Pot still in the works.

Post by **philthy** » Sat Feb 23, 2013 9:35 am

Hi all,

This is only my second post as a member here. Been around fro quite some time but ususally just read. It sometimes takes some serious digging but alway find my answers.

Anyway, Iv'e been using a Brewhaus 2" pot still but decided it was time to upgrade. Attached are some pictures of the beggining stages. Started out by soldering a 4 gauge copper wire to the bottom of my 2" copper. Then did a little machining on the lathe to make a good fit. Looks like I need to do a little more cutting as it's too tight with the gasket - fits good without.

What I wanna do is a gooseneck style column but open too suggestions. I have the 45 degree and two 90's to make the gooseneck but have to wait till next week to get the parts for the liebig. Cash and time are alway my biggest enemy.

Guys, this easyflange is exactly that. Don't spend the money on the couplers. The 4 gauge wire was $1.58 for a foot of it but I beileive the 6 gauge would've been sufficient. Enjoy the pics!

condo33 · Post by **condo33** » Sat Feb 23, 2013 9:40 am

Nice looking work!

Post by **HolyBear** » Sat Feb 23, 2013 9:43 am

Its about time you came out into the sunlight. Filthy Lurker you!!!

Nice job!!! Keep em pics coming...

Post by **philthy** » Sat Feb 23, 2013 1:38 pm

wacabi1 wrote:Nice job!!! Keep em pics coming...

Ill certainly keep updating the pics as I move along. Very excited about this project to the point of letting everything else go, alas, cursed responsibilities!

bellybuster · Post by **bellybuster** » Sat Feb 23, 2013 2:12 pm

I just love seeing the rigs from those who have machining tools available.

Post by **philthy** » Sat Feb 23, 2013 2:34 pm

Bellybuster,

After posting those pics, I was a little worried about intimidating those without the means to do the machining. It is nice and Im grateful to have them tools at my disposal but they aren't essential. I used the 4 gauge with turning it in the lathe in mind but the 6 gauge would probly work better for the average diy'er. Also, that was my first go at soldering so I needed to do a bit of machining to clean it up a bit.

Post by **philthy** » Mon Feb 25, 2013 5:35 pm

Here's some more pictures of my on going progress, Basically, I suck at soldering. Wish there was a way to tig weld copper. Anyhow, enjoy the pictures!

bellybuster · Post by **bellybuster** » Mon Feb 25, 2013 5:58 pm

looking good, goose neck looks cool.

I may be wrong but I think you can tig copper, Ive heard of folks using house wire as a filler rod.

bellybuster · Post by **bellybuster** » Mon Feb 25, 2013 5:59 pm

just had to go look and found this
http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/fa ... er-195465/

Post by **philthy** » Mon Feb 25, 2013 6:01 pm

I'll have to ask at the weld shop next time i'm in if there's a filler rod for that. Sure would be a lot easier. Although, I couldn't always tig weld either. . .

Post by **philthy** » Mon Feb 25, 2013 6:06 pm

How bout that! Almost sounds like welding aluminium with the high amperage and heat spread. Sometimes, we preheat the alum with a torch just to get the heat in it.

Thanks for the link.

Post by **corene1** » Sun Mar 03, 2013 9:40 pm

bellybuster wrote:looking good, goose neck looks cool.

I may be wrong but I think you can tig copper, Ive heard of folks using house wire as a filler rod.

Yes, you absolutely can TIG copper. I made the parts on my potstill and tig welded many of the joints on the cap ,column,lyne arm and copper thumper pot. Set your machine the same as you would for stainless DC straight and start only spark on with a nice sharp point on the tungstun. I used 2% ceriated tungstun and use 16gauge solid copper wire from home depot. I ran at about 65 amps max for 18 ga. sheet copper. It is a little rough but with practice it will get better

Post by **philthy** » Tue Mar 05, 2013 6:01 pm

I'll definitly be trying that. Thanks for the pic!

Quick question though - what do you mean when you say "start only spark on"?

Post by **rad14701** » Wed Mar 06, 2013 7:04 am

philthy, I'm curious as to what your rationale is for using those extra fittings and angling the copper into a goose neck...??? Appearance...??? Extra parts...??? Boredom...??? Or perhaps you saw a still like that one some other site on the internet being boasted as performing miracles... Just curious because from a performance standpoint there is no real benefit...

Don't worry about the soldering job... Practice makes perfect, or so the saying goes... Keep at it...

