Making a cube from a luxstahl pan. Distillation cube: purpose and features of DIY manufacturing

The advantages of such a device:

1. Assembly time - 5-6 hours.

2. Cost of materials - no more than 1000 rubles.

3. Compactness.

Minuses: small yield of the finished product.

Which pot?

Any one with a tight-fitting lid is suitable for a distillation cube. Keep in mind that with a 5-liter you will get about 1 liter of moonshine.

So the source material:

pan
a piece of plastic pipe with a diameter of 45 mm, 2 plugs adapter
2 meters of copper tube,
2 nipples for outlet / supply of cooling,
100 g of epoxy glue, silver paint
male threaded couplings, 2 nuts,
spent can with a tin lid,
fluoroplastic tape,
a piece of rolled steel or aluminum (for example, a corner or channel),
two anchors (or bolts) with nuts.

Making a refrigerator

1. Cut off a piece 25-30 cm long from the plastic pipe.

2. We make holes from the water inlet / outlet and the coil.

3. We attach the nipples.

4. We make a coil from a copper tube. For coiling, use a pipe with a diameter of about 3 cm.At each end, leave 20 cm for attaching to the steam generator and the hose for the branch.

5. Place the coil inside the pipe. We mix epoxy glue with silver. With this mixture we seal the joints (covers, holes for the coil and water). Dries for 12 hours.

Making a dry pot

You will need a glass jar with a tin lid. Cut the holes and insert the sleeve. We wrap the thread with fluoroplastic tape and tighten the nuts.

Pot distillation cube

To make the cover hermetically closed, we use a beam and 2 anchors.

To prevent the enamel from cracking during tension, we use gaskets between the beam and the cover, the anchor and the handle.

Assembling a moonshine still

We drill a hole in the pan, put a tube out of the steam chamber and seal the connection.

Using tin, we fix the refrigerator in an upright position. Actually, this is the home distillation apparatus, which is made from an ordinary saucepan and improvised items.

High prices for alcoholic beverages hit the pockets of lovers of strong drinks, and the purchase of inexpensive booze of dubious quality can lead to sad health consequences. In such a situation, making a moonshine still from a pan with your own hands becomes a good way out. With careful observance of the technology for the production of homemade moonshine, double distillation of the resulting product, insisting on aromatic herbs and oak chips, a worthy alternative to purchased vodka is obtained.

The preparation of moonshine is based on the distillation (separation) of various fractions of the mash in order to purify alcohol vapors from fusel oils and other toxic substances. It is carried out in a special device - a distiller. It is not difficult to make such an apparatus, but it must be assembled very carefully, since insufficient tightness of the joints of the parts will inevitably worsen.

The following components are distinguished in the design of the distiller:

Distillation cube In a homemade machine, we use a saucepan with a tight-fitting lid instead.
Coil - copper or glass tube for removing alcohol vapors.
The cooler is a pipe made of PVC or silicone with a diameter of 45 mm. Running cold water will circulate through it, cooling the evaporations entering the coil.
Sukhoparnik - a container for draining fusel oils, a two-liter glass jar with a hermetically screwed lid can be adapted for it.

Mash is poured into the distillation cube, the container is put on the fire. When the temperature of the solution rises to 76 ° C, ethyl alcohol vapors begin to evolve from it. They pass along the coil through the dry-pit, where a significant part of the harmful impurities settles. Due to the cooling, the vapors condense on the walls of the tube. To increase the concentration of alcohol in the distillate will allow its repeated distillation.

The first batch of moonshine, the so-called head (about 100 ml), obtained by heating the mash to 60-75 ° C is saturated with harmful substances as much as possible and is a poison, so it is poured out. The “tails” that are released when the temperature rises to 85 ° C are also collected in a separate dish. They include a significant amount of fusel oils, but can increase the strength of the moonshine when added to the next portion of the distilled mash.

Selection of the pan

For the equipment of the distillation cube, a stainless steel or enamel-coated container is suitable. It is undesirable to use an aluminum pot for a moonshine still: when oxidized, this material forms harmful compounds, and besides, the finished product may have an unpleasant aftertaste. It is equally important to choose the right amount of dishes. When using a small five-liter container, the yield will be small - from one to 1.2 liters of alcohol.

If you need to distill a significant amount of mash, it is better to make a cube from a saucepan, can or food kettle with a capacity of 10-30 liters. For a more tight connection of the lid to the bottom of the product, it is sealed around the perimeter with dough, mixing flour with water. For this purpose, you can also use a silicone gasket: purchase a ready-made one or make it yourself from a tube used in disposable medical droppers.

Making a refrigerator

For the cooler device, it is enough to take a piece of plastic pipe 30 cm long. Holes are drilled in the wall for installing the coil, in the plugs - slots for supplying cold water. Nipples are attached to them. Caps can be made from the tin used to make beer cans. Then the coil is made. It is more convenient to use for this a piece of copper tube 2 m long. You can give it a spiral shape by winding it onto a pipe with a diameter of 30 mm.

