you nailed it, a measurement is a measurement im not hatein 
You just need to specify where the measurement was takin from, otherwise the china glass man will send you some crazy $hit! 
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I didn’t think you were hating. I just thought I might have measured wrong considering there was literally no options on eBay. I was like “I probably messed this up”. Let me show Sox exactly.
Thanks man. Appreciate all the advice and help! 
All this to save about $750 a month in distillate. Either I must be crazy or really bored. I’m starting to think I went a bit overboard with my spending. Even got a 30l ultrasonic cleaner that I’m looking at like wtf was I thinking.
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The ultrasonic bath will be good for cleaning glass. Adding a thermouple directally to the bottom side of the mantle surface would be a cheaper/more exact way to controll the heat. Get a generic type k that will go to 500*c and add resistors to the circut to get the resistance to your stock one. It should work the same, only better!
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First problem solved. I have a ct40 cold trap. Turns out non of the seals were greased. As soon as I greased them I’m now
Pulling down to 100-180 microns when it’s isolated up to right before the spd setupd. Much better than 2240 microns me thinks 
now I’m trying to pull that with the whole system set up. It’s going slow which I believe is normal… weird thing was it got down to about 306 microns and then for some reason jumped up to 436 out of no where, and now it’s on it’s way back. This is also without the thermometers because I believe they are leaking, atleast the head temp one for sure. But I wanted to isolate things to pinpoint my issue. I’m going to let this run and see the max vacuum I can pull, and then try and figure out a way to seal those thermometers like I read above. Thanks again, I’ll keep this thread updated.
Edit- as I was typing this, I once again had my vacuum shoot up from 360 to 460?? And now starting back down again. Any suggestion?
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Whenever You Start a run put on your vacuum pump and chiller / coldtrap for at least 20/30 min No heat on your mantel yust vacuum
A your pump works best When hot
B You get a good read on your vacuum or vacuum leak Wich are easy to solve. Since schutting down involves No risk
Also what helped me with figuring out head and tails is say i start with a 1000 ml at 65% cannabinoids i would draw lines on My receiving flask of volumes like every 100 ml so that When i started i Could calculate the amount i had caught so far
But hè welcome to the club 
[quote=“Eastcoaststrange, post:8, topic:4045”]
on
[/quote]
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Yea right now there is no heat applied. I’m just trying to vacuum out my system to see how low it will go, but it seems every time it gets to the 300’s, it just randomly jumps up to 450-550 and then starts going down again… I have no idea why 
Unfortunately I have no real way to test or know level of cannabinoids. I ran tons of trim for someone thru a butane cls… winterized etc and now trying to distill so I can’t really anticipate what should be coming out of it
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no worrys chances are your at 50/60 % cannabinoids since trim is your start but You cleaned your raw
Stop early say at
1000 ml raw take 400/450 ml as your heads
Shut your mantel of leave vacuum and coldtrap running untill warm 120/100C
Then expose to ambient air
Keep the leftovers/tails from the boiling flask
Collect the leftovers untill You have 1000ml and run her treu again
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I’m not 100% sure I follow what you outlined above. Where in that process is the main body? What was the purpose of the above suggestion? Maybe I’m just not reading it right
Ok is there a way to disect your system
Atach vacuum gauge only to pump
Atach only to head and boiling flask with a rubber stopper in the exit etc etc
Other trick i used is a normal lighter
pass the flame over and around all the joints If there is a leak the flame Will show
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I’m reading your first procedure as a method of running the spd, and your second response as a process for finding a leak…
I have been isolating the machine to fine the leaks. Just now I gave everything a little rotating to adjust the grease and now I’m pulling down to 233 microns so far. I just couldn’t figure out what was causing it to jump up by 200 microns and then climb back down.
[quote=“Eastcoaststrange, post:1, topic:4045”]
etty sure I jumped the gun on switching the flasks so I gues 2 flasks are heads, I’ll collect the main In the 3rd and shut down and save the tails in the Bf.
