Setting for SPD run

I know…so much information on the forums and compared to everyone I feel like a total god damn noob!

I’m making a hydrocarbon extract today and will get that crude cleaned up. Just want to go the turtle speed so, I can keep notes and have an idea on how my spd behaves under load.

Also I am hoping to get that way better mantle from you before the trial run. so, I don’t have weird temp fluctuations.

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So do a “dry” run with olive & canola oil and run the auto-tune feature on your mantle .

See: Retraining PID In AI mantle? - #10 by cyclopath

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I’m going to pull the manual and double check how to do that. I didn’t even think to try to calibrate my mantle.

I appreciate the very obvious sound advice that I completely overlooked.

I’m hoping to get this done tomorrow.

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The elcheapo base mantles have no “burn in plug” like the upgraded blue (upgrade #1), or the black case (upgrade #2).

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Wanted to update on this topic. I had some personal stuff and had to take time out for family. But slowly getting their. Winterized my ethanol BHO via room temp, -25c x2, dry ice slurry x2 (with cold filters),

Doing the cheap mantle + 1500 rpm + large spinner. Doing ok with 2.1-2.5 mbar vacuum. I want to put a leak in some where but so far it’s doing ok. The condensers are running glycol+DI+ice to keep temps around 0-4C.

The vacuum brand diaphragm pump is holding out. I am not running a cold trap so doing in well ventilated room. See a few drops of ethanol coming out every 30-60 mins.

Head temp stays around 33-34C. temp of the alcohol boiling flask itself is 50-53C.

It is super slow my god…but can’t rush it.

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How can your gauge claim 1 micron on a diafragm pump ???

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Same way XD claims 0 micron on rebuilds.

You can’t get better than factory test unless your gauge is not accurate

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I didn’t this is on a vacuum brand that is going down to 2mbar.

1 micron is with Alcatel which I obviously wouldn’t be using for ethanol distillation.

Just so you know the avs specification for lowest vacuum achievable is one way and one way only. The manufacturer always used this method to develop thier pump down curve - the process requires a hookup with a hose to a cryo trap or a cold trap in general.

Most of these pumps when brand new require to run for over a hour or so and with a cold trap inline to get the rating. I’ve slowly noticed when I opperate with nist devices that vacuum is more relative them subjective to a number.

I agree I’m only using the references from my cheapish gauges as a ballpark numbers.

The vacuum brand diaphragm pump is only hitting this low cause I have it in simple 2l vacuum distillation.

Once this gets hooked up to an actual 5l roto it should be near 80-100mbar.

But just wasn’t sure where the 1 micron question came from. The previous posts were referencing my Spd kit and Alcatel which can hit 1 micron on 2L spd (empty).

The vacuum brand is hitting 2-3mbar which is like 2k microns. A little too low and without a cold trap I’m losing some ethanol for sure. But whatever mainly want roughly 50% of it for cleaning usage.

I’m just happy got the pump for $140 and it’s old new stock from 2007. Brand new in box and thing is humming along.

I think empty alot of pumps can do 1-3 microns on a system being pumped down. In motion is another.

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what difference do you expect from empty to motion? what is the relevance of the cold trap on minimizing this difference?