The ends of the coil should be flat sections 20 cm long. One of them will be connected to the steam boiler, the other - to the outlet hose. The coil is installed in the cooler cavity. A mixture of epoxy glue and Serebryanka paint is used to seal the joints with a cube, a steam bath and a water supply system. The surfaces of the joints are preliminarily sanded with sandpaper and wiped with alcohol to remove greasy stains. After processing, the joints should be allowed to dry for 12 hours.

To avoid deformation or damage to the integrity of the copper pipe, you can tightly fill it with dry sand. To prevent the filler from spilling out, the ends are clamped. The recommended size of the gap between the walls of the coil and the cooler is 5-10 mm. The sand is removed after attaching the ends of the coil to the holes in the dry steamer and distillation cube.

Making a dry pot

Holes are drilled in the lid of the can for installing the coupling. A coil tube will be connected to one of them, a hose leading to the pan will be attached to the second. Before tightening the nuts, a fluoroplastic tape is wound on the thread. If necessary, the gaps between the wall of the sleeve and the surface of the lid are sealed with superglue (you can add baking soda to it to give it greater density and strength).

Pot distillation cube

When modifying the pan, it is necessary to provide a hole for steam to escape into the coil. Products with glass lids already have such a hole. It can be increased, placed inside the capsule, additionally equipped with a thermometer to control the heating of the mash. In pans with enamel or steel lids, a hole can be made in the upper part of the wall, 5–30 mm from the edge of the container.

After installing the tube, the slots must be carefully filled with epoxy adhesive. Insufficient tightness of the distillation cube joints from the pan not only leads to the loss of some of the alcohol vapors, but also threatens to ignite them under the influence of high air temperature in the immediate vicinity of the fire source.

A special holder will allow to ensure a firm fixation of the tank lid. It is made from a section of a channel with drilled holes for attaching anchors that wrap around the handle of the pan. Pre-wrapping the enameled parts with electrical tape or plastic will help protect the fragile coating from destruction. In the places where the metal holder touches the lid, it is recommended to glue the pieces of the cork.

Let's go to the assembly

After the manufacture of individual elements of the apparatus, the assembly of the apparatus is started. It is convenient to use to connect a distillation cube with a dry steamer and a coil. Additionally, it is advisable to strengthen the fixation of the parts with rigid wire or pieces of sheet metal. All joints are sealed with adhesives. Do not use rubber gaskets for fastening parts: this can lead to the appearance of a specific smell in the moonshine.

Before use, equipment for distilling moonshine must be thoroughly washed to remove contamination and lubricants from metal parts. At the end of the assembly of the device, its work is tested. When the distiller is started for the first time, water is poured into the tank. Its vapors will clean the inner surfaces of all elements of the device. You will get distilled water at the exit. Then you can start distilling the first batch of moonshine.

If you correctly assemble a moonshine still from a pan, the alcohol will turn out to be of no less good quality than when using an industrial-made unit.

The Russian people responded to the increase in prices for vodka with a doubled success of home brewing!

This communist anecdote is relevant again! In connection with the increase in prices for vodka, many thought about making homemade moonshine with their own hands. Fortunately, it is not forbidden to drive home brew for oneself, but a twice distilled product, and even infused with herbs or juniper, is hefty tasty, and if you insist on oak chips and stand in oak barrels, you get cognac at all!

Anton comments:

Gorgeous article about the moonshine still!
Indeed - everything is made from improvised means and right in the kitchen!
For more such articles!

Vladimir comments:

There are no comments or suggestions. Trying the 2nd and 3rd distillation?

Flint comments:

Wonderful! One of the simplest ways to build a moonshine still, and according to the principle - all in one!

George comments:

Everything is fine, but if only I could do it a little more accurately. Why do you need a moonshine still from China

Kolya comments:

Hmm, and what only a Russian person would not come up with, just not to buy vodka!

Vasily comments:

Indeed, a moonshine still made from scrap material.
But instead of a saucepan, it's better to take a pressure cooker!

In the previous film column, I mentioned that I made a distillation cube from an enamel pot of 12 liters that was then available on the farm. In general, I was satisfied with such a cube, but there were some inconveniences, the main one of which was the small useful cubic volume. Pouring mash into a cube can be no more than ¾, and preferably 2/3 of the total volume, in order to avoid splashing into the column and then into the distillation product. Since my fermentation tank is 30 liters, I have to carry out the distillation in 3-4 stages, and this takes a lot of time and effort.
Another drawback of the previous pan is the enamel surface, which is very difficult to wash off the burnt grain or fruit mash and is very easy to damage, which I soon did, wiping off the burnt mash after distilling the chacha with a metal sponge.
Accordingly, knowing these shortcomings, you should choose a new cube without them. The ideal option would be to buy a ready-made alembic, but from a more or less budgetary segment I found only volunteer products that would not have to be finished later, other manufacturers did not have the required diameter of the flange on the lid in the assortment. However, I didn’t really like the Volunteer cube for its dimensions - it’s narrow and high, if the option to upgrade the distiller with a cap column turns up, then the remaining height to the ceiling may not be enough for modernization.

