Hope no kids lose an arm, Bock learned the hard way. They even had an interlock it was just a shitty design.
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@cyclopath @Soxhlet @Future sounds like i should test it out from a good distance away when i get around to making this lol. makes it interesting at least
100% this.
Iām generally a safety third kind of guy, as most people who know will me will attest. At least with regards to my own personal safety.
So let me be clear:
Centrifuges. Are. Death. Machines.
If you fuck around with them.
When it comes to loaded centrifuges spinning very fast I pay a fair bit of money to experts to check my work and tell me exactly how far and fast I can turn up the wick without something self destructing.
If a system I have designed fails because we just overloaded the bloody thing or cut some corners, there is a very good chance that at least one person will die.
Even ignoring liability, I need to sleep at night.
Now, my fuges are bigger and faster and carry more shit than your average CUP (howās a 50hp motor sound?) but the same principal absolutely applies.
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In need of some assistance,
The head masters of my company are confused on how we are failing our heavy metal testing on ethanol concentrates. Our set up is something I have used for a few years, basic column with a filter plate, compressed air and a collection vessel (all stainless steel parts). We then recover our solvent with a rotary evaporator, transfer to parchment and into a cascade vac oven.
(PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU SEE ANY ISSUES WITH OUR COLD ETOH SETUP REGARDING HEAVY METAL CONTAMINANTS)
My theory is that our plant material sucks. We use general hydroponics and I am reading on one of @TheFeds websites, that this could be a possible heavy metal source. Iām assuming our rock wool could possibly also contain heavy metals. My confusion comes from the fact that our flower tests are passing and concentrates failing. Could it be possible that the lower shit bud sent to the extraction facility contains the heavy metals. Would the metal not be able to flow to the top of the plant where the test buds were pulled? Its showing Non detect on our flower tests.
Any advice on possible heavy metal contamination in a indoor grow / lab would be great. Iām about ready to get a Chicago bulls tattoo, die my hair like a skunk and buy some cheap black shades- Wunk
youāre deliberately concentrating cannabinoidsā¦
turns out you can concentrate pesticides and heavy metals using the exact same process.
cannabis is a known bioaccumulator.
if you give it substrate (or food) with heavy metals, it will suck them up. Some have suggested Hemp for bioremediation efforts based on that trait. Soil Remediation and biomass energy
ā¦but only recently have had to deal with state mandated heavy metal testingā¦
Iām with you that your gear probably isnāt the source. Are you using any magic dirt? (yes? drop it & test again)
my bet is your issue is the biomass. chances are that means the nutrients or media given how youāre producing it.
Edit: or maybe Iām wrong. @Liam1 apparently has data to the contraryā¦ Heavy Metals prevalence in plant material/extracts? - #2 by Liam1
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@cyclopath nailed it. Itās not uncommon for flower to pass and its concentrate fail, due to concentrating what was in the flower. You could be accumulating heavy metals from your nutrients, your water, your media, or through the air if it is heavily polluted (unlikely in your case though).
Have you had your water tested? That would be a good place to start. You can also send a sample of your nutrient solution off for testing, too. Jackās nutrients offers testing for both, but Iām not sure if they test for heavy metals.
GH should be able to provide you with heavy metal content information about their products you are using. I would cross reference that info with the test results to see if there is any correlation. I would also suggest running a comparison with another nutrient line like Jackās Hydro, and see if you pass testing on the concentrates.
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I appreciate the response and it looks like we are on the same page. It should not even be an argument but for some reason I have to explain to these NYC offices why cancer patients shouldnāt vaporize heavy metals. (I really wish I had a thread to hop on and troll this place, @Future is there a Yelp Review thread yet? Could be another one of my bad iDeas)
Just want to make sure that my math makes sense as I am unsure of the solubility of arsenic salts (?) in ethanol. Would THCA and arsenic concentrate at the same rate? I am attempting to show that the 46 ppb in our flower can translate to over a 200 pbb failure in our concentrate.
@BigM thank you for your info! We have had our water tested and Iām thinking its the GH Kool Bloom.
Not that I feel like helping these guys much moreā¦ but if I toss a filter stack under my column and run the wash over T5 this should remove the arsenic correct?
