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HELLO TO ALL. GETTING STARTED ALL NEW TO ME .BEEN DOIN LOTS OF READING, BUILT A REFLUX STILL WITH 5 GAL MILK CAN COOK POT.HAVE PROPANE HEAT . GOT SUM QUESTIONS HOW MUCH COOLING WATER DO I RUN THROUGH? I KNOW ITS ADJUSTABLE FOR THE REFLUX BUT WILL I BE USING IT FULL BORE AND ADJUST FROM THERE OR JUST A TRIKLE AND START FROM THERE? WHEN I PUT HEAT ON ,DO I PUT IT ON HIGH THEN WHEN IT BOILS LOWER BUT KEEP IT AT A BOIL OR START LOW AND JUST WAIT? IVE READ DIFFERNT THINGS NOT SURE WHATS RIGHT

Welcome, xxx...

STOP SHOUTING AT US...!!!

You only need to run enough coolant to knock down 100% of the distillate vapor... Of course that also depends on which reflux still you have built... Is it a CM, LM, or VM reflux still...??? Do you have pictures...??? We love still porn...

bob lennon style. 2'' pipe 5 gallon can , made just like directions. was not real serious when i made it , now i know their are a lot better designs.so that means ill be making another. well fist things first ,im going to stik with this one to learn on. how can i upload my still pic on this site?

Doh!

When will they take that design off the net??

First thing you need to do is get rid of those two 'reflux lines' running through your column.

whats wrong with those lines. in my head it seams like they would help the reflux,

If you type 'bob lennon' into the search box at the top of this page and hit 'search', you will find you are not alone! There are many more topics in this forum that refer to the same design without mentioning Bob Lennon.

Your still looks very well made. The design is a hybrid pot/reflux because it connot achieve 100% reflux as a CM or LM design will do. It is an elegant design and I'm sure many people are happy with them once they have learned to run them, but with a few modifications it can be much more efficient as a reflux still, and easier to operate too.

How can i improve it ? to modify is to make better.

I almost built that same still luckily I noted I was about to build it on my first post here
RAD and Country Ham dope slapped me into line right quick.

If you put it on Ebay /Craigslist someone will bite !
That's not a "bad" still and there's some real crap on there so your not cheating anyone

xxx wrote:How can i improve it ? to modify is to make better.

Remove (or plug) the bottom coolant tube running through the column. Add another cooling tube right above the top one, and at right angles, and this will give you a basic cooling management column.

Or remove (or plug) both cooling lines, and you will have a good pot still.

sounds like i should of built another style. why is the bottom line the problem? can some one explain why this design is bad? so will it work ? if not why ? what style should i build ? just want to know the downside and upsides before i go cutting it up. should i try it ? can i reuse the cook pot? sorry for the all questions .with lots of plumber friends getting material is not bad. what style should i build ?

Go to main site under equiptment and then under still designs until u see this



if u do this design use 2" pipe instead. Other good design ideas link on same page. Just click on Bokabob designs link.

can some one explain why this design is bad?

xxx wrote:can some one explain why this design is bad?

1. That style of still head is harder to run then other types of stills.

2. For the money and time invested you could have build a much easier to run still, not to mention a rig that would have achieved much higher ABV.

3. Now that it's built go with it, you have to learn on something might as well be the one you already have built. Its' not that Bob Lennon still is bad, it's just that there are much more efficient designs out there.

thank you for that answer . im going to give this one a try and start working on a pot still. i can handle hard to run that just means practice.

If I can work out how to post a pic from my phione to my puter to a thread, I'll show how simple a pot still can be, and produce good, tasty spirit. I'll have to find a twelve year old to do it for me.

I'm a firm believer in the KISS principle.

sounds good ill be waitin

xxx wrote:sounds like i should of built another style. why is the bottom line the problem? can some one explain why this design is bad? so will it work ? if not why ? what style should i build ? just want to know the downside and upsides before i go cutting it up. should i try it ? can i reuse the cook pot? sorry for the all questions .with lots of plumber friends getting material is not bad. what style should i build ?