Well, if you take some other cube, then you still have to modify it for yourself and then the question is: what's the point of overpaying? Moreover, the experience of converting a saucepan into a distillation cube was already available. So we will buy a saucepan or a food boiler in another way.
There were practically no problems with the choice of the pan, the moonshine forums unanimously argued that Luxstahl pots were the best option. It only remained to decide on the volume of the pan and the store. With the volume, brothers-moonshiners helped me with the volume, who gave me their 25-liter saucepan for testing. For a 30-liter fermentation tank, this saucepan turned out to be frankly small. It was necessary to make either a more rigid hydromodule, or use less raw materials than the container allows in order to overtake the mash in one step, and this is not entirely convenient. The next step in the manufacturer's size range was a 30-liter pan, but it will fit right next to my container and the risk of splashing in this case is quite high. But the next 37-liter pan turned out to be just in time, especially since the price tag differs quite a bit from thirty.
The cheapest offer of this product turned out to be the Barneomarket store. Delivery can be selected from a number of transport companies, the option I chose was estimated at 415 rubles. Delivery to the warehouse of the shopping mall in my city was carried out a week after the order was paid.
There was a very impressive box waiting for me.

The product is not fragile, so the packaging is not so important, although it is quite good for this category of goods, but still I will remove it under the spoiler

Package

The inside is first padded with foam

under it is a lid wrapped in polyethylene

cardboard underneath

and the pan itself in polyethylene outside and with cardboard inside

This is what the hero of the review looks like right out of the box, he occupied almost the entire kitchen table

View on the stove, for comparison, next to it is a 2-liter packet of juice - a saucepan bless you

The pan is made of stainless steel AISI 304
Wall thickness according to the seller 0.8 mm, in fact more than 1 mm

The thickness of the bottom converges with the stated - 4 mm

The bottom is a three-layer pancake made of AISI 430 magnetic steel, perfect for induction hobs

Pot weight without lid about 5 kg

Cover weight about one and a half kilograms

The lid, as I understand it, is chiseled, two marks are traces of welding of the handle

On the side there is a stamp with the brand logo and the size of the pan

The side handles are riveted conscientiously, the view from the inside flawlessly

There are minor flaws outside, but they do not affect anything.

We proceed to the alteration.
The first step is to get rid of the handle on the lid. Colleagues-moonshiners could not remove it from a 25-liter pan without a tool, but it was removed from my pan very easily, after only a few wiggles with effort, leaving behind a barely noticeable mark

It is imperative to remove the handle, since the profile of the cover goes to a cone and if you put the column off-center, then it will not stand vertically, and this will already entail a violation of the distillation technology

The next step is to drill holes in the lid, large in the center by 32 mm for the adapter to the film column and small by 6 mm for the thermometer probe. For a large hole, all from the same hobby colleagues, I took a crown with a tool for a drill, but only the tool was useful, the crown from their pan became dull and only creaked miserably under the drill.

I bought a new 32 mm bimetallic crown at a construction store for 170 rubles

This is how it looked after use, whether my crown is better, or the 25 liter saucepan still has a thicker lid.

It turned out to be a fairly even hole

With a drill for metal, the hole for the thermometer came out even less accurately, but it doesn't matter, we'll fix it with a file later

We insert under HD / 4 and a silicone cambric under the thermometer, of course a stainless sleeve would be preferable, but the toad will not understand me to spend those that it costs in moonshine stores, if anyone knows a cheaper option, write in the comments.

I ordered in advance for Ali (for a 37-liter pan with a diameter of 36 cm, you need to take a 32 cm gasket!), I even paid for the delivery with a track number, but our valiant mail is still on the roll, without notification they do not give parcels and do not look for it, and I received the notification only two weeks after the parcel arrived at the office. Therefore, for the first distillation, I had to make a homemade gasket from a silicone hose again, for this pan I bought a 1.5 meter 8 mm tube in a pharmacy store.

We cut it lengthwise and try it on the side of the pan

We cut end-to-end at an angle so that there is no through slot and for further convenience of manufacturing we straighten the workpiece with stationery clamps

Then we sew in two rows with ordinary cotton threads, it turned out not very aesthetically pleasing, but cheap, reliable and practical ©

This is how it looks on a saucepan.

