my brewery rebuild attempt.

[H. erectus]

The 'bloomin' virus has managed to send me off on
a totally different tangent other than beer brewing!!
Me now frantically slapping together a still pot!! This
will be far more cost effective and less time consuming.
Friggin hell, bin drinking all sorts of sap and liquids, all
most certainly not very gut friendly!! Brings me to think,
what do the chinese drink???

[H. erectus]

Managed to get some more fittings for the still.
Still outstanding some 2.5 mm brazing rod. silver
solder and Oxy/acetelyne. This the biggest headache.
Where to buy these at reasonable prices? Afrox becoming
ridiculous with their pricing structures! Some photo's of
the progress.

_DSC0203.jpg_DSC0204.JPG

[H. erectus]

Not all the fittings are the same. For those that want to do
the same or similar, take note the reducers and other fitting
have a built in ridge. This because inserting a pipe one may go
to far and block the entry from the side. Some of these are 22mm
od and some 22mm id. This ridge needs filing in this case.
_DSC0205.JPG


Now for the assembly of all the parts.

[Langchop]

I was lucky with my recent build. I bought the fittings from builders, and luckily the ridges were so marginal that just a slight additional push and the pipe popped through.

There are two types of reducers. Normal fine during ones and then ones that fit directly into another fitting. I accidentally bought the latter but they work out more convenient cos you have one solder joint less and don't have to cut a stub of pipe to connect it.

[H. erectus]

I am experiencing quite a few setbacks lately. Would seem
that brazing copper too stainless will not be such an easy task
after all. I may just have to resort at making a lid using copper.
Then, what I thought would be an easy purchase, sourcing 2.5mm
brazing rod is not the case at all. 2mm and 3.2mm yes plenty but 2.5
just a no no.
Also the price of oxygen/acetylene nowadays, almost knocked me
of my feet. In total refilling both bottles will set one back R1,300.00
,....

[H. erectus]

Have been doing a lot of research on u tube. One particular
person(George), very informative and some others. George and
big blue and the mighty mini seem most enlightening. However
some of these programs seem to to be in parts(episodes) of 2 or
even 3. Which is fine but each time there seems to be a remarkable
improvement in the interim of production. I refer to the reflux
column, in part 1 George talks of copper gauze and glass marbles.
In part 2 he seems to have incorporated a pre condensing area,
copper tubes criss crossing and in part 3 that method has been
abolished with a pre condensing sleeve. @ the brewing boffins
here what is the way to go here? What would be the least if not
most important aspect to include while at it, constructing a still??

[JIGSAW]

I think "groen" is the man to answer here ... i will just READ

[H. erectus]

"groen"

The ghostly one,...

[groenspookasem]

The ghostly one,...

I'm no still builder :-) George from barley and hops is pretty good, but do note that he does make a mistake here and there. Aluminium boiler ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

His followers on YT will take you down if you attempt to correct him, no fault of his own. Anyway, my suggestion is to do some research on the differences between pot/column/reflux, dephlegmators, shotgun and leibig condensors, reflux, bubble plates and everything that makes up a still. I always try to understand something first, then apply or improve constantly questioning each step/process. Then again, I'm a nerd so....there's that.

[H. erectus]

Thanks for the reply Groene, reads spooky enough,..!
Quite correctly so, George does seem to be hardly phased
at times about critical issues. Somewhere down the line he
was hardly critical about using copper wool in the stem and
yet a few takes further this becomes a great issue. But let's
face it his presentations are by far better than some of the
hill billy trailer trash submissions. The word "moonshine" alone
carries a lot of weight! Kinda reminds me of a quick fix battery
acid mix that our locals concoct within 24hrs. Gosh and the manne
reek too high heaven at seven in the morning!!