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Additional Column for T500 Boiler
I ⁸thought i would share this for anyone who has a T500 boiler, who is looking to build their own column.I decided to scrap my column i made for it, it was a hotch potch of bits and fittings, looked crap to be honest.New one 1.2mtr 2″ copper, +sight glass and 2″ 90 bend to the condenser. 1.3mtr inall.Made a coil reflux attached to the bend, i ran it yesterday, with 1mtr of packing, in reflux mode, i found it quite easy to ballance the column, I put 1.3 gals of 60% vodka+ 3 gals RO water.I got some good results, 94% abv+1 for temp diff. Posting pics if anyone is interested. Gimmi a shout fot further info.
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10 Replies
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Looks like a well thought out design and fabrication.
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Good Job , pretty much a giant T500. LM Still.
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Reefer1,Congratulations, a very nice still design and a nice run. You have done your homework.You have a streamlined CM reflux column with a coil for the deflegmater. Glad you found the proper cooling water flow rate to run at. I am interested in your run data. Hope you have some estimates of these values. What was the distillate product rate ( L/hr ) and the cooling water flow rate ( ml/min ) ? I presume they were both at fairly low values. I can use that information to check out my packed reflux column calculator. You can check my post of April 9, 2024 about this calculator in the following thread : CM reflux column and we found the best settings to give a 96% distillate ABV. The best settings were about 25% pot abv, 1800 watts and 1 L/hr product rate. You might want to try out those settings, you need to make some low wines for the pot charge.So, good luck in future runs. I hope you can post some more good run data. I might bug you later to see what your best settings are. haggy
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Cool Bananas ReeferI see you running just under 1kw.If that is a 2” column , you could run closer to 2kw no worries. That will get you a higher ABV for the same takeoff rate ….. or a higher takeoff rate for the same ABV as you’re getting now . I bet that coil uses bugger all waterEDIT : haggy is right . You should run more power .My recommended goto .wiki/index.ph … ion_Theory
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Thanks guys, to be fare i was astounded how well it worked out, my old column had cross pipes reflux it never produced anything near the abv i wanted.Haggy, some interesting points regarding power, so the T500 is i think 2.1kw max you would go full on and ballance out by pushing more water through the coil, i got used to running a pot, low and slow.Data wise, i didnt take notes, busy watching the run.Waterr usage on the coil, Yummy. Hard to tell as both the exit pipes drain to single pipe, good point though i may isolate both outputs, head temp remained 79deg throughoutSo Haggy, i ran from boil point, roughly 5 ish hours, till the tails showed up, when i say tails, the clean taste started to reduce and it tasted crap so i stoppedFlow rate drip drip spurt and so on, i adjusted water flow to maintain that output, which was pretty stable for 4 hours, i have about 4.5 pints that includes fores, heads and some tail end. Further info on the packing, 1mtr =4 coarse copper mesh rolls, the rest was SS scrubbers, about 15 of e’m.The only mods i may make is to the column, being 1.2 mtr long its a bugger to clean, i have a couple of copper 2″ ferrules left i think i will cut it in half and joint it, easier to manage and also would give me anoption if i decide to go to bubble plates.The sight glass is a real eye opener, you get so much visual info and see the reflux in action.Also Haggy, noted regarding poolguys settings, its a good reference point.As usual cracking advice guys.
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Just another point guys, i ran at 95 abv, is there a lot of difference at 96 abv, tastewise, I use my neut. For making gin and dilute for Vodka. So cleaner the better for me.
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You can pack a lot of flavour in 5% water. There was an interesting video posted recently on the congeners in high ester rum which showed how little of a compound it often takes to add flavour.Strip your wash and dilute your low wines with water to try and trap the tails in the boiler. Or even try diluting and stripping twice. There are tricks with adding sodium carbonate to trap some of the esters in the boiler. Not sure how noticeable the difference between 95% and 96% would be compared to running a cleaner, neutral ferment.”I have a potstill that smears like a fresh plowed coon on the highway” – JimboA little spoon feeding *For New & Novice Distillers
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Its not easy to know how a truly neut. Tastes i never tasted it, so no bench mark, all vodka’s have a varying taste. Thats really the closest i get.Ive seen a number of neut. Recipes around, i generally add pack of weetabix and a handfull of porrage oats, into mine, just to add a background base taste.You guys got any preference??
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Reefer1, thanks for more info on your first run.That first run was at low power and slow. Good. I have seen many others push the power too high and flood the column on their first go.I did some estimating / calculating of the run and think the product rate was at about 0.73 L/hr. That would give the 4 to 5 hour run time to the tails. At your pot conditions of about 18% abv and 996 watts, the vapor up the columnshould be at a rate of about 2.93 L/hr, so about 2.20 L/hr was the condensed reflux rate by the defleg. That gives a RR reflux ratio of 3. ( 2.20 / 0.73 ) Next RunHigher pot power and higher pot abv will give more vapor up the column, so more can be condensed into reflux and give a higher RR. A RR of 5 to 6 should give a higher ( better ) 96% neutral. PoolGuy’s settings ( 1800 watts, 25% abv, 1 L/hr ) should give a RR about 5. A little higher 1950 watts and lower 0.9 l/hr product rate would give a RR about 6. With more alcohol in a 6 gal 25% pot charge, run time would be about 6 to 7 hours.What you need to do for the next runA CM reflux column at constant pot power has the product rate set and controlled by the amount of reflux condensed. The defleg RC cooling water flow rate determines the amount of cooling and reflux condensed. So it is important to know the cw flow rate and what rate is needed for a certain product rate.You should run separate flows to the RC and the PC. That way you can measure the defleg RC cw flow rate and the RC cw exit temperature. You can then find the RC cw flow rate or needle valve setting needed and set this rate in future runs.My estimates for your RC defleg cw flow rate needed for PoolGuy’s settings are about 600 to 700 ml/min. That is based on the PoolGuy settings and your defleg coil tube of 0.37 ” diameter and 55 ” long and other conditions. A higher pot abv will give a higher column vapor and higher cw flow needs. And vice – versa. The initial total reflux equilabrating of the column will need a RC cw of about 900 to 1100 ml/min. So, be prepared to be able to feed, set and control these RC cw flow rates. Measuring the RC flow rate can be done with a flowmeter or on-line by timing a known amount of exit RC cw flow. Or by calibrating the needle valve position before the run.Eventually, you probably will know the best RC needle valve setting, and like most stillers, not need to measure the cw flow rate. But it is a help.haggy
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Appreciate the work you did Haggy.The equations you worked out on my run are excellant.I get the gist of them i think lol, nice to see how you calculated them is there a technic data sheet with them explaining how this all works.Couple of things i need to look at, isolating the RC coil output, and find a way to measure the through put.And make a temp sensor port as well, i suppose the main condenser PC is it ? no tracking needed i guess.Just keep it cold ye.!!The needle valve i use is the one that cam OEM with T500 it has no scale on the control knob so it was a case take a guess and tweek it mm by mm i was supprised how small the adustments need to be, more than a mm affected the production rate greatly, took me 15-mins to settle the flow. When set it was pretty stable, There was a question, whats your take on this, how do suggest i start the run, reflux full on and release or do you allow the fores/heads through then when it cleans up start the reflux.I did the latter, as i wasnt sure, and i charged the boiler with relatively clean heads. Next time i do a run it will be stripped but potentially more heads/tails in the low wines.So i am not sure whats best, i saw a post last week about this subject but everone has their own take.Excellant Haggy thanks buddy appreciated.
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