Home Distiller

Well I'm starting a new project. My goal, a completely enclosed self adjusting ponu still, the only copper tubing visible will be the product tube out the side and the cooling line hook ups. I bought a dry erase board just for this one..

Nice.
Will you fully document the build?

Yes, please do document it, with lots of nice pics.

Look forward to it.

Sounds like a hefty and interesting endeavor... The Ponu design has always intrigued me... Good luck...

Here's some pictures from today's work, still have a ways to go yet. I will be welding a 4" tri-clamp to the reducer piece so that I can connect it to my turkey fryer. The other piece you see is the guts or heart of the still. Once I get the steam coil attached to it (primary coil) it will be getting dropped down the tube and soldered in place. The coil you see wrapped around the heart is the secondary cooling coil that condenses the alcohol vapor into liquid..

ozone39 wrote:6" x 4" reducer costs $260.00, so I'm building one for free.

That is some nice fitting and good for you.

"Skills Are Good"
Put that on a T-shirt.

Keep the pics coming. I love seeing this while your building... Great work

Cheating with that port-a-band, O ?
Thought you would have mounted a 64 tooth in the hacksaw.

More power to ya brother

One quick question as devils advocate and for my edjamafacation.
Doesn't one of the tubes from the lower section to the upper need to run outside the column?
I tried to school myself on this build when you first posted your intent to build it so any thoughts would be helpful.

SC

Normally yes, I found wile running my current ponu that this tube is the first stage in water separation. If I were to build that still over I would have used copper fin tube (stuff used for radiant heat) on that line. So instead what I am doing on this build is doubling the diameter of the pipe (the first riser) and running it through the condenser. The vapor that makes it through will now drop down into the steam coil. I figuring the water cooled 1 1/2" x 5" tube to have the same stripping capacity as an air cooled 3/4" x 25" long pipe. We'll see how it works here shortly.

I still can't figger out how this design works, can you post a small draft, please?

This is the basic design. Only change I'm making is the long 3/4" pipe on the right hand side is now going to be inside the cooling chamber inside the still.

The draft helps a lot, thanks O.

Can't await your stilling results.

Interesting design, what's the purpose, I mean what does it do differently? Thanks.

Flashes off liquid into vapor two times (I'm shooting for three times on this one) before exiting the still. Each time it flashes off you get a more pure product (another level of stripping). Another bonus is this design gets more efficient the hotter you get the steam chamber, were as my reflux column gets less efficient the hotter it gets (packing gets hot and lets more water vapor by). My current Ponu still I'm running starts off with a lower alcohol output (around 75%) as that lower steam coil starts to get hot it jumps up to around +90% and stays there until the tails. I will post one my distilling sheets when I get my new one up and running. This has a time over production chart on it that I use to keep records on still temps and cooling rates v.s. alcohol output. Another bonus is no there is no packing that has to be replaced or cleaned.

That still looks great.

I'm assuming that the other advantage is space. Instead of a 4-6' tall column, like a bok, the same thing can be accomplished in what looks like about 2' to 30".

Thanks for the compliment Nightforce, I'm shooting for 18" on this one. Height can drastically be reduced the wider you go (I'm learning this as I experiment) on a Ponu still. It all comes down to surface area on that lower coil and cooling condenser. The wider you go the shorter she can stand...I'm also figuring out that the more surface area you can put on that lower coil the better the heart output and less tails you get...

Here's an update of today's progress...Lower steam coil (8 feet worth) is silvered into place and the internal guts were dropped in and silvered into place sealing off the top chamber from the lower. Still trying to figure out how to post pictures in order of operation

here's some more progress, I hope!!

Getting closer

Damn nice work Ozone. Can't wait to see how it all turns out. CT

Thanks for the compliments guys. I pretty much completed the project today (minus the parrot & purge valve). Came out just like I had hoped it wold. Over all height from face of tri-clamp to top is 19 1/4". Going to run some box wine through it tomorrow and see how she performs and start breaking her in..

Very nice job, my complements. I'm impressed by your craftmenship.
I'm interessted what the results are, let us know

What is the weight of this monster, must be something. it's something different, integrating the whole system.

keep us informed!!

Right around 25 LBS.

Looking good for an overgrown Ponu still... Keep us posted on how it performs...

He Ozone,

I just saw you have build another ponu. I'm planning to build one myself, but I'm interested how it works, and what the results are.

Is it easier to run a ponu than a normal colomn?

Henk

I have still to work out how a Ponu works, I can't work out the vapor path on this type of still. I did not think I was dumb, but maybe I am.

Same to me,

vapour rises, goes down throug a condensor, alcohol drips into big coil, cookes and vapour rises throug alcohol throug T-conection and condeses again in small coil.
How does the vapour go rom the big coil to the small one??

Maybe I'm dumb, my only experience is my pot still, and a lot of reading, but I like the design.

Henk

Well, I finally got the parrot done for my new Ponu. Only took two weeks to get the time to get it done. Hopefully I can get her broken in this week. Guess I can say I officially have completed this project.

Looks really good what you've done, I still don't get 100% of the function but trying to understand.

Can't await results and I love the convertible in the back (looks like mid seventies).

I'll throw the schematic on this post. It's floating around somewhere else on HDO I had posted it earlier, but it's probably easier to see and understand with the pictures...