Home Distiller

My new 6 gallon all copper rig works great, but I was a little disappointed to find that the 1.5 gallon condenser doesn't have any inlet or outlet. I can deal with no inlet, but I want an overflow outlet near the top. I'm ok w/ drilling a hole but I don't want to solder. Any suggestions?

C

Can you attach a pic of your condenser and rig? I'm not understanding your message; a condenser with no input or output? That makes it some form of passive heat sync?

Yeah sorry I wasn't clear about that. There's an inlet/outlet from the condenser coil of course, but not for drainage of cooling water, that's what I'm looking for. Towards the end of a run it's constant changing out of the water and ice melts in a couple minutes.

Can't figure out how to post an image sorry.

Are you trying to tell us that there is no inlet or outlet in your flake stand and the water cooling your worm keeps getting hot?

Drill holes just slightly smaller than the outside diameter of the plastic tubing you decide to use for supply and drain plumbing. Just jam the tubing into the holes for a friction fit. Remember, if you make the holes too small, you can enlarge them. If you make the holes too large, you'll need larger tubing.

Or, even a bulkhead (hose) fitting...it would work as well.
ss

p.s.- A 1 1/2 gallon flake stand is waayy small for a 6 gallon boiler. You'll have to turn over the water several times.

Skipper1953 wrote:Are you trying to tell us that there is no inlet or outlet in your flake stand and the water cooling your worm keeps getting hot?

Drill holes just slightly smaller than the outside diameter of the plastic tubing you decide to use for supply and drain plumbing. Just jam the tubing into the holes for a friction fit. Remember, if you make the holes too small, you can enlarge them. If you make the holes too large, you'll need larger tubing.

Yes that's exactly it. Great idea! I just assumed I'd need some kind of fitting in there...

Stiill stirrin recomends a fitting - which would be best.

However do a search of ebay on HA6 and you will find a good alternative sealant.

Thanks, thats what I was lookin for a bulkhead fitting, just didn't know what it was called.

cellsaver wrote:Thanks, thats what I was lookin for a bulkhead fitting, just didn't know what it was called.

For anyone loooking for one in the uk they're called "tank connectors".

Why not just make a bigger flake stand instead of modifying a poor.design? With one that small it looses all the virtues of a worm (other than arguably aesthetics).

Using ice to aid cooling is also a liability .

Truckinbutch I wasn't aware of that, whats the liability w/ ice?

Btw here's my rig, just distilling some water here:

Howzit work with the hotplate? Have you modified the hotplate to eliminate the thermostat, or is the heat output proportional to the rheostat setting? Typically, hotplates are controlled by a temperature setting and will cycle on/off/on as the burner temperature approaches the setting.

It is best to eliminate the thermostat and make power adjustment with a "duty cycle" or "zero crossing" or a solid state relay (SSR) control circuit since the heat element is a pure resistance device. Check the Related Electrical Accessories forum for much discussion about this.
ss

still_stirrin wrote:Howzit work with the hotplate? Have you modified the hotplate to eliminate the thermostat, or is the heat output proportional to the rheostat setting? Typically, hotplates are controlled by a temperature setting and will cycle on/off/on as the burner temperature approaches the setting.

It is best to eliminate the thermostat and make power adjustment with a "duty cycle" or "zero crossing" or a solid state relay (SSR) control circuit since the heat element is a pure resistance device. Check the Related Electrical Accessories forum for much discussion about this.
ss

Interesting, never thought of that but I'll check it out. Have done numerous runs w/ no obvious problems but then again I'm new to this...

cellsaver wrote: Interesting, never thought of that but I'll check it out. Have done numerous runs w/ no obvious problems but then again I'm new to this...

Looks like I have the same hotplate, the Broil King 1500w. I have not messed with the electronics on mine. When pot stillin at low power, usually around # 5 to 6 on that unit, I would see a small surges in heat that translate into 4-6 degree F temp swings at my takeoff. You may also be able to hear the boiling change during the surges. A three pound heat sync between the hotplate and boiler eliminates the surging for me. That's a 1/4" thick aluminum plate, 10" x 10". I tried a smaller iron heat sync, about one (1) lb, and it reduced my surging to 2 degree F swings, but it did not eliminate the surges totally. There is some efficiency loss with the sync, but considering I only use it when doing slow spirit runs on less than full power, it does not impact my runs.

