Was wondering if anyone had any recommendations with respect to cleaning out spent biomass from BHO columns. I’ve seen some things about using chimney sweep equipment, but wasn’t too sure about it. Any thoughts?
I saw in the tricks of the trade thread some people were using what looks like a big corkscrew
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Use socks or if packed manually an air compressor and dowel
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I bang the tube with a rubber mallet, works pretty well, doesn’t dent the tube.
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Air compressor.
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Changed my life…screw it in and pull it out!
I wont pack my columns even tighter w my packer anymore
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Socks suck
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Use material tube socks. We’ve tried every method under the sun, and that consistently works better than anything else we have tried.
We have tried boring them out with an pneumatic augur - slow and inefficient and scratches up inside of tubes.
We have tried using an air compressor - easily gets dust everywhere, and any remaining butane or propane in the tube will expand rapidly when the tube is blown out in this manner, potentially filling up a whole room with solvent even if you are recovering your tube to deep vacuum while under heat.
We have tried the brute force method, unpacking by hand - that sucks even worse than the other two.
I’m not sure why anyone would hate on them. They are the greatest thing that ever happened to our lab.
We have an 8 tube rack of 6"x48" extraction tubes, and we easily slip socks in and out of the tubes right on the rack, without even having to move the tubes around or disconnect them from our water system. Show me another method of packing and unpacking that allows you to easily pack, unpack, and repack an entire 8 tube rack of tubes without taking a single tube off the rack, and without making a mess.
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How much are you fitting in that sock
I use metric sized ss tubes that are thin walled but fit beautifull
Ram them full and blast slide them out and then clean them out with the Cork screw dogholder great
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My tek was pretty simple but worked. I used a putty knife with a threaded handle on a broom pole. Just stab and twist and everything falls out pretty quickly. One minute of elbow grease per tube.
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4x48" tubes, i couldn’t imagine trying to get the material out any other way than a sock. Two people is the easiest way to skin the cat. One guy pulling the other guy with a dowel pushing from the other end. It slides right out and i pack 6+ #'s instead of the recommended 5 #'s. 
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What particular brand are you using? I can’t seem to find bags of the right length or diameter in my search…
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Empty while is still froze from the solvent! So like within 15 mins of taking it apart. I use a broom handle from the bottom and push out the top, my bottom is a reduced 4:1.5…
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Where could one purchase these socks?
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My tubes never leave the rack either, I just roll the rack outside, leave the lids on, air compressor blast everything direct into garbage can, stand on a picnic table to pack them on the rack, roll 'er back in. I was just having a hell of a time fumbling around with socks. It takes me MAYBE 5 minutes to unpack and pack 4 tubes on a rack and have it ready.
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I got mine from xtractor Depot
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We don’t ever have to move our rack either. We run 4 tubes on one side of the rack while we repack 4 tubes on the other side. It makes our whole production day run more smoothly to alternate sides in such a manner because then we don’t run everything at once, shut down, rush to repack everything, and then run it all at once again. This actually helps us get through more material over the course of an 8hr workday.
Socks we get from Knight Corporation - they do custom any size.
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Ya brotha, it’s not a competition! Just saying how I do it. I just found socks to be cumbersome and an extra unnecessary step for me. But to compare, I actually run two separate racks of 4 jacketed 4x48’s. I run 150f water thru them after I dump and roll them out after I’m done recovering them. then I bring the second one in to get vac’d down before the first racks collection is even done recovering. Rinse and repeat
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I would pay to watch someone unpack and pack 4, 4x48" tubes in 5 min. Chit i would pay to see someone do one in 5 min.
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