Home Distiller

Tracked down this 50l today. Now to spend elbow grease getting all those stickers off. I didnt notice until i got home with it that it was a type s euro spear (whatever u call it lol), thought i was going to have a time with it but out it came with a couple screw drivers and a couple cuss words. Now to make some decisions, weld/solder. flip or not to flip (for drain). Annnd off i go to search what takes off stickers the best. $30 poorer but hopefully thats decent price.

Going to try and go Electric with this one.

That's a decent price, you should be good to go.

Paint stripper will take anything off the keg surface and it's safe so long as it's the outside.

If you need anything bigger than 2" for your column, flip the keg. Save you a bunch of time cutting out the new opening.

Solder! Screw crappy welds at 10x the price if ya gotta pay for em!

Fill the keg so it won't float and soak in oxiclean or washing soda to get at least a start on removing stickers. Or just go caveman and leave them there to slowly deteriorate and scortch off over time

I think i am going to go the solder route. I tried some paint thinner and acetone, it removed some of the paper and glue but barely touched the stickers with the coated surface (newer stickers).

So, i rubbed the whole thing down in paint thinner and went to sanding with my handheld. got a lot off including some paint that was sprayed on the back.. I sprayed it off with the hose and let it sit a while, sprayed it again and wet sanded.. its getting there lol. Ill hit it with the thinner again after another sand or 2.

paint thinner, sand, paint thinner, sand, water, paint thinner sand and so on lol. Looking better already. less than an hour in:

mixed up some fresh watermellon juice and BW TPW. I acredit that to my elbow grease. whew going down too good. Ribs are smoking. Its a beautiful day. Yeah i may have drank a little too much of it. Going to have to ease off for a bit lol.

Now to order my 2" radius flange from brew hw, get that ready to go and on to building my controller. Im at a point to where im good with the exterior. one day i may mirror or polish it, not today.


Need to repurpose my 5 gallon.. initially thought about using it as a thumper.. maybe one day. Wife will have my head if i keep dumping money in this lolol

The flange is for the element? You going with the radius cut solder on, or the new pull through?

zapata wrote:The flange is for the element? You going with the radius cut solder on, or the new pull through?

zapata, do you have pictures of the flanges and how they fit on? Or a web address with pictures? Haven't heard of the 'new pull-through.'
I need to put elements in my still; stainless, a bit narrower than the kegs, looks like thirteen inches and the elements at Stilldragon are twelve inches so should fit.

So I need fittings and the easiest to fit would be the go.

Thanks,

Geoff

J3hx, I just reread your post and see you specifically mentioned the radius solder flange, oops, then I asked a stupid question.

Geoff, the flanges are here:
http://www.brewhardware.com/SearchResul ... der+flange" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
Those all have a wide surface to hold a lot of solder. The radius cut fit perfectly on a keg but the videos show how he makes them work with less than perfectly matching radius. Ive used both the flat and radius cut and thought they were the best thing ever until I saw the pull throughs.

The pull through line is based on what the homebrew forums have been calling dimpling.
http://www.brewhardware.com/product_p/p ... ol15tc.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
I have not used this, but it just looks like a great well executed idea. It's really more of a tool than a fitting, so you could probably copy it with local parts. You're down under, right?

I have used his smaller pull through tool for 1/2" couplings. Both using the flared fitting as just the die and replacing it with a full coupler, as well as just pressing in the flared fitting and soldering it in.
Full lineup of smaller pull through fittings here:
http://www.brewhardware.com/SearchResul ... ll+through" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

I've thought for a while it'd be cool to get him to tackle the tooling for dimpling flute sight glasses. For 2-3" short triclamp ferrules and/or for the smaller copper trap adapters. He's doing the 1.5" triclamp tool as a loan program, buy it, return it for a discount. That seems mighty convenient for a one time build like a flute, and a dimple pressed copper trap on a copper column would be elegant as all getout, though I wish those trap adapters were larger, seems like even the 2" aren't available any more.

Mechanical Elbow grease and it will come up so you can have a shave while running still...

Thanks, Zapata, I will study this fittings information carefully.

I also have an old copper fire extinguisher body that has an original brass male fitting welded (dunno but it is really smoothly joined....) that I expect I will have to cut out and replace (copper would be fantastic but stainless will do) and just a hole at the other end. It attaches to the top of the stainless boiler (a bit narrower and taller than a keg.)

(Yes, I am in Australia, lower right part of the mainland)

Geoff

Part and solder/flux ordered. Now to track down something to drill this with.. Expensive stuff so far.. looks like ill need a 1-13/16 to 2" hole

I've used the $20 knock out punch set from harbor freight.
http://Www.harborfreight.com/knockout-p ... 60575.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
None of them are the perfect size, but the closest worked fine, holes a little small which left a small lip that would catch and hold water. But a few minutes with a file notched a V into the lip so it's not a problem. It's probably the easiest cleanest way on a budget. Takes less than 10 minutes and that includes figuring out how to hold the nut through the neck of the keg! Which btw you only need to hold for the first few turns, once it bites you drive it from the outside.

The Baker wrote:Thanks, Zapata, I will study this fittings information carefully.

I also have an old copper fire extinguisher body that has an original brass male fitting welded (dunno but it is really smoothly joined....) that I expect I will have to cut out and replace (copper would be fantastic but stainless will do) and just a hole at the other end. It attaches to the top of the stainless boiler (a bit narrower and taller than a keg.)

