finally did some more work on my still, went to electric, and got a good boiler. a copper fire extinguisher it cleaned up very well and has a screw off top.
i need to clean the still up now and it should be right to go.
what is best to use on the black gunk that comes from the braizing? to clean it all up?
i have tried vinegar/baking soda/salt mix doesnt really do much to it.
should i be boiling the vinegar in the still and running it through?
is hydrocloric acid allright to wash it off quickly?
Man oh man do I feel your pain!! I am almost finished building my still and have started the absolute worst part.... cleaning. I would have to say that this portion is the biggest pain of all. I am brazing all of the parts together and have ended up with the same crap all over the pipe. Have to scrub like hell to get it off the outside and then have to deal with this smutty black shit all inside the pipe. The only way I have found to get it out is by using a little scrub brush & green scotch brite pads. I used my beer bottle brush to clean the liebig portion that is 1 inch dia up to the point where I have it reducing down to 1/2 inch. I got a small wooden dowel and got a green scotch brite pad cut a piece to fit & tied to the dowel with some string and the just took my time using it to scrub the whole inside of it. Time consuming but effective. I also tried using baking soda & vinegar, also used hot water --- totally worthless. I got tons of black crap out with the green scrubbie thing after soaking with the above mentioned. I'm just glad I decided to start cleaning things up before I went and brazed the last couple of joints. That would really have sucked trying to clean things after I hooked it up to the 45 comming off the main pipe. I still plan on running it a couple times with water only first juts for good measure though. Good luck!
Oh yah almost forgot to mention this! I haven't tried it but you might want to give this a trry also. There is a cleanser for beer brewing called Straight-A can't remember who makes it, but this stuff is good enough to get stubbern deposits off of nasty carboys and will easily take labels off of beer bottles. There is also a product called Powerded Brewery Wash by Five Star which would probably work pretty good too. Not really designed for balck smutty shit but hell I don't see why it would work.
got it done, used a mix of hydrocloric acid and water, this soffened up the black crud still had to poke around in the holes with ss scrubber but it all came off the insides are spotless now. will do a few alco runs to clean it some more.
the first few runs of alco you make are also handy for cleaning it up
it cleaned up very well and has a screw off top.
I am almost finished building my still and have started the absolute worst part.... cleaning. I would have to say that this portion is the biggest pain of all. I am brazing all of the parts together and have ended up with the same crap all over the pipe. Have to scrub like hell to get it off the outside and then have to deal with this smutty black shit all inside the pipe. The only way I have found to get it out is by using a little scrub brush & green scotch brite pads. I used my beer bottle brush to clean the liebig portion that is 1 inch dia up to the point where I have it reducing down to 1/2 inch. I got a small wooden dowel and got a green scotch brite pad cut a piece to fit & tied to the dowel with some string and the just took my time using it to scrub the whole inside of it. Time consuming but effective. I also tried using baking soda & vinegar, also used hot water --- totally worthless. I got tons of black crap out with the green scrubbie thing after soaking with the above mentioned. I'm just glad I decided to start cleaning things up before I went and brazed the last couple of joints. That would really have sucked trying to clean things after I hooked it up to the 45 comming off the main pipe. I still plan on running it a couple times with water only first juts for good measure though. Good luck!