ok ok I see exactly what you mean, what ill do is get a cold trap to put it in between the chamber and pump to address this issue ( i hope i wrote address right in the context it was meant )
I got a digital heated sillicon matt i can put below the chamber, what temp would you recommend i set it at ?
removing all of your ethanol in your vac chamber will likely also lead to extract everywhere!
your oil needs to be much higher viscosity before going under high vac without agitation. it will likely boil rapidly and you’ll lose 20-60% to the walls.
27-30C would be my recommended temps for purging to a “dabbable” product.
I recommend you proceed anyway. you can stage your vacuum in 3 or 4 steps and get the job done with the tools on hand. you’ll just need to get a condenser in-line before you scale.
if working in in Hg, I would recommend 10" for 30-40-min, then 15", then 20"…observing the reaction before opening the valve and turning the vac on again.
I guess I can solve this by setting up the cold trap, right ??
I was not aware I had to regulate the pressure, I just went for the max it could pump like shown in the picture, so whats the max I should vacuum at then ?? Im tryin to make vape pens by the way, i dont know if it matters but thats my goal and im sure you know the oil should be crystal clear, I really feel like making a dabbable product for myself though now that you mention it
yep, you’ve hit full vac
(or at least as full as that pump will do, or that gauge will measure)
that’s 30" of Hg aka -1bar.
which means we’ve learned that air compressor oil will suffice, although it might make a hair more mist (unknown…)
watch your extract and see…
you do want full vac.
just not all at once.
No, a cold trap will have no effect on that fact that you didn’t stage the vacuum & put your extract in there with too low a viscosity. A cold trap will simply keep the ethanol out of your pump.
Just wanted to make sure your vacuum chamber is rated for ethanol! Some acrylics don’t work well with ethanol and might degrade over time. Many off the shelf Chambers are sold to be butane/hydrocarbon compatible. Do you know what the lid of the chamber is made of?
acrylic should work ok if you don’t splash too much ethanol on it. it will eventually craze and might even fail if you keep at it long enough.
I got away with DIY acrylic chamber lids for a year or so before getting an actual oven.
they definitely didn’t like it.
learning the right viscosity to load & the need to stage vac helped
Edit: I used 9" or 10" stainless cook pots sourced from the local thrift store & a chunk of 1.5" thick acrylic that looked to have been salvaged from a check cashing place (read “bullet proof” …ish). used the corresponding 9" or 10" Fagor pressure cooker gasket to provide the seal. Had 5 or 6 of the things at one point…
Damn are you serious ?? What happens if it does fall ? I really dont need any more accidents in my life, enough is enough, lol.
The lid I got is acrylic, its 3/4 inch thick,
To be honest I was really excited until I learned this vac chamber was just for purging and not for removing the ethanol at a faster rate, i thought it was going to be like a rotovap alternative, is this not the case ? I mean if I add a cold trap to the vac chamber and im able to recuperate most of the ethanol isnt it achieving the same purpose ?
I have noticed that the pump gets very hot very quick, I put a fan to blow air directly to it, is it ok to leave it running for 30-40 minutes even though its very hot ?? And the other thing i find weird is that when it achieves max vaccum the mist from the cap stops coming out, whats the reason for that ? is that normal ? I find it very weird.
Another thing I realized is that when I hit full vac I can turn off the pump and the oil keeps bubbling, am I still removing water from the oil even though the pump is off?? Or should I leave it on for the whole time?? I imagine that when the bubbling stops it means that there is no more water on it ? or could it keep on bubbling even though there is no more water in the oil ?
a roto vap, or well really, any quick solvent recovery system is utilizing the large surface areas of thin films of solution to increase the rate at which it evaporates. A vacuum chamber is no replacement for a rotovap, to speed up the process though put your extract in a larger dish, with more surface area. a beaker is going to be very limiting. you can add a cold trap if you want to recover your solvent otherwise its going to end on the floor under the pump.
The pump will get hot, and as long as it has oil, and isnt hot enough to melt through the floor youll be fine.
the mist that your seeing is the atmosphere, it stops because it has pumped all of the gas from the system.
If I shut down the vac pump at this point will it still be drawing water from the oil ??
I guess my real question is, if you stop the pump after hitting full vac is the water and or whatever you want to draw out still coming out, or must the pump remain on the whole time ?
Thanks man, I think I will end up getting a rotovap lol.
I said water in my previous post and you corrected me and said it was ethanol but now im very confused because the reason i got the vac chamber was to remove that water that was in the ethanol because its making my oil really cloudy and since im making vape pens its a big issue im tryin to solve.
I got a question about the vacuum pump thats making me crazy though, if you stop the pump after hitting full vac is the ethanol you want to draw out still coming out, or must the pump remain on the whole time ?
Turning off the pump and sealing the chamber will continue to remove solvent. The solvent will evaporate and reduce the vacuum level in the chamber (hanging out as vapor).
It will keep working up to a point, and then you’ll need to turn the pump back on…
I have the same vac pump but I can’t go lower than 0.8.
Why is it better to use a vacuum chamber - to purge the extract after solvent recovery - than just let the solvent evaporate at room temperature? Besides the time save and the lower oxidation of the extract?
