Home Distiller

Anything you add to it that can't return to the column or boiler will have zero effect, because everything's there already and can't return for further refining(re-distilling/reflux). But if you add extra length and keep it angling up, so that it can and will return to be the re-distilled/refluxed, it will make a difference. Turn that little bridge of yours 90 degrees(spin the 3rd 45 degree elbow 90 degrees) so that it becomes a "U", and it will become an inline thumper of sorts and that -will- make a difference. Add a line to it to drain back to the boiler and you're doing' even better.

food for thought ...reading heaps in here learnin to build a pot still ..
being in a rural enviroment all sorts pop up in farm backyards here in kiwi land ..these little fellows are found inside an undersink water cylinder for a house ..they come in all sorts of sizes ..i wrecked this out taking off the galvy outer cover ridding the insulation and out popped this all copper vessell.hasnt found a home for a build yet ..but im thinkin could be a cool lookin wee thumper for my alembic im workin at finding plans for ..hope this helps somebody here ..
i have many water cylinders here too i kept over the years and wrecked out they come in all shapes and sizes and have already very cool rounded end pressings on them and quite a few copper pipes inside them for there ins and outs perfect for columns possibly ..
we call this stuff kiwi enginuety eh kiwis lol
the other pic is an old copper that used to be set in a concrete type tub they used to boil the wasking up or ya pigs or a huge soup lol
wreck out the concrete bit and your left with a beautiful pressed piece of solid copper that looks like a top hat..reckon 2 of these stiched together could be a very cool start to an alembic
have made dies etc and forged and formed precious and non precious metals ..figures these wee beast have had alot of work done to shape them to get you started ...who knows ?

Oh that wee cylinder makes me week at the knees.

Great find.

Its like a puppy...I just want to take it home and make it my own.

cool isnt it and yet they are quite common in houses over here and easy to find ..oh and rubber duck that one in the backround (last Pic)is called Ned Kelly lol ...its another water system i built all plumbed up to a header in the tree and an outside shower .its wrapped with corry iron and ya light the fire under it its a weapon and just for the hell we stuck a whistle on top ..itll boil flat out in about 2 hrs

Okay... Im still new and im trying to figure out this thumper situation. Now I have your standard 15.5 gal keg. I want to run thumpers and the only thing I can do right now is 2l mason jars. I did one run a few weeks ago and my temperatures coming out of my second thumper is too low to make it to the coil. Ive read and read all of these threads and I cant figure out why this would be happening. I charged the 1st and 2nd thumper with water and only charged it a 1/4 of the way. I have a small area to work and I just like the whole idea of thumpers. PLEASE be patient and explain to me why this would happen. Im pissed as all get out that it didnt work the first time. thats just the way I am. Now I took everything apart and im going to pull the thumpers closer together and insulating them. again understand im new to distilling.

Got pics of your arrangement?

hoochwagon4, have you posted any pictures of your double thumper still...??? I just did an admittedly quick review of your posts and I didn't see anything other than your proposed CM build...

Most here start our running a straight pot still and then, perhaps, adding a single thumper... Not sure what you think the benefit of running two thumpers is so maybe you can share those thoughts with us... Does the pot still perform well with no thumper or a single thumper...???

EDIT: LWTCS posted while I was typing...

rad,
your right most do start out. For some odd reason I thought it was ok to run 2 thumpers... it just worked out in my head. No i dont have pictures at this time. I will try to get some though. Yes it ran ok with just a pot still. I had it worked out where it was aircooled and did great. I wanted to move on and try something different so instead of doing just one thumper i jumped to 2. when I have it back together I will post the pics but I have it tore apart right now trying to figure my defaults. I wanted the benifits of having thumpers. longer run time with better longer results. but if this next run doesnt work the way I plan I will be going back to either plain pot still or just one thumper.

Seems like you might be loosing too much heat or not pushing enough heat.
Try insulating.
I run 4 thumpers with no output issues what so ever.
Mason jars too scary for me however.

LWTCS wrote:Seems like you might be loosing too much heat or not pushing enough heat.
Try insulating.
I run 4 thumpers with no output issues what so ever.
Mason jars too scary for me however.

But your Humper Thumper is a horse of s different color altogether...

And I agree with LWTCS, glass thumpers are not the way to go... They are too small and are a definite safety concern... Is the jar lid still using the original rubber seal...??? If so, it's not alcohol tolerant (read as not an acceptable still building material)... You will reap very little if any benefit from a canning jar thumper... This hobby isn't about wow factor and we've seen some pretty homely stills produce some mighty fine spirits...

rad14701 wrote:But your Humper Thumper is a horse of s different color altogether...

Yes the design of my rig allows for very good thermal transfer.


Sorry for not being more specific....I was implying that the additional sets of phase change as such,,,,wil not prevent out put..... Based on the OP's comments I recon the second jar floods pretty good.

this is with it redesigned and not insulated yet.

