1. position thermocouple as close to distillate valve as possible The probe active area is at the tip. It's positioned about 1/8" away, and centered on, the valve input.
2. Use a cork gasket and flange assembly to insulate the head from any cooling effects of the reflux condenser.
3. Get the distillate valve input out of the constricted/high-speed area between the head and reflux condenser to eliminate any venturi effects through the Leibig.
4. Angle the distillate valve downward to eliminate pooling of any distillate that may condense there. (There shouldn't be any because:)
5. Attach the distillate valve directly to the head to keep the valve as hot as possible.

• Boiler : 5 gallon under bench hot water supply. Thermostat removed. 1000 watt element. Heat control applied.
• Column : 1000 mm Aluminium tube filled with Stainless steel scrubbers. Internal diameter 44mm.
• Top Condenser : 200 mm tall containing 10 5/16 thin walled aluminium tube. Firebox/shotgun construction.
• V.P.Head : Single ¾ gate valve connected via 18mm internal diameter aluminium tube.
• Final Liebig condenser : 330 mm long. Experience shows that this length is marginal. Longer would be better.
• Insulation : Plumbers Foam insulation on the column and along the take-off pipe to and including the gate valve.
• Heat control : After the column had started to reflux; the power input was reduced to approximately 500 watts and equilibrium confirmed.

I made the still from the Nixon-Stone design outlined in the great book:

Making pure corn whiskey
A professional guide for amateur and micro distillers
By Ian Smiley
http://www.home-distilling.com/

I highly recommend this book - it has great descriptions, information and almost all information I needed to build the still

I made a few modifications to the design - the main one being the size of the copper pipe used to build the column/condenser. The book's design is for 1 1/4" pipe, I used 2" copper pipe, which almost doubles the volume of the column. Also, I am converting a 316 stainless steel drum for the boiler, rather than using a hot water service as suggested. A few other modifications have been made, outlined below.

Column.

The column is made from 2" Copper, and is 1200mm long. I've put a BSP tube join (male and female) between the column and head, which is made from brass, so I can easily remove the head. At the bottom of the column, there is another male 2" brass BSP tube fitting, which goes into the female 2" stainless steel BSP socket welded to the top of the boiler - so I can remove the column as well. The brass threaded fittings are known as a 2" Brass BSP Tube bush and come as either a male or female fitting, which gets soldered onto the end of the pipe.

Boiler.

The boiler is a 60L 316 Stainless drum, which Jan put me on to (thanks Jan!!!!), and I've put 2 x 1380 watt elements in it.
The elements were very easy to put in. I made the holes using a 32mm 'chassis punch' which creates the hole by two 'jaws' pulling together through the metal wall. The elements are 'replacement' elements for the Still Spirits still. If you order them for this purpose, you will also need to ensure that you also order the aluminium nuts and power leads.
Inside the boiler, you can see the hole above where the socket for column attachment is welded, and the 70mm stainless steel rod across the hole to keep the scrubbers in. The rod is 4mm wide s/s, and spot welded either side of the inside of the lid over the hole.

Nixon-Stone Head.

Again this is made from 2" copper pipe. Above and below the T, there is a 50mm section of tube. On the bottom section, a 2" Female BSP tube bush is soldered, and this screws on to the top of the column. The top section has a 2" copper tube cap, with a 40mm 3/8" copper pipe, attached to a series of compression fittings and adapters, eventually to hold the 3mm stainless steel probe of the digital thermometer, via the 3mm brass compression fitting.
Horizontally out of the T, there is a 40mm section of 2" pipe, going to the elbow, then a 370mm vertical section for the condenser to go in. At the bottom of the elbow, another 40mm of 3/8" copper pipe is soldered through the horizontal pipe/elbow join (for strength). The top of this piece is flush with the inside of the pipe/elbow join, and it is here the product goes down through the needle valve, and eventually to the waiting mouths!
Inside the 50mm section of pipe below the T, with the BSP fitting that screws onto the column, I have also made another modification - a angled copper plate to direct the reflux flow down the center of the column - On the photo you can also see the 'lip' I bent in the middle of it.

Note: In the broken down photos of the head and head and column, the horizontal section going from the T to the elbow in the head is quite a lot longer than 40mm. This photo was taken before I shortened it, to decrease the tipping effect of having a full condenser a long way from the column.

Condenser

The condenser coil is made from 3/16" copper pipe, which was wound to form the coils. I modified the condenser design so it is longer than the design in the book, and also has a smaller internal coil at the top within the main condenser coil, so any vapours reaching the top of the condenser in theory get condensed rather than escaping. This removes the need for a scrubber poked down the middle of the coil, as is often suggested with the standard coil design. The intake pipe goes down 120mm inside the main coil, then coils around itself back to the top to form this internal coil. This then wraps around itself again, forming the main coil which extends all the way down the condenser (360mm), and the returns through the middle of it all.
The hoses running to and from the condeser coil are 133mm clear PVC tube, and connect to the condenser with a brass nipple-3/16" compression fitting. The inlet attaches to the kitchen tap with a hose fitting.

The whole thing!

The still stands 2.05 meters all up, bottom of drum to top of condenser, but collapses down into pieces. The head can also attach directly to the lid without the column, to use as a pot still for beer stripping.
I have 13mm Armaflex insulation on the column to insulate it. I thought I may have to cut the insulation, but I managed to slip it over the male tube fitting, so was able to keep it 100% whole!
I also made velcro straps which go around the column to hold the condenser hoses to the column, keeping everything nice and neat.
It took 18 small stainless steel scrubbers to fill the column.

Running time, purity etc

Heat up: The boiler took 1:00 hour to heat a 25L 13.1% wash to boiling.
Reflux: Total reflux was 80mL/minute
Purity: 96% at 15 mL/minute (first run - will test further)
Condenser: The bottom 100mm of the condenser out coils were used (covered in condensate); The bottom 3 coils of the inner coil (inside top 100mm) were also used. Flow rate was 600mL/minute.
Efficiency: Of the first run, 93% of alcohol from the wash was collected.

Brass treatment
All the brass has been treated to get rid of surface lead, as detailed at:

http://www.brewin fo.com/mybrewery97/mybrewery3.html

After the first treatment, it seemed to work well, each step getting the fittings cleaner and more shiny, BUT.... After taking the fittings out, they went from shiny to dull with the typical green/blue tarnishing you see on old brass fittings - this took about 3 - 5 minutes. After a bit of experimenting, I found that if I put them back in the peroxide/vinegar solution, they lost the tarnishing, and got shiny again. This was the exact same solution - not a re-mix. I also found that leaving them in there for a longer time (around 12 minutes total) got them shinier, and also they fizzed in the solution (which didn't happen the first time). When I took them out, I quickly dried them with tissue paper toweling, and then with a cotton cloth. After this, they remained nice and shiny, except for the absolute bottom of the thread groves, in which I assume a small amount of solution remained. The solution went semi light blue colour (about half the intensity of the picture on the mybrewery web site).