Life is about solutions 
That’s fucken awesome. Gotta do what you gotta do…
…and when your done, dispense your ice cold acetone or alcohol with the pour spout. I like it, but a little top heavy for me. 
seems worthy…
1000%.
Dry gaskets wear far faster than lubricated gaskets. I was an industrial mechanic, and QMED certified marine engineer before the cannabis industry, and I would have been fired for improper gasket installation a few times over if I didn’t lubricate O rings and gaskets of this type.
As you tighten the tri clamp, the gasket compresses and squishes out, creating friction between the metal and gasket and significantly accelerated wear if dry. Lubricant negates this friction. Dry, it will tend to bind, doesn’t create as good of a seal when compared to properly lubricated. I’m not saying to slather a ton of excess oil all over the place… Careful and controlled application of lube is pretty easy. I use Q tips lightly dipped in MCT oil that I dispense out of a plastic Klean pump.
I tap a six inch triclamp 4-6 places in the inner groove (for even distribution without over applying) and wipe the entire groove and outside rim. I wipe the outside edge of the gasket with that used and lubricated Q tip (Not inside the groove closer to product side.) That lubes about 3/4 the gasket while minimizing lubricant exposed to process. Its not just twice as long… My gaskets last 5-10 times longer when properly cleaned and lubricated. I had a set of 4x Rubber Fab FKM screen gaskets on the bottoms of cold material columns last over a year cleaned with etoh and a tile and grout brush, lubricated w/each install, and three of them literally looked brand new after over a year’s use (On an EX40 that ran 5 days as week at -50F and colder). I had spares but literally zero reason to replace any of those gaskets, ever.
When the gasket is lubricated and parts mated, you can twist and spin the bowl or bottom cap to ensure perfect alignment, pull a vacuum and then take your time to assemble the tri-clamp. When the gasket is not lubricated more often than not the parts can not be spun to ensure proper alignment. Makes a big difference on big 12" bottom bowls.
I have worked on equipment and done training / consulting at several facilities that don’t lubricate gaskets and use gaskets that are degrading badly. I would rather have gallons of food grade MCT or coconut oil in my extract than tenths of grams of sluffing FKM gasket material contaminating my product. Don’t use gaskets that look like this
I can appreciate the time you took to write all that. But, I still won’t use any lube and will Continue to rotate and swap out my gaskets as I have been for 10 years. Like I said to Phil, to each there own, and I ain’t putting no lube in any of my systems. I’m bout to even stop using apeizion on my spd and switch to a greaseless solution. And I’m running a completely dry vacuum system. That’s just me. You do you. Love & light.
Hey good thing I’m in the knowledge and fact sharing business and certainly not the mind changing business.
A cannabis oil based solution would be sweet. I love the distillate as grease trick on the short path. I’m not aware of a solution to replace a much thinner lubricant on triclamp gaskets, but would love to learn.
You know all the valves in your lube free closed loop system are lubricated right? Even the fancy Swagelok ones. Metal on metal would gall due to friction without lubrication, so to prevent wear and contamination, internal parts are lubricated with Dow Molykote 111.
You share my thoughts. Over a year I used A few tablespoons of MCT oil to process tens of thousands of pounds of biomass so the dilution of MCT oil is quite low. Not at all like cutting cartridges.
The gaskets dry out because alcohol dries them out when you clean them? My understanding, Just like alcohol dries out your skin, Lubricating with MCT with actually keeps them “hydrated” (not the proper term I know, sorry) which is why lubed gaskets don’t crack apart from being too dry as easily. edit, Obviously I’m not a chemist and I’d love to learn more about why this happens. or maybe it doesn’t and its purely abrasion/friction damage
I was under the impression that the PTFE seat was all the lubrication needed
https://www.swagelok.com/en/catalog/Product/Detail?part=SS-43GS6
Lubricant is the 13th specification listed.
I clean my valves of any potential grease b4 installing them on a system. Plus, I never noticed any grease on my valves in the first place. I run hamlets not swage.
You can order them without lube. I forget the part number suffix, but you can def get them without lube.
I have seen ppl lube gaskets and their oil is 1000% fine. I don’t because we are lazy. We Only have had to replace the big 12” so far. We use viton all around.
@SamuraiSam I met your homie Christian yesterday. Super smart and nice guy
wouldn’t it?
With Swagelok their standard cleaning is SC-10 and the optional special cleaning and packaging is SC-11. https://www.swagelok.com/downloads/webcatalogs/EN/MS-06-63.PDF There is still lubricant used but it’s a different type. Krytox 240AC for SC-11. If no lubricant was used, contamination from wearing parts would be higher, and valve failure more frequent.
Christian’s a real nice guy!
Yup you’re right. I never read the fine print.
A bunch of stuff in the heads is real runny? Might work as a decent lube. Obviously make sure the gasket is compatible with the terpenes. But maybe that might be a solution that people are sitting on gallons of 
vacuum works great.
Yeah i have been paying attention to the comments I like the idea of using D-Limonene and soap and water. Ill be running some tests on that soon enough. Thanks @Curious_Roberto
When i was first taught about CLS operation I noticed that the dude would always take a towel sprayed down with ISO and sort of pull it thru the towel in a clenched fist, once done he would just set it down and let it dry out.
Seemed like pulling a gasket like that would stretch it out and ruin it in that way before it was given a chance to crack.
Besides that over time i noticed that over time the sort of glossy black color of the gasket would slowly transition to a dirty brownish color before eventually starting to crack. After i learned about using a very small amount of virgin coconut oil to keep things nice and fresh i dont have to replace them as often as we once did. None of the flavor contaminates my extracts tho i’ve never had a test that detects anything other than general potency. I am not saying this is the best solution for gasket maintenance but it sure beats replacing them every month or few weeks.
Who do you get B80 from? BVV or Carbon Chemistry?