Home Distiller

I didn’t think it is possible, but works. Now there is no alcohol smell when distilling and I am using less cooling water. The small copper pipe with the cap is not soldered. It is there to force the vapor to go trough the coils.

Very nice work.

Is that 3/8 tubing?

Nice looking condenser coil, pomiataa... It should serve you well for years to come...

billy_bob_95 wrote:Is that 3/8 tubing?

No it’s ¼ .

Thank you guys for the encouraging words!
And cheers!

pomiataa wrote:

billy_bob_95 wrote:Is that 3/8 tubing?

No it’s ¼ .

Seriously doubt you will be able to wind a double 3/8" coil small enough to fit inside a 1.5" column. I managed to wind one for a 2" column, but it was very difficult, and I would not recommend it.

I would like to try and wind a coil for a 3" column using the 3/8 copper

billy_bob_95 wrote:I would like to try and wind a coil for a 3" column using the 3/8 copper

I learned something interesting I didn't know before. It might be usefull to you too.
When you buy copper tubing for coils try to find sealed ones and as shiny as possible. When the copper is kept sealed (no air contact) it stays soft and it is easyer to coil it without heating it.
When in the open air - after a while it becomes harder and if you apply heat to soften it - becomes too soft.
Try to bend a shiny and an old oxidised tube of the same size and you will see for yourself.
Hope this helps billy_bob!

billy_bob_95 wrote:I would like to try and wind a coil for a 3" column using the 3/8 copper

If you are talking about a double coil, then it can be done. I have successfully done two or three in 3/8". But 3/8" is a lot harder to wind than 1/4". The failure rate is much higher with 3/8". Tends to kink very easily at certain points. The tricky bits are reversing direction at the bottom swapping over from the inner to the outer coil, and making the 90º bend on the tail of the inner coil.

I did not use salt in the coil during winding. If you used salt that might fix the problem.

I have heard that if you fill the pipe with water and seal both ends that will also stop it kinking.

Great suggestion olddog. Salt and sand are hard to remove once wound. Water would be easy.

Anyone have suggestions for sealing the ends for olddog's suggested method? I imagine you would have to ensure that all the air is removed and replaced with water. any air would compress i suspect. soldering one end without the water would work but you wouldn't be able to solder the other end once you fill the pipe with water. A cork could pop out...

crimp,,,fold ,,, the old brake line trick..

Dnderhead wrote:crimp,,,fold ,,, the old brake line trick..

That was what I was thinking, too, Dnderhead...

Sorry for disturbing. I have removed my previous post as required by rad14701.

cemik1, are you aware that you can post images directly into posts without the need to link to external image hosting sites...??? Doing so places less burden on the server, reduces bandwidth needs, and makes for faster page loads...