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Well, I'll start by saying hello and letting you know I'm colorblind.

Many years ago my wife bought me a sheet of copper and a sheet of brass. When I decided to scratchbuild a still recently I asked her which one was which (she was with her grandmother in the hospital far away, so I had no correct color vision to help me). She told me the copper was more expensive so that was the smaller of the two sheets. I grabbed the smaller of the two sheets and built myself a still. My cousin just informed me that I built myself a fine BRASS still! CRAP! $#!+! DAMNIT!

I've read here about "passivating" brass with vinegar/hydrochloric acid for parts, but a whole still?

Am I totally fugged? Do I really need to start over? Can I "passivate" this one for now while I build a new one? (the good side is my sheet of "copper" is much larger so I can build a bigger still NEXT TIME!

Any advice would be GREAT! I was so planning on firing it up tomorrow. Now the future remains to be seen.

Oh Wow! That's a work of art and it looks like brass in the foto . It ain't all bad, sheet brass is usually the more malleable copper-rich variety, and is less likely to contain the 'free-machining' lead additive found in cast brass.

Having produced such a beautiful and well crafted apparatus you have no choice but to soak the interior (all surfaces in contact with hot hi-proof alc) with the lead dissolving mixture of hydrogen peroxide+acid (vinegar will do), then do a cleaning run of alc, and then taste the output of a real run. If a metallic taste persists then it may be time to restart with the other sheet of 'copper'...but you will surely know to get an expert opinion on the compsition of the other sheet beforehand.

...whoa....cool!

if you can't figger out a way to get it to pass the plastic-and-lead-police tests of the folk here, make another one out of bonafide copper, and it will be even better now that you got it wired.

cool, cool.

Do a lead test...

I'll I can say is wow would love to see that in copper. very nice job

Wow.... you are a damn crafstman! That is some really nice work. Its a peice of art! I would build some time of a water fountain or water feature and put it in my backyard as a sculpture...

I would err on the side of safety and build a new one out of copper.

Some others may disagree, but better safe than sorry!

bgrizzle wrote:Wow.... you are a damn crafstman! That is some really nice work. Its a peice of art! I would build some time of a water fountain or water feature and put it in my backyard as a sculpture...

I would err on the side of safety and build a new one out of copper.

Some others may disagree, but better safe than sorry!

I must agree with your hole statement.. On the upside.. copper looks even better to me when finished... Hell you did a great job.. Im with bgrizzle...it is art work there brother.. You will find something to use it for...

It is Probably common brass which usually contains less than .07 % lead it could also be navel brass which is similar. It would almost certainly be fine to use but without testing there is little way to know. Having said that, if you have the copper why not make sure it is absolutely lead free.

My other hobby (well I can't really call this a hobby yet since I am just kind of at the drawing on paper stage of distilling) is metal casting, and let me tell you there are so many different kinds of bronze/brass floating around it is hard to know what is what. I do think the lead paranoia on this site is a little overblown, but there is a lot to be said for better safe than sorry.

At least with distilling you can use water to put out a fire, metal casting not so much.

I hope I haven't angered anyone too much. Not trying to get people mad, just had a little bit of info to share.

P.s before anyone gets their hopes up I don't have the equipment to cast copper... yet...

Hey, Maliaki, I think you should send that envy-inspiring device to me, so I can,,,um...test it extensively. This process may take some months or more. Especially since I won't be able to stop grinnin' long enough to do much testing for the first couple of months. Awesome.

I will certainly understand if you call me an asshole, but I think that's kinda funny.

Consider it practice and make another out of copper. Nobody keeps their first rig for long anyways. I had my first still two weeks before I built my second. Had that one two weeks before I tore it apart and used the scraps to make a third.

I dont think I can say any words you havn't already said to yourself.

You have lost some time, but nothing more. Don't kick yourself any more than you need to, but dont do it again!

You obvously have the skills to do it again. Give it a good clean and see how it performs. You should be able to gauge how well the shape and cooling goes. This should let you know how well a copper one would perform, but its only bad if you feel somethings wrong with the end product.

Looks like you have access to a folder. No access to a set of rolls?

I would totally run that thing. I just wouldn't drink it.....Why not use it for making fuel for you lawn equipment, there is a section in this forum for making fuel........I mix my head shots with gasoline and run it as methanol in my lawn mowers. Then you can see if the design works and build one out of copper for other uses . At that point you would need some signage.