I’ve gone thru the other “lets see your set up thread” and there are only a few SPDs on there. I know a lot of you have some neat designs and creative solutions and would love to see them all.
I’d start, but my current set up is a piece of shit. Lab Society G2 “Executive” lol. GL 18 fittings, 3 way cow, garbage.
Currently trying to build a bad ass 5L set up and could use some more ideas / inspiration.
I bang out 90%+ with my crappy gl and 3 way cow ever run. 10+ all over 90%.
I’ve posted pics as well as @Killa12345 and a few others whom I copied before making my setup.
What differentiates a quality spd from a crappy one?
About 5k.
Lol
Alot of different things make up a race horse or a mud donkey
Every now and again, the donkey wins.
I am definitely on an ass’s budget.
That’s impressive. We extract in almost the same fashion if I recall correctly, the only difference I can recall is that you don’t filter cold? What kind of pump do you have? I think my issue, more so than the SPD is my 2.8cfm Welch CRV 4 Pro pump.
What’s your average distillation speed thru mains in mL/hour?
Problem I have, while not being able to get deep enough vac on a first pass, is just pain fully slow speeds which I’ve attributed to the pump and the 3/8" hose connections.
Well, for example, the LS G2 kit is very poorly thought out. One thing is the length of the condenser is so short, that with the cow on, the largest flask I can fit without the flask wall touching the side of the mantle is 500mL.
From what I’ve gathered, a quality SPD is full bore, with the widest (reasonable) vapor path possible, as many leak free components as possible (thermowell instead of thermometer adapter, dual cold trap, a second condenser before the cold trap (mainly for hot condensing method), high quality glass and electronics, roughing pump for volatiles and heads, high cfm pump for mains, etc.
China junk glass
Upgraded black case china mantle.
Alcatel 2021i (personally I have 2) we use 4 at our lab.
Crappy gl fittings, and kf25 from the bullseye back to vac pump.
I have 1 setup for personal use, and 6 setups at the lab. 10x spare 2l bf, 5x spare 1000ml RF. I do mine a bit differently than most.
As far as how long. 6-8hrs for a 1000ml crude run, start to shut down the mantle.
I go slow and squeeze out the heads before putting the hammer down for the mains. Few little tricks I picked up.
I/we cryo wash our biomass with food grade 200 proof. The same steps I did at home, I now integrated into our lab we run. As soon as the biomass is washed, if i/we have time to buchner filter we do then, if not next day at room temp. Zero issues.
I’ve made 90% oil using ALL China and a Edwards 28 and I’ve made 70% on the baddest lab society summit thing with the 15k mechanical cold trap. It’s really all in the tech. The system can make it be nearly un fuckupable but a good tech and some grease and a bunch of ptfe adapters can make anything happen.
I say ptfe adapters because we took a 34/45 head and ran it to a 24/40 condenser to a even smaller swing arm I think it was smaller. Just cause that’s the glass we had. And still hot like mid 80s 
Just saying your short path should NEVER cost more then 20k boys for 20L
I haven’t quite finished pricing out the set up I plan to get in full, but the basis of it is 5L LS top and bottom mantle, 5L 55/50 Summit boiling flask, Summit SPD 6 Shorty head (55/50), dual swing arm, LS distillation adapter with radaviss joint into which will go a LS 90 degree adapter with cold finger condenser, to 2 of killas SS cold traps, vacuum manifold with an Edwards E2M28 main pump and Welch CRV 4 Pro roughing pump for heads.
I’m kinda skerd to run a 20l spd, let alone a 10l. So I run 3x 2l continuously. Jumping back and forth until the mains start coiling. And after flask swap. Then I finally get to relax.
I told my partner we need 5 turns before we upgrade glass. That @spdking techno mantle is extremely promising. NOT 5 of course. I dont want to let him retire off 1 sale.
Lol
What do you like about the Techno mantle that seems promising? I’ve been pretty happy with LS mantle which I think are just rebranded Glas-col? Coupled with a JKem temp controller.
I rock all black case china mantles and have absolutely zero issues.
…techno mantle, well it’s pretty trick. Has more features, I’m positive better engendering.
@spdking, no need for a dm with a price just yet. I need 3 months to see how things pan out here.
Yeah, they do seem nice. I considered them, but since I already have the Jkem temp controller, I’d save about $2000 going with LS for the mantle.
You are going to have a difficult time keeping your post collection pathways clean. Get the trapping power back right up against your spd.
That’s a new flash to me, I didn’t know I could retire off five mantle sales…
Night and day performance. Real talk. Glass col can’t even beat out some China mantles for wattage.
Side by side techno with features is actually cheaper than a glasscol or rebranded gc. It had all the control features including dual vapor port built in. It is also the only super accurate mantle on market. With one touch recipe runs.
This is a dead stop test to 150c from warehouse winter temps. Live timed - it opperates very impressive. Also we are releasing the v2 update for all mantles in a week or two. All original v1 software will be compatible for the upgrade.
