Home Distiller

As the subject says., And she still need some sealing .

That glass thumper is going to bring you some grief but other than that.

And like I posted in your other thread. You should have done a lot more research. Before building that still.

Mason jars don't make good or safe thumpers.

Well About the glass jar,. That is just monkey see, monkey do,. from the section on thumpers, on the HD site.

You're gonna catch heck for the tiny, glass thumper. And you'll probably want to increase the boiler to at least 5 gallons. BUT, in principle, it is a nice, clean, simple set up.

I'll make a stainless thumper,. at some point.

The parent site although provides some good information. It also has some outdated information. That is left in tact out of respect for Tony the one who put it together. Many years ago.

Jar thumpers are not safe. Because the glass can break easily. From a small drop of cool water even. Then you have a flammable liquid spill. All over the counter.
The size is also just to small. To effectively do what needs to be done. It should be roughly half the size of the boiler. Although you have a small boiler. Which is another problem.

Isn't it just about scaling it down?., or is there some advanced mathematics that come in to play?.

Unless your boiler is 2 quarts. A one quart thumper isn't big enough. Otherwise it will fill up on you.

How big is your boiler? I would guess around 10 lt?

Hit the nail on the head

10L it is

HDS wrote:Isn't it just about scaling it down?., or is there some advanced mathematics that come in to play?.

There is always advanced mathematics involved in stillin. Unless your boiler is 5 gallon or better by the time you make proper cuts there isn't much left to drink so your time fermenting and distilling and the money you spent for ingredients will pretty much be wasted. secondly as PP has pointed out your thumper should be sized at least half the size of your boiler. Now take the boiler and turn it into the thumper and get you a five gallon or larger pot for your boiler and you have something usable. That is leaving out the points of the dangers of using glass in the vapor path of a still. Once you have corrected these issues we can discuss the issues of your heat source being your stove which cycles on and off and is not an efficient heat source for distilling. Any other questions that we might help with? If you are willing to listen and learn your in the perfect place to learn and enjoy this hobby. If you wish to believe the hype that's available all over the internet you may just find some grief from the members here as this forum is designed to promote safety in the hobby and work towards the legalization of home distilling. The choice is yours have fun and be safe!

So you need a 5 lt thumper. 4 lt would probably work. But that jar is what 800ml. Way undersized.

What will happen. You will have to add enough liquid to cover the bottom of the input feed. Before you start. Then as the run progresses. The liquid level will rise. From all the vapors being produced and condensing in the thumper. Yes some of it will come out of the thumper as vapor. But there will be less coming out then going in.

Let's say you run an 8 lt wash at 10%. That is 800ml of 100% alcohol. You already added 100ml to the jar. The vapors coming out of the boiler will be more like 40% or 50%. So there will be around 1.6 lt coming out. Not to mention it will take more then that to get all the alcohol out of the thumper. So possibly upwards of 2.5 ish lt. As the ABV also tapers off as the run progresses. With the thumper you will get around 80% ish. So that's around 1 lt. But again it will taper off some. So maybe 1.2 lt. But that still leaves 1.3 lt to fit in a 800ml jar.

By no means are these numbers exact. Just an example.

Now you only having a total of 800 ml of 100% alcohol in the boiler. After cuts and diluting you would only have around 800ml of finished product. But making cuts on such a small amount is very difficult. Especially when you are just learning. And quality will suffer because of it.

Just some food for thought.

I take it that the whole batch of wash needs to be distilled in one go?., hence the need for a bigger boiler?.

For now,. i'll make a thumper in the proper size.

Also, an aluminum diamond-plate boiler lid is a bad idea...

And then there is all the brass that needs to be tested for lead...

And . . . .

The lid is stainless steel,.

I would lose the thumper and reduce to 1/4" coil in at least a 5 gallon bucket. My first still was a pressure cooker that went off to 3/4" and then to 1/4" LOTS of coils in a 5 gallon bucket and it got HOT. Coil condensers suck imo.

stillerD wrote:I would lose the thumper and reduce to 1/4" coil in at least a 5 gallon bucket. My first still was a pressure cooker that went off to 3/4" and then to 1/4" LOTS of coils in a 5 gallon bucket and it got HOT. Coil condensers suck imo.

From a safety perspective, we consider 3/8" to be the absolute minimum worm diameter due the the whetting effect... Using 1/4" is prone to cause huffing and surging...

Not to mention the 1/4" can become plugged easily. From a puke with solids.

Take your current pot and fab it into a thumper. Then go get yourself a bigger pot. Voila! With a 10L thumper you could probably get away with a 5 gal pot. 5 gal is 25L correct?? Damn metric. Thumper would be 40% of the pot volume.

Like tropik said,. well almost.

25 metric L, are 6.6 gal/liq US, and 5.5 gal british.

The piping used is od 12mm / 1/2" and 15mm / 0.6".

And while electric heating might be crap, it's all i got. On that account, i am going to put some insulation around the boiler to lessen the heat loss.

Nice work.

Do you have any kind of pressure relief incase you get a puke clog? A simple one that works great is to drill a 1/2-5/8 hole in the lid and taper a wine cork a touch to fit in. If the pressure builds the cork will blow.

Ain't got no such thing,. but it should indeed be added.

your getting there yes you are indoors but uninsulated thumper & I coming feed line = thermal loss sides & bottom or keep it the same & the glue under Formica will separate & counter will bubble meaning you answer to wife or landlord or yourself because you get to replace countertop but you are making progress good luck experience is knowledge ether what to do. or what not to do ! good luck
ps read and ask as many questions as you can and always during a build think safety & liability

Wow. Nice to finally see someone shut their mouth, open their ears, and learn. The evolution from 'simple, dangerous' to 'simple, safe' is probably the hardest change for someone to make if they think they 'know'. Glad to see someone who 'knows' they can learn here. Good on ya, HDS.

Jkhippie wrote:Wow. Nice to finally see someone shut their mouth, open their ears, and learn. The evolution from 'simple, dangerous' to 'simple, safe' is probably the hardest change for someone to make if they think they 'know'. Glad to see someone who 'knows' they can learn here. Good on ya, HDS.

+1 Jkhippie!
HDS that looks much better.

A diffuser plate under your boiler may help with your heating issues some. Still not as good as steady heat but better than nothing! The boiler will be a little higher but if you throw some oven mitts under the thumper like grandad said it should even out nice!

Looks much better. I would defiantly put something under the thumper.

Much better now!!!!

Lookin Good just one question are those sharkbite fittings? Sharkbite and other push fit type fittings use plastic and rubber sesls while fine for domestic water become dangerous in this hobby.

Glad to see that you are willing to listen and learn . Appear to be a fast learner , too