Is there a diy like etoh pro?

hey all. is there plans anywhere on a diy project like etoh pro? or is there a tek you recommenced that is similar?

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Smart ass answer:

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My Serious Answer:

The etoh pro is basically a heat exchanger set in a box with a built in mini vacuum pump. it’s a really modified vacuum alcohol still.

You could probably find a really cheap diaphragm vacuum pump. Set up a series of heat exchangers like 6 or 8 1.5x18 tube in shell dephlegmators, make a diy glycol chiller to cool them to -10 or -20. Get a heated stirring hot plate for your double neck evaporation flask, get a 1.5tc to 24/40 glass flask adapter. set it to evaporate through the set of dephlegmators and into the receiving flask which would also have a 1.5tc to 24/40 glass flak adaptor. you could get a simple bvv cold trap too… That’s how I would do it.

maybe even encase the heat exchangers in an epoxy box.

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Qty 1 mason jar with qty 1 10mm vacuum port (drill a hole and silicone it if you must) - crude jar
Qty 1 mason jar with qty 2 10mm vacuum port (same as above) - recovery jar
Qty 1 sous vide device
Qty 1 diaphragm pump, low vacuum is fine
Qty 1 water bath
Qty 1 water/ice bath

Hook the diaphragm pump into the recovery jar, hook the other port into the crude jar.

Crude jar goes in the water bath. Recovery jar goes in the ice bath.

Set sous vide to 90F or so, pull a slight vacuum.

Save $2000

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where’s the condenser? you may end up blasting your recovery flask off the diaphragm pump…

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Ice water bath, you will have to empty the recovery flask (your ethanol) depending on your jar size configurations.

Personally I’d just get a roto-vap (thats what i did after messing around with something like the above)

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I got a rotovap years ago because I was sick of messing with a standard glass still.

But yeah I usually tell people who are curious about the etoh pro to just get a rotovap cause it’s scalable and in the end you can evaporate more than just etoh.

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Exactly that. It’s a fine device for the very specific purpose it fills, but other tools can do the job better, if not a little differently and less conveniently (I guess that’s what you’re paying for eh?)

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Even building a stainless steel still will get you further

Edit: EtOH Pro or no? - #13 by 7000G

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You can pick up a used roto for like half of the price of 1 of those things new. I just don’t understand why people would want to get 1 of these things unless they know for fact the they’ll never EVER scale up larger than what it takes to max an eToe Pro out.

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If they were about half the price I would actually consider one. I would rather have a roto of course, but an etoh pro would cover my needs better than my glass still, and wouldn’t look so much like a crazy drug lab when in operation. For those of us that need to be more discreet, an etoh pro would look a lot less suspect.

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Discrete and convenience are two decent reasons. A roto is a bit more work to setup and run than one of their devices.

I’ve given up on trying not to look like a meth lab at this point :joy:

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I laughed wayyyyyy too hard at that!

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Once you have a glove box, all bets go out the window :joy:

(Along with the totally non-conspicuous 10 inch venting also coming out that window)

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Yeah I had flow hood, and bunch of baby orchids at 1 point. It was a very strange thing to explain to people, so I ended up putting everything in my master closet so no one could see when they came over!

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Baby orchids ? Do tell!

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I used to sow orchids from seed. It takes a flow hood, and agar to actually grow them from seed. They have to remain sterile because it’s anything gets in there it’ll grow faster than the orchids, and kill everything off. It’s definitely a pain in the ass, but that’s the way it has to be done unfortunately

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thank you so much.

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Didn’t mean to sideline the thread, but damn that’s interesting!!! My girlfriend said DMX just died (after getting the “vaccine”, but surely it wasn’t that wink) and apparently he was a big orchid farmer.

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That’s cool I didn’t know that! Orchids are amazing plants!

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