Home Distiller

I was wondering if anyone really knows what thickness would be needed to build a still out of copper and the thickness for a stainless still as well.

I have searched the forum and have come up with 16 oz for copper from one post and 20 gauge copper from the post with the pdf with templates for a traditional copper still, and the only other site that mentions thickness, mentions that he would go no less than 12 gauge for anything under 15 gallons. (copper) Nothing about stainless.

10-15 gallon seems to be ideal for me,- I will build the 6 gal from the template pdf first as a practice build and keep for smaller batches,maybe give to family.

the 16 oz cost a lot , the 20 gauge cost more, the 12 gauge cost way more.

I believe most of us would like to build with the most economical materials for the particular build , but make sure everything goes smooth and keep it that way, and last as well. I know there are way cheaper builds, but i am trying to make a nice traditional, something about em man, That professional look I guess.

help appreciated, would like to get the show rolling. I plan to post pics when finished too.

I don't have experience with anything over 15 gallons. For the 6 and 15 gallon pots, .032" (22 gauge) is what most everybody (including me) uses. I have seen guys build with .027" (24 gauge), but cannot comment as i've never used anything that thin. The thicknesses i've quoted are universal and what I always go by (thousands of an inch), the gauges I quoted are pulled from stormcopper.com. I've noticed different metal supply houses will call .032" sheet 22, 21, or 20 gauge depending on what site you are looking at

Hi kurgan, I'm getting ready to start a stainless boiler project and I will be using 14 ga. Which is .080 thickness. I believe that is the thickness that stilldragon uses for their boilers also.
For stainless columns I have been using either .062 or .083 wall tubing. Both are very common in tube sizes. Good luck.
SD

also consider the type of heat, electric or gas/solid. I built my boiler out if 1.5 SS 304, use both types of heat.

I seen someone mention copper flashing, but I do not know if it is made with anything that would effect taste or if it would have to be thicker than what is recommended for normal copper sheets or if it is safe for distillation. It seems to be hell of alot cheaper than the other copper sheets.

All the copper flashing i've ever seen at building supply houses is very, very, very thin. It would not be suitable for any type of boiler. Flashing is cheaper because it is thinner. With the price of copper these days, I don't see how you're going to pull this off cheaply without scoring some kind of sweet deal from an individual. I've not seen cheap copper sheet from any type of supplier in a long time.

I built a 24 gallon boiler out of 16oz roofing copper and works like a champ. I did some reinforcements with 3/8 tubing rings on the top and bottom and it makes a very strong structure when soldered together. Think uni-body car

Does anyone know if it matters if the copper is an oxygen free type or ETP soft or EtP soft hard. The site someone gave, has those 3 different choices.
thanks for the input everybody!

i was lookin to make a copper pot when i started lookin into this. I also looked at flashing but its soft. I was going to build a couple rollers to run it through to work harden it some. I found a cheap keg to use instead though. i still look at this from time to time. could be nice to make cone reducers and such