Repair Design Furniture

How to bend a stainless steel tube into a spiral. How to bend a stainless steel pipe. Complicated bending of copper pipes

Copper products are in great demand in the field of housing and communal services, namely, in the arrangement of water supply and heating networks, as well as in the conduct of various repair work. Copper pipes are integral parts of the heating system when installing underfloor heating. The popularity of this chemical is due to its superior properties: strength, flexibility and corrosion resistance. And since copper products are stacked mainly at a certain angle, the information on how to bend a copper tube at home will be very useful for many. It should be noted right away that you can bend the pipe without a pipe bender, which is very convenient in many cases.

Spring to help

For this procedure, regardless of the flexion method, a heating instrument will be needed. Therefore, work must be carried out outdoors or in a well-ventilated area. An excellent option would be a courtyard or garage with an open gate.

There are several methods of bending at home, but they all differ in the level of complexity, cost of materials and the use of specialized equipment.

The most common method is to bend a copper tube with a steel spring, which must have frequent turns and a thick core, and its diameter would be smaller than that of the tube. This condition is necessary in order for the spring to easily enter the product. The most optimal option when the lengths of the products are approximately equal. In the case of a short spring, you will need a piece of wire that is attached to it, and then everything together can be easily removed.


Many people do not know how to bend a small diameter copper tube. In this case, the size of the spring must be larger than the diameter of the pipe that will fit inside it.

Next, using a heating device, the workpiece is heated. A gas heater or blowtorch is suitable for these purposes. By changing the color of the pipe, you can understand that it is heated quite well and has become plastic. Now you can easily give the copper tube any shape and you can leave it to cool.

Do not forget that you can only remove the spring from the pipe after the final cooling.

You can bend pipes using sand

The next method - how to bend a copper pipe at home - is pretty simple, because no steel springs or specialized devices are needed. The simplest actions are to heat the tube and bend it.

But in order to avoid deformation of the copper product due to its increased flexibility, it is better to use the useful advice of specialists:

  1. Prepare a support surface, a heating device, a couple of pieces of wood with diameters corresponding to the size of the future pipe, and sand.
  2. The building material, in order to avoid deformation when bending copper pipes, must be dry, sieved, river, without volumetric components.
  3. Plug one edge of the workpiece with a wood plug, fill the hollow space with sand, repeatedly shaking the pipe for more even filling.
  4. Close the second end of the tube with the remaining stopper.
  5. Then heat it up and, leaning on a solid base to avoid tearing the walls of the product, gently bend it.
  6. Do not overheat the pipe due to the pressure of sand on its walls.
  7. When the product has taken the appropriate shape, it must be immersed in cold water.
  8. After the final cooling of the copper pipe, remove the plugs, pour out the sand.
  9. It is advisable to blow through the finished product to remove any debris.

Pipe bender application

Consider another way - how to bend a copper tube, without making any additional effort. A reliable assistant in this matter will be a special device - a pipe bender, thanks to which you can save time, speed up and facilitate the bending procedure itself.

What kind of device is this? It is a mobile tool that bends a pipe according to a given parameter, fixing one end of the pipe and moving the other. And the bend is always in a stable position.


All pipe benders, according to the principle of operation, are classified into:

  1. Lever (manual), including a pair of levers with a shoe and a bending template. To set the desired angle, you need to take a reference point on the signs on the surface of the levers. Then fix the workpiece in the bracket, align the zeros and do the main work. Using this pipe bender, you can bend the pipe almost at an angle of 180̊ at home.
  2. Hydraulic, which are professional-level devices and bend the tube much faster than the previous ones. Thanks to the hydraulic principle of the pipe bender, you do not have to strain too much.
  3. Electrical, which are used in industrial production or business. With the help of such devices, it is quite possible to fulfill a serial order. Electric pipe benders operate from an electric drive and are very similar to manual counterparts. The tubular product is placed in a bracket and bent according to the parameters that are set by special segments.

