Why would someone say they have a vacuum gage and not have a vacuum gage?
U keep showing the condenser where the distillate lands. Your condenser is jacketed so you can put heat thru it.
U need to show the head, the part that’s straight vertical coming up out of the boiling flask. It should be jacketed like the condenser, sort of
Edit: your head appears to be crooked coming out of the boiling flask, not straight up and down. Still doesn’t look jacketed
Don’t poke the gorilla
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The gage is on the pump. I made a manifold with a in-line filter and a bleeder cone. When the extract starts to bubble up in the boiling flask when the ethanol is vaporizing off it foams. When it foams, that bleeder cone stops that foam.
What part is crooked? This last run, I had my boiling flask straight up and down in the mantle. The head comes off the flask at a 45 degree angle which worked great. That angle along with 50C water being ran thru the condenser and I did not have any more clogging issues. I was able to distill all the THC without issue.
That’s a receiving flask catching the distillate. Not a condenser. Maybe im not following you.
All right bro I took the time and downloaded your picture and blew it up big enough to where I can take a better look.
The bottom part where you called coned is what is called a “Vigreux”
The part of the distillation head I asked if is jacketed is this
It is not vacuum jacketed. If it was jacketed and especially over the “Vigreux” you would have much better outcome. That specific head you are using is going to prevent you from a successful distillation of thc/cbd.
Get a correct distillation head for the job at hand.
Also the foaming that you were describing is probably due to decarbing at the same time.
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Why do I need another head that’s jacketed? I sent a response saying that the 50C water circulating thru the condenser was giving me a good flow of distillate. When it’s ready for the next fraction, it stops going up into the reflux (vigreux) and the temp starts going up. If I use a jacketed head will I still have to run water thru the condenser?
You are distilling and collecting the volatiles that you want to remove by way of decarbing BEFORE you try to distill the target compound. Thc or cbd will need to be heated to around 180C in your system before they will be able to be properly collected.
You do not want your path coated with nasties when you collect your heart fraction. Ideally you want it squeaky clean and you want to switch to a different vac pump or change the oil before you collect the target compound.
Thank you by the way. I’m looking at a jacketed head now.
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You will be limited in selection because of the small size of the joints on your boiling flask
Why the limitations with the boiling flask joints?
I appreciate it. I’m looking into a jacketed condenser now. Do you recommend one that is 24/40? I’m looking at a few different designs and manufacturers.
This would be a question to ask the manufacturers. They can likely fab you anything you want but you will wait and you will pay more
I’ve used this one and it worked great for me. Granted there are metric fucktons of people on here better than me at distilling but I had pretty good success using this one. Don’t expect a speed demon when it comes to your runs but it worked great. You’ll likely need some sort of adapter though. The pros would be able to tell you about optimal fitments though
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You can find good heads with a 24/40 joint size. They can range in price greatly. Figure out what your budget is and that will narrow down your options. Also try to stay with reputable producers because especially with some cheap Chinese glass out there you may run into quality problems that will end up costing you a whole hell of a lot more by the end. (Not saying there is not any “decent” quality Chinese but personally I’d say if your budget permits it stick with American)
Normally I would say, if at all possible, try not to use any sort of an adapter between your boiling flask and your distillation head if you don’t have to.
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Listen to this mans advice over mine big time - he knows his shit front and back with his eyes closed