Home Distiller

ok, major problem, was running 10 gallons of rum, temp came up on pot still, where my connection from coil to lyne arm sprang a leek, dumb idea on my part, turn of fire, & quick resodder, back in buisness, 300ml of heads came out fast after refire, i did not let boiler cool back down, then all of a suddon my 15 gallon stainless boiler spring a pin hole leak towards the bottom, i now have shut every thing down...i think my coils are settling or do not have proper downward flow??? could this cause enough pressure to build to spring a pin hole leak? or was it a weak spot in keg?? now i dont know if i have a bomb in my garage?? should i loosen my coil from head? or let it cool??? im so f#cking pissed...10 galons of 2nd gen wasted & need to boiler & rework my coil..ugh..want to cry!

OK I am a bit concerned. Did you do a test run with water or a cleaning run? You say your coils are 'settling'. By this I take it you mean they are physically moving to the point where the angle changes so that you can get a liquid trap in the system.

If you build a coil you realy should stabilise it in some way. I like to add short sections of tube as spacers and then solder it together, or use some other way to stop the coils from changing angle.

either like this:

or like this:



Either way works, physical blocks or suspension on copper wires.

I have also started - only recently mind - pressure testing my rigs. Connect it all up, then slip a bit of PVC or silicon tube over the end of whatever product condenser that you are using, and pump it up with a tyre inflator. spray the whole thing with soapy water and look for bubbles. You dont need to build a lot of pressure to find any pinhole leaks. It may be overkill but better safe than sorry.

Also really worried that you tried soldering whilst the still was hot. I nearly blew myself up doing that - lots of hot flamable vapour is in your system at that point. Far better to let it cool down and disconect it before re-soldering. Hope you can fix it. Just collect everything and rerun it later.
EDIT: forgot to say that it makes sense to install a pressure relief valve fairly close to your boiler. You can get a 3 bar one fairly cheap. Put it high enough not to get blocked if you puke or foam up.

as for the keg,sounds like someone has misused it,dragged it around/dropped out of truck or something like that.if it has ridges that is where it wears. some do not pick them up instead roil them,concrete/asphalt will raise hell with them.

thanks guys...im sure its my worm, did the marble test when 1st built, always came out but some times slowed or stuck a little, did not do spacers but did use straps....im going to remove straps & redo..such a pain in the ass! my worm has also always surged never a seady stream, now i now why...any help on how to space to eliminate this problem? also the pin hole leak in keg has ever shown before, should i replace or with proper worm maybe it will be ok? when not under pressure it does not leak....was only able to collect 300ml forshots, then blew probably another 300ml out of worm, is my wash in boiler still good? should i save & re run it? or toss it?
thanks again

if mine id fix the worm,,solder the hole,,solder will not come off as long as you have water/wash in it.

the pin hole in the keg is so small i can not see it with naked eye, now i cant find it to fix, only when it built alot of presurre...i will fix worm & retry...i have been looking for threads showing how to space coils, cant find any...any ideas or point me to right thread? i have alot of 3/4 tube left over.

take a piece of 10 gauge copper wire and make slalom between the windings both ways, that's the easy way.

If there is a pinhole in your keg, get rid of it, the build up with pressure only exposed what was already there. The pressure in a boiler is minimal as it's only pushing steam (vapor) through an exit exposed to the atmosphere. It may not have been noticed before as the slight seepage would have probably evaporated with the heat of the boiler, and the blockage in your coil allowed pressure to build up.


OD

OR pressure test your keg, find the hole, drill it out to take a stainless (or copper) nut and bolt with a couple of washers. get it real tight and then silver solder the sucker.

Alternatively find the hole, drill it and fit either a drain or something else usefull at that spot. Dont waste a good keg if you can re-use it for something else.

i tore my worm out, to try to fix problem, fought this damn thing all day & still cant et good downward flow, cant get marble to run down, & when i blow in it pressures up & comes back down my mouth.....please help, give me a good easy way to get proper slop in my worm, should i start from the top or bottom or what? i tried soldering 11/2 blocks on one side, the 1inch on the other, still didnt work...very frustrated here

if you can post some pics so we can see what your working with.

for one thing you need all the spacing the same,not one side 1 1/2 and the other 1. only the bottom will have a different spacing, as you have one more coil on one side than you do the other.and this will be 2X the diameter of tube+the space between. you can see this on the right of Myles pic..

here is the POS thats giving me a fit, ok im going to start again with 1inch spacers, then the last coil go 2 inch?
thanks for the help

all the spacers should be the same all but the bottom "leg" opposite the takeoff that should be 1" + the OD of tubing .
the other spacers are top to bottom, that "leg" is bottom to bottom.if you put all the spacers in first then you will see.

Prressure test the keg, take it to a welding shop and have the pin hole leak (TIG) welded shut...Then you can sand it and have a better looking and less cobbled finished product....

thanks dnderhead
got it alot better now, did 3 rows of 1inch spacers, when i blow in it, much more clear, marble still strugles a bit, but with a little push of ai,r shoots right out, i think i have worked, beat stretched & solderd so much my coil has gotten a little out of wack, going to tweak it a bit more, think i need 2 more rows of spacers, its alot of copper around 55ft of 3/4 inch. wow dont know how i even made my first tn runs with it like it was, thought it was odd how my juice would come out in spirts, never a constant flow.

you could add spacers between those if you want, all the same size. it mite just even out spots.

ok will give it a try, been pushing some in loose & trying my marble....this this is pissing me off...its probably good enough but just one of those things that bothers me!

still cant get marble to run threw on its own, does thi look ok to use? before i epoxy it into my trash can?

another view

Looks fine, try a smaller marble or ball bearing.


OD

seems to want to hang up some where mid point, just cant figure wich coil it is

Could you have a bit of mash stuck in there when the boiler puked, try giving it a good flush out with a hose.


OD

Man thats a bitch DCT.

That coil looks good.

I recon you need to swear at it a bit harder

i have cussed it for 3 days straight, i think it should work fine with out back pressure, my big still head pushes alot of vapor

Just make sure you fix that pinhole in your boiler before you do another run.


OD

Maybe it's just me but I'm not seeing all that much slope in that worm... Some of the coils still look somewhat level... But, then again, it doesn't take too much of a ding to stop a marble... I have 1/2" marbles that are of different weights, some lighter and some heavier, depending on the overall composition of the glass... Perhaps a ball bearing, which has more weight, would roll through better...

your right rad, there is not much slope, will try the bearing, i just dont want to break this worm apart again..maybe im being over picky?

another cause for sputtering is water to cold , should be a bit warm on top cooler to the bottom, any water replacement should be in the bottom,overflow out the top

back up & running just did a test run, found a new leak were my worm connect to piece that threads on lyne arm, so pissed, means resoder, & clean run again, have 13 gallons of peach about ready, starting to panic....keg did not leak this time, and distillant flowed much better, nice steady stream, here was some left in worm though at end of run, but not like before...also hade to rework parrot to fit new water vessel, and it wanted to bbble a little lke it was getting air locked? any fix for this?