Indeed, nothing to see here ….
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I’ve got trusted fabricators and a balancing shop I’ve worked with; rotor mods starting at $1500
Cup-15 would be my preferred platform, but these things can certainly be made to work.
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I’m damn near the point where I want to say fuck it and build my own centrifuges. There isn’t much on ours that came from the original factory… and balancing is certainly the most critical part of the equation.
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Turns out even the 1300lb/1200mm rotors are child’s play compared to the mill equipment in this neck of the woods 
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These look like the China-fuges no? I have seen these but heard on here that they require US re-certs for compliance. Do these have certs or how do you get away with running them?
If that is the case though, I would imagine these imports could be reviewed and used by the community though. Perhaps some of the folks on here should crowd fund and pitch in on a cert review so we can all use the cheapo-fuges 
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motors and controllers can be swapped out if you need UL in your jurisdiction: Modifying a chinese centrifuge to ul standard
which will about triple the cost depending how you want to approach it. and might not get sign-off from fire-marshal’s looking to protect his/her turf from cannabis.
most of these things are sized for “hemp” rather than “cannabis”, and were almost immediately too small for that task.
these are priced to move. what do you need?
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3 * $10-15K still seems better than $60 - 80K for a CUP15. May be a good alternative if the machine specs are up to par with what the CUP provides. I am no expert on the specs or operation though so I couldnt speak to that. Also not sure how accurate the chinese machines are on what their rated capacities state. In other states Im sure it makes sense to spend that much on equipment, but I work in $800/liter land (OK).
Could also just use the same motor in a different room with a 20’ belt…
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The Chinese vs American centrifuge argument really kinda boils down to a few things
Are you in hemp or thc? If hemp, China kinda makes more sense. The regulations are more laid back. If you’re hemp and GMP, a cup might make more sense.
If you’re thc, you’re better off buying a cup imo. 300 lbs of biomass a day is a good scale for disti on thc. Even 800 a liter still makes you several thousand a day. Then there’s the licensing. If your thc state doesn’t require asme cert, they more than likely will at some point and downtime might eat the money you saved on Chinese stuff.
As far as working on the machine or repairing it yourself, China is better if you’re knowledgeable and handy. They can send you parts and you can put them in. If you’re not, you need customer support and you won’t find someone as quality as delta in China as easily.
So really it just comes down to what you’re trying to do
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Is that all a cup30 is good for? Goddamn maybe I should be selling fuges…
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That’s the 15. But again, it’s certified and provides local customer support. A non stamped centrifuge the same size as cup 15 is only worth 10-15k imo
But I wouldn’t recommend selling any equipment right now. All equipment manufacturers I’ve talked to are bleeding
Cup15 is a 450mm basket? We’re doing 120 dry kg/hr through our fuge that size… And I want to hit 200kg/hr before the end of the year.
I was mostly joking about selling fuges - I have no interest in being an equipment vendor.
On thc?
Whatever cannabinoids are in it. THC, CBD, CBG.
Yeah I mean in a hemp lab with next to no regulations it doesn’t make sense to run a cup as I mentioned earlier
As with all things, it’s a tool in the toolkit, and how useful it is depends on how you use it. We’re regulated to an absurd degree up here in Canada and using China fuges… And ours works fine on hemp.
Yeah, here in the US a lot of thc states don’t allow a centrifuge that isn’t stamped. China fuge wouldn’t belong in that tool bag
Those are all great points! I am not in the extraction space currently so I dont know the ins and outs across markets but have a background in engineering so my perspective is always “Can I do this cheaper than others so it makes sense?”. So I appreciate the perspective.
I would think for most the technical side of modding extraction equipment in a compliant manner would end up being more costly in time, fabrication, and certs than just buying a CUP anyways. I do think depending on how creative one can get there may be solutions.
Yeah I mean, I’m not shitting on Chinese gear by any means and don’t mean to give that impression.
In my experience if you get a good relationship with a Chinese manufacturer it’s just as good as an American one. China doesn’t have worse quality manufacturing, they have worse quality control. They’ll ship out shit they know isn’t right and just hope for the best sometimes. You develop a relationship with a good one, especially if you’re handy in a shop, you’d hardly be able to tell the difference. Finding the right one can be difficult but there’s good ones out there.
A lot of problems from china manufacturers actually comes down to operators not understanding how to pair ancillary equipment properly so being knowledgeable, using China stuff isn’t a hinderance as long as you know what it can handle.
But yeah, as far as licensing goes, If it’s gotta be certified to be in the facility, it’s gotta be certified. Modding it technically takes it out of certification so if you mod (which I’m also not against at all) do it after your inspection
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