Another first SPD run WOO!

As for head temps I bought a thermometer but it wound up being too small for the thermocouple adapter that came with my glass. I need to buy a ptfe one that fits it.

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Might any one be able to tell me how I should approach the end of my head fraction and switching over?

I am at 165° and 130 microns. Still getting drops of heads and some cold trap drips too. I stopped upping the temp for now.

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First of all place the clldtrap flask in some dry ice to
Are you having a swirll yet ?
What are your parameters
Vac level
Mantel temp
Spinbar speed
Condensor temp
Size of your vac pump ?
Any reflux gooing on ?

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How did you solve the gauge problem in the end ?

I have literally never read head temp. Multiple years doing this now

No swirl or reflux. Vac between 130 and 160. Mantel is now 180 and does not report spinbar speed (cheap mantel). Welch 1400 .9 cm. No reflux yet.

Well then. Bring up temp to 200 C
You want to see some reflux in the head
What temp is condenser set ?

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Make sure your coldtrap is filled to the rim and some dryice on the coltrap flask
Start insulating your head you can leave some peek holes to watch
You rather have your oil at 220C for six hours than at 180C for 24 hours :grin:
Don t be afraid of those temps your oil can handel them

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I would hang out at 200c tops for at least 15 mins before jumping to higher temps. Crank up that spin bar. Mine dances at 1400

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Condenser is at 80°

Bringing mantle to 200 now.

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The advice has been really helpful. I was worried about overwhelming the Welch or getting the temps up too quickly. I should probably power through a bit more instead of waiting for everything to be perfect.

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Bare beginnings of reflux at 196 but now Welch reads 274 microns! Yikes.

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Drips are now thick, slightly greenish, and more frequent.

Since your pump has a low cfm
You will see your vac level spike once things get gooing my guess is around 270 mic
And mains steading out at mantel temp 240

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Reflux ?

Bought a new one.

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You might want to bring down the condensor a bit around 60C till mains just to make sure your visual of the swirl is correct

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Ok so insulated the head ?
Since you have a low cfm the boiling will relay heavily on temp instead of vacuum depth
Your speed wil be slow but can be compensated by raising your temps
Make sure your stirbar keeps functioning at these higher temps for they often lose magnatism

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Condenser now at 60.

It looks to me like we have distillate!

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