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See Simple Secrets of Distillation by Shawn Carlson in last week's E-Bulletin.

See also Home-made Distilling Apparatus by Sidney Gernsback in this week's E-Bulletin.

30 November 2001

More on Distillation and Copper Tubing

by Jim Hannon

I just recently had to purchase some copper tubing because the 90 year old iron pipes in my house are in the condition where if you disturb them at all they will break or leak. One run that I had to replace was in the ceiling of the dining room and kitchen running crosswise to the rafters. The only way to get a new pipe in was to use something flexible and thread it through the holes. The tubing I purchased was soft copper water pipe that comes in coils. Refrigeration tubing is very similar with the major difference being that the coils are capped on the refrigeration tubing to protect it from dirt contamination. The dirt will wash out of a water pipe but in a refrigeration system it can cause big trouble. The sizes of the soft tubing are specified by the outside diameter. The hard or straight copper water pipe is specified by the nominal inside diameter. I used the 5/8 inch soft tubing which works with the 1/2 inch rigid pipe solder on fittings.

Figure 1. (Click image to enlarge)

You can use a much shorter length of tubing for a still if you cool the condenser with running water. An easy way to make one is to use the rigid copper water pipe. Figure 1 is a picture on one end of such a condenser I made. It consists of a length of 1/2 inch pipe and a shorter length of 3/4 inch pipe. Two reducing tees are soldered on the ends of the pipes with the 1/2 inch pipe inside the 3/4 inch pipe. You have to file off the ridge inside the tee which keeps the 1/2 inch pipe from sliding through the tee.

Figure 2. (Click image to enlarge)

I made a similar arrangement with soft tubing for an air conditioning condenser. I used it to recover heat from the a/c to heat my hot water. In the summer I had "free" hot water as long as it was hot enough to warrant running the a/c. It is somewhat difficult to thread the copper tubing through the other tube, but with a strong rope and some lubrication I managed to thread 20 ft of tubing. I then coiled it in a manner similar to the way you described. The ends used the same tee arrangement as the rigid condenser.

Figure 2 is a picture of a still I made to distill mercury. Since mercury will dissolve a lot of metals this still is made all from steel and iron. Some pipe and caps are used for the body of the still and a length of steel brake line is used as the condenser. I was salvaging mercury from some old batteries. I put the contents of the batteries in the still and placed it in a container of charcoal. Light the charcoal and stay away until the fire goes out. Outside of course!