends too lol

Noob question: What is this cooling valve for? I can not tell what it is doing from the picture. Thanks.

NcHooch wrote:I decided to go with the 1.5" copper pipe to slip joint adapter for the sight glasses ...I cut 1/4" off the pipe-end of the adapter, and then used a 3" drum sander on the drill press to contour the pipe-end of the adapter for the column. Soldered 'em all on at the proper places, and then used a hole saw right down through the adapter to cut the hole in the column.
I cut the 1.75" diameter peices of glass on the drill press myself.

fabricated a couple tabs out of flattened copper pipe for mounting the cooling valve, and popped a .5" long peice of 1/4" copper tubing into the back for the thermometer port (it's digital, so doesn't need to face the front).

used a std 3" to 2" reducer along with a short stub of 2" to adapt it to the boiler at the bottom, and I sliced a 3" coupler in half, and used half of it at the top to accept the dephlegmator.

DSC00247 (479x640).jpg

DSC00248 (480x640).jpg

Bill of Materials:
qty: 1 - 3" dia x 19" type L copper pipe
qty: 1 - 3" to 2" copper coupler
qty: 1 - 2" dia x 2.5" copper pipe (stub to connect to the boiler)
qty: 4 - copper 1.5" to slip joint adapter
qty: 4 - glass disk , 1.75" dia x 3/16"
qty: 1/2 - 3" copper pipe coupler (half of the coupler is 1.75"L)
qty: 2 - fabricated copper tabs, 1/16" thick.
qty: 1 - copper tube, 1/4" dia x 1/2" L , thermometer port


NChooch

It controls the amount of water runnin to the dephlagmater...
Which in turn controls how much vapor is allowed to pass vs the amount
Of reflux returned to the plates.

Hey Mr. Hooch,
I'm planning on a building a 3" flute loosely modeled after your flute here.

It's gonna be 22" tall with 4 perf plates. 75x 1/16" holes and 3/4" drains going into 1" cups. My dephleg is gonna be 3.25" long with 1/2" tubes. I've attached my plan, any critiques before I get building?

Thanks very much for posting the play by play of yours. It was really helpful in figuring out how I want to do this.
Thrown

ThrownOlive wrote:Hey Mr. Hooch,
I'm planning on a building a 3" flute loosely modeled after your flute here.

It's gonna be 22" tall with 4 perf plates. 75x 1/16" holes and 3/4" drains going into 1" cups. My dephleg is gonna be 3.25" long with 1/2" tubes. I've attached my plan, any critiques before I get building?

Thanks very much for posting the play by play of yours. It was really helpful in figuring out how I want to do this.
Thrown

You'd be wise to make it 100 holes at .062 , and consider a more realistic downcomer size ... .375 or max .5" .

Hey Hooch, just ran the bugle today. Came out real nice...and I ran it a little harder at about 78% ABV. Had a crappy wash return thouigh, I think from the room getting cool and me using bakers yeast....Bugle performed great though.

I finally witnessed what OD and the others have been talking about in the flute thread. Got everything set towards the last part of heads...and quit fiddling. Sure enough....the plates slowly shut off as tails came through. Kept a steady 78% right until the top plate started shutting down.

Then I completely shut of the dephleg and cranked the heat up to run the tails off.

Sure is a nice running machine.....thanks

Glad to hear you're getting the hang of it.

@NChooch,

I thought they looked too big in there! For some reason I thought you had said you wished for bigger drains. Got all my plates cut and fit into the column. Tomorrow I'll be drilling all these damn holes! thanks!

ThrownOlive wrote:@NChooch,

I thought they looked too big in there! For some reason I thought you had said you wished for bigger drains. Got all my plates cut and fit into the column. Tomorrow I'll be drilling all these damn holes! thanks!

I said 1/2" might work better ... but after making 3 of these with the 3/8" downcomers, and testing em , I think the 3/8" downcomer works just fine on a 3" plate.

I've come to believe that the amount of holes in the plates is much more critical than the diameter of the downcomer, the reason I say that is because it's easy to create a positive pressure under the plates with too much heat that can easily prevent (or slow) the liquid from flowing out of the downcomer. This prevents equal amounts of liquid on all the plates and affects the quality and proof of your hooch.

course there's a fine line between too much open area and too little as well ... I suspect if you put 200 holes (1/16") in a 3" plate , you could get some mean take-off rate, but the proof would be lower.

Have fun on the drill press