Home Distiller

i have been playing a litlle with my reflux and came up with this:

dry mounted upon the water sealed pott.


detail head


head and cooler separated



cooling rate: 8 liters/hour 20deg. input 50deg. output
gas burner low: no reflux: 100cc in 6.50 min 75% alc.
after 15 min. 100% reflux
2 drops/sec 100cc in 36.00 min. - 92% alc. steady at 79 deg.
100cc in 21.00 min. - 91% alc. steady at 80 deg.

column height: 75cm x 41mm inner dia. (without condensor)
packing: 555 copper rings dia. 10mm x 8 mm lenght gives 50cm packing.
there is room for 10 cm more packing.

do i need more packing or should this be acceptable?
any other advice?

A couple things.


1. a structured copper packing (such as from Amphora Society http://www.amphora-society.com/equipment.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow ) will provide a much better packing than cut copper rings.

2. Move your return tube higher up in the column (note it must still run downhill slightly). Moving it up will give your column more available room for packing.

However, what I see looks pretty darn good. I would certainly keep with the copper packing, to increase the copper surface area within the vapor path (helps to remove sulphor compounds).

H.

A beautiful reflux still

Tell us about the origin of your boiler. From a European water heater?

The length of your column and the diameter? Where do you find stainless steel tubing and the cost of say a ten foot length.

Thanks,

G

The connecters seem to be from a comercial vacuum rig.

to husker:
moving the return up will only ad 2 cm.
if i fill the column until just under the return tube,there is 10 cm more packing.
i like to stay with the rings, thats whats available.
should the alc% go up a litlle ?
get a cleaner product or both ?

to birdwatcher:
yes it was a "daalderop"(dutch '':D'' brand) 15 liter electric boiler.
height off column is: 75cm. 42mm inside - 48mm outside.
sorry, no price available. it was at my ''warehouse''
are you nearby?

to possum:
connectors?
you mean the T connection?



no: home-made.
2 pipes welded electric at 90deg. angle (A)
the flange (B) cut out of strip and adapted at my metallathe.







[/img]

to husker:
moving the return up will only ad 2 cm.
if i fill the column until just under the return tube,there is 10 cm more packing.
i like to stay with the rings, thats whats available.
should the alc% go up a litlle ?
get a cleaner product or both ?

to birdwatcher:
yes it was a "daalderop"(dutch '':D'' brand) 15 liter electric boiler.
height off column is: 75cm. 42mm inside - 48mm outside.
sorry, no price available. it was at my ''warehouse''
are you nearby?

to possum:
connectors?
you mean the T connection?



no: home-made.
2 pipes welded electric at 90deg. angle (A)
the flange (B) cut out of strip and adapted at my metallathe.
then solderd in position.

i make a ''sport'' out of it to make most of the things i need from scrap.
thats what hobby meens to me.
for the whole setup (potstill-reflux combi) i only purchased the stainless bowl - a coupling for the leibig and the 5mm copper tube for the reflux cooler.
the rest was available or changed with some homemade shine

ziet er goed uit..

(looking good..)

dutch@home wrote:to husker:
moving the return up will only ad 2 cm.
if i fill the column until just under the return tube,there is 10 cm more packing.
i like to stay with the rings, thats whats available.
should the alc% go up a litlle ?
get a cleaner product or both ?

You will get a cleaner product, and a higher alc ABV%. There is simply much more surface area on the structured packing, than there is on rings (probably 2x or 3x more surface area), and also, there is less chance of "channelization" where the reflux simply pours down a channel, and does not spread out and re-evaporate.

H.