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How come no one uses copper mixing bowls to attach their columns to. It seems that joining two like metals would be a hell of a lot easier than two different ones. I have studied many pictures and I cannot recall seeing one copper mixing bowl. I have been gathering material for a new reflux still. I have a keg and some copper pipe. I'm at the attaching phase of designing this thing and I was wondering if there is something I overlooked when it comes to copper mixing bowls. It seems like the best solution for me as I solder copper quite often at work and I have never welded in my life.

Well I can't speak for everyone, but i was looking for something that would hold around 50/100 litres.

http://www.accentsbyann.com/bowls.shtml" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
Take for example, the 30" copper bowl on that page going for $251 US dollars.

The volume of a hemisphere is V = 2/3*(¶*r2)*h.

thus
2/3*(¶*15^2)*7 = 3298.67 inches^3 2dp*
1inch = 2.54 cm
thus = 8378.63 cm^3 2dp*

1000cm^3 =1 litre.
so were looking about 8.3 litres give or take. Stick two together and that's still only 16.6 litres for a grand total of 500 US dollars!

Far short of the 50 litres+ I'm after, plus costs a lot more then what my copper did.

Gonzo.

I'n not talking about making a boiler out of copper bowls, I'm talking about mixing bowls. The kind of bowl you would use to attach a column to a keg boiler. The kind of bowl used to beat egg whites and shit. 6 -8 liter, 10 to 12 inch diameter, for putting on top of the hole you cut out of the top of a keg. You can get them for ~$25US used at auction. Check ebay, or your local repo auctions.

Is there a reason no one is using these?

The copper bowels Ive seen were thin and I would think not strong enough to hold a collum.Im sure theres some that would. But at what cost?

So the only issues are cost and structual integrity? I have used really thick and heavy copper bowls back in my days working as a cook in a restaurant. I have also seen some copper bowls go relativly cheap on ebay. I don't know the quality of those though. I'll look around and see if I can find a good one for a decent price.

Yittrium shows a picture of his copper bowl topped stock pot potstill somewhere on this site.

I havent seen a collumn mounted on a copper bowl on this site.
I prefer copper to copper as well.