So I’m about 1 hour into mains and I just noticed this thing in my distillate. Until this, everything going normal like it has dozens of times prior. -80 ethanol extracted crude, decarboxylated prior to distillation. No other processing just filtered out sediment (no LLE, scrubbing, etc.) Has anyone seen something like this before? My guess is vac grease. Is this what vac grease contamination typically looks like? I used Dow grease on every joint, I know it’s not the best. I try not to over grease. This looks like too much to be grease in my opinion but I have no idea what else it could be. Guess I’ll finally start using distillate for the cold joints now.
Can you manage a better pic? From multiple angles? Might be able to help better if we can see clear.
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Yeah, sorry that pic is terrible. Will take some more now.
Well my camera sucks and is having a hard time focusing/zooming/adjusting for light, so this is the best I can get. Almost looks like a little piece of styrofoam or something. Once this distillation is finished I’ll try and pull it out and take some more pics. Gonna re distill this batch just to be safe.
Chunk of vac grease would be my guess
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If it doesn’t get bigger then it’s just something that was in there before by accident.
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Hmm, I didn’t notice anything in any piece of glass when I assembled it, but it’s possible I missed something. This is a pic from the start of the run.
Did you dig it out yet?
Was it a grease booger?
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Who in gods name would ever tell anyone to use vaccum grease. Yucky.
Just about every chemistry professor ever… and all literature regarding sealing glass under vacuum would recommend using vacuum grease.
Not saying its the right choice for contamination possibility but it isnt really common knowledge to not use it.
OP a lot of people here recommend using distillate on any joint that will be in contact with the oil, all other joints can have vac grease.
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It was in sarcasm
Should have done italics
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That would be the biggest grease glob ive ever seen in a flask. Something is telling me its not grease. Also no other signs pointing to it being grease. The disty looks normal. No streaks.
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Whats the word? did you pull it out of there yet?
I was confused for a second myself
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Not yet, soaking my boiling flask now and will try to pull it out when I pour the distillate back into boiling flask for 2nd pass. Will update tomorrow with some more info and pics, thanks!
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You cant leave us hanging for that long!! Pull that sucker out and let us know! I for one am super curious
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Exactly
Use a fn dab tool.
It may contaminate the precious distillate.
Lol
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Okay, sorry for the delay. I just dug it out as I was transferring the oil back into the SPD flask. I assume it’s vac oil, but I can’t really say for sure. Any thoughts on how to ID what it is? I have access to NMR. Might run it against pure vac oil to confirm.
In one pic you can see the thing next to the vac grease that I used. The mystery blob is much whiter and cloudier. It’s pretty soft too.
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Definitely grease
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That is most likely grease, you ever try the ptfe sleeves? I wouldn’t smoke that, ever read the back of the tube of grease?
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