Also, is the arsenic some sort of budlight chelado Chelation? Confused on the structure of arsenic within these nutrients?
Saw this just thought Iād leave it here
And this too
Never used either but they look like theyād help
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Would putting ethanol that has been chilled via dry through a molecular sieve help clean the ethanol while keeping it freezing cold? Like would that chilled, sieved ethanol be better to use.
What are you trying to remove?
I imagine there are better ways to clean a tincture.
Also in reference to the strainers you posted above. Here is another option that worked well for me.
What I did to filter my tincture when using bucket tek was set up a large filter system using 55 gallon drums (could be done with 5 gal too).
I drilled a bunch of holes in the bottom of one drum like you would see in a filter plate/buchner. Covered with silk screen cloth cut to size. Topped with washed silica sand (you could use any media). Then outfitted the lid with compressor fitting. I set this whole thing on top of another 55 gallon drum with the lid off.
Trow some dry ice in to keep it cold. Pour tincture in. Run up the pressure. Filter 50gal+ in an hr or 2 while maintaining dry ice temps.
You can also drill a hole in the side of the collection drum near the top. This way you can drop a tube in to siphon out your filtered tincture without stopping the process, if your doing larger volumes.
If you were to use something like t5, I would still recommend using sand on top to catch most of the particulate.
A 3d filter media is much faster than 2d and this set up is extremely inexpensive.
Plus you get to stick with the bucket asthetic 
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Mol sieves warm up when absorbing h2o.
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It might be drierā¦
Iām guessing you might also be able to lose any CO2 you picked up using dry ice to get it cold. Although that trick uses 5A sieves.
As far as ābetterā, 190 picks up less fats than 200proof. So I would say ānope, not betterā
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What if you were to use a mix of sieve beads or have two different beds of beads?
I was talking just freezing cold ethanol not freezing cold tincture or cannabis oil laden ethanol.
ā¦I got that.
presumably the next trick is to extract with it, or is this for a new drinking game?!? (doesnāt everybody store their vodka at -80C?)
200proof works, but imo is not better than 190ā¦it is arguably better than 150proof for extraction, but as @Demontrich noted, absorbing water generates heat, so cooling 100proof, then running it over molsieves to get to 200proof might not be a win.
What is your goal here?!?
Defining your solvent prep as āBetterā really requires knowing what youāre prepping it forā¦and where itās been beforehand.
My responses assume ābetter for extracting cannabinoidsā, but you know how assumptions can get you into trouble quickā¦
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If the ethanol needs to be ācleanedā. Why ācleanā it cold. Why not ācleanā it warm and the cool it? What do want to remove?
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Well for one I wanna take pH samples of the ethanol; before and after the dry ice insertion and then I wanna take pH samples of the ethanol before and after the sieve. I also hope to remove excess water content that couldāve been picked up by the dry ice and I also want to know if thereās an overall difference.
Idk I have a feeling that could possibly help.
Plus! If youāre gonna go that low on the solvent temp shouldnāt you sieve your solvent?
Ik ethanol isnāt an lpg butā¦
Put it this way right, when you recover butane or an lpg during a cls run youāre urged to sieve your recovered solvent because youāre not going to pick up water content and itās to make sure your solvent is technically āclean and dryā right?
Ik there are some that sieve their lpg when they distill it to make sure itās āclean and dry.ā
So why not run Freezing cold Ethanol that was chilled via Dry Ice through a molecular sieve before you extract with it? One would think it would be a good idea.
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Di brings etoh down to 3.5. Iāve been using 3.5ph etoh for many x, w/o any spd issues.
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If anything you just see more oxidation from the low ph of the disty, right? Thus the red ring?
Dry ice does not have any water content (hence being called dry). Dry ice does not melt, it sublimates (skips a state of matter and goes from solid directly to gas phase). Dry ice is made from CO2, and it being heavier than air creates a blanket over the top of your chilling solvent (when added directly to the solvent). Not sure why you think adding dry ice to your solvent pulls in water.
I have worked with ethanol (both denatured and not) for many, many years, and I have really not had problems with the proof dropping enough to ever worry about needing a sieve to strip water content, even being in the PNW.
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