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Hey all,

Friend came across a still that was built in the early 70's? It was bought from a commercial place named Revenoor. the company has been sold once, and this still was made under the original owner. After looking at it, cant really figure out how exactly this is supposed to be operated. know it was never operated before. It had been sitting in a shed for a long time, so its possible a piece or two may have disappeared, but still... here is a drawing of it
Most confusing part is the coil on the bottom that feeds into the boiler. why would they be open? what is the point of this?

here is what the still looks like, having a bit of trouble uploading the others, sorry.

here is a pic of the coil on the bottom

Standard CM still

steam injected boiler with a CM head (outdated)

It's a cm still. Not real sure about the coil at the bottom. But I find it quite interesting. I'm wondering if this is a way to heat the boiler with some solids in it. As to keep them from scorching? I've never seen that in one of these stills.

Oh that's the still Uncle Jesse has. There are a few others around too. They aren't that uncommon. Should work good.

So your saying its a steam injection setup Dnderhead? Interesting approach.

Yes its a little outdated. Marbles aren't the best packing for a column. But if your not looking for the purest neutral. It will work.

so is there a good reason for the tee on the coil that is outside the pot? should it just be plugged?

Probably want to do a lead test on your solder having been built in the 70's if you're planning to use it.

"So your saying its a steam injection setup Dnderhead? Interesting approach."
yes it works similar to the way a thumper/doubler works only with steam.
I know not why the T.???

majority of the work on this still was done with TIG welding - yeah, TIG welded copper - the only things that are soldered are pipes that protrude inside, which are soldered, and a lead test was done and seems to be all good.

Dnderhead wrote:"So your saying its a steam injection setup Dnderhead? Interesting approach."
yes it works similar to the way a thumper/doubler works only with steam.
I know not why the T.???

I like it. The coil would heat the boiler as would the inlet into the liquid. The T and upper inlet is a little cornfuseing.

While theoretically functional, an outdated design...

Also. On your worm bucket you have the hydro in/out reversed. You want your cold water entering at the bottom of the worm bucket and hot water exiting the top.

Looks to me like it would be hella efficient at heating a run.

The coil at the bottom would take liquid from the the (middle third?) of the boiler, and put it directly into the heat source, and just like a percolating coffee pot boil it back up into the top of the boiler. Theoretically heating the top and bottom of the boiler at the same time. Interesting boiler setup.

That was my thoughts. Heating the coil directly. And the perculating liquid would heat the boiler. And heat to the coil would indirectly heat the bottom. If done properly it mite allow you to still on the grain.

with steam injection you can distill on the grain.

I actually think I might try this boiler setup on my next build (once I'm proficient with my current setup of course) if nothing else, just to see how it works..

Dnderhead wrote:with steam injection you can distill on the grain.

That has me curious. Would you use a wash/mash, low wines or feints to steam the boiler with or would you use water for your steam/heat source?

Also. Since this would be working almost like a thumper (steam heated) would charging a thumper with mash on the grain work the same way as distilling on the grain?

Either way. This looks like it'd be a fun boiler set up to experiment with.

That coil with the plugged tee could be steam injection or a continuous feed for stripping. If I owned it, I'd ignore the coil in the boiler, replace the marbles with scrubbies, do a throwaway run and see what it could do. Nice boiler with the fill and drain, even if you don't end up liking the column.

"Would you use a wash/mash, low wines or feints to steam the boiler with or would you use water for your steam/heat source?"

all iv ever seen was water.witch as steam adds little to wash.as its like 1600x

now that you mention it the tee could very well be for doing large stripping runs or continuous runs. later designs by the same company had a set up for doing multiple pot set up where the fluid was pushed in there by several other tanks, it would be sensible that the new mash brought in would come in through this coil.

when we did the vinegar run there was steam coming from the tee, so a sacrificial run was never made until the details were ironed out about the coil. now that i see what is going on with it, it will be interesting to see what it can do.

cant easily change the marbles to scrubbers tho, the pot and column are all sealed, it would require cutting the column and re attaching.

Marbles ought to work fine, especially if you're looking to make whiskey or rum at barrel strength. Nice find.

Jeez, I got to say everybody's gone WAY Too deep on this one.
It's just a preheat coil on the bottom of the boiler, nothing more, nothing less.
(Yup exactly like a Percolator)
If you heat that coil up too much it SCORCHES something fierce, and you can't pull the top to clean it out.
That's what the "T" is for... Cleaning / Flushing the coil. Only way to do it.
Keep the heat low and slow on this one, comes with a single BIG single Blowtorch under it.
This is a Wonderful Combination Still, makes some awesome stuff, just don't overheat the coil, it WILL Scorch.
It doesn't have marbles it has rachig rings in it, and a dual direction coil in the top of the tower.
It refluxes GREAT.

Any questions, I'll try...

The picture of your drawing is similar (in a manner of speaking) to my still, other than the boiler design. I can reach 95% quite easily, granted column is much higher and I use copper scrubs. The internal is coil increases reflux and also acts as a gate to the product condenser.

ps.
(the hand drawn still pdf at the top of the post)