Hello guys wanted to get you guys suggestion for equipment used in making tinctures and salves for some one starting out on a small scale…I wanted to know any good brands of hot plates in a reasonable budget as amazon has a lot of variation…I did purchase a magic butter maker thanks to the suggestion of a member and have a food scale but idk if i need something more accurate. Are there any brands you reccomend for MCT oil if that matters as well? Sorry if this post is all over the place but search doesnt specifically answer these questions.
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If you’re considering hand filling, I’d grab a Drummond serological pipetter with some 50 mL serological pipettes. They’re made for GMP environments so sterility is done and documentation is easy. There are some similar brands and even an Amazon brand. Small enough to fill a couple hundred to a thousand a day without purchasing a filler.
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I was looking at pipettes but the price deterred me but i already commited so much $$ whats more gonna hurt lol thank you for the tip
Good brands are VWR, thermofisher, cole parmer for hot plates.
Might could check ebay to get deals on good used ones
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hello
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Corning and thermofisher seem good. They are the only ones I’ve used. I almost bought one of those cheapos on eBay, they say they’ll heat 2L but just look at the specs, less than half the power of my thermofisher.
How precise/accurate is your scale? I use one that measures in .01 gram increments for small amounts and another one for larger weights with a ± 1.5g accuracy and 1.0g precision.
Scale is pretty accurate…im going to seek out a plate on ebay used im looking for something with at oeast a digital temp gauge
You may be able to use a crock pot. They are cheap.
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I’m actually going to suggest to NOT use those pippettes. It is slow, MCT cracks the tubes, suckback is a bitch… you get the idea. Depending on how many you are doing, a condiment bottle will work a lot faster. Fill the 500ml or 1000ml bottle with your tincture, and fill with the spout. If you are concerned about fill levels, use a scale and measure by weight. For example an MCT tincture of 30ml is about 28 grams net weight. Pump tops like on lotion bottles are great too. Did youknow they actually dispense a set amount and you can purchase specific ml pump? You can get a pump top that puts out 1oz (30ml) at a time. Great for gallon batches and smaller. After that though, you will want to start looking at autofillers. The 100 dollar ones on amazon work pretty well for your next scale up and we’ve done over 5k bottles in a run on one of those in the past before outgrowing that equipment. Just change out the lines, the flexible tubing they use swells with each fill and as it gets warm with use it changes its expansion meaning youll have it set for a bit and going good then a few hundred bottles in you are overflowing.
Also, induction plates are pretty nice too because you can dial in the temp. For salves we’ve done a batch in a stainless bowl on the induction set to 80c. Works great (also works great for decarbing crude in a stockpot… set to 100c, walk away)
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Got a corning on amazon a 350
Guys you can do better,
Pipettes are a mess. Here is what you should be using …
After you try manual filling, pipettes and then this pump, you will thank me.
Your welcome
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