OtisT wrote:

cellsaver wrote: IA three pound heat sync between the hotplate and boiler eliminates the surging for me. That's a 1/4" thick aluminum plate, 10" x 10".

Just ordered a 1/4 inch 12x12 alumimum plate from Amazon, will see if that does the job.

cellsaver wrote:

OtisT wrote:

cellsaver wrote: IA three pound heat sync between the hotplate and boiler eliminates the surging for me. That's a 1/4" thick aluminum plate, 10" x 10".

Just ordered a 1/4 inch 12x12 alumimum plate from Amazon, will see if that does the job.

That should do the job. A few tips for you on using with the sync:

Be sure the surface of the hotplate, both sides of the aluminum, and the bottom of the boiler are all smooth and free of bebris or high spots. You need a flush contact or you will create hot spots and get poor performance. This is no different than what you should check now with your hotplate/boiler setup, but with two more surfaces there is more to check. My plate had a few "dings" in it, and I fixed by taking a flat/smooth file to the surfaces and edges of the plate.

Stillin with the plate is like steering an aircraft carrier. Changes to power settings will take time to be seen in your still. Make small changes, and give them time to propagate.

It looks like the cornsers of you 12x12 plate will stick out from the edges of your boiler. Be careful, that plate will be HOT.

Best of luck to you and happy stillin. Otis

cellsaver wrote:Truckinbutch I wasn't aware of that, whats the liability w/ ice?

Btw here's my rig, just distilling some water here:

Ice floats and can destroy your temperature gradient (warm at the top to cold at the bottom ) which will induce huffing and smearing .
A quick workaround for that is to ballast plastic containers with enough sand to sink them to the bottom of the coolant reservoir . Fill them with water and freeze . Tie a string on the neck of each so you can retrieve and each one as coolant temp rises . That restores the cold bottom/warm top gradient .
Hope that helped .

Pretty rig , by the way .

Nice looking still. It's a shame they put a thermometer in about the most useless position possible.

My latest trick with Liebigs, (that I think should also work with worms but I haven't tried it), is to use a controller to turn the cooling water on and off with the thermocouple in the output stream controlling the temperature of the condensate. This would be most efficient if the cooling water was added at the bottom of the flake stand and introduced counterflow to the worm.

OtisT wrote:

cellsaver wrote:

OtisT wrote:

cellsaver wrote: Stillin with the plate is like steering an aircraft carrier. Changes to power settings will take time to be seen in your still. Make small changes, and give them time to propagate.

It looks like the cornsers of you 12x12 plate will stick out from the edges of your boiler. Be careful, that plate will be HOT.

Otis

Trying a run with 12" plate, can't even get my still about 125F with hot plate maxed out. I think maybe there's too much heat loss through all the aluminium sticking out as the diameter of my still is 10".

cellsaver wrote:
Trying a run with 12" plate, can't even get my still about 125F with hot plate maxed out. I think maybe there's too much heat loss through all the aluminium sticking out as the diameter of my still is 10".

My guess would be that you don't have good contact between the hot plate and aluminum, or between the aluminum and the boiler. If you have an air gap/ high spot, it will slow things down Drastically and can scorch the pan. I've noted some efficiency loss with plates, but it's not that drastic. My first Aluminum block was 7 pounds and I still had no trouble reaching boil with 8 gallons of wash.

Does your boiler have an entirely flat bottom surface, or perhaps a lip around the bottom edge that won't allow a flat contact with the al block. if this is the case, you will need to trim the corners of that block so it's small enough to make a clean/flat surface contact.

cellsaver wrote:Trying a run with 12" plate, can't even get my still about 125F with hot plate maxed out. I think maybe there's too much heat loss through all the aluminium sticking out as the diameter of my still is 10".

Probably the contact is bad and the overheat switch is switching all the time. Then you have in average perhaps only half the wattage and that's not enough for a 6gal uninsulated boiler. Such stills should be run with propane. Hotplates are very good only for boilers with massive sandwich bottoms IMO. You could remove the overheat switch, but probably the hotplate will start to glow then and the scorching danger will be extreme high.