Having figured out how to bend a copper pipe, you still have to choose the right equipment in accordance with the parameters of the workpiece to be bent. For example, a manual pipe bender, a spring or sand will come in handy when bending a product of small length and diameter. But only hydraulic and electric tools can change the profile of a large workpiece.

How to bend a copper pipe using the spiral method

Sometimes it is not possible to bend pipes using conventional methods due to non-standard parameters, for example, a square rather than a cylindrical shape of the workpiece. To understand how to bend a copper pipe in this case, you first need to purchase a rubber mallet and a pair of supports. Then fill the tube cavity with sand or fill it with ice (in winter); install the product with its ends on the supports; warm up the fold; with the help of a mallet, give it the appropriate shape.

Often, craftsmen have to bend a copper pipe into a spiral to order.


This will require:

  1. Anneal the workpiece for more flexibility.
  2. Allow to cool completely.
  3. Pour sand into the pipe or freeze water there.
  4. Bend the product with your hands or with a blowtorch, which will greatly speed up and facilitate the bending process.

When bending a copper pipe, you can use a cylindrical support, and then the spiral will turn out to be perfectly flat.

As you can see, many methods have been invented on how to bend copper pipes. But whichever of them you stop, you need to strictly adhere to the basic rules. First of all, perform all actions carefully and slowly to avoid deformation and rupture of the pipe walls. Sometimes an unexpected sudden movement can lead to negative irreversible consequences and rejection of products.

Listen to our helpful advice, and you can easily bend a copper blank for a future water supply or heating system at home.

Another handicraft (to order) from the "Crazy Hands" series. This time - spiral coil (heat exchanger) made of stainless steel... I wanted to make it according to this scheme (long live Paint

Before making, I looked on the Internet who and how does such things. I was interested in a video on YouTube, in which the author winds a spiral coil-heat exchanger on a two-inch pipe using a machine:

I don't have a machine, so I decided to wind the heat exchanger coil from the same tube as in the video, but manually.
A stainless steel tube with an outer diameter of 10mm and a wall thickness of 1mm was found. Almost four meters long. I decided to reel in the same way as in the video above - on a two-inch pipe (was available).

Small digression.

As for me, winding on a two-inch sleeve is ideal for a DIYer. Let me explain why. It was planned to cool the coil using running water. This means that a cylindrical casing will be needed, inside which there will be a coil. For better heat transfer, the casing must be selected in such a way that there is room for water flow between the turns of the spiral and the wall of the casing (and not just in the center of the spiral winding).

Because with such a coil winding - the outer diameter of the coil turns will come out in the region of 80-85mm (base pipe for winding = 60mm, thickness of two turns = 2 * 10mm = 20mm, plus a few millimeters will be added due to a slight reverse expansion of the turns), then hands immediately combed to use a ready-made plumbing pipe 110mm as a heat exchanger casing.

Now, regarding the preparation for winding.
1) While the stainless steel tube is still intact and even, it must be cleaned from the inside. Yes Yes. Despite the fact that the outside of the tube is clean and smooth, inside it can be much worse. What are we doing? We take a thick steel wire (I had a diameter of 3mm) and long enough (at least - a little more than half the length of the stainless tube, then you will have to clean it on both sides). At the end of the wire, we tightly wrap a wet cloth (more precisely, a ribbon), and so that it does not rip off, we grab the cloth with a thin copper wire. We dip this impromptu "kvach" into fine sifted sand (more on it later) and either push the wire with the kvach at the end through the tube, or drag it (depending on the thickness and length of the wire) after the wire. We take out the kvach - we look at it, we are horrified and repeat the operation until our OTK accepts the inner purity of the tube.

Important! The tube must be cleaned before winding. After winding, this will not be possible.

Important!! Kvach is securely fastened, because if it breaks off the wire, you can get a new quest called “Ma-a-a-a-l-a-dets! Now get this crap out of the pipe. " Use strong wire.

Important!!! It is NOT NECESSARY to wet or rinse the stainless steel tube with water from the inside! Because further according to the plan, filling the tube with sand.

