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Hi, what would be a good thickness for the slanted plates in a boka inline? Thanks

Most of us that have built them just use a piece of the pipe.
Cut a piece about 2 1/2 inches long, split in half and flatten out. If you anneal it first it helps.

instead of wasting a piece of my expensive 2 inch pipe and sacrificing a few extra inches of column height, i got one of the 2" coupling fittings and cut that in half, worked great and only like a dollar

eternalfrost wrote:instead of wasting a piece of my expensive 2 inch pipe and sacrificing a few extra inches of column height, i got one of the 2" coupling fittings and cut that in half, worked great and only like a dollar

How I wish I lived somewhere that I could buy a 2" copper fitting for one of your dollars
Cheers.

Me too Tracker,
A piece of pipe 2 and a half inches long is way cheaper than a coupling and enough to make both plates.

tracker0945 wrote:

eternalfrost wrote:instead of wasting a piece of my expensive 2 inch pipe and sacrificing a few extra inches of column height, i got one of the 2" coupling fittings and cut that in half, worked great and only like a dollar

How I wish I lived somewhere that I could buy a 2" copper fitting for one of your dollars
Cheers.

Me too. I wish I could get 2" fittings for less than $18US and 2" copper pipe for less than $20 a foot!

......Hence why I am building a nice pot still instead of a reflux. The reflux will come - but not until I have the money to do it right. A keg and a huge column.

But about the original post - if your prices are like mine..It's whichever you want. I would personally get the extra foot of pipe so that I had a back up if I messed anything up.

Good luck!
Pita

The biggest problem with making plates for the Boka is that the plate thickness and slot cut must match. The thickness of the plates must be a close match the width of the cut slot. Too narrow and there is a sloppy fit that should be covered somehow by solder. If the gap is too large it is quite difficult to acheive. Too thick and it is difficult to force the plate all the way back. With my saw blade thickness, I found that the hammered pipe length was too thick to be forced all the way back. The outer diameter of 2" is 2.375, resulting in a plate thickness of .375 . The saw blade is much narrower, probably 1/16 or .0625 - just guessing. Evidently too large a difference. It can be forced, but this acts as a wedge and opens the front of the slot too much for easy soldering. First I tried bridging the gap with copper wire. It worked but I wasn't happy with the results. Second, I tried filing the slot wider- very difficult. Then, I used an electric sander to thin the plate. This was going to take a while. Finally I found some sheet gauge that approximated the slot. 14 gauge is was a little under; 12 a little over. I chose 12 which made a snug fit. It probably would have been too tight to press in without buckling , but I had done some filing . Otherwise, I should have used the 14.

Having completed the project, I would recommend just using the hammered pipe and filling the gap with copper wire though.

Oaty, I think most folk use two saw blades to get the right thickness of cut.

Yeah, but I was using a band saw. I found out about using the two bladed hacksaw later. However, good thing you mentioned it. Now, he won't have the same problem. I hadn't used it so I didn't remember to mention it. Didn't do it so didn't think of it.

Try flattening a piece of 3/4" copper pipe for the Hack/band saw size slot (for a 2" column)
and if your going mini ,try 1/2" copper flattened for 1-1/2" column with a dremal tool
slot, worked well for both mine, just snug enough to hold in place while soldering/sanding.

This is the 2" with a single hacksaw blade and the flattened 3/4" plate in place fit snugly
worked perfect!

I used your suggestion Blind eye using the 3/4 and a single saw blade it worked perfect just as you said ...thank you.

http://www.onlinemetals.com/ Has a copper sample pack for $7 that gives you some 4in x 4in plates in different thicknesses.