Home Distiller

PLEASE, before anyone flames me, I just had the most awesome experience with a water distiller, one of the major Taiwanese ones.
My story: I built a good still, 2" diameter 36 inch tall column.......the one on moonshine-still dot whatever.
15 gal ss boiling pot, awesome burner, the BIG banjo burner, 2hp pond pump to circulate the water, hand built coil:

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... o#p6979415


Once my wife fully grasped what I was doing, well, F you for what you're thinking right now, the whole project gets shit canned as I'm charging the boiler for the first time.

Fast forward, months later, I pick up a Mega home, unmodded, except for me plugging the vent hole, whip up a one gallon thin wash in a pickle jar, ends up at 10.875 % after a week of working. I just did a test run with this little white R2D2 looking piece of crap and filled a pint snapple bottle with 124 proof spirit in 46 minutes. It's not perfect, but after polishing with some carbon, I'm really not disappointed. Once I get familiar with this thing, maybe put a temperature sensor just after the hole to the coil, maybe I can still have some fun.

vdefazzio wrote:I just did a test run with this little white R2D2 looking piece of crap.

lmfao

astronomical wrote:

vdefazzio wrote:I just did a test run with this little white R2D2 looking piece of crap.

lmfao

You know, You're an asshole. I'm limited in what I can get away with, but am at least trying, and all you can input is that you're laughing at me.

laughing at the wording, not the situation.. relax... it was funny

i started on an air still rig and still use it for some of my projects.. I call mine "beakly"

Does this meen that Astro is still an ass hole?

astronomical wrote:laughing at the wording, not the situation.. relax... it was funny

i started on an air still rig and still use it for some of my projects.. I call mine "beakly"

Sorry, I guess I'm a little touchy when it comes to this. I spent a bunch of money and time to build my original rig that I never got to use and have endured countless jabs by friends like, Oh look, he got a coffee maker, really.....you're going to use THAT, can you make me some dasani with your water maker, .
I was so excited to actually distill something, your lmfao comment was like a cold bucket of water, obviously taken completely out of context by me. My apologies again.

Mud Mechanik wrote:Does this meen that Astro is still an ass hole?

No, no, no, I showed my ass and was wrong, and admitted it.

astronomical wrote:

vdefazzio wrote:I just did a test run with this little white R2D2 looking piece of crap.

lmfao

You got to admit. That's funny shite right thar.

Now I don't get it. Your wife put the brakes on a good still that would make a good drop. But she is fine with the R2D2 piece o shite that makes crap?

Prairiepiss wrote:

astronomical wrote:

vdefazzio wrote:I just did a test run with this little white R2D2 looking piece of crap.

lmfao

You got to admit. That's funny shite right thar.

Now I don't get it. Your wife put the brakes on a good still that would make a good drop. But she is fine with the R2D2 piece o shite that makes crap?

Yeah, she's not ok with the amount I can produce with the reflux colum. So I'm easing her into it with this thing. Shes Polish, as in Polski not lemon pledge, and I'm going to make a Krupnik, basically a distilled mead to try and to pique her curiosity to make a nice neutral spirit. Baby steps, baby steps.

vdefazzio wrote:

Mud Mechanik wrote:Does this meen that Astro is still an ass hole?

No, no, no, I showed my ass and was wrong, and admitted it.

Just pokin a little fun, hope your wifey lightens up on ya so R2D2 can take a back seat.

The R2D2 comment was freakin funny, I srsly lol'ed IRL. Very good timing too, all the Star Wars movies were played back-to-back yesterday. I was half watching them while doing a cleaning run on Four Eyes. I still have my little robot sitting in a box waiting to run again. Not sure I will ever use it again but it was a great starter to get into the hobby and I would probably run it if I needed distilled water for mixing to proof.

Help me Obiwan, you're my only hope!

These are not the droids you are looking for.

Prairiepiss wrote:These are not the droids you are looking for.

Yeah, but mine has a laser

There is no way on God's Green Earth I would have let a woman shut down my plans! Kudo's to you for keeping it together, but there would have been words and she would have went to her Mother's for the weekend. Or at least until I ran the wash.

onthekeg wrote:There is no way on God's Green Earth I would have let a woman shut down my plans! Kudo's to you for keeping it together, but there would have been words and she would have went to her Mother's for the weekend. Or at least until I ran the wash.

Well, everyone is entitled to their opinion. When we got married we became partners, so when my partner became uncomfortable with the amount of distillate I could produce in a single run I bit the bullet and pulled the plug on that project, for now. Sometimes it takes that extra effort to NOT play king of the house, besides, history shows that kings get killed by their "subjects" way more than other leaders of a more democratic nature.

I'm actually running the same set up. I have a Megahome one gallon (water version) that is plugged into a light dimmer switch (big boy 1000 watt-$50 at HD, $15 on Ebay), which is then plugged into a Kill-A-Watt, then the wall. I can regulate and monitor the wattage, and knowing the alcohol version runs around 320W, I get all of the kicks of the alcohol version with a quicker heat up time. You do need to plug the fan into a PC extention plug and directly to the wall. If you plug it into the boiler it will have a reduced power.

Not bad for a total investment of $150 ($90 for the still and the rest for wires, plugs, switches etc). It's electric, simple, compact, and easy to clean up. No worries about chilling or fires. I have room on the outlet for another stil.

You just have to look past the fact it's only a gallon . The back of my mind says "Go ahead buddy, convert a keg ".