Blah blah blah blah blah

You just can pass it as the desire to do steam distillation of essential oils. All the parts fit.
Distilling salt water is a bit exotic.
Just search the eBay for essential oils steam distillation kit and compare the parts.
And you need sep funnel to separate the water and oil fractions from the collector flask.

Blah blah blah

Ok

Take a look: https://forum.downsizer.net/about34895.html
Also $200 is pretty cheap for steam distillation kit. They go much higher.

sweet. I believe I will completely reconfigure my alibi. I'll have to weigh in my head if any attachment to truth is worth preserving personally.

Change your narrative. The truth is: you are buying steam distillation kit to do steam distillation. Every attempt to attach any additional meaning/use to the kit is just a speculation and you should ignore it. Stick to the simple explanation, don't complicate it and don't let any hypothetical agent (in your head) to complicate it. You are going to distill essential oils. Why? Because it's a hobby. Everything else is superficial. Straight dismissal of bullshit is ur friend. Stay firm with simple fact and noone will be able to undermine you.

P.S.
Do actual research on what you can distill and do some distillations as well.

blue egyptian water lotus is pretty cool

I assume you live in the US. Disregard everything below if you live anywhere else.

1. You are under no obligation to tell anyone anything (except if a judge grants you immunity from prosecution). Please read up on the Fifth Amendment. Please watch "Do not talk to the police" on Youtube.

2. Do not answer any questions or make any statements whatsoever, apart from who you are and where you live. You never know what they may know (or believe to know) that will contradict what you say. Lying to LE officers, including USPS inspectors, is a felony (18 U.S.C. Section 1001). Do say "I wish to exercise my right not to talk to you" - just remaining mute does NOT count and CAN be used against you.

Will You for the Love of God Shut Up?
What Part of "Shut Up" Didn't You Understand?
Really, Seriously, Just Shut the Fuck Up

You are not admitting anything by not talking. If you are approached by an LE officer - politely but firmly end the conversation by telling them you will not talk to them. That will not hurt their feelings.

3. Get a criminal defense attorney's phone number if you don't have one yet.

4. Owning flasks and funnels is legal, period. They are not "drug paraphernalia", they are multipurpose tools openly sold on the market. You do not have to explain anything - stop apologizing and have some dignity, citizen of a free country?

5. Do not let any LE officer into your house. Ever. Under any circumstances. If they have a search warrant, they will open your door without your help.

6. Do not consent to getting your house, vehicle, or body searched, inspected, or "just looked at". Say "I do not consent to any searches". Ideally record everything with your phone - anything they obtain without a warrant or your consent will be inadmissible in court.

7. Do not try to bargain with, reason with, or play games with, the LE. You are what's for dinner. Treat any LE officer like a poisonous snake - you can admire one on TV, but any contact is reckless and should be avoided at all costs.

Awesome. This is excellent advice. Ultimately, I have little faith in law enforcement upholding the law legally whatsoever, and as I have stated, people often just push to do whatever they want anyways. As I have stated previously, there are various laws that specifically mention stills, boiler flasks and others, but I believe it doesn't actually specifically ban them except in the case of a separate law concerning alcohol that actually does ban stills completely though I think because these are merely the components of a still that I don't have to worry about that. Thank you for the advice.

Like, I was once driving down the road and a cop pulled me over and claimed I had my brights on when I didn't, and asked to search my vehicle, to which I told him no, and he gave me a $200 ticket.