Home Distiller

I spent Sunday afternoon cutting an 8" circular hole in the top of my keg with a jig saw,where I'd used a 4" angle grinder to cut the valve out see :- http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5854
I then used paint stripper to take off the keg lettering followed by wet/dry sand papering the scuff marks off, followed by a stainless steel scrubber with ceramic hob cleaner paste polishing. I then spent the rest of the day with an ear to ear GRIN.
Is this normal



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cheers all Danny

Looking fine, Danny! Keep up the good work.

OMG that is a shiny looking beast. Yes, I can certainly see why you are grinning!

Now, all you have to do is get it all full of flame marks, LOL.

H.

nice bits keep us posted.

whats the blue plastic thingy on top of the keg?

nice .. mine looked like that once .. like Huskier said thats before the flames hit er..

That's definitely not normal...Mine is much duller and has a few more dents nice work!!

very normal! Nothing like the satisfaction of nailing some milestone in construction!

That's a great collection of bits there, excatly what you need. It's also normal to wakeup at 3 in the morning with some brainwave!
It''ll be great to see your progress, keep having fun,

You know if you got to wear sunglasses while looking at a picture it's got to be good

Edit: Keep that thing inside! A g-man could spot it a long ways off in the woods!

Pikluk wrote:nice bits keep us posted.

whats the blue plastic thingy on top of the keg?

I've no idea I cann't see or feel anything on the inside of the keg
Maybe it's a sat/nav tracker from the brewery
Does anyone know ? cheers all Danny

The hordes demand more pics upon completion .

take it off and destroy it before they get to you

I then spent the rest of the day with an ear to ear GRIN.
Is this normal

YES!

Well never mind Zen and the art of copper pipe coiling - after I'd worn a groove in my knee and kinked a couple of turns I went away and gave it some thought and came up with this "idiot" proof simple jig :-

3 bits of wood the two uprights with holes for the winding pipe , to suit the size of coil and these with a brace across the bottom.The winding pipe has a few holes through to pass a piece of wire through to stop the coil turning.Twisted tight when the pipe is in place either parallel or at 90*.Stood on a small step ladder and filled the pipe,from both ends,with salt.Then pushing down on the pipe with one hand and rolling the winding pipe the other via a couple of bolts through it as levers produced :-



hope this might help and put a little back for all I've learnt so far
cheers all Danny

those photos should go into the Wiki to show folks how to make a simple yet effective jig.

Got as far as here http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:External_editors" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
then my mind went numb
Sorry!

Almost worthy of its own thread here in the forums too... Great work, QDanT... As long as you have the jig built and have the methods down you might as well go into the condenser business... Seems a shame to let a good jig go to waste...

I have an idea for for a possible improvement... Maybe an adjustable arm with a pulley or a roller on to to hold the copper tube tight and would walk up automatically as the coils are wound... Sure would save your hands... All you'd need to do is crank... I've had the idea in the back of mind for a while now and seeing your jig helps firm up the concept...

those looks great.
i tried to make one, twice...
didn't look anything like those .

Nice work.

Two suggestions: 1) Leave some space between the successive winds on each coil. 2) Leave some space between the two coils, put a mandrel over the inner coil once you have wound it, before you wind the outer coil, and wind the outer coil over the mandrel.

you have to admit it is pretty.
I agree one for the wiki.
I didn't have room in my column for a mandrel between coils. I had 3.4 inches to work with and 3/8 inch copper to ft in there. I managed to get enough to knock down 4500 watts with 21 feet. But it was tight. A copper mesh in the center made it work.
That is a real nice d=coil for either an inline or offset head.

Hi you can still buy 1/4" copper pipe in the UK but then it goes metric.So my column is 54mm, I wound the coil onto a 22mm piece of pipe as any smaller was flattening the coils too much, but then coiling it back upon itself didn't allow for any gap between the coils, if it was to fit into the 54mm.Maybe open the first coil up with a spacer when winding then back up in the gaps is the way to go(cheers Hookline) though this would result in a longer coil. R&D who said this hobby was addictive
cheers all Danny

isn,t it nice when you take your time and do it right the frist time, makes you feel warm all over. sweet looking

go here http://homedistiller.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

I thought I'd share the results of another productive weekend :-


Note the use of Thermalite building blocks as a welding/soldering bench they reflect the heat back at the underside of the job whereas fire bricks absorb the heat.The copper keg top bowl has a 1.5" brass back nut silver soldered to it as do the 2" pipes then I've sawed the threads off a hex nipple which gives me two joiners and cuts the amount of brass inline down.I silver soldered six counter sunk stainless steel set screws to the keg using "Tenacity" flux which is speacially for stainless it worked a treat it came from http://www.chronos.ltd.uk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow.
The connections to the water jacket are a hoselock splitting block one hose into two unscrewed and silver soldered on I used a brass elbow not only for stripping down but also to allow hight into collecting jar alterations, here its set up as a Liebig



and here with a 39" 2" pipe that has a 9" condenser head screwed to it as a Reflux

I've yet to fit the condenser angled plates and the reflux needle valve but it's coming along
cheers all Danny

dang.......where did ya git the copper bowl?

Cookshop.com UK Ebay as a 1/2 price shop soiled, couple tiny dings, but there's a few on USA Ebay search :- copper mixing bowl
good luck Danny

gorgeous work so far.. those are those 'crimp' style fittings are they not?

evilpsych wrote:gorgeous work so far.. those are those 'crimp' style fittings are they not?

Just started using the Vega style ones at work. Dunno how they'd be for a still, they have a rubber O ring in em.


Those fittings look like the old style standard softsoldered ones (Yorkway?)

Must be getting em for free though.....








MoreJointsThanWoodstockPunkin

Yes Yorkshire(lead free) solder rings.It goes from the copper bowl at 1.5" brass back nut to 54mm copper pipe to 54mm to 35mm reducer to 35mm to 28mm reducer to 28mm pipe to 28mm shallow bend to 28mm pipe to 28mm 90* presstex with olives brass bend to 28mm pipe to 28mm to 22mm reducer to 22mm pipe to 22mm to 15mm reducer to 15mm pipe which goes through a 28mm water jacket with 28mm to 15mm reducers and 28mm,28mm,15mm T's. All soldered with the propane blow torch shown in the photos.I could have silver soldered with it but the whole job was getting too hot so I used bottles shown in my 14ft x 10ft shed :-

Apan round the shed :- (and remember a "tidy shed" is the sign of a deranged mind ! )


cheers all Danny

I got a few lanterns and pot & pans for sale. Need any?

Do they come with a free shed
Danny