Clawhammer Supply 5 Gallon Still Review (Part 1)

By Geronimo.

I was recently afforded the opportunity to assemble and provide a review of the Clawhammer Supply 5 Gallon Still for PJ and the great PrepperResources.com community. Let me put some disclaimers right out front. I come from a long line of Eastern Kentucky hillbilly moonshiners, I am a huge fan of whiskey and moonshine and I am not overly handy with tools and mechanical construction. So let all of that factor in the value you put in my review! (I am not being paid by Clawhammer or PrepperResources.com)

First off, I have been researching the stills from many different sites online for a couple years now. It is one of about a hundred hobbies I am convinced I would be great at but hardly ever get around to actually starting the process. Kyle Brown at Clawhammer Supply provided a pretty thorough explanation and listed many of the reasons “prepper” minded people should be interested in a still so I will try not to cover all the same things. From the “batten down the hatches, here come the zombies” perspective I do think this equipment has a real value (read: SHTF and a world WROL).

This five gallon still is the first I have ever messed with in person so the following review hasn’t been compared to other models or manufacturers.

Kit Arrives. So I have been battling the time issue of having a newborn in the house (PJ Adds: Is that an excuse?  Weak!). This dramatically reduces the amount of time my wife will let me disappear into the basement! Two boxes arrived from Clawhammer on my front porch. The first was a small box of the thermometers (which I will get to in Part 2) and a large, thin, flat box. I actually had this for almost a week without opening it because I thought for sure I was still waiting for more boxes. Turns out the way the pieces lay flat between two pieces of Styrofoam is quite impressive! I expected a much larger box, not realizing how small the tightly spaced pieces of copper would be. The pieces are arranged clearly and well-padded in the box, I don’t see many reasonable scenarios that could damage the kit in transit.

Clawhammer Still Unboxed

Clawhammer Still

Starting Assembly. The videos at Clawhammer provided all of the instruction I used. I won’t be giving a full run down of each step as that is already provided thoroughly in the videos. I used the equipment listed and had to buy minimal items. Some people might have a blowtorch, solder, flux, and clamps handy in their garage, I did not. So I had to make a trip to the hardware store.

Note: almost all of the construction of the still is soldering. That is using a blowtorch or heat source to melt some lead free metal (solder) as a joiner for the pieces of copper. If you haven’t soldered before then stop and watch lots of videos on THAT before starting the still construction. I had seen soldering done a few times but honestly had never done it. So my biggest slowdowns in this have been due to that.

Wearing gloves and the copper bending really isn’t difficult. There are a few rivets that need pounded in, also not a much of a challenge. But you would be well served with a bench vise. I wish I had one and considered it but couldn’t justify the cost for as little of this type of work I do. I required about three times as much solder as I thought would be needed.

Half way review. So here you can see how far I am. This is about 4 to 5 hours invested. My initial reaction is it isn’t really difficult to assemble but possibly more time consuming that the pros might tell you. A more technically and mechanically inclined person, or a master solderer (don’t think that’s a word) could have produced a much more symmetrical and better looking still. But I do not blame the materials for that at all, I am not a very detail oriented person. But my overall desire for a finished product will keep me going!

Clawhammer Assembly

Clawhammer Assembly

Clawhammer Assembly

Clawhammer Assembly

Part 2 will include finishing construction and distilling some “liquid” (read: WATER) which will allow me to really rate this overall experience for a beginning distiller.