How do I make a old fashioned distillery?

[littleh]

I understand that distilling alcohol is illegal (most areas) without the proper licensing; this question is for educational purposes only...*cough cough*

Hypothetically speaking...
let's say I know this guy who does a lot of projects and a few of them involve distilled alcohol. Because this guy doesn't buy hard (liquor?) and loves complicated projects, he thinks distilling his own alcohols will be really fun (a.k.a. time-consuming and difficult). The big problem is with this guy's aesthetic taste; he loves how things looked from mid1850's or before so all the still plans he has found don't do it for him. But no wanting to use materials that are now known to be toxic or carcinogenic he will put health before taste. He'd like a distill that has uses copper stone and wood, any suggestions?

Important! While most of the desired alcohol is NOT for drinking (if staying alive is a high priority) some if it will be used for airlocks on carboys for wine and an attempt at making rum. Could he still use the same equipment or does everything have to be switched?

Just out of curiosity, if this guy hypothetically had a stash of coke left over from his times before he switched to charcoal, could he use it to heat the still without giving any drinking alcohol a brimstone flavor?

 

[zollarsmeece]

In my opinion to same equipment to make rum.The only time you use a different still is when making an infused liquor such as absinthe, then an Alembic type still is required and the process is very different. And educationally speaking, yes, you could build distilling equipment based on 1800's designs, there are literally dozens of websites devoted to this. Using copper is fine, and there are great lead free solders to use or copper phosphate brazing rod or go old school and rivet the joints and seams.