Copper copper copper…….been away for a while, thought I'd check in.

[Jimmidaboot]

So, it's been a busy 2013 for me over here at Craftsman Copper. I finished the still for Schoharie Farms distillery back in March. They've got it up and running with a minimum of issues, with it being my first shot at it and all. I thought I'd chime in on what's been going on here. Besisdes the lighting projects that are always going on, I was contracted to build a brew kettle for a semi-local brewery down the highway in Oregon called "The Ale Apothecary". It was a fairly simple job, 140 gallons, 12" manway, two ports for float switch and temp switch, CIP port, and drain. Here it is loaded up in my vintage van for delivery:

Here are a few pics of it under construction. The seam on the side is riveted and silver brazed, the bottom is doubled at the edge and riveted, the soft soldered with lead free solder, the top was TIG welded then worked into the dome shape, the stack and manway were TIG welded, and the ports on the bottom were flanged and soft soldered:

I was then contracted to restore the original Olympia Brewery brew kettle top piece. It was recovered from a scrap yard nearly 8 years ago and then languished in the City of Tumwater's Parks and Rec motor pool building. The city decided to build a new city hall/police dept. and they determined that this was to be the central piece of public art for the facility. Needless to say, it was pretty thrashed after so many years of neglect and abuse. Parts were removed, the floor skirting was really bent up, and being outside in the scrap yard had built up a very heavy patina. The brass end pieces for the door slider frame were gone, the doors were gone, and the point where the lower kettle was hacked off was very rough, to put it lightly. My apprentice and I have been very busy cleaning and polishing it and creating replacement parts for it. The polishing is nearly done, and the brass end pieces await a small amount of fixing up before I attach them. I still need to recreate the slider door, but I'm nearly done. So here are some pictures:

So that's what has been up lately. I have two stills on order and a few lamps and chandeliers to build, but I'm always willing to listen to anyone's ideas about new projects. Enjoy the pics, friends! It's likely that I'll be up at the conference in April, so I hope to meet a few of you there. I have friend at Imbibe Magazine who is making me a guest as I just can't afford to be there as a vendor. Should be a good time! Thanks for looking! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

[HedgeBird]

Looks awesome. Nice work!

[roots]

drool.