Made a distilling set up

[Graf]

Okay for those not familiar with the benefits of distilling over just boiling. Boiling will make most water drinkable however dustilling takes it one step further removing many heavy meatals.salts,and chemicals. It requires alot of fuel and produces little for efforts however could save your life. I bought the container/pot at a garage sale for $5.00, copper was $16.00 and fittings $4.00 however now is the time to build and try it out rather than when I need it. Normally I would build a fire under it but short on time today but wanted to give it a try.


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[LowKey]

You might want to run your piping coil someplace other than around the hot pot and burner. And you might want more of it with the tip of the coils always draining down. The idea is to condense. It needs to be cooler than the steam inside. Otherwise you are still pumping steam out and losing a lot of water from the looks of the condensation on your plastic bottle.

The other thing you might want to be careful of, is being viewed as distilling alcohol. Even small batch home distillation requires a license. And some or maybe even most states do not allow the equipment even for doing what you are doing. Distilling water. (It's a felony offense in Maryland.) Because the same equipment is used for both, you'd have a hard time beating the rap.

[Logarius]

If you run your copper in a 6" coil about a foot tall submerged in dirty non heated water but not where the water can contaminate you will loose less as steam as noted.

Excellent idea and great as a I need it right now DIY.


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[hunter63]

Cool set up.....and I'm sure with some tweaking it couple be refined to work even better.

I guess I wouldn't use it in the front yard, or brag to your buddies....but I wouldn't worry too much about the ATF.....everyone knows, good moon needs a copper kettle

[Graf]

When I ran my final batch I ran cold towels wrapped around the copper, also the catch bottle is sitting ice cold water. The suggestions are good, 1/2"od copper into 6" coils may be above my paygrade even using a coil copper bender. Hunter63 you bet your behind copper is needed for the good stuff! Heck that may even prove to be a water purifier on its own, LOL.

[randyt]

to make a 6 inch condenser, use a form like a piece of 6 inch pipe. Coil the copper around it and then slip it off the end.

[Batch]

Cool set up.....and I'm sure with some tweaking it couple be refined to work even better.

I guess I wouldn't use it in the front yard, or brag to your buddies....but I wouldn't worry too much about the ATF.....everyone knows, good moon needs a copper kettle

Its all done with raschig rings and copper mesh packing in the column these days.

[Logarius]

to make a 6 inch condenser, use a form like a piece of 6 inch pipe. Coil the copper around it and then slip it off the end.

Also if you are worrying about accidentally crushing the tubing, either freeze water in it before forming or pack it with sand. In Africa when we didn't have PVC 90s we would fill with sand and heat over a low fire. Once the plastic was soft we would bend it. Learned that from the natives.

Great job none the less. Got me thinking about making a smaller similar one now. Straight forward single condenser setup but more bells and whistles since I'm an engineer.

Saw a sweet set up at the Bacardi factory. Even had a activated charcoal filter past the water condenser for higher purity. Oh wait that was for rum not water...


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[hunter63]

Built a small one in 8th grade.....glass beakers, glass tubing, heated and bent into a approx. 1" coils.....inside a larger glass tubing.

Got a "A" on my project and a warning about distilling.....which I hadn't given any though.

My Chemistry set was better than the grade schools stuff.

[canid]

That's a nice setup, and the suggestions for re-routing your condenser tubing are solid. If you can have your lid seal well enough to hold at least quite low pressures, you can even dip a loop of your tubing down into a water source (cistern, pond/lake, stream/river). this will cause liquid water to block it like an s-bend, requiring a little steam pressure to push it along as it condenses, but will cool pretty effectively and the pressure will not need to be great. It's only suitable for cases in which you can run your water still next to a water source, but at least you have can have the option. You can run it through a basin, bucket, etc of water, but this will be heated to boiling before too long, so you would want to be able to change that water.

Hope I'm not telling you what you already know, we have several members around here who know their way around stills.

[ElevenBravo]

Nice start on your still! I really, really need to make one!!

I did some research on solar stills, but Im more comfortable with a fire driven still for killing bact and viri.

I also plan on building a cloth and sand filter for catching bigger stuff, THEN running it through the still for sterilization.

EB

[canid]

I did some research on solar stills, but Im more comfortable with a fire driven still for killing bact and viri.

This is one area where there is no cause for differentiation. A solar still needn't kill pathogens at all, as they are not evaporated in the first place and do not therefore transfer to the condensate. A fired still will process a lot more water quickly though.

[Old GI]

Stumbled upon a still near the Uwharrie National Forest. I'm sure you will find a qualified instructor in that area.

[LowKey]

I had the same chemistry set as Hunter... yeah, that's it.
Actually we distilled wood alcohol in 9th grade physical science class. The whole experiment was to find the temperature range where you switch from water vapor to alcohol.
Fun class. For a coil though we used a preformed glass thing with a small recirculator pump and an ice water bath. Not gonna help in a no-power situation.

We did a lot of things in that class that would give high schooler parents the twitching awfuls today and probably bring the school up on charges.

[canid]

the twitching awfuls

I'm going to have to steal that one.

[Logarius]

Hey a thermo electric powered pump for the cooling bath has some merits. Salvaging heat from the boiler. Gotta spend some time on this now. Might get enough to run a small pump or charge a phone.

Not a DIY for most but...

Wood/charcoal/propane/kerosene/solar powered depending on what can be found.

Gotta keep it under 10 pounds dry or you'll need a trailer to pull it.....darn it you guys are really screwing who me. It started as a simple boiler and I'm designing a steam power plant that incidentally you can get drinking water from......EVIL


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[kyratshooter]

Now you know why we always placed our stills beside a spring.

You got pure water to work with and had a good cold flow for the thumper keg.

You engineer type guys are already overcomplicating this deal!

[ElevenBravo]

1) Canid seams to have good insight on the solar still... What about any chemicals etc that is in the water? Will fire still have an advantage over solar still? Im thinking if I am capturing water near a creek and Im unsure of the upstream conditions, Id sure feel safer drinking off a fire still.. A person can gather enough wood to boil 10 gal of water pretty easily.

2) Ky, Ive never understood what a thumper does... can you expand pls? It is totally legal to distill your own spirits as long as you keep the batch small and you dont sell or trade. (AFAIK)

EB

[canid]

If I'm not mistaken, various substances will evaporate at a nearly enough constant ratio to one another for a given temperature and pressure. I don't think it's actually linear like that, but for the purpose of water and various contaminants I think it can be simplified as such. In the event of spillage related contamination, obviously water which has boiled in the vessel prior to contaminating the condensate will be at least safe enough from biological pathogens, so in some contrived circumstance that route may be considered to be safer. The big selling point for me is the potential for the far higher evaporation/condensation rate from a fired still.

On the second point:

A thumper acts as a passively heated (by the condensate and vapor flowing into it) second still-head, and also caches boilover.

you are mistaken. You must apply (and pay) for a permit to distil any spirits in any volume, and will be subject to inspection of your aparatus at any time. Unlicensed recreational distilling of spirits for one's own consumption is still a fairly serious crime in almost every nation in the world.

[randyt]

I thought boil over was generally caught by the puke box. Although a thump keg does catch some puke.