2) Sand. The sand needs to be dry and sifted. It is needed for packing the coil tube. Just like in the video with the machine - we cut chopiks out of a tree, tightly hammer one chopik into the tube and, using a funnel, add sand in portions to a vertically standing tube, together with tapping on the tube from bottom to top. After the tube is tightly packed with sifted sand, the second chopik is clogged. The tube is ready to be wound.

Important! Sand is needed to protect the tube from crushing the walls during the winding process. Poor / Uneven Sand Packing - Most likely will result in improper deformation (collapse of the walls) of the tube during winding.

Winding.

There are two (main) ways to wind the heat exchanger manually from a stainless tube.

Method one - we fix an improvised shaft (pipe 2 ″) horizontally and turn it, thereby winding a stainless tube with sand on it.

Method two - we rigidly fix the shaft vertically and wind a stainless tube on it, moving with the tube in a circle.

Because With a four-meter tube, you can't turn around much, then the first option was chosen. And since there is no lathe - then on an improvised workbench, sliding bearings for a two-inch pipe were hammered out of wood:

Important! The upper limiter of height (in the figure a block with the inscription wood) for such bearings must be equal to the diameter of the shaft (pipe 2 ″) + one diameter of the wound tube (10mm).

Because a perpendicular previously cut 3/4 ″ decoction was located on the shaft - then by inserting a suitable reinforcement into it, I got a lever for turning the shaft.

Important! For proper winding, it is necessary to correctly fasten the tube to the shaft. You can, as in the video (see above), weld a bored nut, insert a stainless tube through the nut, bend the tube at 90 degrees and start winding. I didn't want to get involved with welding (at that time) - therefore, in the shaft itself (pipe 2 ″), two holes were drilled through from the edge, through which a U-shaped metal loop was inserted with a twist on the back, which fixed the end of the tube. For additional rigidity, I tied the beginning of the tube with a thick wire to the shaft.

Further, slowly, in four hands (one holds the tube, the other scrolls the shaft with a lever), winding is performed, after winding, the chops are removed, the sand is poured out, an extra piece of the tube is sawn off and we get this here spiral heat exchanger(the quality of the photo is disgusting, because it was taken with a quick hand and a phone):

As for me, very, very good, for the first time, the result of making a coil with your own hands. It's nice to even hold it in your hands. However, in order for the heat transfer process to be more efficient, the coils must be carefully moved apart (so that water also circulates between them). To do this, we had to cut out about twenty wedges from dense wood (pine does not fit) and, using a hammer, gradually driving in wedges from different sides of the spiral, push the turns of the homemade heat exchanger apart.

Important! At the very beginning, the turns resist the wedges noticeably, so take care of your fingers and nails.

Important!! It is better to move the coils apart in several passes, gradually increasing the distance between the coils and constantly monitoring so that the coil itself does not lead to the side:

After all these manipulations, we get this beauty (tape for scale):

This beauty took three meters of a stainless tube. Now it was necessary to make a heat exchanger casing.

Heat exchanger casing.

As stated earlier, it was conceived to use a gray plumbing pipe with a diameter of 110 mm under the casing. Therefore, the following components were purchased: 0.5 meter of plumbing pipe 110mm, coupling-adapter for pipe 110mm, two plugs for the same pipe, two 3/8 ″ fittings, 1-meter stud with 8mm thread. An adapter sleeve is needed because the 110mm pipe has different diameters at the ends and plugs can be installed only on one side. True, there is a bonus - the casing becomes collapsible.

Seals.

If the fitting has a threaded part with a nut, thanks to which it can be fixed in the casing body through rubber seals, then the tube of the stainless coil must somehow be passed through the plastic of the casing, and even so that water does not leak. For these purposes, I had to make a cunning homemade rubber seal (2 pieces) (see picture) with a groove for plastic.