Post by **philthy** » Wed Mar 06, 2013 9:07 am

rad14701 wrote:philthy, I'm curious as to what your rationale is for using those extra fittings and angling the copper into a goose neck...??? Appearance...??? Extra parts...??? Boredom...??? Or perhaps you saw a still like that one some other site on the internet being boasted as performing miracles... Just curious because from a performance standpoint there is no real benefit...

Don't worry about the soldering job... Practice makes perfect, or so the saying goes... Keep at it...

Rad, I'm glad you asked. I went for appearance. However, I'm mostly interested in whiskeys and brandies and am now concerned that I might be sacrificing flavor for looks. What do you think?

I've seen the goosenecks with the short fat condenser and know from research on HD that they aren't good. I'm gonna do a condenser like the one Hookline posted. The brewhaus I have now only has a 12" condenser and stripping runs end up being more like spirit runs cause the condenser is no where near big enough. So, if the end result is returning the gooseneck to something straight, the condenser will remain the same and attached by a union.

Hindsight being 20/20, should've kept the column straight but wanted something that looked nice too.

southern traditions · Post by **southern traditions** » Wed Mar 06, 2013 3:07 pm

philthy wrote:
rad14701 wrote:philthy, I'm curious as to what your rationale is for using those extra fittings and angling the copper into a goose neck...??? Appearance...??? Extra parts...??? Boredom...??? Or perhaps you saw a still like that one some other site on the internet being boasted as performing miracles... Just curious because from a performance standpoint there is no real benefit...

Don't worry about the soldering job... Practice makes perfect, or so the saying goes... Keep at it...
Rad, I'm glad you asked. I went for appearance. However, I'm mostly interested in whiskeys and brandies and am now concerned that I might be sacrificing flavor for looks. What do you think?

I've seen the goosenecks with the short fat condenser and know from research on HD that they aren't good. I'm gonna do a condenser like the one Hookline posted. The brewhaus I have now only has a 12" condenser and stripping runs end up being more like spirit runs cause the condenser is no where near big enough. So, if the end result is returning the gooseneck to something straight, the condenser will remain the same and attached by a union.

Hindsight being 20/20, should've kept the column straight but wanted something that looked nice too.

A pot still is just that, a pot still.. You can make it nice looking without over complicating it. If you want to make good whiskey's it doesn't take anything fancy. I run a 2" x 12" column that reduces down to 1 1/4" into a cheap stainless pot as a thumper, then 1 1/4" back out before reducing down to a union into my 3/8 worm/condensor. I constantly pull 70 - 80 % ABV in a single run on a 10-11% starting wash and my still damn sure isn't pretty, matter of fact its kinda homely looking but she sure does make some nice clean spirits..

Martin

Post by **philthy** » Wed Mar 06, 2013 4:33 pm

A pot still is just that, a pot still.. You can make it nice looking without over complicating it. If you want to make good whiskey's it doesn't take anything fancy. I run a 2" x 12" column that reduces down to 1 1/4" into a cheap stainless pot as a thumper, then 1 1/4" back out before reducing down to a union into my 3/8 worm/condensor. I constantly pull 70 - 80 % ABV in a single run on a 10-11% starting wash and my still damn sure isn't pretty, matter of fact its kinda homely looking but she sure does make some nice clean spirits..

Martin

Yes, I understand that. I wasnt trying to overcomplicate it. Instead,I wanted to make something interesting. No intentions of boosting abv or anything like that. I just like the way it looks. Wasn't till after I cut up the 2" that I saw a post where it said it "could" disrupt some of the flavor transfer.

I'm gonna run it as is. If I don't like what I see, I'll cut the bends out and put it back to gether with 2" couplers. Man, I do a butt load of reading on here; not sure how I missed that piece of info.

Post by **corene1** » Thu Mar 07, 2013 6:06 am

philthy wrote:I'll definitly be trying that. Thanks for the pic!

Quick question though - what do you mean when you say "start only spark on"?

Some of the older machines like a lincoln 300/300 have a selector swith for setting the spark. For aluminum you want the starter spark on for stainless you want to set it on start only which means it will help the arc start then come off, or you can use no start and scratch it to start which only contaminates the electrode. On the newer ones it is a automatic setting that you don't have to set.

Post by **philthy** » Thu Mar 07, 2013 5:12 pm

Gotcha corene1! Not sure if ours has that or not. The newer Lincoln has the scratch to start which I don't see the point of. Everytime the breaker kicks we have to change it from scratch to start. I'm doing mostly chromoly with some alum, ti, and stainless. The only thing we really change is the amperage - except for aluminum of course.

