Thinking about getting a Panda. Things I’ve read here sound promising. But do people use them with heptane denatured ethanol? Other than the spout, are there any other modifications recommended by people who have experience using them?
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No
It will eat the internals of the panda
Food grade only
Unless you want to toss a panda out when it leaks every so often
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With heptane denatured etoh?
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yessir
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Well sheeeet!
I can save 50% by buying denatured and 4 spouts vs food grade then
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ive stripped my first panda a few times. i didnt see any plastic that comes in contact with the ethanol unless youre getting splash up unto the lid an its dripping back down. other than the spout (which @RockSteady makes) shouldnt be anything else contacting the denatured etoh.
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Yeah, I forgot I told him I wanted 4.
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Does the panda NEED to be modified though to operate for our purposes? Say for spinning something like 1lb?
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No, but removing the lid makes it 100x easier to get the bag in and out.
I posted a few pics in the panda appreciation thread.
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Keep the food grade bro! Keep it CLEAN 
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I’ve ran 1.5 lbs and it did it just fine. Keep that shit balanced or be ready to wrestle a bear.
I also use the panda with dnatured ethanol heptane and so far nothing that I’ve noticed. Look on the inside of the spout before you run it though, it usually has a caulk/glue in it. Also, it’s been said on this forum to run ethanol through it after opening from package. (People have had cloudy mildew in it after factory package)
How much is the spout @rocksteady though?
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I haven’t had problems with denatured etho except of course, the spout breaking off. And for sure, check the spout opening they used a hell of a lot of thick ass yellow glue. Looks like wood glue.
The Panda by no means needs to be modified to make it work, out of the box it works fine, but you willl find that the factory spout breaks off after a short while, plus with the factory spout there is no control, the panda will send your solvent all over the place, you can just put a bucket underneath it and youll end up catching majority of the solvent, but some will undoubtedly end up on the floor.
As for other mods, modifying the top is a popular mod, the factory top has a pretty tight restriction, and removing a full bubble bag after spinning can become an annoyance. so by increasing the diameter of the hole it will allow for more streamlined operation, and removing the material after recovery isnt such a chore.
other mods you can do, and these arnt for the faint of heart are; convert the unit to air power, which ive done with one unit so far, making a, dare i say, C1D1 panda. ive also converted one to a brushless motor, on the brushless system ive incorporated a hall effect sensor so i can have active rotational feedback and control the rotational speed, which as more for funzies than anything else.
I still have plenty of spouts if anyone is interested you can either shoot me a email at Remmielke@gmail.com
or buy them from www.Rocksteadyinnovations.com
units are $45 each, and that includes: shipping, mounting hardware, an oring, the spout, a hose barb, and printed instructions.
all wetted materials have excellent resistant to the common chemicals we us to extract with.
In the next couple of weeks ill throw the custom 3D printed lids and bases on the site, they have been made just need to get a few printed on the SLS machine. Also ive been running my custom built SS mini fuge heavily over the last few weeks, once ive worked out all the kinks and secure my supply chain for the unit ill release it into the wild as well.
anyways if you have any questions dont hesitate to ask.
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Daaaang got any pics of base and lid prototype?
That ss fuge gonna be able to have dry ice loaded sleeve?
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I can say the panda works just fine with den alcohol. If you reinforce the spout with extra silicone glue and tape when u first get it, the spout should be good for awhile if your careful. I’ve broken 2 so far, before I started reinforcing. The last one has lasted me 4+months now 
(knocks on wood)
I’ve also overheated a few from constant use, you just need to cool it down for 2 hours before starting up again, or swap out pandas every hour or so
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Okay ill post some tommarow!
There will potentially be an optional liquid jacket or DI sleeve add on! ill release more about the system, including videos after im done with my testing phase!
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Respect definitely awesome how you have modded the panda out. 
