Home Distiller

Anyone familiar with traditional steam boiler construction?
In particular I'm interested in rolling and beading.
I want to make a better shotgun and all that soldering looks like a right pain in the arse.
I guess that's why these methods were developed in the first place although it looks like some specialized tooling might be required.
I started down the custom shotgun path a few years back but after a quote for some vacuum brazing I gave up on the whole idea.

Any novel ideas out there?

here is the tool we use for replacing tubes in large chillers.
http://www.elliott-tool.com/mechanical-joining-tools
Works well for expanding a copper tube into a hole in the tube sheet.

Do you bead as well?
Would you recommend this for a shotgun condenser?

I've had a bit more of a look, that's exactly what I'm after.
The tooling cost is the kicker though.
Anyone done this or got a good work around?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtKQAQQqNfA

Here's another -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxg_a3etAaE

The plate that holds the condensing tubes would not hold up to the force used in expanding the tubes if the plate is made of copper. Perhaps if the plate was made from stainless it might work. Why not just solder the connection. Looks like a lot of trial and error to me.