Re:Mathanol Still

Friends,

At this point I have copied this to all the lists as everyone seems to 
be interested.

No, Braising is a means of cooking using a butter or oil to brown meat 
and then simmering in a small amount of liquid or broth.  Not to be 
confused with stewing, which completely covers the meat with liquid.  
(sorry, couldn't help it!)

Brazing is joining 2 metal with a liquid filler that melts at a temp > 
~700°F and lower than the melting point of the base metal.  
Traditionally done with brass.

Soldering is uses a soft filler material that melts below 700°F (AWS 
members feel free to correct me).  Soldering is what is normally done on 
copper plumbing in domestic water systems.

A good torch (and experience) is needed for brazing - a propane turbo 
torch, or acetylene/air rig or oxy/acetylene, and brazing rod.

I suggest sending the tower back to Greg for a warranty repair.  He has 
the equipment to make it happen (and hopefully the time.  I suggest a 5 
or 10 psi pressure test.  solder a 1/2" male adapter on the distillate 
outlet and cap it.  Test with soap solution.

I have a thermostat that will work for this water heater if someone 
wants to pick it up from my house.  You can by them at Home Depot or 
anywhere.

Regarding safety concerns, we were testing on the concrete pad, using 
the hose for cooling water.  The most critcal part of this experiment is 
having a solid base and plenty if clear working room.  This isn;t 
something that should occur out in the grass, and fall over during 
operation.

If someone wants to write an SOP for testing, be my guest, but be 
prepared to be on-site to help, please.  You will be hard pressed to 
find a less flammable alcohol. especially since we mixed the glycerin 
with 50% water before we started.   Please read the entire email below 
so you are fully apprised of the results of the first test.

More than anything, we need an experienced hand or two help get this 
going.  Seth would beat me up if he knew I wasn't working on the site 
code review!  My suggestion is to rope Greg (the Scrounge) & Amanda into 
this. From the conversations I have had with them, both understand the 
equipment and have done the process. 

The next time I have to fool with this may be the weekend of the 7th.  
Let's try to get Felix, Amanda and Greg there at the same time and try 
to crank this up.  If a time other than the weekend is better, let me 
know - I think that a work party might not be the best time, since this 
takes some a fair amount of focus.  On the flip side, I don't think 
anyone should work on site alone.

Zac - can you facilitate getting the tower to Greg (the Machinist) to be 
fixed?

Thanks to all.  Keep suggestions coming to keep this moving forward.

Felix


Zac Imboden wrote:
> Is the braising like the type used on regular copper pipe? I've done 
> that before (for a high pressure line to my washing machine). As for 
> the materials, if you can get me started on where to get the stuff, 
> I'll arrange to pick it up.
>
> What's the minimum we can get by with for our next experiment? I'm 
> thinking fix the braising, and get a working thermostat. The water 
> heater brand is "Reliable" but from what someone at the site said (the 
> astronomer), thermostats are pretty standard.
>
> I think the filling tee can wait, can't it?
>
> Someone told me there's a parts store on Division that sells all kinds 
> of replacement parts for appliances. (I'm thinking about the thermostat).
>
> On Sep 24, 2006, at 9:06 AM, Felix Kersting wrote:
>
>> Friends,
>>
>> Well, the good news is that we know what it will take to get the 
>> still ready for a test run......
>>
>> There were a myriad of problems getting the still up and running.
>> We didn't discover that the bottom stat on the water heater was bad 
>> and we weren't heatiing until 11:30 (thanks, Ron!)
>>
>> We then had to bypass the thermostat to get any heat into the water 
>> heater. We over heated the glycerin in about 10 minutes (while we 
>> were very distracted by newbies wandering around and setting up to 
>> pump WVO for a member from Vancouver...)  When we returned to the 
>> tower, it read about 200°F, and steam was relieving from the T&P, and 
>> leaking at the braze on the bottom of the tower, where the female 
>> adapter meets the reducer.  We shut down and called it a day.
>>
>> We need:
>>
>> hose washers for the cooling water
>> another hose to redirect the waste cooling water
>> fix the braze on the tower
>> thermostat for the bottom element on the water heater
>> Add a 3/4 tee to the top of the tower for filling/venting
>> either another T&P or a 30 psi relief valve (about $7 from B100 supply)
>> A thermometer to replace the top element would be very useful (the 
>> elements are 1" pipe thread)
>>
>> I am not available next weekend.
>>
>> More later,
>>
>> Felix
>>
>>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> Zac Imboden
> [email protected]
> 1534 SE 35th Place
> Portland, OR
> 97214
> 971-563-2477
>
>
>
>