Great little still. Got it all put together and have just started using it. The only complaint is the blue tape holding the copper joints together. It was a bear getting the glue off.
Thanks,
Don

Nice kit, but there's quite a lot of work to do to put it together. Need a solder gun and some other hard equipment. Unfortunately, hubby broke his arm and it's still un-assembled.

The initial set up can be challenging, but if you reach a problem with the process reach out to the Emmet at Clawhammer, and he will provide you with any information you need to get the project back on track.

I had some issues, and they were responsive and patient through the customer service process. In the end made things right with my product. I'm looking forward to adding some fine spirits to spring fishing trips and summer camping.

This ended up being a great project. It took me about five hours to assemble and solder. I needed to brush up on some techniques and while there is certainly a steep learning curve (especially if you're trying to make it look perfect; I wasn't), it is also forgiving and if need be, if you get extra copper rivets (it seems like they included 2 extras), you could potentially disassemble the whole thing and start over.

I ordered "Oatey 30132 H205 Water Soluble Paste Flux, 8-Ounce" (prod ID: B001BNWOX6) at the same time I ordered this still kit and it worked well except for when I didn't sandpaper a joint first. The flux residue washes away with soap and water. You may need to wire brush and apply more if trying to touch up a solder joint as the burned residue seems to get in the way of the solder (ONLY use a food/drink safe solder like "silver solder").

POTENTIAL BIG TIP: One thing I should have tried doing for the joints was "pre-tinning" the copper. This would have involved sanding the joint surfaces, applying solder paste primarily to where the joint would be, then heating up and putting some solder along the entire joint face but let it flow out so its pretty thin. Let cool, apply more paste, assemble the joint, and apply more solder to secure the joint and seal. I think this would have helped guide the solder and complete the joints rather than trying to use the heat to flow the joint. I know pre-tinning works great for other projects I've soldered like electronics and circuit boards, I just didn't think about it at the time.

Attaching the conical hood to the body, I took a length of solder and made a big ring out of it that sat in the over hang that needed to be joined. With the hood and body upside down, I leveled the body into the hood as much as I cared to, then using a welding glove on one hand, I pushed gently on the bottom of the body to close up the gaps between the edge of the body and the radius of the hood. Then I simply walked my torch back and forge until the solder began to melt. You don't want to have it get too hot because it'll just run down any gap it can find, but you want to use enough heat to reduce the solder wire to a gap-filling puddle. Just keep sweeping the heat back and forth until the solder starts to flow and loses its wire shape and you should be good.

The parts that gave me problems were sealing the round top of the insert that sits in the hood collar. It's "petaled" like the bottom plate is and you have to bend up the petals to make a surface for the collar to join with, but I kept getting tiny gaps. I think my problem is that I didn't bend the petals right to the edge, which left solder-draining gaps during assembly. But again, it's forgiving. I was able to play the "heat & solder" game, applying a little heat, touch with solder, apply more heat if solder doesn't melt, repeat until you get some adhesion.

The other part that was a pain was the bottom plate to body seam joint. It's a three way joint essentially right there. I got it sealed up when I did my tap water fill tests; but when I boiled water in it, I would get a tiny tiny leak. I ended up heating the whole area, applying solder, and rolling the assembly back and forth to settle the solder. THIS IS AN EXAMPLE OF WHERE PRE-TINNING PROBABLY WOULD HAVE HELPED A LOT.

I used a couple of stepped drill bits to make a hole for the "3" Dial 2.5" Stem 1/2" NPT Threaded Stainless Steel Thermometer Moonshine Still Condenser Brew Pot Mash Tun" (prod ID: B00TZHWKX4) gauge, and using the o-rings, washer, and o-ring-ready nut from the "Weldless Bulkhead - Stainless Steel" (prod ID: B00JHM38RE) kit, I got the gauge sitting perfectly in the hood (see picture). If you use these parts to add a gauge, watch the o-ring between the hood and washer as it can bind up and twist if you twist the gauge rather than the nut. This was my assembly order: O-ring'd Nut + O-ring + Still wall + O-ring + Washer + Gauge.

I am getting some steam leaks where the column sits in the hood (expected) and where the down spout sits in the column tee (expect, I didn't solder this joint as to allow me to modify it later). I am thinking of getting some silicon wrap (not the self-fusing type) or maybe a length of bike tire inner tube and figure out a creative way to seal these small, expected leaks. I could also try reworking the hood to column interface a little to see if I can get an interference seal.

Over all, the kit is great, very well packaged and protected against common shipping damage, and a lot of fun to put together.

It makes alcohol, come on, anything else to say?