Another Newbie

dog1976 · Post by **dog1976** » Sat Feb 03, 2007 12:55 pm

Hi I am a newbie to this hobby. I would like to thank this site and the parent site for the quality information made available. I would also like to thank the members of this site for sharing their experiences and helping newbies, this has supplied me with some very good reading on this hobby.
Last summer I started researching the different types of stills and how each worked. I looked at what I thought were the good points and the down sides of each.

(The following is my opinion from what I have read)
I decided on making a reflux still. What I thought were the down sides of the standard reflux still is the two cooling tubes going thru the column. The bottom tube going thru the column serves no purpose as far as creating useful reflux; it only robs heat created in the boiler. The upper tube does not provide enough reflux control, you have to control the heat input on the boiler to have good control of the reflux. To solve this I decided to use a drop in cooling coil like the Bokakob Design. I could not find the soft ¼ inch tubing to wind the coil with so I made it out of a 1-¼ inch pipe and a ¾ inch pipe.

I built my still late in the fall and pressure tested it. I ran my first run in early January.
This run I thought went very well. I ran an 18% turbo sugar wash. I ran it fairly fast, collected everything at about 80%, using 176 degree head temperature. The only surprise was at the end of the run the distillate slowed down quickly and stopped. Had 207 degrees for boiler vapor temperature and 176 degrees at the head, no distillate coming out. Collected no tails at all.

10 gallon SS milk can
electric elements with control (1800 watts)
2” dia column 41” length pack with 1 lb. structured packing
2 digital thermometers
55 gal. plastic barrel for cooling water

mtnwalker2 · Post by **mtnwalker2** » Sat Feb 03, 2007 1:50 pm

Hey dog, glad you came to enjoy the fun. Sounds like you did your homework and its paying off for you.

What I am sure happened, cause it happened to me also first time, you are getting total reflux of the tails, that have a higher vapor point than 176. In order to collect them just stop, or slow the water to the reflux and allow temp. to increase (and or more heat). Nice haveing a still that automatically makes the final cut for you.

masonjar · Post by **masonjar** » Sat Feb 03, 2007 9:05 pm

Interesting still design modification! I hadn't thought of that. I also started my research last summer and looked at that design first. I jumped in a bit hastily though and got rid of both cooling tubes based on info from the 'Compleat Distiller' book. I ended up making a potstill with a ridiculously overpowered condenser. Later I made an inline bokakob that works very nicely for reflux. I have to actually make cuts though. What midwest state are you in?