Closed Loop Accidents

OH MY GOD!

Not good man. This is exactly the kind of a thing I wanted to see.

Thanks @SpookyDistillation

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Take back your heart lol! :upside_down_face:

We need to start a stop:drop:roll lesson for what to never do. “Don’t put that vapor pan on that gas stove” doesn’t have the same ring to it to stay with you throughout your career…

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I remember that one. What an idiot.

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Oh my god this is pretty much the exact fucking thing that happened with that dickhead I knew. oh. my. god. Now i know what Vietnam flashbacks are like

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When using a solvent tank that is equipped with a coil but not using the coil to chill the solvent be sure to vac and plug the coil. Otherwise condensate will build up in the coil due to temperature cycles resulting in a burst coil. Solvent will spray out of the port for the coil.

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Thank you!!

How do we pin that gem?!?

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Agree with @cyclopath
This is gold
I would not have thought of this…

Just added a link to tricks of trade, hope that is the appropriate place. More eyes that see this the better I figure…

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I had never considered not using the coil, for me this is an excellent excuse to not consider it again :upside_down_face:

If I want cold, I prefer vac jacket + coil rather than cold jacket no coil. Ideally vac jacket, cold jacket, coil. All insulated around the outside including hoses to and from the machine room.

I’m sure @TheGratefulPhil can correct me if my biologists grasp on the problem doesn’t actually reflect the math.

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Ideally yes. But for those that cannot afford a chiller or dont have the power, I would recommend swapping out the lid before putting the vessel in service. Or vac and plug it. Does get the blood flowing tho.

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I agree, If I had a coil I would definitely utilize it!

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ALWAYS vac down your collection pot and release the pressure before opening your CRC column…. I knew this, I read about it, I had been doing it before, but I was in a rush, opened it without releasing the pressure and POOF. Covered in media. So ya, just a reminder, never open the crc without releasing pressure. I hope my stupidity can save others from a face full of powders and a day of cleaning the powders off of everything. And if anyone has any tips on the best way to cleanup powders off of surfaces, that’d be sweet. And maybe how to clean media out of your oil. Cause it managed to make it into my dish that was reducing, and it all just fell on top of it. Plan is to rerun it thru coffee filters on a 1um sintered disk to try to remove the powders that fell into it, but if anyone has a better suggestion, I’m all ears.




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Lightly seasoned

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Felt like an everything bagel :joy:

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If your system starts leaking mid run and you want to “tighten” your brass nuts but they were already properly torqued, use another brass nut behind it as a backer before you tighten. I had a tech back in the trap days panic when the collection pot started leaking. He started cranking the nut tighter and the system was -60 and the nut gave out. Shot the collection pot through the roof of a house, material column sticking out the roof, the 12" clamp popped off and broke his collar bone. Only 18 psi in the system but on 12" that is alot of pressure. The backer nut in these situations will hold the clamp on if one nut breaks. the trick is to have no gap between nuts and tighten both at the same time.

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Really really good fucking advice.

Im gonna start a HAACP protocol book this week and include specific protocols for things like this, cause this is a genuine life saver

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yea man had he been a few inches closer to the collection pot or looking down into the sight glass I think it would have been a very bad outcome. He was spooked and needed a sling for a few weeks, but he learned alot and never made that mistake again.

My old helper did the same thing lol. He vaces it below 0. Was supposed tob atleast -10 and then was supposed to open a valve so it didnt build back pressure.
He forgot to open the valve and went to lunch and didnt look at gauge when he came back. Mayb 1lb at best repressured and poof he was covered . luckily i was out of room when the mess happened.
He paid closer attention to gauges and procedures after that

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Yep I definitely learned my lesson. I knew that would happen too, just got distracted and had to go inside, then when I came back out I forgot to release the pressure and just started to undo the clamp and then realized it was gonna blow so I was able to take a few steps back and cover my face but it covered everything. I vacuumed most of it up but I’m hoping a a wet cloth wipe then wiping down with 91iso will clean the rest of it up enough. As for what got in the dish, I’m hoping rerunning it thru a 1um sintered disk filter with some coffee filters above it and the oil above that will help filter out the powders that got into it.

That’s a great tip. We actually used to hand-tighten a backing nut on every single torqued nut. When disassembling the system we would remove the hand-tight nuts first. Every once in a while we would notice a nut that can’t be removed by hand easily because the torqued nut in front of it had would slip back, applying pressure against it. That meant stripped threads and time for a swap.

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