I hate that the acrylics aren’t etoh compatible, I wanna look at my stuff!
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Also at $500 price you can get a used multi shelf oven 
these guys haven’t invented much lol. I’m thinking each chamber will run me $120 welded and run about 30-40g per chamber. Less if I just build big ones.
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Ooooh yea, there’s a reason their startup failed. But I dig the simple concept for building one myself.
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Here’s how to do it for $200
Get a pressure cooker or thick walled pot. ($10 used)
Get a piece of 3/4’’ sheet acrylic ($40)
Silicone Caulk ($10)
Sous Vide heater ($60 amazon)
Larger basin to fit thick walled pot in + water ($10)
Valves/fittings etc. ($60)
If you need it ethanol compatible buy a teflon mat and adhere it to the underside of the acrylic sheet ($15)
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I had been toying around with this and also the idea of getting a used one and refurbishing it. Ideally you want to be able to SEE into it which is pretty key. Either you need a camera in there or it has to have glass / acrylic window. Acrylic isn’t ideal for the reasons tweedledew posted. The starter could be a stainless steel sink or cabinet/shelf of the appropriate size. I have been looking on craigslist for stainless steel boxish shaped objects. Add in a door and create a double gasket, one simple gasket on the door and a U shaped gasket over the interior box liner. Outside can be simple sheet steel that is finished. Keeping the temps around normal purging temps I think could be easily accomplished with a couple of heat mats and a PID. If you planned on going higher temp I would do that differently.
These are just a few of the rough thoughts I’ve had…
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As @tweedledew mentioned there’s the pressure cooker method for diy and here’s a more expanded explanation on how to construct one, though with some minor differences from the above:
I especially like the addition of a Teflon sheet if working with ethanol. In the instructable I really like that the vacuum is drawn through the pot and not the already ‘risky’ sheet over top, but feel like the copper tubing could easily be replaced with ptfe hosing if its already on hand making the system a bit more flexible to movement.
I really liked this link for a diy Bhoulder:
I’m just not sure how I feel about the risk of implosion using a Pyrex dish or from drilling holes in the lid, but it seems like a much simpler build though.
I have to admit neither seem like a vac oven as much as a vac chamber you could heat from below. The oven tech mentioned by @SkyHighLer seems more on the lines of a true diy vac oven. Also, it almost seems like there’d be a negligible difference in cost between building a vac chamber and buying one online.
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do you think there’d be much difference between the efficacy of the chamber vs the oven? Obviously the oven would have likely an increased solvent takeoff rate due to the radiating heat? I’m hoping by adding some vibration to mine it would have a similar effect
Exactly!
My first 6 “Vac ovens” probably cost me less than $200 total.
before I added gauges and filters on the inlets.
But I had a 6sq ft chunk of 1" polycarbonate lying around.
I used the 12" stainless pots from from St Vinnies, with $10 pressure cooker gaskets, and heat mats also sourced from vinnies.
purged in 10" pie dishes sourced from you know where.
didn’t always get me shatter.
but shatter ain’t all that matter.
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I’m probably not the expert on the matter, but most of the ovens I’ve seen cost so much more than the vacuum chambers, homemade or otherwise that I’m not sure the improvement in efficiency would be worth the additional cost. If we’re talking about increased productivity because you need large volumes fast I’d imagine the pricepoint of the ovens then becomes irrelevant due to the projected revenue.
As for the vibrations, if they disturb the surface enough they should increase evaporation by simulating the effects of heating and reducing the chance for pockets of solvent to get trapped in thick oil, I’d imagine.
Trying to find some data I did come across this:
It might not be relatable, but was interesting all the same concerning heating caused by ultrasonic vibrations and might have implications in other cannabis concentrate processes.
There’s a similar, opposite effect, when it comes to oxygen being absorbed by water more easily when the water surface is agitated that’s employed when setting up aquariums. Not sure if that’s at all relevant, but it came to mind too.
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My only concern would be the “snappy-ness” of the extract, so perhaps in turn that would be directly relatable to the amount of solvent remaining.
My welder finished the pilot! I’ll snap some progress pics for y’all when i pick it up on Monday.
I’ve been looking for the ultrasonic vibration correlation forever! I saw it on a forum once and it long since got lost and google never found it for me again!
I was thinking for any oils just to put an ultrasonic hammer into a jar and vacuum and vibe and have my oil evaporated already into the end container ready for sale. I’ll have to run some tests when i get some more $$
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Thx so much! I’m gonna email this dude about his findings and see what he thinks.
Even an ultrasonic pad (found some on alibaba) inside the oven (pending on etoh compatability), might be a pretty rad way to speed the whole thing up. If I could take oven times down it’s almost always going to be a bottleneck!
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I just saw this and thought it might be worth mentioning when considering what material to use for your vac chamber if using vibrations.
He mentions it in the Tricks of the Trade post.
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I was thinking about doing an infrared bulb/element on the lid of the stainless chamber to reap the benefits of the radiant heat through vacuum. Any reason this wouldn’t work? Does it penetrate through the steel easily?
Nope, it would just heat the steel.
My reaction chamber works ok because its big enough where I can put a teflon container in it, but the idea of having something I could turn off vac, vent, open, and then do whatever and reclose it in a few minutes seems really appealing.
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Hey @tweedledew this was a while ago now lol
I was just sitting here thinking about vibrations and vacuum ovens again today and found our old discussion on the matter.
Did you ever get any further with the idea or research behind vibrated vacuum purging?
I’m currently contemplating it for use in the final purging stages of light hydrocarbon extractions whereas previously I’d been looking at it from an early purge improvement for ethanol extracts.
Look into degassing sonication and vacuum degassers w/ultrasonic.
Ive been wanting to try it out on high terp extracts for years.
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Nah, it fell to the wayside. Too much other stuff on the go.
I did definitely want to try ultrasonic aided.
I’d assume that you’d need to keep everything at a low viscosity for ultrasonic to work. So might need to be at 40-50c. I don’t know how you’d combine a thin film with ultrasonic though. I think having high surface area would assist purging more than the ultrasonic would alone.
Deleted, no ultrasonic. My bad.
I’m tired of waiting for these damn bubbles to pop 
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