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Final Set Up And Cautions
Depending on your heat source you will have block up the bucket into a good position.
If you are distilling something other than water you need to be careful.
Do not distill alcohol with this still. It is illegal to distill alcohol without a permit and is also very dangerous. Methanol has a lower boiling point than alcohol, and if you are distilling alcohol, the first portion of your distillate will have a high concentration of methanol. In small amounts, methanol will make you blind. In larger amounts, it will kill you. If you want to read more about the safety hazards of distilling alcohol and how to avoid them, you can read more on it here.
A note on temperatures:
You need to look up the boiling point of whatever you put in your still before you use it. Water, for example, has a boiling point of 100 degrees Celsius, so if you were distilling salt water into drinking water, you would put it in the pot and bring the water to a boil, keeping the heat source at a level that maintains a thermometer reading of 100 degrees Celsius. This will cause the water vapor to turn to gas and travel through the copper tubing.
To get the vaporous from the boiling pot to condense it is best ho fill the 5 Gallon bucket with ice or very cold water
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When you actually go to make your still I'd suggest going to the original article where there are a bunch more pictures and a more detailed description.
All the images came from the original article.
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