Using a large-diameter sharpened tube, I cut out two cylindrical seals from a thick sheet of rubber (about 14 mm thick). Then, using a smaller tube (d< 10мм) в каждом уплотнении были сделаны центральные отверстия (на рисунке через них проходит штрихпунктирная линия). Затем уплотнения были насажены на подходящий болт, болт был зажат в дрель и при помощи обломка квадратного надфиля на резиновых уплотнениях были проточены (проточены, громко сказано, скорее, протёрты) канавки под пластик:

Important! A hole in the plastic of the plumbing pipe caps was drilled with such a sight so that the rubber seal was inserted very tightly into the plastic. Thus, after insertion, the central hole (which was already made with a diameter of slightly less than 10 mm) was additionally squeezed out. When the coil tube is inserted, the rubber is clamped between the coil tube and the plastic hole, thereby sealing the joint. No additional sealants (silicone, etc.) were used.

Assembly of the casing.

We insert seals into the holes in the covers of the plumbing pipe. In the same covers, we insert the fittings for the supply and discharge of cooling water. There is a rubber seal under the union nuts for sealing. Further, all rubber seals of the 110th plumbing pipe and couplings are coated with soap for ease of assembly. Then a pipe is inserted into the coupling, a coil is inserted into the pipe, on both ends of which the covers of the plumbing pipe are put on (yes, with those self-made seals). Then, moving the covers along the ends of the coil, we insert the covers into the pipe and coupling. For reliability, I sawed a meter-long hairpin into two parts and with these half-meter hairpins pulled the whole structure with nuts.

Here, in fact, what happened in the end (general view - the upper part of the photo, the exit of the heat exchanger - the lower left part of the photo, the inlet of the heat exchanger - the lower right part of the photo):

The test run showed that the heat exchanger is working successfully. The heat transfer is huge. The water flow can be set to a minimum. It seems that with strong sealing, you can not bother much. Since water enters the casing and exits through the fittings of the same diameter, the water pressure inside the casing should be minimal.

MON... Alcohol and its solutions, regardless of concentration and quantity, cause tremendous damage to the body. I don’t use it and I don’t recommend it to others. The coil was going to order.

PPN... There are (on the Internet) other ways to seal the joints of the coil tube and plumbing pipe - for example, using epoxy resin, but then the heat exchanger casing becomes non-separable.

A stainless steel tube for a moonshine still is used both to create an efficient and durable coil, and to install additional connections with a steam generator, water supply, etc. The advantage of stainless steel over materials such as silicone, copper or brass is almost complete inertness of the material to the effects of temperature and alcohol vapors, durability and good thermal conductivity.

1

Stainless steel is the best material for creating a quality moonshine still. It is easy to clean and is not subject to temperature changes and corrosion. Before heading to the store in search of a suitable metal tube, you need to understand the grades of steel: some of them are well suited for home brewing, others can only withstand exposure to water and other non-aggressive liquids. In addition, some types of steel do not lend themselves to mechanical stress, so it will be very difficult to make a bend on them.

Moonshine still made of stainless steel

The most popular in the food industry in general, and in home brewing in particular, are the following steel grades:

  1. AISI 304 (08X18H10) - has a high corrosion resistance. Chromium and nickel additions increase its cost, but a moonshine made from such material will serve you for a very long time.
  2. AISI 430 (12X17) - lends itself well to mechanical processing. The addition of chromium makes the material flexible, ductile, but does not reduce its chemical inertness.
  3. AISI 201 (12Х15Г9НД) is a budget grade stainless steel, which, due to the balanced entry of nitrogen and manganese, is not inferior to more expensive types of steel.

2

When self-designing a moonshine still, the problem of making a coil from a metal tube often arises. The main obstacle on the way for lovers of home brewing is that the material, when trying to bend it into an arc, is flattened, and the inner diameter of the coil becomes unstable. This threatens with pressure drops in the system, as a result of which the condensation of alcohol vapors on the walls of the cooler will occur unevenly. To avoid such troubles, you need to be smart about solving the assigned task.

