4 inch dephlegmator build

[shadylane]

I'll be building this on a budget, so here's a pic of some of the material.
I didn't have any 4 inch tubing, so I split two pieces of 1-1/2" and will make a 8 inch long piece of 4" out of it.

[MoonBreath]

Your build threads are good shady ...Fairly simple for all, and you follow through till the end, using good common sense throughout your build.
I will be building a smaller dephleg soon and therefore be watchn your build.

[pfshine]

Make sure to have a couple worm drive hose clamps around. The hard part is already done, now you just gotta put it together.

[shadylane]

Hose clamps....dangitman....that's what I forgot when I was in town today. I trashed all my big ones making easy flanges.
Moved a little farther along on the project. Wished I knew how to design a proper defleg or had a commercial one to copy.
The last one I built was a 2-1/2 x 8 with five 1/2 tubes. it was definitely over kill. Made it touchy and slow to react to adjustments.
I was planning to build this one with 8 tubes 8" long but I'm not sure, I might shorten it to 6 or 7 inches.
Any opinions would be appreciated.

[pfshine]

How many watts are you gonna put on it? Mine is 4.5" long with nine 1/2" tubes. It knocks down everything I can throw at it which is like 6875 watts. If you just use one piece of the 1-1/2" you should be good. Coils also kick butt are easy fast efficient and you can put a window on it for gits and shiggles.

[shadylane]

According to the guesstimation formulas that figure power, vapor speed, column dia etc The 4 inch column will need some were between 3 and 6kw
Tig welded the tubes to the end plates, wasn't as pretty as I hoped for, but there ain't no big glob of solder, it's all copper.

[pfshine]

Looks good. And should knock anything you want down.

[shadylane]

One of the reasons I made a shot-gun style reflux condenser, instead of a demroth coil was because the shot-gun is easier to clean the vapor side.
Anyway I'm afraid, once I start wrapping pieces of copper scrap around the condenser it will start looking like something between a rat-rod and a piece of steam punk art. Probably not, but there's going to be a limit to how much body work is done. Polishing will be out of the question, the shinier it is, the more the dents will show.

[pfshine]

I could polish this thing to a high shine and there would be no dents. If you use a rubber mallet or a single jack and a 2×4 to flatten it out. Then If you have something around 4" in diameter like a piece of PVC or a yoga foam roller to shape it around life becomes much easier. I used a 1 gallon glass jug with this because it was just over 6". A flapper wheel will make short work of any imperfections if you get any.

[shadylane]

I've been following your build so I can learn some of your tricks.
I have the same cutter but couldn't figure out how to hold the thin copper down.
I've decided it would have been easier to buy some 4" copper tubing. But I hate waiting for the UPS truck.
So today I'll tig weld pieces of copper together to get a big enough piece, hammer it flat and grind the welds down.
I'll use 4" pvc for the form to get it round.

[Bushman]

Nice work Shady, I have 5 tubes that are 3/4" diameter and my dephlagmater is 6" long and I get 100% reflux. I actually have a little more than 5 tubes as on my 4" dephlagmater I designed so it dropped through the top of a 4" ss column. How I did it was cut a small section of the tube length wise, pulled it together and soldered it back making it just a little smaller than 4". I am not sure as I can't see into my column but I am guessing that the gap between my dephlagmater and my column acts as another tube that allows vapor to pass. See picture below.

image.jpg (20.17 KiB) Viewed 6836 times

Notice in the picture below during my build phase there are 2 extra holes that are 1/2" that is for my water in and out at the top of the dephlagmater.

[pfshine]

I just screwed it down in the corners. But really, go man go. You are a building machine. Can't wait to see it put together.

[shadylane]

I like that idea bushman, very innovative. I'd seen your post before but either missed the part about how it worked or forgot.
Here's some more pics and the final product, it'll get cleaned up but I'm not going to polish it.
I welded the end plates on then brazed over the copper, the bronze is easier to get the shape the clamp needs.
The first pic is my copper still hand, she's patiently waiting for the magical words "get in the truck"
I'll pressure test and trim up the flanges so I can move on to the next part of the build.

[shadylane]

Did the pressure test and there's 2 tiny leaks in the soapy water . Preheated and re-welded, I love TIG welding copper.

[googe]

Your a building machine shady!, well done

[shadylane]

Thanks for the complements but
Note to self.
When things are going good enough to brag, don't
Fixed the 2 tiny leaks, and made a couple more, re-welded them and made many more.
Plan B
Time to figure out the best way to re-tube the dephlegmator. That might get interesting

[googe]

Can you just soft solder the leaks shady?

[shadylane]

Wish I could. The original leaks was due to mistake. The subsequent leaks are due to me re-welding the tubes to the end plates.
The new leaks are around 1/8" inside the tubes. The more I try to fix the leaks, the more leaks I make.

[shadylane]

Never had leaks like this in copper, it's hair line stress cracks. Not at the copper TIG weld but just inside the tube.
Tomorrow I'll drill out the tubes and silver solder in new ones.
I don't like the thought of internal leaks that fill my boiler with cooling water.

[Brutal]

Loving all the copper threads popping up lately. My other two projects are nearly done and after that I'm building a flute! Can't stand it anymore!

[shadylane]

Go for it brutal, I love looking at copper.
I took several steps backwards today, even screwed up one of the end plates while removing the tubes. So I cut it off and started over.

[shadylane]

Finally, the dam thing don't leak
Now I need to make a cap to connect it to the condenser.
Picture a cap off an oxygen bottle. An easy flange on the bottom with a union sticking out of the side and a thermometer well on top.
Tomorrow I'll start cutting, smashing, welding and torturing copper until something usable appears.
It may or may not look like what I had planned when I started but it will work and be different.

[shadylane]

Here's the finished product, made it from the scraps left over from the depheg.
I don't know what the proper name is for it, but I'll call it a minion connector.

[Monkeyman88]

Big like. Haha. That is cool.

[Brutal]

Put a star on the side and nickname it "Sherman."

[shadylane]

Didn't think of a Sherman, the 15 gallon still might need a set of tracks before I'm done.
The cap does look kinda like a tank turret. Wait till I solder a short piece of 1" tube and a union on it.
Wish the UPS truck would get here, I'm tired of tinkering and want to get serious.

[pfshine]

I love it.

[MoonBreath]

One of a kind for sure ...Thats what I love about distilling ..Everyone brings something to the table, the good, bad, and ugly ...100 distillers, 100 different setups, 100 different recipes, 100 different styles, 100 different points of view.
This site helps bring it all together.

[shadylane]

The UPS man stopped by today and left so 4" 304L pipe, ferrels and clamps.
Now I can get started on the column.

[Rastus]

awesome sir, fine build ....

i wanted tig so bad but getting gas out where i am is a major shipping hassle....

i keep thinking Dephlegenstein. in a beautiful way man.... its hand crafted to an art