whats the best way of making a simple distillation aparatus?i was thinking of using light bulbs,clay,and metal pipes to make it.

What do you plan on distilling?

You can make a very nice collapsable apparatus from off the shelf copper pipe and a scrounged pressure cooker.

i was planning on distilling ethyl alcohol.i need to purify it because im going to use it for wetting ap and i just want it to dry faster,and also my HNO3 is only 65% i was thinking of purifying that also.For distilling dangerous chemicals like acids i would need a good heat resistent seal on all the joints and i dont yet have a torch,do you have any suggestions for that?

You can get away with using a soldering iron, and electrical solder, if you can get it to "flow". But you can get yourself a small butane torch, that will do a fine job, or even a small propane torch for $20 or so.

But if your worried about safety, test the pipe and the solder used with what ever you want to distill, by sticking a sample in the liquid, leave it for a few hours, and check for corrosion of any time. Copper will turn green, but I foresee no problems using household copper, as long as it isnt for extended periods of time (8+hrs im guessing).

thank you both,i greatly appreciate your help.