Home Distiller

After my embarassment with my beginner still, I decided to post a picture of my First Reflux Still. I am anxious to get it up and running. I will be doing my cleaning runs and sacrificial this weekend. what you think of the patina? It looks like I've had it for a long time...




BB

Well done mate by the looks of it you have your coolent input on the top?. Most do it in the bottom. I've found coolent input to the base of the liebig, out the top and into the reflux condenser works best, it's feeding pre warmed coolent to the reflux condenser making it easier to control. Is that the only condenser on the still, the coil one?. Sorry if I'm sounding negative, just trying to help hopefully

I can feed from the bottom. In the first pic at the bottom of the smaller tube is the input and that is a Liebig Condenser on the left. I have a 1/2" feed thru the 1-1/2".

Bigbird, where did you get that still design? I saw it on a site long before ever coming over to HD. Personally, the still looks dirty and of tracking from flux. I think if you clean it up to a consistently clean appearance then let it age it will look better. Once I polished mine I sprayed it with Rustoleum polyurethane. Many runs still looks good. But hey, if you like it who gives a crap what I or anyone else thinks but you asked.
GA Flatwoods

It will also be stuffed with copper mesh up to the reflux coil. Any other advice is welcome...

BB

ga flatwoods wrote:Bigbird, where did you get that still design? I saw it on a site long before ever coming over to HD. Personally, the still looks dirty and of tracking from flux. I think if you clean it up to a consistently clean appearance then let it age it will look better. Once I polished mine I sprayed it with Rustoleum polyurethane. Many runs still looks good. But hey, if you like it who gives a crap what I or anyone else thinks but you asked.
GA Flatwoods

I got it from here...very nice write-up with what I like...pictures!

http://stilltutorial.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

I'm going to work on it some more but I want to see how well this design works. If it works well, I will more than likely build another one but make the reflux coil longer and add some plates. Now see, I like the constructive criticism. It helps to have other input and yes, I asked... Thanks...

BB

I'm with ya now lol, the coolent section confused me a bit. Good luck, hope it works ok for you.

Bigbird that is what I thought. It is a pisspoor reflux still but a very good pot still. Remove the coil, the valve, the packing, and relocate the male and female hose connectors by exchanging places. You need not feed it with a garden hose due to weight but would recommend reducing down from the hose to 3/8" by adapter, I use 1/4 and is enough. Additionally the build site does not recommend a copper coil in either the liebig nor the 1/2" through tube to add some turbulence and aid in condensation of the vapors. You can make a boka head for this setup by leaving the connection for the liebig and discharge u soldered and wrap with teflon tape when pot stilling and put a plug there with a boka head in place. The boka will sit where the cap is now and could be made interchangeable with sanitary clamps or copper fittings.
Talking from experience, I built my pot still from this but modified as described above.
GA Flatwoods

From Truckinbutch moments ago on another thread: A turbulator wrap of solid copper wire spot soldered on the outside of the 1/2" and a hammer flattened spiral of solid wire inside the 1/2" will greatly enhance your efficiency .

Flatwoods, I'm truly interested in understanding a little more of what you are talking about but I understand better with pictures. Maybe we can talk outside the thread and you can get this dumb ole Texas boy to understand what you are saying...

BB

http://homedistiller.org/wiki/index.php/Boka_Refl ... w_To_Build" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

+1 on the boka.

I heard quality, simple, and beginner in the same sentence. So I built one and now I'm one happy kid.

Ill link you a good animation I found once, if I can find it again.

I would run it like it is and see if your happy with it. You cant know till you do. If it doesn't produce what you want, then you can look into changing the reflux condenser, because I believe that will be your biggest issue. I wouldn't even touch the product condenser till youve sorted the still out. Imo.

I guessing that the reflux coil is wrapped on the outside of the column. If so I don't think that would be of much or any use. You need to extend your column and put a different condenser inside that section for it to work properly.

As ga flatwoods stated, this isn't one of the best designs on the internet and it does lure more novices to build it than better designs simply because it gives step by step instructions, which shouldn't be required... There are a few sites out there that we wish would simply vanish and not return, and I feel that this is one of them... It is a very old and inferior design... But any still is better than no still...

Well it was the best design I came up with before I found this site...you live and learn. I have learned a whole bunch from you guys here...

