Putting older posts here. Going to try to keep the novice forum pruned about 90 days work. The 'good' old stuff is going to be put into appropriate forums.
Built a pot still today--found some left over junk in the shop and threw something together. This is my first time trying to post a pic--don't know if I got it right or not. I got tired of waiting for my welder to finish my reflux and I got 3 5-gallon batches of sugar wash ready to go. Laid up here with a broke leg so I figured I'd fool around in the shop some.
Got everything soldered together as far as the condenser goes and no leaks. The condenser is 1/2 inch copper inside a 3/4 inch copper jacket--36 inches long. The stainless bowl is not yet attached to the lid on the boiler--leg started bugging me so I had to take a pill.
Question--do I run the cold water in on the bottom of the condenser or the top? I can do it either way--just a matter of switching hoses.
Got some more questions too but will fire it up first and still some water after I get the lid fixed.
Thank you Dnderhead--I got it right then--counterflow. My column is only 3/4 inch but I got lots of 3/8 copper lying around--should I put some small pieces inside the column or should I just run it direct drive?
my column is also 3/4... but I put a water jacket on the column. even at the slowest of water settings I see liquid surging into my doubler. So I tried less ss scrubby material. no better. so I have stopped using the water jacket and I have left the smaller amount of scrubbies in the column. I dont think it helps much. I think that it could work for me with the water jacket but I dont want to turn down the stove temp that much. I think that I would only be able to collect 50 mL per hour, or less.
Some one correct me if I am wrong but I think 3/4 in is not big enough to get a noticeable amount of reflux except at unacceptably long distillation times.
The area of your "diameter" will determine how much heat you can put in it
you will get flooding that is why most go 2" my self have 3"
when i get every thing together going bigger
what happens vapor goes up column condenses tries to come back down
but meets vapor coming up if column is full of vapor coming up no place
for it to go so gets pushed out condenser like blowing air in hoes with
water in it
Your column may be a bit long for the length that you have, thus a bit of flooding may happen but if it does, try wrapping the column with some sort of insulation material to try and reduce the reflux a little and you may still get a fairly good delivery rate out of it.
Cheers
edit. What I meant was that your column diameter may be a bit small for the length that you have.
That should make more sense now
Last edited by tracker0945 on Fri Jan 25, 2008 8:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Got everything put together and distilled about a quart of water--leg given me a hard time so I quit. Gotta bit of a leak around the pot lid so I'm gonna try the flour paste tomorrow and distill some more water. Tonite I just put a couple of clamps on it. I ran it as fast as I could --cranked the propane right up--full roiling boil--cut the water to condenser down as low as I could. Nice little trickle of distilled water with no huffing or puffing--no surges or anything. Distilled water smells like flux--I'll keep stilling water till that goes away.
You guys are just awesome with sharing information--it is much appreciated.
not good on this light box but try i like your attitude your experimenting
while waiting four the real thing good! You will find alc. will come off easier
than water have fun that is what it is about do not get discouraged
we are here to help you as long as you help your self
