How to build a Pressure Cooker Pot Still

Warning: This is not a video on distillation, but I still I warn you not to distill flammable solvents in a poorly ventilated area!

In this video I will be showing you how I went about building my own pot still. The purpose of this video is to give an idea of what goes into making one. Keep in mind that this is my own design and there are bound to be design flaws. There are definitely improvements that can be made.

[snorksonforks]

As a former welding/brazing instructor, you did fine with your soldering method. 8/10

[CaptNemo-vjbf]

Great video... One last step that everyone should do before using the still is the cleaning of the inside of the column and the condenser. Cleaning is easily accomplished by distilling a bit of white vinegar. Distill enough vinegar until the distillate runs clear. This needs to be performed in between uses, dependent upon how long the still sets unused. Be prepared to be grossed out by the colour of the distillate. -Cheers

[SafetyLucas]

You can also add salt to the water/ethanol mix. It will dissolve in the water and raise its boiling temperature by a few degrees but not the ethanol. Also, wrapping the column with insulation can improve efficiency dramatically. Packing the column with copper BBs could also work. And you don't have to use flower paste on the first joint, you could just use silicone. Cool video Nile!

[jsslandro]

You must use silver solder for a still because it has a higher melt temp than regular solder and wont fail at running temp. Plus it contains no lead. My uncle who was a rum runner taught me that when I was a tot, before he passed away.

[nicholi]

When I did this in my old chem lab, I also got about 85%. It was a fun lab as I recall.

[Dalkson]

Tips from community:
- use silver solder
- brass fittings
- silicon instead of paste
- clean by distilling vinegar

[PuzzledMonkey]

soldering a copper fitting to a stainless steel lid will cause the copper to corrode. This can be avoided by using a brass fitting instead.

[johnlbales]

I'm not a pipe fitter either, but your work looks really good to me. You have more talent than you give yourself credit for.

[who_cares]

Just a tip, heat it up until the flux starts to bubble and wipe off the excess flux with a rag before you actually solder it. Otherwise you'll get a bunch of green/blue corrosion around your joints over time. Also, don't take your flame away while you solder. Keep it on there as you apply the solder to the joint. You should just be able to touch the solder on the top of the pipe and sort of move it back and forth a little for a second and the solder will run down both sides. That way you don't have to keep heating it up and applying more or go around each section of the pipe. Then just take a rag and wipe the drip of solder off the bottom while its still hot. A bigger torch head would also make things easier and faster. Obviously what you did will work and I'm not trying to criticize but doing those things will make this whole process more efficient if you ever need to solder copper pipe again.

[jimyost]

Back in the late 80's a friend of mine made a similar still. He made it out of an empty stainless steel 15 gallon beer keg. One night on a hot summer night in Huntsville Alabama he was running off batch of moonshine in another friend's garage and it blew up and it made one hell of a mess in that garage. It took them two days to clean it up. It happened around 2:00 in the morning so nobody heard it, but you could smell alcohol for blocks away in every direction for at least three hours because there was no wind. :O)

[justinkyledavidson]

Awesome man, Glad theres people out there that still are interested in chemistry!

[supershenron]

With the correct parts I can build a copper still from scratch in about an hour and a half. However the one ove got at the house took me nearly 2 weeks working about 3 hours a day because, I got real creative with it and actually forged the copper out into a more professional looking still right down to the cool looking copper indentations!!! Since its in my garage I use a recirculation system with coiled copper pipe in holding unit i designed using the refrigerating system from an old refrigerator to keep the water cold and moving around to ensure there's no steam coming from the exit. At max productivity my still can do about 10-12 gallons an hour though I've only ever ran it that hard twice just to see how much it could really do. The only hard part is keeping the tubing system sterile so when I'm done I completely remove the copper coils for proper cleaning and drying. The rest is fairly easy to keep clean and sterile

[paarshadtrivedi]

Takeaway the whistle and tube it with a tight plastic pipe. Heat it with a lighter if needed to tighten. Then attach them to Copper piping with multiple turnings like a coil. i used ones found in AC. Now you can insert a copper coil in a small bucket and pull the other end out of the bucket by poking a hole with a heated rod and after getting the pipe out seal the hole with putty. Whenever you need to distill just pour the solution in the pressure cooker and close it. Get some ice to throw in the bucket with very little water filling up the entire bucket. Once the ice melts and water gets hot. Replace it with new water and ice. You'll need more ice than you think.

[brhbmc]

Going over the process of fractional distillation via distance learning rn, really upsetting I was hoping to do this in person, so here I am looking for reference to do it myself

[dagandreassen]

size doesn't matter of the colon but to cool down the steam to right temperature so you only cooling down the vapor from the alcohol and not water. And you want to have the vapor temperature at 79, 15 degrees Celsius before it goes to the cooling colon. Then you got 97, 4% alcohol out. Worked for me and you can max get out 0, 6 liter alcohol/kg sugar. Pure and clean chemistry 😇

[bobbg]

You can coil copper tubing in 6" pvc pipe
And use that as the water condenser
It would also work to remove moisture after a air compressor befor the storage tank as a dryer.

[kalleklp]

Your boiler is to small (10-15 L at least!), your riser is longer than it needs to be and you can run the Liebig at a 45 degree angle (even less). That thing on top...replace it with an end cap anf wrap a few turns of PTFE tape around the pipe.Do NOT solder it, it serves like an extra safety precaution and you want to be able to clean the riser from inside. Obviously, you can't do this when the cap is soldered into place.

[maxandkk]

Is it just me that finds these videos strangely relaxing

[__WJK__]

Would love to see someone DIY an all-glass (or "mostly" glass) still, since copper toxicity can be an issue if one gets lazy & doesn't clean/operate a copper still properly. Also NEVER use LEAD based solder and NEVER use repurposed/used copper piping or radiators!! Also, be aware that brass contains lead.

[genewiley]

Well explained, young man. Let the adventures begin! :)  Thank you for video