Maybe a sterling silver plating over copper bbs? Probably still costs more than ss but those k value differences could pay off later.
The best thermally conducting material I could experiment with was a mixture of metallic copper and little (millimetric) diamonds. Adding diamonds multiplies the conductivity by a factor 3 to 4.
3 Likes
Bruh! That’s awesome, so I need diamond “infused” copper BB plated in gold for sanitation purposes and this would be the Cadillac in stack conductor. LoL.
How did you get the diamonds in the copper?
And wouldn’t this also work with silver?
I guess the effect would be the same with silver.
But anyway, this would not be a convenient application here.
Adding diamonds to copper makes the material very difficult to shape, and add strong roughness and abrassive effect to the material surface. The surrounding steel surfaces of the reactor would not like it for instance. It is rather used in fixed heatsinks.
2 Likes
Totally, I was joking more that anything, wouldn’t the textured surface catch waxes at dry ice temps?
I don’t know regarding this… 
But to answer you first question, the basic alteration that carbon steel can undergo is corrosion.
Hydrocarbons cause no trouble to steel. But the water, terpenes and likely other things that you may dissolve in there will. In petroleum chemistry, it has a lot to do with sulfur bearing species.
2 Likes
Could this lead to a concentrate sample failing for heavy metals, specifically cadmium?
1 Like
The content of cadmium in stainless steel is limited to 0.01% i.e. 100 ppm. In order to contaminate a few 100gs of extract, e.g with 5 ppm, a quite important corrosion of the surface would be necessary. I mean the vessel should look corroded, visually nasty.
Cadmium, like lead, are more likely to come from the biomass itself, since cannabis is a metal accumulating plant. Legal tolerance for cadmium in food product is higher than for other heavy metals, because cacao and chocolate contain notable ammounts, salmons do as well…
this may well have already been stated but i can lend some first hand experience: we used to use stainless-plated ball bearings for increased surface area during winterization with butane. Over time this plating wore away to reveal the less-shiny metal underneath. at the time we’d lost track of where we’d purchased these so didn’t know what this newly exposed metal was, so had a stressful weak involving spending a bunch of money on heavy metal testing on our product. so, don’t do that lol, it’s extremely smart of you to ask the forum before proceeding. if it were me i’d just get full stainless bearings and enjoy the peace of mind that comes with them
1 Like
Aluminum is a far superior heat conductor. You can get polished aluminum beads here:
“The Lab Depot | Lab Armor® Beads” Lab Armor® Beads
2 Likes
This is true, but I think aluminum is a no go inside a rig.
1 Like
Does 304 stainless steel react with aluminum? Yes, due to dissimilar metals contact with the stainless.
Stainless steel is an alloy of carbon steel that is, itself, resistant to corrosion. However, stainless steel is reactive with aluminum. When a stainless steel screw is in contact with an aluminum base metal, the aluminum is likely to corrode. However, it may not apply in this case, if @Sidco_Cat is suggesting it.
I’ve been chasing a cadmium source for the last 4 days. I failed labs for it and now need to figure out where it came from. I’ve read a ton on dissimilar metals contact and it’s been surprising how some of this plays out.
I bought SS balls for Margaritas and good bourbon. Got them from company named Lily.
That is a bad suggestion. Even 6 months later, it should be noted for anyone reading this post