First SPD setup questions - pressure gauge, flasks, and terps

All,

I’ve been lurking on the site for a few months and it’s been a gem. I’m a home-grower, ER doctor w/ a bit of a lab/chem background, and have decided to go for SPD to obtain a vape-able product as well as something that can easily be put into edibles. Now that my kids are getting older I need to be more stealthy…

For what it’s worth - i live in a state where cannabis growing/use is legal.

Thanks to all the helpful info on this site I’m going to be putting together a small SPD setup. I think I’ve got most of the plan squared away but am getting stuck on 3 questions

  1. Vacuum pressure gauges: none of the cheap gauges I see online measure in microns. It’s all PSI and Torx100kPa. I’m confused on how to convert Tor x100kPa to microns… Can some one recommend a cheaper gauge that would be good for home use? Amazon or ebay? I’m only going to be running after I harvest so 3-4 times per year so I don’t need something rugged or 100% accurate. I’m planning on using K25 fittings/t-piece/ball valve on a 3/8 vacuum port. Hoping to not spend the extra $$ for a digital one because this is all for personal/relatively infrequent use.

  2. What size double neck flask to use for the crude? I’m going to be able to dedicate about 10oz per harvest of high quality organic greenness to the process. Will be using bucket tech w 200proof EtOH in dry ice. Haven’t decided how long it’ll soak in solvent yet (20 mins to a couple hours?). Then filtering in buchner down to 1micron, winterizing w dry ice, putting through a T45 cake in the buchner again.

How much crude do you think I’ll get from 10oz of material? I was thinking probably about 50ml, so a 100ml double neck flask would be good? Or should I go bigger/smaller?

  1. Saving the terps is not my priority. I’ve made Rosin for that purpose but honestly the ice water hash is so much effort for such little yield which is why i’m going to try SPD. I’d like to save as much of the terps as possible (and yes I know that will be very little due to EtOH and I’m fine with that - i’d like to stay away from BHO). Is it possible to recombine the terps after a SPD run with your cannabinoid fraction? I keep reading that the terps smell awful after you isolate them - if you re-combine with the cannabinoid fraction does it make it smell bad? The whole reason I’d be doing it would be to make it smell like tasty hemp…

Thanks for any thoughts/advice! Happy holidays all

J

Happy to help out.

I would go across international for a cheap mantle
Here is a really solid gauge that will work well for short path distillation vacuum levels
NAVAC NMV1 Micron Vacuum Gauge https://a.co/d/crnknUJ
It pairs with a fitting you can get from Bvv to get to kf25. BVV KF-25 x JIC Flare Adapter-1/4-inch https://a.co/d/j7cpavX
I would use a kf25 steel cold trap that I can sell you ($300) as well.

What’s your actual budget like?

The issue with distilling 50mL at a time is the windiness from the room will cool the head down causing reflux. You need a few hundred grams (200?) to get any reasonable amount of flow in my experience. Hopefully someone with more small system (250mL-2000mL) experience chimes in too

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Thanks that’s super helpful. I’m trying to keep everything below $1000 for total budget. That gauge looks like it would work well but is there a cheaper non-digital one that would work almost as good?

Interesting to hear that about distilling only 50ml at a time. Would love to hear some one else with small-time experience chime in. How much crude could I get from about 10oz of flower and would it be worth it or too problematic for SPD? If so then perhaps I could get a vape-able crude with the T45 filtering?

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Yields are basically impossible to predict. If you in fact have 10oz and we assume it’s about 20% potency then you can estimate you will have ~56g theoretical cannabinoid yield (28 x 10 x 0.2). The crude oil is going to be <80% cannabinoids so add 11g for other impurities that got extracted and couldn’t be filtered out in winterization. So ~70g from 10oz of flower with an initial potency of 20%.

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you can run that 50ml crude in a 100ml bf but make sure you insulate the head as much as possible to reduce reflux like @AlexSiegel pointed out. You may need to run a little hotter to compensate. Also don’t forget you will lose some of your yield to your glass path. You may also want to think about multiple passes and transfer affecting yield if you want a very clean product for vapes/edibles.

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You don’t need distillate to make vapes or make edibles.

Qwet can absolutely get you there….its even still commercially viable in some markets

If you want to distill, I suggest @Beaker’s path may be a better one to follow (he had, but did not use, an spd with a 50ml flask)

See: Time lapse start to finish Sublimator run

Edit: in the future, we try and learn from the past; Really small Spd Glassware (10-50ml)

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