First Vapour Management

[plonker]

I made the mistakes so you dont have to...

Design, made mistakes with the length of the take off arm and the diameter of the liebig.

If i did it again, I would still use 2" for the column, and 1.5 for the take off, but would bring it down to a liebig 0.75 outer with a 0.5 inner straight after the gate valve. Mine has too much diameter, which form a bit of a suction as the vapour collapses. Occasionally I get a bit of vapour coming out of the liebig coz of the size, but a bit of scrubber sorts that out.

It produces 95.5% throughout all of the heads and hearts. drops to 85% during the tails... If i really push it it will get down to 50%, but its not worth it. I get very little ethanol doing so.. Im very happy with it. Its not fast but its very clean, and as a vodka drinker it prodices wonderful spirit with no hangovers..

Some pics

hmm... unweildy...

Its pretty tall, I have to tie it to the roof... 25L boiler..

It is all welded but had a little leak that needed solder

I wouldn't weld everything again either.. just the vapour take off, at least with solder you can change it later if you want to.

Ready to go...

Stainless next time, but I AM going to get my value out of that aluminium pot (cost $130 AUS)

wouldn't use aluminum again.. corrodes to quickly..

[plonker]

Cold finger, 1" with 1/4' wrap.. needs a bit of copper wire to get a tight fit..

5+ feet of SS scrubbers

Gate valve and detachable reflux coil.. works a treat

Gate Valve.. was a nightmare to weld.. would get brass fittings and not weld next time... that why my take off arm is too long...

Doing a run.. works a treat!!