Liebig output comparison

[minime]

I recently put a new liebig together and ran my first strip run with it yesterday. I had previously used a 1/2 inch inside 3/4 about 40 inches long. I could not run my propane burner flat out because it would always blow out the flour paste seal on the stock pot boiler so it usually took about 3.5 hours to strip a 15 gallon 14% wash. My new liebig is a bit shorter but it's 1 inch inside 1.25 and I was able to shave 50 minutes off my strip run without even testing the limits.(didn't want to blow out the seal) What a difference and I don't believe it uses any more water than the smaller version.

[tracker0945]

I believe you.
I started with a 24" x 1/2 inside 3/4 which ran pretty slow.
I then added another 24" x 3/4 inside 1" in front of it and the take-off rate soared.


Cheers.

[HookLine]

Did you try it with and without the mesh?

[Dnderhead]

tracker what was you coming off the still with the first time with the 1/2"? and the scent one with 3/4 ?

[tracker0945]

Dnder, Comes of with 3/4", then into 3/4" inside 1" Liebig then into 1/2" inside 3/4 Liebig.
Make sense now mate?


Cheers.

[minime]

Did you try it with and without the mesh?

No, for stripping I just left the loose mesh in there. I have one more strip to do sometime this week and I plan on pushing a little harder to see what happens. I had to use a little more water but overall should be the same volume because there was 50 minutes less. I think there might be significant saving on fuel with this setup. I was always able to get two strip runs and a spirit run from a bottle of propane. I stripped yesterday with a fresh bottle so I'm curious to see how far this bottle will take me. I really didn't expect that big a difference in collection speed. Also the way it was running I think it could be lots shorter. From what I observed only the first inch was warm to the touch.
I'm wondering how much experimenting has been done with liebigs to determine the optimum diameter and length for stripping? I think a bit more mesh and you could likely get away with 15 to 18 inches.
The price of copper is rising dramatically here. I buy from an industrial pipe supplier and their newest price list shows copper pipe up 60% and fittings doubling in price. Still building is going to get very expensive over the next year as those increases hit the retail market.
:

[HookLine]

I had to use a little more water but overall should be the same volume because there was 50 minutes less.

In theory, the total amount of water used should be about the same, because it is the same total amount of heat that is being removed (just at different rates, ie over different time periods). Though of course in practice various scaling factors and inefficiencies will make some difference.

From what I observed only the first inch was warm to the touch.

I set my coolant flow rate so that the first 20-25% of the Liebig is warm to the touch. (Remember that I am not using a re-circulating system, so using the least water is important to me.) The product comes out quite warm but not hot.

I'm wondering how much experimenting has been done with liebigs to determine the optimum diameter and length for stripping? I think a bit more mesh and you could likely get away with 15 to 18 inches.

The Liebig is probably not the most efficient design of heat exchanger. Creating some turbulence (in both the vapour, and the coolant flows) is probably the main key to improving its efficiency.

I am going to try a bit of mesh in the top end of the Liebig to see how much difference a bit of turbulence makes.

The price of copper is rising dramatically here. I buy from an industrial pipe supplier and their newest price list shows copper pipe up 60% and fittings doubling in price. Still building is going to get very expensive over the next year as those increases hit the retail market.
:

Glad I have already built mine. With a bit of luck they will last me the rest of my days.

[minime]

Son of a bitch'n leaks. I ran the first strip with this liebig and it worked perfectly. I fired up the still for another striping run and when the still was nearing the boil I turned on the water and it came pouring out the liebig into the collection jar. I shut down the still 3 times and re-soldered the bad joint before I finally got it to the point where it was just a minor leak on the outside of the pipe. Point is I lost track of time and didn't really measure output/time.

After the fact I hit it with some more solder and made the whole thing worst. Jeeeez I hate when that happens. Anyway I finally had to take the whole f**kn' thing apart and rebuild it.

I can't figure out why it didn't leak on the first run Seems to be ok now but it's just hangin' on the wall not doing anything

[rad14701]

Son of a bitch'n leaks.
<<< SNIP >>>
I can't figure out why it didn't leak on the first run

Sounds like a weak solder joint cracked during the cooling process... Also sounds like you found how difficult it can be to repair a joint once it was contaminated by water... It's not uncommon to have to disassemble in order to guarantee a solid repair...

[eternalfrost]

the soldering thing happened to me and what i did was sanded down the whole area with a dremel and re soldered it so it extended out past just the crack between the pieces and could stick solidly to the clean sanded bits.

not the prettiest thing but i tried re soldering it the normal way like 5 times and it just kept getting worse

[minime]

I've finally ran out the fresh tank of propane. My washes are 60 liter and I usually strip 2 runs and get one spirit run per 20 LB bottle of propane. This new liebig got me one extra full strip and ran out about 1/3 of the way into the 4th strip. So I'm guestimating between 25 and 28% savings on fuel. Was a gift as far as I'm concerned as I was just looking to save a little time and 50 minutes per strip run is awesome.