Making a coil from a metal tube

A simple trick will help to make the coil or bend point even: one end of the tube is plugged with a piece of cork or a wooden cone of a suitable diameter. Having placed the stainless steel workpiece at a slight angle, fine dry sand is slowly poured into the open end, periodically tamping it down by tapping on the tube. After the future coil is filled with sand, its second end is also sealed.

Now that the inside of the tube is full, the bending pressure will be transferred to the sand, thus preventing the material from flattening. A coil wound on a piece of pipe will turn out to be quite even and neat. At the end of the winding, the plugs are removed or drilled out with a drill. If this is not possible, then the tree can be burned over the fire. The sand is removed and after thorough rinsing, the coil is ready for use.

3

If the thickness of the walls allows you to cut a thread on the surface of the tube, then there should be no problems with connecting it to the moonshine still. External or internal threads are made with a stainless steel tap. For thin-walled tubes, it is much more practical to use soldering.

Soldering of pipes, seams and other parts on the moonshine still is carried out exclusively with lead-free solder. Although it wets the metal surface much worse, it is safe for use in food containers, unlike tin-lead solder.

Soldering the tube to the moonshine still

An active flux - zinc chloride or orthophosphoric acid - is applied to the surface of the future junction with a brush, and then the tube is carefully heated with a soldering iron tip. In the process, you should gradually add solder, observing the uniformity of the surface coverage with it. If at the end of the work there are places from under which bare stainless steel peeps through, then the process is repeated.

After cooling, the parts are washed from the flux with running water and dried. Then they are stacked on top of each other with tinted areas and the surface is heated with a soldering iron, adding a little molten solder if necessary. After cooling down, the system should be flushed again with running water. To finally get rid of all soluble flux residues, the moonshine still is collected, filled with plain water and boiled for about an hour.

4

Stainless steel is often used to make parts of a moonshine still - a distillation cube, a dephlegmator, and a coil. The material has the following advantages:

  • wear resistance;
  • low weight;
  • excellent curl - a coil with coils of a predetermined diameter can be made from such a tube;
  • safety - stainless steel does not change its characteristics in an aggressive environment of alcohol-containing vapors;
  • due to the seamless manufacturing technology, there is no risk of depressurization of the moonshine still in the heated steam transportation system to the place of condensation.

Parts of a stainless steel moonshine still

The cost of stainless steel tubes is higher than plastic or silicone analogs, but this is fully offset by their durability.

While polymer hoses need to be replaced every few years, metal tubing will last much longer.

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A coil is an indispensable part of a moonshine still designed to condense alcohol vapors by removing heat from water or air through the walls. Despite the complex definition, anyone can make a coil at home. A homemade version will work no worse than store counterparts. We will look at the theory and practice of manufacturing.

Coil parameters:

1. Material. The most important factor affecting the safety and taste of moonshine. The coil material must not react with alcohol or be toxic, but still have sufficient thermal conductivity to condense the alcohol vapor.

Given the requirements, you can make a coil of copper, aluminum or stainless steel. Glass is also a suitable material, although it is easier to buy a ready-made glass coil at a chemical store than to make something like this yourself.

Copper has the best thermal conductivity, but many moonshiners consider it a toxic material, in fact it is not. For example, for several centuries, the French have distilled all strong alcohol in alambiks - special copper distillers, and so far no one has been poisoned. Aluminum is in second place in terms of thermal conductivity (1.6 times worse than copper), but it is relatively cheap, affordable and easy to process. Coils made of stainless steel are 3-4 times inferior to copper ones, moreover, the exact brand of stainless steel is not always known, and only food coils are suitable for home brewing, which can withstand high temperatures and do not react with alcohol.



Copper coils are the most efficient

2. Dimensions. The longer the tube, the greater the contact area of ​​the vapors with water (better cooling), but at the same time the hydraulic resistance increases (the driving speed decreases). The correct length of the coil in the moonshine still (the tube itself before curling) is 1.5-2 meters.
The larger the section (inner diameter) of the tube, the larger the contact area and the lower the resistance. I recommend using a tube with an inner diameter of 8-12 mm.

