Bottom of the thermometer port
Posted: Sun Jul 14, 2019 9:17 am
Hallo,
I have done some search without finding what I was looking for, if I missed something, please point me to the relevant thread.
After one year, and some problems, here I am again, still building my first still. I am just trying to wash my SS SPP in water and vinegar at the moment.
I have a question regarding the bottom of the thermometer port/well. (I know I am supposed to do the cuts by smell/taste, and a lot of spitting, and that I will do. Yet a thermometer is nice to understand at what point of the process one is, if everything is flowing normally etc. I agree one can do without. That's not the point).
When I bought the module of the still, and I chose the one with the thermometer port, I thought I would have received a port with a hole at the bottom. I would insert the (metallic) thermometer probe in the well, and the probe would read the temperature of the vapours at the top of the still, and I would have to seal the thermometer well with some flour paste.
But when I received the part, I saw that the thermometer port is actually "blind", it's closed at its bottom. Is this the way it is supposed to be? Or am I supposed to drill a hole to allow the probe to be in contact with the vapours?
As it is now, I don't need to drill a hole and I don't need to seal with flour paste, but I am just measuring the inner temperature of the well and not the temperature of the vapours.
The still is in stainless steel, which is not as fast as copper in reacting to a temperature change in the vapours.
I feel that by using the "blind" thermometer well I am just measuring the vapour temperature with some delay. A bit like when one uses a parrot, and the "signal" the parrot gives is not istantaneous, because the product gets "averaged" within the parrot.
Do I do something very stupid if I drill a hole in my all-new still-unused stainless steel thermowell?
I have done some search without finding what I was looking for, if I missed something, please point me to the relevant thread.
After one year, and some problems, here I am again, still building my first still. I am just trying to wash my SS SPP in water and vinegar at the moment.
I have a question regarding the bottom of the thermometer port/well. (I know I am supposed to do the cuts by smell/taste, and a lot of spitting, and that I will do. Yet a thermometer is nice to understand at what point of the process one is, if everything is flowing normally etc. I agree one can do without. That's not the point).
When I bought the module of the still, and I chose the one with the thermometer port, I thought I would have received a port with a hole at the bottom. I would insert the (metallic) thermometer probe in the well, and the probe would read the temperature of the vapours at the top of the still, and I would have to seal the thermometer well with some flour paste.
But when I received the part, I saw that the thermometer port is actually "blind", it's closed at its bottom. Is this the way it is supposed to be? Or am I supposed to drill a hole to allow the probe to be in contact with the vapours?
As it is now, I don't need to drill a hole and I don't need to seal with flour paste, but I am just measuring the inner temperature of the well and not the temperature of the vapours.
The still is in stainless steel, which is not as fast as copper in reacting to a temperature change in the vapours.
I feel that by using the "blind" thermometer well I am just measuring the vapour temperature with some delay. A bit like when one uses a parrot, and the "signal" the parrot gives is not istantaneous, because the product gets "averaged" within the parrot.
Do I do something very stupid if I drill a hole in my all-new still-unused stainless steel thermowell?