The gasket that came later from Ali has a U-shaped profile, it can be worn in the same way as a homemade one on the side of the pan, or you can pull it from the inside onto the stamping of the lid, the second option seemed to me more practical, the clamps in this case do not touch the gasket and the risk of its mechanical damage missing.

Before the first use, the pan must be thoroughly washed to remove technological residues from its production, which can irreparably spoil the taste of the distilled product.

With the distiller installed, the cube looks like this

When I was distilling in an old saucepan, the temperature at the top of the column was very unstable and it was extremely difficult to set up the correct selection of heads - the distillate either came in the right drop or ran in a trickle, which adversely affects the quality of the separation of fractions. There may be several reasons for this, one of them is the uneven pressure of the water supply system in the house, which leads to unstable cooling in the ascending column. I checked the influence of this factor with the help - the result was the same.
The second reason for this behavior of the column may be the impact of external factors: draft, exhaust, even opening the door. Warming the cube will help get rid of this problem. It will also speed up the heating process of the mash and reduce electricity costs.
In a hardware store, I bought a foil insulation for baths and saunas, 1200 mm wide and 5 mm thick.

They cut him only by meters, two were a lot for me, and one was not enough, I took a meter for a sample.

In fact, it turned out that they cut me 5 cm more and this surplus was just enough for 3 equal parts of 35 cm each.

Two parts will go to insulate the cube itself, and the third will be insulated on the lid, here we need a round cardboard gasket from the packaging kit, along which we will cut the outline of the insulation on the lid.

Trying on insulation for a cube, too much just barely enough

We outline the slots for the handles

We dress the first part with foil to the cube and glue the joint with aluminum tape from fixspice

We do the same operation with the second part of the insulation, only now with the foil outward, this will allow us to easily wash the cube if the contents are spilled out.

We also glue the joint with tape.

We also glue the slots from the handles

We do a similar procedure with the lid, the first layer with the foil down

Second up

For reliability, we will fix the insulation jacket with two car ties for the cargo from Auchan

It turned out like this

Well, the finished product on the stove

It would also be possible to cut in a tap at the bottom of the cube to drain the stillage, but I did not find stainless steel taps in local stores, but in moonshine online stores they

And a copper coil.

We will collect such a moonshine still on this page:

To create this small moonshine still, we need: a saucepan with a tight-fitting lid, a piece of plastic sewer pipe with a diameter of 45 mm, about two meters of a copper pipe from a Soviet refrigerator, several tubes of "superglue", a half-inch sleeve with two nuts, a small can with a tightly screwed lid, 100 g of epoxy glue, silver paint, medical dropper, and 2 fittings with hoses for cooling water drainage and supply.

You will also need a fluoroplastic tape, a piece of rolled steel or aluminum (for example, a corner or channel, I used a piece of an old aluminum baguette), two anchors (or bolts) with nuts to press the lid with a piece of rolled metal to the pan and tin from a beer can. Beer, or another source of inspiration will also not be superfluous, the main thing is not to overdo it :). Here's an example set:

Naturally, you need to start making this device by choosing a suitable container for evaporating the mash (alembic, to be more precise). A pot with a capacity of about 7 liters came under my arm, which will allow me to load 5 liters of mash into it and get 1.2 liters of 45-degree moonshine at the output. Not a record, of course, but to meet their own needs, more than.

The pluses include the ease of assembly (it took me two evenings for 3 hours, and this together with smoke breaks, etc.), the price (less than $ 10 was spent on materials, not counting the saucepan), the availability of materials (everything except the copper pipe can be buy on the market or in a building materials store, I bought a pipe in a refrigerator repair workshop. Bargained for $ 2), high quality of finished moonshine (due to the presence of a dry pot and the quality of the materials used), flow-through operation of the refrigerator (more), as well as compactness.

Minus I see one - a relatively small output of the finished product, but it all depends on the capacity you have chosen (about 1.2 liters of moonshine 45 degrees for every 5 liters of mash poured into it). It is best to start assembling a moonshine still with the manufacture of a refrigerator. As a body for it, I used a piece of sewer pipe with a diameter of 45 mm and a length of about 25 cm. At both ends I cut out a cap from a can of beer.

To mark the inner diameter on the tin, I had to cut off a piece of about two centimeters long from the pipe I bought (fortunately, the length of the piece I bought was enough for 2.5 refrigerators). in such a small diameter my hand simply did not climb :). Like this:

We mark the contour of the coil cooler plug and carefully cut it along the outer contour. Something like this:

Then we wind it from a piece of copper tube. I used a piece of water pipe with a diameter of about 3 cm as a winding mandrel.

On the one hand, I left about 30 cm of the tube - for connection with a dephlegmator (dry steam room), on the other, about 10 cm - for hoses to drain the moonshine. Here is the finished coil:

And here is the fitting of the coil to its body. As you can see, everything fit:

Then you need to attach the water inlet and outlet fittings to the refrigerator body. You can use standard ones like this one: