Old School Bubbler Build
Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2016 8:34 pm
Here are a few photos of a Still I built a while ago, I started this build on the 10 -9-2011 and finished it approximately 27-11-2011.
I guess this is what would now be called an “old school” build as it’s not modular and uses a plate tree to keep everything in place, it also has a slide in dephlegmator.
I built this still with a minimum of tools and with very little experience soldering.
The plates are home spun, the perforation holes are 1.5mm and they are on a 5mm grid pattern, there are 219 holes on each plate give or take one or two.
The bath depth on the plates is 20mm.
The dephlegmator is four inches in length and has 4 x1inch vapor tubes. Water enters the top and exits the bottom, opposite of most condensers.
At the time I built this still I wasn’t convinced that air couldn’t get trapped in a dephlegmator with the water exiting the bottom, so I added a air bleed tap to it. I’m glad I did as it holds a lot of air.
The product condenser is 17 inches long, and has 5 x ½ inch vapor tubes.
I’ve stripped using this still at 15L an hour, given more water supply the condenser could easily handle more than that.
A mate did the fancy plumbing work for the condenser water and also helped solder up the reflux condenser as I was having trouble getting that part soldered up using map gas.
The plate tree and close up of one plate.
Checking the fit in the column.
Dephlegmator, was made to slide into the four inch column by splitting a bit of four inch, taking a slice out and then soldering it back together. Lots harder than the way its mostly done now.
Everything ready to slide into the column.
Shaping the product take off pipe.
Hacking into the piece of four inch for the first time made me a bit nervous.
I didn’t have a hole saw the right size so had to rough it out using a little one then cleaned up the mess.
Machined down the flanges and soldered them to short copper sleeves as I wasn’t confident I could solder stainless straight to the column.
Getting there, had to sit it on a keg to see what it was going to look like. Getting very impatient to have it finished and run it at this stage.
The finished product.
As far as I know this was the first Bubbler to have the taps mounted on a plate between the main column and the product condenser.
Air bleed tap.
In a hurry to run this thing, excuse the zippy ties I’ll solder that up later.
I guess this is what would now be called an “old school” build as it’s not modular and uses a plate tree to keep everything in place, it also has a slide in dephlegmator.
I built this still with a minimum of tools and with very little experience soldering.
The plates are home spun, the perforation holes are 1.5mm and they are on a 5mm grid pattern, there are 219 holes on each plate give or take one or two.
The bath depth on the plates is 20mm.
The dephlegmator is four inches in length and has 4 x1inch vapor tubes. Water enters the top and exits the bottom, opposite of most condensers.
At the time I built this still I wasn’t convinced that air couldn’t get trapped in a dephlegmator with the water exiting the bottom, so I added a air bleed tap to it. I’m glad I did as it holds a lot of air.
The product condenser is 17 inches long, and has 5 x ½ inch vapor tubes.
I’ve stripped using this still at 15L an hour, given more water supply the condenser could easily handle more than that.
A mate did the fancy plumbing work for the condenser water and also helped solder up the reflux condenser as I was having trouble getting that part soldered up using map gas.
The plate tree and close up of one plate.
Checking the fit in the column.
Dephlegmator, was made to slide into the four inch column by splitting a bit of four inch, taking a slice out and then soldering it back together. Lots harder than the way its mostly done now.
Everything ready to slide into the column.
Shaping the product take off pipe.
Hacking into the piece of four inch for the first time made me a bit nervous.
I didn’t have a hole saw the right size so had to rough it out using a little one then cleaned up the mess.
Machined down the flanges and soldered them to short copper sleeves as I wasn’t confident I could solder stainless straight to the column.
Getting there, had to sit it on a keg to see what it was going to look like. Getting very impatient to have it finished and run it at this stage.
The finished product.
As far as I know this was the first Bubbler to have the taps mounted on a plate between the main column and the product condenser.
Air bleed tap.
In a hurry to run this thing, excuse the zippy ties I’ll solder that up later.
.