WWII scrap drive

   / WWII scrap drive #51  
None of that means you can't own a still. You just can't use it to produce distilled alcohol. You can distill your own water, essential oils, and other non-alcoholic liquids (can't think of anything, but you can do it).
 
   / WWII scrap drive #54  
I heard some folks do it any way...and there may even be a TV show on the subject! :oops:

That was a good movie. I watched it several times, partly just to see all of the old cars. 👍

Getting back to legal or illegal...there is no easy "yes" or "no". Applying for the permit you linked is free, but I'm not sure what going through the process. One would think that doing it for personal use should be free, but apparently so many people have gone blind or died from batches gone wrong that "They" feel the need to regulate it.
 
   / WWII scrap drive #55  
That was a good movie. I watched it several times, partly just to see all of the old cars. 👍

Getting back to legal or illegal...there is no easy "yes" or "no". Applying for the permit you linked is free, but I'm not sure what going through the process. One would think that doing it for personal use should be free, but apparently so many people have gone blind or died from batches gone wrong that "They" feel the need to regulate it.
Ahh, but there is a real easy yes or no... the answer is no, unless you get a permit, or use someone else's facility that has a permit to distill.

And I agree that you should be able to do it for personal use, but as you mentioned, there's the whole health issue. Lead solder in a still can add poisons, for example, so equipment regulation would be an issue.

From what I understand , once you start the run in the still, the first part that comes out of the still, the heads, contains low boiling point alcohol and other compounds that are not good for you. Once those boil off, the good alcohol, the hearts, comes out. After that, you get the tails, which has oils and very little alcohol. You don't want to drink the heads. I hear it makes good paint thinner.

So knowing when to make those cuts between heads, hearts, and tails is important not only for safety, but for taste of the final product. Anyway, and again, from what I understand, it would take quite a bit of experimenting with your mash recipe, fermentation times, fermentation temperatures, still heat, etc. to come out with a tasty 80 proof whisky from a single run still that your grandpa might have left you. Or so I've heard.;)
 
   / WWII scrap drive #56  
I was born in in 1951 and the first I knew of the WW2 scrap drives was on a Little Rascals short shown on TV. I puzzled for years as to why the scrap collectors were so glad to get a worn out tire when my folks couldn't give them away and I'd only seen them recycled into door mats. I'm still not sure.
 
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   / WWII scrap drive #57  
The tubes were definitely metal. I remember a 60's magazine telling how to cut and wrap them around around fishing lines in the absence commercial lead weights.
I remember that magazine, too.
 
   / WWII scrap drive
  • Thread Starter
#58  
I miss Western Auto... the only one I knew was in Tahoe but they had things a kid couldn't get elsewhere.

As for lead in toothpaste tubes there is a theory linking to rise of dementia...

Grandparents as as sharp as they come and baking soda was their toothpaste.
I remember old camping books and articles recommending taking an old toothpaste tube along for repairs in case you melted a hole in your tin cookware. The cookware was real tin. Not sure about the tubes. I always wondered why they didn't recommend taking soldeer instead. Maybe the tubes were pure tin and the solder had lead.

Bruce
 
 
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