Post by **corene1** » Fri Mar 08, 2013 4:58 pm

philthy wrote:Gotcha corene1! Not sure if ours has that or not. The newer Lincoln has the scratch to start which I don't see the point of. Everytime the breaker kicks we have to change it from scratch to start. I'm doing mostly chromoly with some alum, ti, and stainless. The only thing we really change is the amperage - except for aluminum of course.

If you are using a TIG specific machine you should not have to scratch start it there should definitely be settings for the starter spark if not it sould already be programmed in. Our oldest machine is a late 1960's model 300/300 and it has a selector on it. If you have converted an old AC/DC stick machine to do tig I could see it not having a starter spark switch. If you are doing aluminum it has to have a high frequency unit setup on it. that is where the starter spark should come from I believe.

Post by **philthy** » Sun Mar 17, 2013 10:14 am

Got to work on my new still a little more this weekend. I did a condensor like Hookline's, with the copper wire wrapped around the the inner condensor tube. I cut the 3/4' at 36" and slide everything together. I left the 1/2' alone till I get the 2" to 1" reducer I'm waiting on. Once I have that, I'll cut the 1/2" to size and stick a union in there for disasembly and storage.

The piece pictured on the end is a 1" stub about 8" long that will connect to the gooseneck. Still need some short 3/8" pieces so I can connect my cooling lines. I ran out of solder probably because I suck at it; but everything passed the pressure test when I blew compressed air thru it though. I hope to have everything together and complete for a cleaning run next weekend cuz I got some stripped sweet feed that needs to be ran!

As an aside, I saved a about a pint of hearts from the strip and put it on oak just to experiment - unbelievable how well that is turning out! Very encouraging to say the least.

Now, what to do with my old Brewhaus set-up?

Post by **philthy** » Sat Mar 30, 2013 10:31 am

Here she is all complete. Just gotta do the cleaning/sac runs and it'll be spirit time. Took way longer than I thought it would but ready to roll now!

Post by **Frosteecat** » Sun Mar 31, 2013 8:51 am

Looks good to me! I've goofed and tweaked my potstill a few different ways and still get rich tasting, productive runs out of her...and (shhhhh!) she's pretty ugly!

I bet you get some great stuff out of that...with a noted enhancement to flavor cause YOU made it!!

Post by **philthy** » Sun Apr 21, 2013 5:34 pm

Just wanted to give the low down on the first run on the new rig. What I ran was 5 gals of sweet feed low wines combined with 6 gals of 4th generation sweet feed.

First off, this new rig with hookline's condenser (about 36") will knock down anything I throw at it which I found during my cleaning runs - loving that. My old brewhaus was way less efficient. I had to dial the heat back so far that a gentle breeze would blow it out, very annoying.

Most interesting though was what I got from my spirit run. Started collecting at 80% and cut it off 6 hrs later at 40%. Total collection just shy of 5 gals. I know this propably has nothing to do with the new rig but more so of what was in it. Just really surprised at the total volume collected.

All is seperated in 400ml incriments with coffee filters for airing. I'm a long way from making proper cuts but I'll give it another go tomorrow evening. Figure I'll oak some, leave some white for who knows what. I'm notreally much of a drinker, I just enjoy doing it and seeing if I can compete with some of you guys!

Thanks for looking!

Post by **corene1** » Tue Apr 23, 2013 5:11 am

philthy wrote:Just wanted to give the low down on the first run on the new rig. What I ran was 5 gals of sweet feed low wines combined with 6 gals of 4th generation sweet feed.

First off, this new rig with hookline's condenser (about 36") will knock down anything I throw at it which I found during my cleaning runs - loving that. My old brewhaus was way less efficient. I had to dial the heat back so far that a gentle breeze would blow it out, very annoying.

Most interesting though was what I got from my spirit run. Started collecting at 80% and cut it off 6 hrs later at 40%. Total collection just shy of 5 gals. I know this propably has nothing to do with the new rig but more so of what was in it. Just really surprised at the total volume collected.

All is seperated in 400ml incriments with coffee filters for airing. I'm a long way from making proper cuts but I'll give it another go tomorrow evening. Figure I'll oak some, leave some white for who knows what. I'm notreally much of a drinker, I just enjoy doing it and seeing if I can compete with some of you guys!

Thanks for looking!

I guess I will watch you guys battle it out from the sidelines. Sorry, I Couldn't resist

Home Distiller

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