What sort of capacity are you looking for?
FWIW, the cheapo stills on Amazon, I believe all from China, work just fine.
I can just upgrade my pump or have the cold water basin level with cooling elements, no?
I think it will work fine. My advice is run it and run it and run it some more to learn how it works, you'll figure out where to make cuts by smell. Learn the corresponding head temps where the smell changes from heads to hearts, and when tails start to creep in at the end of the hearts. Smaller stills like this don't produce enough product to keep filling a hydrometer jar, and a parrot will just smear the heads through the whole run.
Sounds like a plan, don't confuse the boiler temp with head temp. Head temp is the vapor temperature at the highest point of the column. In that photo above its the copper tube just where it bends over to the top of the coil. You can add copper T fitting, use a small cork with a hole in it to fit a temp probe or even just a mechanical coffee thermometer will work.
I'm using an electric hotplate with a cast iron burner vs. the cheaper coil type, I find that the thermal mass of the cast iron smoothes out the heat output just fine, but YMMV.
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Puke hahah!
You always come in handy way to go keep it up Mr.
Bracconiere