Just a tip to know what volume You are having as a novice iT might be hard to read volumes in round flasks
Most of the time heads pour don t drip and are a slightly lighter in color keep a flash light at hand and try a blacklight ( the small ones for checking money) they give away certain liquids don t have My logbooks here but it can form a referance
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Ahh. Thanks for the tips!
Well i love sonic baths
I chill etho to -86C
Drop My bymass in (inside a filterbag )
Sonicated till temp Climbs to -70c
And Evaporate under. Vacuum. The etho and viola beatyfull oil
futere uses the sonic bath to deoderize check tricks of the trade
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So after playing around with it all day, I have the full setup, with both thermometers set up, no heat on mantle, just the vacuum pump and cold trap on, and I can pull down to 135 microns. I’m hoping this is sufficient, but for sure better than 2240 microns lol. I know when the gauge I have is hooked up to only the pump the pump pulled down to 110 microns. Since it only gets down to 135 micron now, is this the cause of a leak? Or it just having way more room that it has to vacuum. It’s stabilized at 132-135 micron. Safe to proceed with a run tomorow? Or should I try and get it lower
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In My humble opinion You are set to go
But since You are taking apart and asembling again
Check again When loaded
GO4IT
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I’m going to wait until tomorow morning to try and run it, but I 100% will be double checking it. Also, it ended up pulling down to 118 microns finally I wasn’t even close yesterday lol. But that’s what learnings all about. Hopefully it won’t get annoying seeing this post bumped endlessly… but it’s a work in progress for me thank you all. Collectively so far all the suggestions made have gotten me a little further
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hey man, just a question… earlier you said
" work your way up in temp to just below the boiling point of the cannibinoids 140-150c (head temp).
Hold there till the fraction stops, and the vacuum level increases. When your head thermometer reads 160*c or so rotate and begin to collect.
Would you be able to guess roughly what my mantle temp would be when i start seeing 140 at the head? In all my research i see so many variable temperatures that i should be at when thc starts coming out, ranging from 160c to 240c. I was just curious if theres a directly related temperature between the mantle and head, or how long it would take for a certain mantle temp to read out a desired temp at the head? Basically, im just trying to come up with a solid plan as far as temperatures, and ramping up my mantle.
Tomorow im going to try again. I have about 700ml of the same sample im going to try and run. Theres just so many conflicting numbers everywhere i read as far as mantle temps and head temps… Im expecting another failure, but i expect to learn more as well. Today i got my vacuum down to 112 micron, from 2240 micron yesterday lol. wish me luck
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Theres no exact mantle temp I can reccomend, everyones insulation/room temp is different.
start your run by warming up the oil in the bf, once it is liquid enough to begin magnetic stirring
you can slowly throttle the vacuum source onto the aperatus. Once you are able to get the vacuum wide open without foaming over you may start ramping your heat. Do so about in about 15-20 min increments untill your still begins to make vapor you should see a head temp starting out around 100c with the volities.
keep ramping slowly to just under the canabinoids 140-150c and hold there untill the fraction stops. Heres a helpfull hint, when you hit cannibinoids you will see a change in the output of the still. The light fraction will be watery/thin the canabinoids will drip directally to the bottom of the flask. When you see this know your close to rotating your reciever. The next fraction should start around 165-175c you may need to ramp heat to get the fraction to come across. Let the vapor path clean itself of the lower boiling point compounds, then rotate the reciever. watch your head thermometer now, The temp may continue to climb. In that case you can bring the mantle down a few degreese to maintain the fraction.
At this point the level of vacuum will also increase, therby further lowering your boiling point.
Im in texas right now, away from my notes.
but if i had to guess mantle temps I start around 90* and pull a vacuum.
The end of the distillation might be 230*c mantle temp, head temp 195c with a standard pump.
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And that’s my bible for the day ^^. Thank you my friend. My gratitude is extended endlessly
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