Project Description: This project was given to me during my second internship with Sentry Equipment in 2021. The VP of engineering was retiring after a long career at the company, including overhauling their manufacturing capabilities to where they were then. I was tasked with designing and helping manufacture a whiskey still as a retirement gift. I did all the design work and modeling, helped with the laser cutting and bending of parts, and coiled and assembled the dual-tube heat exchanger, which was part of Sentry’s product line and added a special touch to the gift. The only thing I wasn’t a part of for this project was welding, but I still learned a lot about designing for welding from doing this project.
Software Used: Solidworks
Big Wins: I made a super cool and unique retirement gift that was very well received. I learned a lot about manufacturing with sheet metal. The entire product utilized in-house manufacturing capabilities.
Challenges: The design was a challenge for the welders since I didn’t know anything about designing for that process.
Key Takeaways: Hands-on work and making things rocks. This was my first exposure to CNC bending processes, which are really neat.
Here is the final still assembly. It was a bit top heavy due to the heat exchanger coil, but otherwise there were no complaints, only compliments.
Here is the CAD of the still to compare to the real thing, which is spot on if you ask me. This is the best image I have of the CAD though, which includes lines to show the shop weld seams on the assembly. I still have the models, but the assembly is missing fittings from the proprietary company database, so this is a better image for presentation.