(Yes, I am in Australia, lower right part of the mainland)

Geoff

Enquired today about electro-plating with copper. They said maybe seventy or eighty dollars Australian. So I will probably take it for them to look at. Fifty dollars I would do it, ninety dollars I would not.... Geoff

zapata wrote:I've used the $20 knock out punch set from harbor freight.
http://Www.harborfreight.com/knockout-p ... 60575.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
None of them are the perfect size, but the closest worked fine, holes a little small which left a small lip that would catch and hold water. But a few minutes with a file notched a V into the lip so it's not a problem. It's probably the easiest cleanest way on a budget. Takes less than 10 minutes and that includes figuring out how to hold the nut through the neck of the keg! Which btw you only need to hold for the first few turns, once it bites you drive it from the outside.

Thanks zapata! Ill look i to these.

zapata wrote:Takes less than 10 minutes and that includes figuring out how to hold the nut through the neck of the keg! Which btw you only need to hold for the first few turns, once it bites you drive it from the outside.

Might I ask, how did you go about holding through the opening of a keg? I've pondered on this and can't figure out how to

A drill and a wire wheel will take those stickers off lickety-split

I was hoping you wouldn't ask...
I dont exactly remember, lol.
I remember I thought about it for a while before I was able to get to it. So I had tools ready on the bench for a half dozen approaches. I had extendable magnet retriever thingies, pincher claw retriever thingies (I've dropped a lot bolts deep inside a lot of engines, I own 4 of every retriever type made!). I had sticks, coat hangers, car door locksmith tools, wiggly ratchet extensions, wrenches, zip ties, bendy drill drivers, I dont even remember what all I had thought up.

And it was just a non-issue. You can probably get away with just using that ubiquitous tool called gravity. You might need a stick. At absolute most an extendable magnet (most likely what I used, seriously I dont remember, but that's probably what I would've started with).

Drill your pilot hole and just drop the punch piece into the keg, and set the keg on its side hanging off the bench, pilot hole down. Tilt and wiggle the keg (or manipulate with your stick or magnet) looking through the neck, wiggle till the punch is teeth side down and is over the pilot hole, and stick the bolt in the hole. I seem to remember I had the bolt part way in and it was easy to catch the punch on the bolt as I slid it past by tilting. Gravity will hold it enough to balance it. A little rotating back and forth to feel the threads are lined up and not crossed then a sharp twist will start the threads. (My threads are smooth and well oiled, imagine it would be hard if corroded). After you have the slightest bit threaded, pull back on the bolt while you thread it, a little tension will make the teeth bite enough to thread it up right by hand from the outside, then just spin your wrench and out it pops.

I remember thinking how ridiculously easy it went when I expected it to be fiddly as shit. Took me longer to put the tools away, and type this

Hell, I remember planning on taking pics after whatever clever solution I came up worked. I searched high and low and can find no pics. I guess it went so smoothly that I didnt even bother to document it.

Thanks for sharing that zapata. I still have it in my head that it would be a nightmare. I want to try it but that nagging voice in the back of my head tells me I'm a dumbass for considering it. All joking aside, I guess I just need to give it a shot.

Go to the store and handle the punch. See how little resistance there is to start the threads. Heck, take a small board with a hole in it and see how you can get it started by just poking it over the hole. Heck, grab one of their extendable magnets and simulate using that. Or whoa, look at this, 2 in 1
http://Www.harborfreight.com/24-inch-2- ... 94162.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

I would feel terrible if you had a hard time with it after my advice. It's possible I am confusing wildly good luck for ease, when N = 1 it is risky to draw conclusions.

Worst case scenario, you give it a shot and cant make it happen, just return the tool. "These arent standard sizes! Its worthless to me!". Then spend the coin on a good, even used carbide cutter. Everybody seems to love those.

well.. i got it done.. was a pain.. but ironically my shity drill was more of a pain then the keg... annnd the 13 dollar lows bimetal is pretty mich shot. i got zero smoke or excess heat on the stainless... used a little olive oil and then let the garden hose run on the bit the entire way.. at the end the teeth were shot on part of the bit and it jumped (u can see the cut marks around the hole).. they look deeper than they are.. i hope they dont cause an issue with the solder.. ill sand em down as much as possible before soldering.

trying to rig up something to hold this in place.. this may work..

Well. It aint pretty but it went fairly well... Had a small leak at bottom. I dryed it up, put in some more flux and then fed some more in.. it seems to have worked. no leaks as of yet.. If i get one later on i may try and feed some around the inside.. will be a pain so hopefully u wont have to lol. I covered hole woth my hand and held it upside down.. no drips so hopefully its good.

yikes J3HX, you have enough room to screw the tri clamp on? good looking soldering though

jon1163 wrote:yikes J3HX, you have enough room to screw the tri clamp on? good looking soldering though

Thanks jon, it seems to go on just fine. I put my column on it just to check :

I will probably use my burner as a stand. why not? And if i ever add the 5 gal as a thumper it will put me at a decent height..
Now to track down an element and order my controller parts. Going to use a 220

whew. looks great. I only worked because I did that. I welded all my fittings on and only then realized that I wasn't able to fit in the clamps! fm

j3hx wrote:I will probably use my burner as a stand. why not? And if i ever add the 5 gal as a thumper it will put me at a decent height..

20180526_145857-1200x1600.jpg

Now to track down an element and order my controller parts. Going to use a 220

jon1163 wrote:whew. looks great. I only worked because I did that. I welded all my fittings on and only then realized that I wasn't able to fit in the clamps! fm

j3hx wrote:I will probably use my burner as a stand. why not? And if i ever add the 5 gal as a thumper it will put me at a decent height..

20180526_145857-1200x1600.jpg

Now to track down an element and order my controller parts. Going to use a 220

That sounds like how most things go for me lol. I got my element ordered and my controller kit.. If all goes well ill be running off this sweet feed ferment by wednesday! I hope all goes well. Being inside is going to be a lot nicer.