For a reflux column you want a nice even and stable temperature gradient up the column, but having a lower cooling tube upsets this thermal equilibrium. Reflux condensing should take place above the packing, not in it, and especially not near the bottom.

Yes you should be able to re-use the cook pot (boiler). You do not need to throw that column out, just modify it as I suggested before, into a pot still, and make a completely new reflux column.

For a reflux column, use either a liquid management (LM), or a vapour management (VM) design.

Rad kinda coined it while commenting on Butt Wheat's new build.

Prolly never get outta the 80s with this rig but a few of us have been playing with a CM styled potstill operation.

Myles unit, Butt's "Jahjah" and my "dogdish" condenser all use this principle even though all of our designs are much different.

Can't speak for Myles or Butt Wheat, but I'm shooting for faster run time as a primary goal. Higher abv I can take or leave as long as I can get some heads and tails compression. Besides I've been consistantly higher than a double run potstilled likker and don't need my abv outta the 70s really.

Maybe too much to digest now, but in a years time you may wish to move toward this concept again.

For now, first things first.

well you guys got me wanting to change the bottom line. im thinking ill run the bottom condenser line up the condnser 90 it on top of the other one . how far on top? one inch? i was thinking i should change it now, before i start that way im stillin with the same one for a while with no changes. and by doing this mod it will become a CM? is the condenser still fine ,i would think so.

Best to have all reflux starting at the top of the column. Even 1/2" between the top pipes. The condenser isdt uber!

The reflux or condensed liquids sent down the column must have maximum exposure to the vapors going up the column, and these will balance into a gradient that remains stable while all this is going on. See it as cooled condensates going down head to head with hot vapors going up. The condensates are heated as they go down and the vapors are cooled as they go up simply by intermingling in the mesh or packing. The rising vapors give their water to the falling liquids, and the falling liquids give their alcohol to the rising vapors, thus vapors collecting at the top end are concentrated in alcohol and stripped of water.

The bottom crosspipe does little more than take heat away from where it is most needed - the hot bottom end of the gradient.

xxx wrote:well you guys got me wanting to change the bottom line. im thinking ill run the bottom condenser line up the condnser 90 it on top of the other one . how far on top? one inch? i was thinking i should change it now, before i start that way im stillin with the same one for a while with no changes. and by doing this mod it will become a CM? is the condenser still fine ,i would think so.

A small gap is plenty. I would keep it to about 1/4-1/2"

Yes, this will make it a proper CM still.

The product condenser should be okay.

one last question before saterdays rebuild . can i come out the bottom t on the condenser with soft copper , coil it around the condenser (with lots of space )up to where it needs to be? thought it would look neat , but not sure if it would preform. if not ill just run hard half inch line. the way i look at it is if the cold water inlet was the bottom line so no hot water would warm up the condenser.

I hope you are talking about the 'top' and 'bottom' of the two tubes at the top. They are part of a coil with a short bit of the coil going through the column in two places all at the top. The coldest coolant should enter at the top and then circle down. A swooping curve of copper connecting the two cross pipes will look good and will work. A quicker solution is to solder in the two cross pipes at the top and then connect them all together with plastic tube.

The cross tube at the bottom of the column can simply be left in place without any connections and no coolant flow. Easier to leave it there and ignore it.

blanikdog wrote:If I can work out how to post a pic from my phione to my puter to a thread, I'll show how simple a pot still can be, and produce good, tasty spirit. I'll have to find a twelve year old to do it for me.

I'm a firm believer in the KISS principle.

I managed to take the photo ( I think) now the hard part, getting it from the phone to the puter.

blanik

Use the hammer Graham.

hopefully ill have a new still on sat ,ill post new pics of the new improved rig. if all goes well ill have a water batch going on sunday.

all mocked up , did not solder in case you guys tell me to change more . i think its better now.

also do i have to solder the 2'' coupling it fits tight . ill solder it if i have to but i think it would be easer to take apart in 3 peices than in half.

i hope the pics are ok