Home Distiller

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing ... =232854796" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
someone sold this, and some poor sod bought it, makes a mockery of all the efforts and fine work of the the good folks here to investigate materials, safety and procedures, and pass on the right knowledge and information to avoid episodes like this. I did ask the auction site to cancel the sale for all the appropriate reasons but I guess they didn't really give a stuff. A joker at work just recently told me a true story about a rash of blindness in whole families in Southern Island being traced to plasticisers leaching from plastic bottles used to store Poteen, their version of moonshine. And here garden hose..?

sorry, typo.. Southern *Ireland*

I dont even know where to start on that set up

That is a prime example of how home distillation gets a bad reputation and yet another reason why we attempt to promote safety...

This is how I communicated my concerns to the auction site via one of their web forms, who knows I probably could have doen it much better, I'm just a mere tradesman and don't write papers, books, or technical notes for a living or hobby (although I have to say, this site is darn good practice and a fantastic resource for info and communications of all types), a recent project at work is ramping up the need to flex the brain and fingers...

msg sent..

This item may not be for sale in breach of your terms and conditions per se, but in terms of public safety, it needs prevented from being sold, especially to anyone unaware of it's dangers. I see garden hose being used as the distillation output tube to the condensor, and condensor output, also it looks like plastic tube being used to join the lengths of copper tube in the condensor bath.

It is now well known that alcohol and spirit by-products easily leach plastisizers out of plastic and long term ingestion can cause brain and body impairment. I see other safety problems also, with a bare gas burner potentially able to ignite the distillation output, no means of measuring vapour temperature, and who knows what materials have been used to make and seal the boiling container.

This crude still harks back to the dark ages, for the sake of common sense and someones safety, Please cancel it. You are welcome to seek other advice. FYI I have been designing and building distilling equipment on and off for at least 15 years and know what I'm talking about, as do other members of the online distilling group home-distilling.org. Any OSH rep or engineer would be equally concerned unless they subscribe to "survival of the fittest".

No reply or acknowledgement.

I did also try to approach the seller, but unfortunately my sense of outrage at the time completely overcame a better approach I would use now, so I also don't have information on it's actual use, output or further construction details.

Sorely tempted to report it to The Food Safety Authority as it was sold publicly, or the appropriate authority, whomever that would be. If members here share the same concerns, outrage or disappointment that this kind of thing can still ocurr, and could help author a formal letter, or if the concern is enough such that senior members would consider a group message on behalf of all concerned, I would be happy to do whatever is needed at this end.

I would certainly be crushed if in the future there was a national news item describing injury and death from a shed explosion, or blindness and illness from disitrubution of illicit spirits and I hadn't done as much as I could to prevent it.

Finding some stored material the other day to take to work for a project, actually over 20 yeas of distilling interest and somewhat more for brewing - mind you doesn't make one an expert by any means, but sheesh even my first attempts were safer than that, and safety and materials were amongst my prime concerns...

Well, azeo, perhaps the only consolation I can come up with is that, hopefully, there the seller only had one such contraption on hand to sell... Don't beat yourself up over what appears to be an attempt to stop a blatant injustice...

good point! If I had the time and materials would have offered a free exchange good for bad

Gidday aezo, I've sent messages to trademe about dangerous stills before, never had a reply or any action taken. Nothing else one can do, you've tried.

Ron White is a comedian from texas i would like to quote " you can't fix stupid " cob

To quote Bob Engvall, "Here's your sign"

Thanks Kiwi, you've obviously struck similar before.

howabout a sign for those who get a bit high on their hobby horse



I did manage to get a message through to the buyer through another auction, and apart from being mistaken for a stalker (well - with honest intentions anyway) was at least thanked for my concern - Turns out it was bought for methanol recovery for biodiesel, Not quite such a worry I guess. I had even offered to build a replacement, or subsidise a shop bought still (Still Spirits say and make a improved column) to their nominated price... I guess knowing what we know it's easy to imagine the worst - I've certainly heard of people either unaware of the dangers, or only interested in cheaply producing as much plonk as possible, no matter how it's made and with what, and met a few nearly in the same category. Previous owner of the still though was enjoying the results for consumption by their own account....

anyone got a footstool??

Is that rubbermade or tupperware?

Why. Don't even think of making somthing like that.

I have a 6 year old who I think could do better than that if she had some soldering skills...

no pumpman just bein silly. I would never use plastics.

....oh man, that is just scary. And I'll agree with Ron White, "You can't fix stupid."

pyratesurgeon wrote: ....oh man, that is just scary. And I'll agree with Ron White, "You can't fix stupid."

Yes you can, and that rig will do it. Fix stupid I mean.

rubber duck wrote: Yes you can, and that rig will do it. Fix stupid I mean.

That's why I would leave such fixing to more learned distillers, such as yourself. I'm a humble novice--and I DO mean Novice.