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I bought an air still kit about a year ago, mainly to see if I would like the hobby - I'd rather end up selling the still for a loss than wasting all the time building a proper still just to have it gather dust if I didn't like it. Anyway now I've decided I do want to continue so it seems time to get a proper still up and running, so I thought I'd get my preliminary design thoughts up here to get some feedback and track how I'm doing.

Basically I intend to build a Boka design and will buy: 1m 2inch copper pipe, 2 sets of male/female threaded connectors, some copper tube, a needle valve, a boiler and whatever other miscellaneous parts.

Head Unit
The first part will be the head unit of 2inch pipe with a double coil condenser inside it, the slant plates, takeoff valve and thermometer port with a 2inch threaded male connector at the bottom.

Column
The column will consist of the remainder of the 2inch pipe with a threaded female connector at the top and a threaded male connector at the bottom, packed with "steel wool" pot scrubbers or copper ones if I can find them.

Boiler
This is probably the most variable part, I had originally liked an urn for this, having the heating element inbuilt already, but from what I have read their thermostat is designed to shutoff heating to prevent the unit boiling dry, exactly the opposite of what we want I believe? Instead a stock pot would seem to be the best bet, preferably inserting an internal element to eliminate the need for an external heat source.
In any case the lid will have a female 2inch connector for the attachment of the column (or just the head unit for pot still operation). Any second-hand pot I will need to confirm if the lid will be strong enough, modern ones have a glass lid which would be useless and as such I may copy another user of this forum in using a stainless steel mixing bowl to replace the lid.

Other thoughts
I should be able to make an additional section later on to run this as a vapor management system, inserting that between the head and column sections and leaving the takeoff port in the head section completely closed, though perhaps the slanted plates and takeoff port should be in their own section so they can be removed for running in vapor management configuration? I suppose it wouldn't be too difficult just to cut off the takeoff section at a later point anyway though and make it into it's own section then. The 1meter length of the copper pipe is pretty much a rough guess though using the refulx calculator from this site seems to suggest that that it should still get me above 90% purity without being too large.

So any thoughts? Bear in mind this is only a rough draft sofar, I intend to post updates as I make more progress with this and come further towards a final design.

InfestedTemplar wrote:Column
The column will consist of the remainder of the 2inch pipe with a threaded female connector at the top and a threaded male connector at the bottom, packed with "steel wool" pot scrubbers or copper ones if I can find them.

Both MileHi and Brewhaus carry copper scrubbers, make sure you are not just buying regular steel wool.

Boiler
This is probably the most variable part, I had originally liked an urn for this, having the heating element inbuilt already, but from what I have read their thermostat is designed to shutoff heating to prevent the unit boiling dry, exactly the opposite of what we want I believe? Instead a stock pot would seem to be the best bet, preferably inserting an internal element to eliminate the need for an external heat source.
In any case the lid will have a female 2inch connector for the attachment of the column (or just the head unit for pot still operation). Any second-hand pot I will need to confirm if the lid will be strong enough, modern ones have a glass lid which would be useless and as such I may copy another user of this forum in using a stainless steel mixing bowl to replace the lid.

Make sure if you are building with a stock pot that you get a heavy enough SS pot to hold the column, some of the lids can be pretty flimsy especially if you are building your tower over 1 m high.

InfestedTemplar, it is entirely possible to start out with the Bokakob dual slant plate column and then add the VM take off branch at a later date... In fact, that's what I'd suggest your game plan be rather than adding too many variables into the scale up build...

Those threaded 2" connectors are not cheap. And from what your talking you will need 2 male and 2 female. That's over $100 bucks in my neck of the woods. You mite look into using a triclamp connection. Easy flange is a cheap and easy thing to build. And later if you wanted to step up to a keg boiler. It would clamp right up.

I've found 1/4" tube at $3.25/m, 2" pipe $36/m, pair 2" threaded connectors (brass I think) $13.20/pair, needle valve $27.50

From what I understand there has been some concern about brass leaching lead out. Some of the stills shown on the parent site use them so I guess it shouldn't really be a problem, more of an issue it seems is making sure to use lead free solder. In any case I'll check exactly what they are made of or if there are alternative options. Brewhaus sells Tri-clamps at $9.50 so if that is about the price in Australia as well then it's not much of a cost saving going that route though it might be a better option anyway so I'll see how much work it'll take at least.

In regards to the needle valve I'll probably try making my own as some of the other users of the forum have done as it's looking to be about 30% of the cost of the tower at the moment!

I'm still looking around for a boiler, the best option I have sofar is a 11 liter stockpot with a miking bowl lid but I would really prefer if I can run a full 20L wash in one go. My next best bet at this time is the Turbo500 boiler which looks to be around $240. Considering an element costs around $50 from what I've found sofar and pots etc that size around $100 it seems almost reasonable especially as the condenser for the Turbo500 is about $460 when it looks like I'll be able to make a better one for less than $100 with all the materials. Another option is the "3 in 1 Stainless Steel Electric Fermenter" which looks to be around $250 as well.

InfestedTemplar, those component prices don't sound out of line in comparison to the current market prices...

As for using brass, it is up to each individual to weigh the pro's and con's and choose whether or not to use them... The same goes for pickling or tinning brass components... Does the brass have lead and will it leach out and taint your spirits...??? That's a touch call... I use a brass needle valve but that's the only brass that contacts my spirits and it gets pickled...

InfestedTemplar wrote:I've found 1/4" tube at $3.25/m, 2" pipe $36/m, pair 2" threaded connectors (brass I think) $13.20/pair, needle valve $27.50

Hi,

May I ask where you got these prices in OZ, I'm have trouble getting these (ESP at the prices) in Sydney - although I will admit, my search has not been extensive yet

InfestedTemplar wrote:I've found 1/4" tube at $3.25/m, 2" pipe $36/m, pair 2" threaded connectors (brass I think) $13.20/pair, needle valve $27.50.

2" pipe @ $36.00/m, 1 meter reqd, = 1 bottle of JD.
4m of 1/4" tube @ $13.00 = 6 pack of pre mix junk.
Needle valve = $27.50 = 1 bottle of Nelson County at Woolies = hours of mucking around trying to make one.
Nelson County and motor scooters--- good fun at the time, but don't tell your mates .
Other bits = 1 bottle of smirnof.
Plus boiler.

Make your slant plates from 2" offcuts, cut and hammered out flat.

A 2" boka and a boiler big enough to take a 20 litre charge will give you more than you spend on it in the first 3 or 4 runs, if cash is the issue.
Best bet is get hold of a keg, and take the easyflange route.
I can do 2" triclover clamps for $14ish. PM me if you are paying more.

http://www.matrixps.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow in Australia (i use the brisbane one)
this mob do tri-clover and ferrules normally $20 for a 2" clamp and a ferrule for cash
i like the long shank ferrules

2" ferrules fit very nicely in 2" copper pipe joiners then join the pipe in the other side
get the ferrule 1st than head down to reece or tradelink and find one that fits nice and tight (or so tight it is a smidge to big / small)
i heated the copper, tapped the cold ferrule in and didn't bother to solder on two rigs recently

best thing you can do is get a keg...