So basically I want to start distilling and I had my eye on the Lab Society G2 2L Turnkey kit. While it has very nice features and would be a very easy plug and play, I’m not exactly sold on the 7k price tag and after reading other posts on here I decided it would be much cheaper to just piece together my own from Chemglass and necessary parts from LS. I’m trying to replicate the G2 kit so my aim is to make this part list a comprehensive one that would require no additional parts other than a vac pump and a chiller/heater.
I know I need a thermocouple adapter for the RBF and for the vapor temperature at the head. But this is the list of parts I have so far, I know it might seem incomplete and not a turnkey kit but I’m not exactly sure what I need left. Any pointers are appreciated
Also you might look at getting a standalone glas-col mantle and a separate stirrer. Then grab yourself an auber instruments 220 series temp and power regulator instead of basic PID control
@Soxhlet posted a link to some hog fence or something I bookmarked on my computer. I’m going to use one of them and weld some bases on to it.
I really didn’t cheap out too much either. I think both of the stands I bought were like $40 each. Which isn’t. Cheap but isn’t really as expensive as $7k glass.
You do not.need a variac with the dspr220. The auber is every bit as good as a jken and you can buy it for 67 bucks and a separate ssr if you don’t want that case
Your list is very similar to my own for a 2L kit. Hopefully, I can start ordering tomorrow once my bank account is set up (finally!).
I would recommend checking out this thread as well. A ton of helpful information has been hashed out here the last 2 1/2 weeks.
One difference between my list and yours is the mantle. I have heard quite a few complaints about that style of mantle, and I’m hoping to have better luck with this one.
Another is the head. I’ll be opting for the silvered V2 head from LS. Also, I’m planning on using these to improve throughput for the system.
As many have mentioned on the forum, an Alcatel 2021i may not be a bad investment either for the vacuum pump. I’m also taking the advice of @Dred_pirate and picking up a sous vide immersible heater along with an eco plus submersible pump for the heated recirculator.
I didn’t pay the amazon price though, its a bit cheaper than the summit mantle on amazon if you go through lanphan directly - they also have mantles for 110V bypassing the need for a new outlet
We have our mantles that have the controller built in and controls the top too. Glas-col is great quality but can be expensive with the controller, and of course I had to do a little shameless self promoting
We are making our glass in house so chances are we can match or beat any glassware supplier and can do so with any added features you’d like. I would suggest a 34/45 short path head with the 2L.
You posted a picture of a variac device which is simply a manually adjustable secondary tap (usually) of a transformer. It is generally older technology used in hugh current appocations to nail down a target voltage. They are mechanical so anynautomatic regulation that takes llace must be done by motorizing that secondary tap.
There are uses of course for a variac but as a temperature refulator for a mantle they really are not going to do much good if compared to more modern techniques. I use a PID control because my years as control systems engineer on infustrial equipment has taught me how to use these but also why to use them. They work not by adjusting the votage per se but by turning the voltage on and off in shortened bursts which has the effect of dumping energy into the heating mantle but in short controlled bursts. I understand fully why some folks incorporate a variable voltage scheme alongside a PID control but for our application this is more of a theoretical approach than a workable one. We have temps that do not need hype fast responce times at all and normally a given PID should work.
For greater accuracy the trick then is to add more thermocouples into the thermocouple loop used to control your heating mantle. This is a simple matter and requires wiring the thermocouples in parallel and addition of what are called swamping resistors to negate wire length differences between all of your thermocouples. You could then have the PID control change the heating pulses based on the average heat of all sensors in the system rather than single point load sensing in just one place. A dual thermocouple input so wired is about as accurate as it gets for something like this.
