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 xurzax
Transcendingtime & space
Registered: 08/28/05
Posts: 168
Loc: canada, eh.
Last seen: 8 months, 22 days
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 Making a Distillation Apparatus 
#7575072 - 10/29/07 11:14 PM (4 years, 6 months ago) |
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I was just going to make a wok still, but when I found a 13 liter pressure cooker for $15 I figured why not make something out of that.
After running to a few different stores I came up with:
(From left to right: brass fitting with variable control, a shitty water cooler, the afor mentioned 13l pc, 25' 1/4" copper tubing and a long vinyl siphon hose)
The total cost for all these supplies was ~$40
To bend the copper tubing into a coil I just used a soup can:
And came up with:
I then drilled a hole through the cooler and after a little effort got the coil into it:
And sealed around the hole with silicone:
screwed the spigot into the lid of the PC where there used to be some kind of gauge:
Then connected the other end of the copper tubing to the spigot:
And this is the rough semi finished still:
For a total cost of $40 and about an hours work I think it turned out pretty good. I have yet to test its efficiency (My first batch of mash is still fermenting) but I'm hoping it gets the job done.
If anyone has any suggestions on how to improve it they would be much appreciated.
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 sleepy
zZzZzZzZz
 
Registered: 01/17/05
Posts: 3,888
Loc: 
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Re: Making a Distillation Apparatus [Re: xurzax]
#7575120 - 10/29/07 11:32 PM (4 years, 6 months ago) |
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as long as the copper doesn't come off into the moonshine, why not?
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Wiccan_Seeker
gold foil hat admin
Registered: 02/06/02
Posts: 29,714
Loc: Virgo Supercluster (or b...
Last seen: 12 hours, 15 minutes
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Re: Making a Distillation Apparatus [Re: xurzax]
#7575911 - 10/30/07 09:01 AM (4 years, 6 months ago) |
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I see two bottlenecks here, one potentially dangerous and the other a nuisance.
First the dangerous one: you are using 1/4 inch copper tubing on a still which you will use for 10-12.5 liters capacity. Compare the diameter of the pressure cooker with that of the tube, it's a huge difference.
I would feel more at peace with you using 1/2 inch copper tubing for this setup. The difference may seem slight, but the surface area cross-section of a 1/2 inch tube at the same pressure allows for 4x more vapor to pass through than a 1/4 inch tube.
You might be able to run this setup at a low boil, or you might not without considerable pressure building up.
The second one is a nuisance problem: the water vat of your heat exchanger is quite small, which will mean you have to change the water fairly often.
If I were you I would go for 1/2 inch tubing, and a good 20-30 feet thereof. At that diameter and length you probably won't need a water vat: air cooling will be enough. In that stabilized scenario you could take measurements so that you could put the pressure cooker on an electric hotplate with a timer switch, so that you can turn it on, it distills itself and at the end of the run it will switch itself off.
**this will take some thorough testing** but then you could arrive at a scenario where you switch it on, go to work, and come home to four liters of freshly distilled vodka 
If you want to go all the way then instead of a PC you can take a 30 liter beer keg, let 2 meters of your 1/2" tube spiral upwards and then 8 meter spiral downwards (sounds huge but its quite compact) so that you have a coil still of 25 liters capacity, and put this on a hotplate with a timer switch. This setup will allow you to distill a full 25 liter batch of Turbo wash in one go to a strength of 90% and over. You fill it, let it do its thing and shut itself down and there you have 2 gallons of homemade "everclear".
I strongly recommend that your recepticle for the distillate has at least 40% of the capacity of the amount distilled. That way, if something goes horribly wrong somewhere, it will overflow with diluted alcohol and not with flammable alcohol of 50+%
Likewise, don't let your recepticle be glass either: if it shatters due to heat you have liters of warm combustible spirits flowing. Eliminating water cooling eliminates the last of the most common possible mishaps.
You must watch your still carefully and ask yourself: "what would happen if Inspector Clouseau ran this still?"
You should do the same with any lab/extraction setup you might be planning.
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Gringo Biloba
Fluid TransferTech
Registered: 10/31/07
Posts: 16
Last seen: 4 years, 6 months
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Re: Making a Distillation Apparatus [Re: xurzax]
#7609083 - 11/07/07 09:00 PM (4 years, 6 months ago) |
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Xurzax, this is not going to work properly as a 'still. The diameter of your tubing is too small and there is no fractionation column. It looks dangerous. If that thing boiled over and some debris got stuck in the tubing inlet you have a bomb on your hands. Sorry.
The only thing that comes to mind when I see that thing is a possible steam generator (for steam distillations), and it would have to be run super slow.
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CaptainLinger
A Fungus Amongus
Registered: 05/25/07
Posts: 1,756
Last seen: 4 years, 4 months
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Re: Making a Distillation Apparatus [Re: Gringo Biloba]
#7609842 - 11/08/07 02:15 AM (4 years, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
The only thing that comes to mind when I see that thing is a possible steam generator (for steam distillations),
I'm not sure what other type you'd have in mind.
However even if this is effective, it's worth noting that it's nothing but a pot still. Reflux stills, capable of distilling 3x4 times without cycling, are much handier. I made mine from this guide:
http://www.moonshine-still.com/still.pdf
(you can probably still use the PC shell; good luck!)
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xurzax
Transcendingtime & space
Registered: 08/28/05
Posts: 168
Loc: canada, eh.
Last seen: 8 months, 22 days
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Re: Making a Distillation Apparatus [Re: Gringo Biloba]
#7617749 - 11/10/07 06:05 AM (4 years, 6 months ago) |
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Please keep in mind that theres a pressure release valve on the top of the PC that comes up well before the interior pressure reaches the point where the thing is going to explode.
I would use 1/2" copper tubing, but the size of the hole in the lid kind of restricts what gauge of tubing I can use.
I do plan on heading back over to the hardware store in the next few days to search for some kind of adapter that will allow me to use the existing hole with larger tubing, because while I don't see this thing exploding anytime soon, I'd much rather err on the side of caution.
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Gringo Biloba
Fluid TransferTech
Registered: 10/31/07
Posts: 16
Last seen: 4 years, 6 months
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Re: Making a Distillation Apparatus [Re: xurzax]
#7618625 - 11/10/07 11:45 AM (4 years, 6 months ago) |
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So what happens when the pressure relief blows and you are doing an alcohol distillation/extraction? The hot alcohol and vapour runs down to your heat source and poof. I'm just trying to save you the hassle.
Also, if you are trying to distill alcohol (or any other solvent) you should have a fractionating colum for it to have any decent purity and monitor the temperature at the top of the colum (just before the vapours enter the condensor).
What are you trying to distill or what purpose will the apparatus have?
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