Assembling inlet of water distiller

Continuing construction of solar water distiller prototype #3, previous post here:

http://bkhome.org/news/201910/constructing-water-distiller-inlet.html

Holes needed to be drilled to mount the inlet pipe. The small holes are 4mm diameter, the large one is 6mm:

...there was a bit of messing around deciding exactly where the holes will be drilled. Exact measurements will be in the final DIY page. I assembled the central glass with silicone mat and wicking cloth, then placed the inlet pipe on top, to find out where those holes needed to be.

I didn't really want to glue anything together, as the aim is that the distiller can be totally pulled apart. However, the mat sits on the glass and want the edges folded up so as to contain the water. The top up-slope end of the mat is a problem, want it to stick up about 90 degrees from the plane of the mat. I used Selleys 401 silicone sealant to adhere the mat to the glass and achieve the top lip.

Here is the inlet pipe assembled:

...using the black towel used in prototype #2, which has a 6.3mm aluminium rod inserted along the top of the towel. The towel is cotton, from Kmart, it is plain black, no embossing. The aluminium rod is from Bunnings.

The rod was AU$2,32:

https://www.bunnings.com.au/metal-mate-6-3mm-x-1m-aluminium-solid-rod_p1130541

The towel was AU$6:

https://www.kmart.com.au/product/malmo-cotton-bath-towel---black/2332350

The great thing about the towel is that it already has a folded-over-end through which the aluminium rod fits snuggly:

As you can see in the second-last photo, the silicone mat top-end lip is not sticking up at 90 degrees, more like 45 degrees. So what I did was fold it right over 180 degrees and apply silicone sealant:

...left that overnight. Yes, that did the trick, it sprang back to about vertical:

The next exercise will be to construct the distilled-water runoff. That is tricky, as distilled water will be running down both top and bottom glass sheets. I have considered various ways to construct it, and trying to do it without any more gluing.

Tags: nomad