Home Distiller

I have just completed my second build and I am very happy with the ease of construction and the function of this unit.

I based it on Rad 14701's appartment still, only I used 1 1/2 inch pipe rather than 11/4.

Here are some pcitures That is the complete unit doing a cleaning/stripping run with some heads and tails from my last run after I did the plain water one the day before.

The next picture is one of the components

How did you attach sink drain to mixing bowl?
I still have not figured that out yet, and have not found any solid direction on doing so.

0re0 wrote:How did you attach sink drain to mixing bowl?
I still have not figured that out yet, and have not found any solid direction on doing so.

The way I did it was to cut a hole in the bottom of the bowl and mounted the drain the same way you would in a stainless steel sink... I used the cardboard template that's the same size as the rubber gasket, but more accurate... I used the rubber gasket on mine, on the outside, with flour paste on the inside because I couldn't tighten it enough without due to a lack of threads... I could probably solder it together if I wasn't entertaining the idea of some day cannibalizing the parts...

Nice looking rig, beelah... The only thing I might have done differently if I was using 1.5" copper would be to use 1.5" x 1" reducers and a 1" throat... I can push hard enough to make mine flood if I'm not careful with my 3/4" throat...

So far I haven't run into that problem yet, but I will watch out for that.

I like the floating plate in the column as it seems to increase the amount of distilate.

What I notice is tha whenit gets up to temp, it starts to percolate and rattle in the column, so what I did was to cut back on the heat input un till I got a nice humming/gurling song going.

I also adjusted how much I was taking off so, I got a good balance going and I was getting about a pint of distilate out every 15 to 20 minutes.

I have only run one water run and one spirit run so far, so I will still be tinkering with it until I get it right.

I agree with one of your earlier posts in that the product coming off is pretty hot, and you had mentioned adding a cooling arm to take off tube.

Have you done that and do yo uhave any pictures you can post?

I do have to thank you for your design, as it is simple and very effective at doing the job, especialy if you are running smaller batches.

The next one I will take your advice and use large diameter for the throat.

Beelah

That sound you were hearing in the bottom of your column was the precursor to flooding... It's like your final warning before it starts happening fast... Getting a good balance of heat, reflux, and take off takes some getting used to but once you get used to it everything becomes habit...

I have information and pictures of my take off liebig in the still link in my signature... About the simplest and cheapest way possible too add a liebig...