The small wall thickness of the coil increases thermal conductivity, improving condensation, but tubes that are too thin are difficult to handle and operate because they are very fragile. In addition, when two media come into contact, in our case condensed alcohol and steam, the thermal conductivity drops sharply regardless of the size and material of the wall. The optimum coil tube thickness is 0.9-1.1 mm.

3. Orientation in space. The coil can be positioned vertically, horizontally or obliquely. In home brewing, it is advisable to use a vertical connection scheme, in which the condensed distillate flows down by gravity and does not create additional obstacles to the movement of steam.

Vertical coils are ascending (steam goes from bottom to top) and descending (top to bottom). Steam must be supplied from above for minimum resistance.

4. Cooling system. The coils are cooled with water, ice and air. The last two options are less effective and require complex structures, so we will not consider them further. Water cooling systems are open - they operate on running water, and closed - the reservoir is immediately filled with the required amount of water. The design of closed systems is simpler, but they cool worse, often at the exit the moonshine turns out to be warm, and after a couple of hours of distillation, even hot.

In open systems, the circulation of water cools the coil much better, the moonshine turns out to be cold. In addition, in flow-through designs, a smaller reservoir of a water tank is used, as a result of which the apparatus is more compact.

Correctly supply water from the bottom, and drain from the top. For normal cooling, the water must move towards the moonshine, otherwise the lower part of the coil will not cool well. This pattern is referred to as the "backflow mode".

Coil manufacturing technology

You will need a copper, aluminum, brass or stainless steel tube with a length of 1.5-2 meters, a section of 8-12 mm and a wall thickness of 0.9-1.1 mm. I advise you in advance to find a housing (reservoir) for installing the coil. The diameter of the winding of the pipe depends on the size of the body. For example, a plastic sewer pipe with a diameter of 75-80 mm is suitable. For effective cooling, the coil must occupy at least 15-20% of the tank volume.

The coil installed in the body is called the refrigerator of the moonshine still, the drawing is shown in the photo.



Subsequence:

1. Fill the tubing tightly with dry bulk material such as river sand or baking soda to prevent the metal from flattening when curling. As a last resort, you can fill the tube with water and freeze it.

2. Fill the ends of the tube with wooden chops (pegs). An alternative is to solder or clamp tightly. It is advisable to weld a nut to one end.

3. Wind the tube onto any smooth object with a smooth circular cross-section of the required diameter (in the example 35 mm) with a pitch of 12 mm between turns.


4. Release the ends of the coil, pour out sand, rinse with running water.

5. Install on the cooler body nozzles for water supply and drainage.

6. Place the coil in the body, install plugs at the top and bottom, seal all connections with superglue or in another way.



Finished metal refrigerator

The moonshine still is one of the most popular devices today that allows you to get pure moonshine, more precisely, an alcohol-containing product. The basis for the manufacture is mash, which is poured into a distillation cube and heated to a boil. At a temperature of 90-95 0 С, the mash breaks down into 3 main fragmentation - alcohol, water and fusel oils. The main element of such an apparatus is the coil. It is he who is designed to condense alcohol vapors and obtain a pure product.

It is not difficult to make such a unit, even taking into account its spiral shape. In this article we will tell you how to make a coil for a moonshine still with your own hands and what you need for this.

The main task of the moonshine still is to separate low-boiling components (alcohol boils at a temperature of 78 0 С) from heavy-boiling ones - water (100 0 С) and fusel oils (from 120 0 С). The mash is boiled in a distillation still, from where the fragments are fed through a tube into a coil immersed in cold water (refrigerator). Here, due to the sharp temperature drop, the steam, moving in a spiral, condenses and flows down in the form of ethyl alcohol into the container.

In order to completely remove fusel oils from the moonshine, it is recommended to pass it twice through the device.

Despite such a complex description and specific shape, the coil can be made with your own hands, and it will work as efficiently as a professional analogue.

