DIY Distiller for recovering Ethanol from QWET

so i had this going yesterday for quite a long time...oil was at 250F and few hrs later still nothing dripping out of the condenser. I could smell any ethanol either. I shut it down and let it cool a bit before removing lid....glad i didn't have my head over the lid cause that warm ethanol vapors will singe those nose hairs right up. Anyways, i'm not sure what's up but just isn't working with my current set up.


Bong condenser. Garden hose just kinks when wrapped that tight, sooo i'll buy some small clear tubing and attach to garden hose since i'm doing this in my garage now. In the picture above you can see the fuel line running over and down through a grey "thingy" haha wow can't think of what to call it...but i attached that so the bong will actually fit upside down in there and be held up with out use of clamps. I believe running the bong upside down will work best so vapors continue to rise and cool before want to exit right out the top, and the condensed ethanol can drip right out the column into a jar. Wish me luck because that's what i'm trying next, possibly with a mason jar for the distilling pot to reduce the volume the vapors have to fill before being forced out the tube to the condenser.

[video=youtube_share;FcdOtw8sglI]http://youtu.be/FcdOtw8sglI[/video]

So i think this sill work out pretty dang good. I was in a rush at Ace and didn't have time to figure out a quick/easy way to attach the clear tube to the garden hose. There are those male garden hose end replacements that slide into the hose and can be clamped down...maybe that'll fit in the tube and i can then simply screw the garden hose on.

Didn't get around to performing a QWET tonight and my last winterizing didn't get filtered enough and needs to be rewinterized. so i'll have a couple different runs to distill offffffff.
very gooey, accidentally got to around 150F for some time...lol well first time that's happened to me and never had any consistency like this before but i'm going to re filter it because it looks all grainy when played with then it smooths out after it sits.
mason jar like all ready to go....still shredded this lid trying to go from 1/4"-3/8", thanks for the warning Fade lol. Didn't shred it too bad thought and with two seals smashed down pretty tight i think i'll be good. Guess it'll have to wait till tomorrow night. Harvesting that scraggly LCOG tonight, i've mentioned a time or two...really want to have that distiller up and running good because i'm making a lot of QWET from this harvest.

Our DIY asparagus steamer still recovers close to 100%, discharging alcohol that is cold to the touch, but it primarily uses heat and we would like to recover our alcohol using less heat and mostly vacuum.

I've tried several condenser and cold trap configurations in the lab to recover the alcohol vapors from cold boiling, with about 80% success, but still lose a good amount of solvent through the pump and still have to regularly change the pump oil. I currently have a refrigerant after cooler ordered, which I will put in front of a stainless cold trap that I made out of a sanitary spool, and submerge both in an ice bath. More on that when the after cooler arrives.