I built the same still when I got started and am still using it 8 months later. However, over time I have made several modifications to the original design and now am able to produce product at 85 to 90 percent on a single run:

• Supply cool water to lower input of the Liebig, discharge from top fitting
  Solder cooling coil to column or use copper strip between coil and column to make it tight as possible
  Supply Coil cooling from Liebig input using a piece of 1/2 copper from a T and a 1/4" needle valve instead of ball valve
  Use a separate discharge line from coil back to cooling water tank (I use an old cooler)
  Add packing to the column. Originally, I packed the whole column, but had surging problems. Now I just use 3 copper scrubbers where the coil is. (Still experimenting)

After about 15 runs, I am finally learning the nuances of my setup and am very pleased with the product I am producing.

salinenative wrote:I built the same still when I got started and am still using it 8 months later. However, over time I have made several modifications to the original design and now am able to produce product at 85 to 90 percent on a single run:

• Supply cool water to lower input of the Liebig, discharge from top fitting
  Solder cooling coil to column or use copper strip between coil and column to make it tight as possible
  Supply Coil cooling from Liebig input using a piece of 1/2 copper from a T and a 1/4" needle valve instead of ball valve
  Use a separate discharge line from coil back to cooling water tank (I use an old cooler)
  Add packing to the column. Originally, I packed the whole column, but had surging problems. Now I just use 3 copper scrubbers where the coil is. (Still experimenting)

After about 15 runs, I am finally learning the nuances of my setup and am very pleased with the product I am producing.

So you are using the coil but with a common supply but a separate discharge and the needle valve is at the supply input? I can use several pieces of flat stock I have to make contact with the coil to the column at at least 4 places and solder down. I really want to use this from the beginning to experience the learning curve that you all probably faced during your learning process...but I really do appreciate ALL the input...Thanks

BB

That is correct. I put a T in the lower input on the Liebig and ran 1/2" up to where the coil is. Used a 1/4" needle valve to supply the coil at the bottom and my discharge is from the top of the coil back to my container. I also use a valve at the discharge side of the Liebig to control the flow there without affecting the coil flow much. It surprised me how little flow it takes through the coil to bring the temp down in my column. You have most of the parts you need already, they just need to be moved around.

Cool beans...I'll do the changes Fri for the set-up runs this weekend.

BB

Since I am changing this still to a Boka design and adding a small Liebig to the take-off. I am thinking about an expanded coil of 1/4" tubing running thru the liebig. What you guys think? Actually what I am going to do is take off the top of the still with the top attached and make a drop-on boka. Then I will have two tops one for stripping and one for spirits...

BB

Good idea. Most here choose a 1/4 inch takeoff and it works for them. Make the takeoff valve optional as rad has stated elsewhere, for stripping runs and such. The only possible bottleneck here is gonna be the takeoff needle valve. On my 3" boka I chose a 1/2" takeoff, but not beacuse how big it needs to be for proper flow. (I had other considerations)

I think the concensus here is that a 1/4 inch takeoff on a 2" boka is unofficially a tried and true design.

I'd recommend to keep this still as is. It will be good learning toy. And as was stated - do not pack it use as a pot still.
Though Boka can be used for stripping runs it's not very practical. Just build a separate Boka later when you gain some distilling experience.

I actually thought about using a 3/8" take-off to the liebig with the 1/4" expanded coil thru the liebig. That way there wouldn't be any restricted flow to the liebig. I think this could be a good option especially for spirit runs.

BB

sambedded wrote:I'd recommend to keep this still as is. It will be good learning toy. And as was stated - do not pack it use as a pot still.
Though Boka can be used for stripping runs it's not very practical. Just build a separate Boka later when you gain some distilling experience.

Sam,
My partner and I have one each of these. I intend to leave one as is and do the upgrades to the other. This way we can make an accurate decision as to what/which way works the best. Thanks to Everyone for the requested Do's and Don'ts...

BB

Well here is my Boka. I know it's not pretty but functionality is what I am working for right now.







I am putting a centering ring inside the coupler...

BB

Now thats done, (good job), lets go gawk at the pdf file in the reading lounge called "still drawings"

Muhahaha! Enjoy.

got it all together with my additional liebig. I am getting ready to pack the column. The kiebig has some #6 wiretwisted on the outside and soldered down along with some flattened and twisted #12 wire going through the 1/4" in the liebig. HTH

BB

I built the same design, 2" copper for main column just alittle over 36" high, 3/8" copper tubing for the coil on the outside. I left the cap on top of main column to be removable, just because I wasn't sure about the coil on the outside so if it doesn't work how I want it to i can always just change it to take an internal coil.

Did you drill a breather hole in the top of the Boka cap? If not you will need one.

What are you using for your product take-off valve...??? Does it have synthetic seals...???