Column hieght and condensor type?
Posted: Sun Oct 31, 2004 11:23 pm
So, while the website was down, I've got my pressure cooker all setup to accept a 1" copper pipe. Now, in my other post asking about how to attach copper to my pot, AkCoyote suggested a 10" tall column. I assume this means between the pot to the tee for the lyme arm? And that space above the tee where the thermeter is doesn't count as part of the column height? Is there a minium height for a pot still column? I ask this becuase if I choose to use my stove to heat my still, the range vent/light is rather low and may interfer with the column. If I use my 1100 watt hot plate ($9 at walmart), I have no serious height restrictions other then the ceiling. 
Now, about cooling, before I ask about the condensor, I'm leaning strongly towards using a rubber maid type tote with plastic milk bottles that I've filled with water and frozen in my chest freezer. (I use alot of these while I go camping, cheaper then buying ice!) I'd ask what size pump to use but all things being realitive that will depend on what kind of condensor I use, no?
As I understand it, the easiest and probably safest would be a coil type condensor, because the spirts coming out the end are cooler and less volitile, handy should I decide to use my stove. I just don't know if I want another bucket to deal with with a coil on the counter next to all this. (personal prefernce here). So I've been kinda leaning towards a water jacket type condesnor. But if this is to be long enough as suggested in another thread here, I might run into the hieght issue again.
But what about a coil inside a water jacket? At the tee off the column, I've already reduced the arm down to 1/2. I could bring the arm over, elbow down and then pass the 1/2" pipe through a 2" cap for an inch or two, then reduce further to 1/4" that's a coil. I'm figuring say 12-14" lenght on the jacket with a 10-12" long coil. Making the coil itself around a 1" in diameter.
These diamentions are just kinda plucked out of the air, but did kinda base them off the fact that in the article "build a world class still", the water jacket is a 1" pipe passing through a 1 1/2" pipe. Not much space at all. With a larger jacket as I wanna use, I could achieve more cooling in shorter amount of space. Of course my oringinal thought was to just pass a 1/2" pipe through the 2" pipe...no coil, and then reduce after condensing. How much longer would I need to make the condensor then?
In any event, I would like to keep about 3-4" of free space under the condensor, I was able to pick up a 300ml beaker at Fry's last week and I wanna use this as a collecting vessle. I'm also curious, would I need some type of support for the arm and condensor? I don't want the arm and condensor (filled with water and hoses attached) to stress any of the joints on the column either at the pot or at the tee.
Jaxx
Now, about cooling, before I ask about the condensor, I'm leaning strongly towards using a rubber maid type tote with plastic milk bottles that I've filled with water and frozen in my chest freezer. (I use alot of these while I go camping, cheaper then buying ice!) I'd ask what size pump to use but all things being realitive that will depend on what kind of condensor I use, no?
As I understand it, the easiest and probably safest would be a coil type condensor, because the spirts coming out the end are cooler and less volitile, handy should I decide to use my stove. I just don't know if I want another bucket to deal with with a coil on the counter next to all this. (personal prefernce here). So I've been kinda leaning towards a water jacket type condesnor. But if this is to be long enough as suggested in another thread here, I might run into the hieght issue again.
But what about a coil inside a water jacket? At the tee off the column, I've already reduced the arm down to 1/2. I could bring the arm over, elbow down and then pass the 1/2" pipe through a 2" cap for an inch or two, then reduce further to 1/4" that's a coil. I'm figuring say 12-14" lenght on the jacket with a 10-12" long coil. Making the coil itself around a 1" in diameter.
These diamentions are just kinda plucked out of the air, but did kinda base them off the fact that in the article "build a world class still", the water jacket is a 1" pipe passing through a 1 1/2" pipe. Not much space at all. With a larger jacket as I wanna use, I could achieve more cooling in shorter amount of space. Of course my oringinal thought was to just pass a 1/2" pipe through the 2" pipe...no coil, and then reduce after condensing. How much longer would I need to make the condensor then?
In any event, I would like to keep about 3-4" of free space under the condensor, I was able to pick up a 300ml beaker at Fry's last week and I wanna use this as a collecting vessle. I'm also curious, would I need some type of support for the arm and condensor? I don't want the arm and condensor (filled with water and hoses attached) to stress any of the joints on the column either at the pot or at the tee.
Jaxx