What should be the coil

There are several parameters that a really working coil must meet, and the main one is the material.

  1. Manufacturing material

The further taste of the drink prepared according to all the rules will depend on this. The most important thing is that the material from which the pipe will be made should not enter into a chemical reaction with alcohol and emit any harmful substances. The main types are aluminum, copper or stainless steel. Experts use glass tubes, which allows them to personally control the process. But you definitely can't make such a tube with your own hands, it's easier to buy it in a chemical reagent store.

The factor of thermal conductivity is also important, which determines the rate of condensation. The most thermally conductive material is copper, followed by aluminum and only after stainless steel.

Interestingly, some moonshiners speak out against copper pipes, considering them toxic. We would like to remind you that in France, for example, all spirits, including world-famous brandies, are distilled in a copper distiller alambique, and the taste only benefits from this.

The photo below shows a coil for a home moonshine still:

  1. Coil size

The speed of distillation and the amount of products obtained depend on this parameter. An immutable rule applies here - the more points of contact with cold water, the faster the steam cools and condenses. However, due to the increase in the turn from the turn of the turn of the hydraulic connection, the distillation rate is sharply reduced. The optimum coil length is 1.5 meters with a tube diameter of 10-12 mm.

  1. Location

In order for the condensate to drain off by gravity and not stagnate anywhere, it is recommended to use a vertical installation system. Horizontal or inclined, although not prohibited, reduce the amount of moonshine obtained with an equal amount of mash.

  1. Cooling system

The simplest and most effective cooling method is water poured into the container where the coil is immersed. Ice and cold air are also used as a cooling element, but their installation is rather difficult.

In addition, the container, if possible, should be open so that you can change the warm water to cold. In a closed container, the condensation process is much worse and very often the moonshine at the outlet is already warm enough.

There is also a flow-through refrigerator where water circulates constantly. In addition to the fact that it cools the coil best, therefore, moonshine is processed faster, and it is smaller in size. Thanks to this, the entire moonshine still turns out to be much more compact.

In the refrigerator, it is necessary to create a counterflow, for which the output of warm water is carried out from the top, and cold water comes from the bottom. In this case, the water tends to meet the moonshine and is cooled evenly throughout the coil.

The process of making a coil for a moonshine still with your own hands

The coil will be made from a copper tube. Recall, you can also use aluminum, brass and even stainless steel tube. The length of such a tube is 1500-2000 mm, the diameter is 10-12 mm, and the wall thickness is 1-1.1 mm.

Next, find the tank where the coil will be installed - a metal or glass container, the size of which determines the size of the coil. In general, the already installed one should occupy at least a quarter of the volume. If there is no suitable container at hand, you can even use a piece of plastic pipe sealed from one end. The diameter of such a pipe must be at least 80 mm.

DIY coil and body drawing

How to collect correctly

  1. Fill the tube very tightly with sand, salt or soda to eliminate even the slightest deformation during bending. Do not freeze the water and so try to curl the pipe, because when bending the knee will heat up and melt the ice, which will provoke deformation of the pipe.
  2. Cover both ends of the tube with wooden or plastic plugs to prevent sand spilling out.
  3. Find a round object with an equal cross-section along the entire height with a diameter of 30-35 mm and wind the tube neatly around it. You can bend it with pliers, but be careful not to deform the outer material. The pitch between the turns should be 12-15 mm.

  1. Open both ends, pour out sand or salt and rinse thoroughly under running water.
  2. From the outside of the case, insert the pipes for water inlet / outlet.
  3. Place the coil vertically inside the container, fix the outlet channel to the outside, from where it will come out itself, fix it with a sealant or cold welding, make plugs on both sides.

This is how a fully assembled metal refrigerator looks like.

The average heating power of the distillation cube is 3 kilowatts. With such indicators, the efficiency of the coil will be 4 liters of moonshine per hour. This volume is obtained from 30 liters of mash.

The video will tell you how to make a coil for a moonshine with your own hands