Agreed, this industry is quickly falling into the standard mould every other industry uses. Small, laboratory glassware for RnD, stainless for production plants.
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Except they donât translate perfectly⌠Glass is a insulator⌠stainless is a conductor
Of course. We have to factor in insulation to using stainless.
Glass lined steel is an interesting field
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Thank you, everyone, for your input! I have a J-Kem 210 which would allow me to only heat the bottom mantel. I have thought about buying the Glas-Col 100A O1103 so the top would not be heated but would still insulate the boiling flask. We run a 2 Liter SPD. The one issue we have had is the stir bars we bought donât seem to be strong enough to move the material fast enough looking for rare earth magnetic stir bars so I can swap over from the Azzota to a J-Kem setup.
A jacketed version may help with insulation.
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@LabSociety for both or stirbar.com for just the rare earth bar. If you are just grabbing the insulation top, not the heated, fireplace rope is a suitable alternative as well.
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From my order history I use these. I am very happy with the versatility and they work great.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0048LLY0W/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M32P0J8/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01489R8RG/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000X4OJ9G/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
The mantle sets on the stir bar without melting it (too much lolz) but a small space between the stir bar device and the mantle is best for the magnets to catch just right. I use fiberglass cloth, hobby grade, to wrap the mantle mummy style to really conserve heat.
I also use a 50ml full spherical mantle for terp removal it plugs into the same PID controller and has the same plug as the bigger hemispherical mantle. Tuning parameters are prettty close but for both mantles but is dialed in for the 50 ml unit and seems to hold tight tolerances for the bigger one if you approach the target temp in steps so I leave it at that.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BTME0R2/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
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Stir bars can DE gauss when they are exposed to High temp. As a rule if thumb, the hotter you are the less magnetic force the bar is creating. Once you pass the curie temp of neodymium about 350c your magnet will cease to work. I theorize that mantle overshoot is a primary cause for stir bars not to function.
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one of mine just went out after pushing a mantle up to 220C. I normally stay 180C-195C through the body/tails (pressure dependent)
I never have to go higher then 200c but the stirbar was not a rare earth magnet
Where are you taking your temp? Mantle or probe?
By taking the temp inside the flask you can allow the mantle to overshoot. The tempature needs to be controlled with the sensor that is touching the mantle surface.
I use a infrared thermometer to track oil temp, set point on jkem to adjust bf temp and digital thermometer in head to track vapor boiling point.
I havenât found an ir thermometer worth its salt yet.
Was the bar magnetic afterword?
I am reading temperature (and controlling the Glas-Col PID) from inside of the boiling flask. Since I started distilling, my preference was always to stick a thermocouple between the boiling flask and mantle so that I can track the actual heat input of the mantle. I can keep it from overshooting easily that way, as I keep a very consistent heat rate throughout the run. Needless to say, I did not trust the first two mantles I owned.
With the Glas-Col probe underneath the boiling flask, I find temperature increase to be too slow, and the evaporation in the boiling flask often overcomes the heat input (Iâm sure this wouldnât be the case if I also had a thermocouple in the flask, as I would be less scared to overheat the liquid in the flask).
Yes, works but only at low rpm
The liquid can only get as hot as the mantle. Overheating is a non issue when controlling a mantle directly with the internal sensor. Tempature increase in the flask is slow because you donât Have the mantle despritaly heating a sensor it canât feel until itâs too late. The mantle simply gets to temp, then you wait till it boils. Think of it like boiling water with excatally enough energy to do it. The takes a while to heat but it will boil. Heat applyed quickly and a probe far from the heat source make for a bad time.
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i need to go meet these guysâŚ