What size is that line that is feeding from your boiler?

1/2 inch then the other is 3/8s

hoochwagon4 wrote:1/2 inch then the other is 3/8s

Those sound way too small for a keg boiler that's gonna take any amount of heat... The vapor coming out of that 3/8 could end up like the pressure coming out of a Steam-Jenny...

no ive ran it like that for just for regular post still and it works great. no issues. turned out well.

hoochwagon4 wrote:no ive ran it like that for just for regular post still and it works great. no issues. turned out well.

Yes, but with those small lines your not getting a whole bunch of mass and/or thermal transfer from the git go,,,and loosing much of what does carry over I would think.

when I did my pot still runs i was getting good results and my thermal transfer was crazy. SO>>>>> I just went out and bought some insulation. we will see how it runs in maybe a week. I also started using distillers yeast.

Please post results of your findings.
Thanks dude.

I hope everything runs well. I will put it up but. Im not as scientific as most of yall. I pull it I taste it. I smell it. I dont have a hydrometer yet. so... we will see. but thanks for the support and criticism is needed at this point for me.

"I want to run thumpers and the only thing I can do right now is 2l mason jars."
Why are mason jars the only thing you can use for now?
Stainless steel stock pots are cheap and easily obtained locally or online and they work well for thumper construction.
I use a tuneable thumper design i found in another thread and it works great. I don't put any liquid inside before a run and my UJSM comes out at 78% ABV to start and a run averages 120 proof.

g

Tuneable thumper?
Oh my godge,,,that sounds amazing.
Can you post pics of your arrangement please.

It's not my idea, I stole it from Hack. http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... =16&t=9702
I don't put anything in the thumper before the run. The external coil immersed in water condenses the vapor going into the thumper. The tuneability comes from the amount of water with which you surround the thumper and coil. After you have enough condensed liquid inside to make the thumper do it's job, the external water acts as a heat sink to store excess heat from the pot which in turn helps drive the thumper. The level of liquid in the bottom of my thumper is consistently the same 2" from the bottom.

What little I know about thumpers comes from this and other thumper threads. My still is basically the same Hack's.

I collect a pint at a time and have kept detailed records of ABV and taste per pint from 20 iterations of UJSM. They remain predictably consistent. I may be a whiskey philistine but I don't make cuts. The ABV predictably decreases and the flavor predictably increases. I stop collecting when the output becomes skimmy or cloudy. I pour everything together for an average of 120 proof that tastes great to me and my friends. I then age with whiskey barrel smoking chips I found on Amazon.

ima,
yeah I know that the pots are cheap......but like I said im doing what I can with what I have for now. I aint a rich man.. Im enlisted in the military. So this is cheap and might be sufficient right now. We will see. I will tell all when i do a run in a week or so. I know and understand all of yall have time and experience with this. Im trying to take advice but I need to take advice in my pay range right now. Thank yall for yalls imputs they do mean a lot.

imeasystreet, would love to see the detail of one of your average runs single running wash. Could you post up a jar by jar for a run? And have you ever tried running low-wines instead of single run wash?

I ferment UJSM in two 5 gal pails. Approximately 6-6.5 gal go into the pot. I collect in pints. The thumper is empty to start.
1-78-79 %
2-73-75%
3-71-72%
4-67-69%
5-62-64%
6-58-60%
7-52-56%
8-46-50%
9-35-40%
10-26-30%
I toss the first pint and collect until it gets cloudy/skimmy. I try to collect a pint in 5 minutes, it's hard to run my burner slower. I blend the collection to get 120 proof, then age with whiskey barrel smoker chips.

g

Those numbers don't look far off what I get from stripping on my pot still with no thumper. The boiler is copper and if I run it with no insulation on the dome it generates a bit of passive reflux.

Thanks for posting the numbers. That pretty much resembles my exerience as well (constantly falling abv much like a standard pot run). It seems to do better with low-wines. (which is why I asked).
Probably if you could run a little less heat...you'd get a bit more abv through the run. Not sure it would make much difference though. A pint in 5 mins would be about 100ml per min. That's 'way' fast.

Using a thumper is just a part of the still design. My pot is a 15 gal ss keg with 1 ft of 2" Cu vertical reduced to 1 1/4" Cu after a 90 ell then 3 ft to another 90 ell that reduces to 1/2". I could come off the 2" and go 45 or 135. Both would make a difference in ABV and flavor. Since my target output is a flavorful 120 proof, my setup works just fine. I may leave the thumper off for a run or two to see if I can get girl whiskey at 100 proof. I've tried to cut the ABV with water, but it seems that takes heart out of it. Heart as in race horse heart not whiskey "hearts". The only thing that matters is that what comes out the pee hole suits your fancy.

g