Nobody selling cheap pumps…
Pretty sure the curves for the Alcatel and Edwards pumps are readily available.
Can you distill with a $200 pump you purchased at Walmart? Sure.
Will that same pump work for you on a 5L system? (Still work when you decide it’s time to upgrade?)
Are there rebuild kits available so you can literally keep using it for years?
Not sure why you’re angry.
Maybe smoke some weed.
I need to distill for 2 years
you want to make me lose my money for unnecessary things so you feel better about your unnecessary spending
whats the point of asking for advice?….. I think you should buy the pump and report back so you can help others down the same path as your going.
I have a couple welch 2 stages for wipers, the oldest one has been working for 6 years.
A feature I find useful is having a manual gas ballast, I think this feature allows you to extend the life of your pump/ oil changes.
And regardless of a cheap or expensive pump you should set up a good cold trap to protect it.
I imagine that the extra investment of buying a used lab grade pump is relative to your cost of destroying cheap pumps depending on how often you actually distill.
(To calculate this yourself buy a cheap one and see how long it lasts before it fails, once it dies note the cheap pump death # and divide 730.5/cpd= this is how many pumps you will buy in 2 years, multiply this by cost of cheap pumps, compare to quality pump price. For fun also take note of how much material you process per pump lifecycle)
I think jezabel is just SPD Queen trolling.
Okay I think I understand where you coming from. Over the years I have helped many many people gain a better understanding of distillation and I try to give good and helpful advice that correlates to every specific person’s needs and capacity. You are asking professionals for advice and when you get it you’re upset you do not hear what you wish the answer would be. To be clear I couldn’t care less (I don’t think any of us would) if you take our advice or you don’t but I would recommend softening up your approach to asking questions.
Now having said all of that… I too started short path distillation of THC with a “cheap” vacuum pump and while it did work for a little while and as I’ve explained already in a post above us it did work but not great and as I started distilling more often it didn’t last long at all… In fact I think it was maybe five or six years ago that I wanted to buy another one just like it for some other thing I was doing and I couldn’t find the manufacturer anymore. And so if you can find a good cheap reliable pump and you are distilling once or maybe twice a month a kilo or so then perhaps a “cheap” pump is the right fit for you. But if you are going to attempt to be a professional and distill more often than that and quality, reliability and your time are important to you then you may want to consider investing a little bit more in your tools. Did you ever go to a mechanic and see them working with cheap Chinese tools? Mechanics invest in good quality tools because when they break you Lost time, you hurt yourself and over time you lose the financial advantage. There’s a guy in Asia I’ve been helping for a year and a half or two now and he started just like you, buying a cheap vacuum pump and then another and another and another. Now he has an Edward 28 which personally I think is a way Overkill on a 2 L system but he grew so frustrated to where he gave up finally and just decided to go all out… It made a big difference in his final product by the way.
Get the right tool for the job and overtime you will save time frustration and yes money even if you do pay more upfront.
And just in case I’m not clear as of yet… Edwards 28 is not the right pump for your 2L setup. I mean it will work and it will work great but smaller pump would fill your current needs better
Nope.
Zero interest in making you do anything.
Zero buyers remorse either…
Merely offering advice based on experience.
I’ve been using and repairing vacuum pumps for almost 40years at this point. I’ve learned the value of quality pumps with solid OEM support.
I have used and destroyed my fair share of cheap pumps.
I’ve also refurbished pumps like the Welch duoseal that easily survived 15+ years of abuse by graduate students.
I prefer to purchase quality used pumps…
The e2m80 shown above is one of a pair that came with a freeze dryer we purchased at auction. The freeze dryer was a bust, but after a quick oil & filter change, both pumps look to be in great shape. They should serve my purposes for years before needing rebuilt.
the good thing about buying quality pumps is being able to buy rebuild kits and parts when needed. The vanes get worn from misuse. its just easier to rebuild one to new. ive had my vacuum oven pump now 11 years still going strong
do i need a oil mist separator/filter with a leybold d8b? or can I just put a random pipe to connect the exhaust to the kitchen hood?
The leybold is a good choice
As for the oil mist filter it s good to have one since without it will cost you in extra oil
Without an oil mist filter additional oil needs to be added every 16 hours of use if the vacuum is deep if you use the pump on a system with
Leaks it will suck air treu the leaks and expel this air treu the exhaust this will give a bigger oil mist due to the turbulence inside the pump
Making more frequent oil additions necessary
Good vacuum can only be achieved with quality oil the hvac brands sell oils that are able to get to 10 microns like
Yellow jacket , and master cool
The hvac oils are less viscous so with but a little solvent recondensing inside the oil the iscositty rises and the pump will have trouble keeping that deep vacuum
The leybold oils or Edwards branded oils are a bit better for solvent absorption and keeping the deep vacuum
I personally use the hvac brands sinds they are a lot cheaper and I like to empty the oil reservoir of the pump after use
starting with fresh oil on the next run
As for cleaning up vacuum pump oil it s very doable take all old used ( same brand and make) oil and place them in the boiling flask
Slowly ramp the temp and distill off the fractions till 100C this will be most solvents and volition terpene fractions leave it dwell at 100C for some time and once nothing condenses visually in the condensors you can reuse the oil that’s left in the boiling flask
Yust make sure tovisually check if there is no water separation in the flask if any yust use a separatory funnel to seperate the water out
Water is the main enemy for 2 stage vac pumps
Dcm, tolueen and DMF are the main solvents that have given me isseu s with the pump seals ( main reason I drain my pumps after use to make sure the solvent contact time is least on the pump seals )
Check put NAVAC. Their factory OEMs the Edwards pumps. They are extremely aggressive on price and customer service. Glad to make an intro to your local rep.
Check out the oil separator on this critter. It has its own level sight, and drain.
Are they required? No. Recommend? Hell yeah.
Both running with the gas ballast open and running with leaky (cheap) glassware increase the amount of oil in the exhaust. Keeping that from coating everything in sight is well worth the expense
Most of us here distill at commercial scales, not hobby once a week. Let us know how your little shit pump is doing in a year, better yet, let us know how the first rebuild goes, if you can even get replacement parts. There’s a reason premium equipment cost’s magnitudes more than the shit hobbyist/ chinese knockoff gear. Your attitude fucking sucks. Stop asking for advice if you have it all figured out.
you find something to do with the “bust” of a freeze dryer?
Nope. You could probably have it for the price of shipping. I wouldn’t recommend it.
nope. folks like big pumps, because that’s what the math says are needed.
The volumetric capacity of vacuum pumps required by a molecular still measured at the operating pressure (0.1-5 microns) is relatively enormous, many thousands of liters of gas having to be withdrawn for each liter of oil entering the distilling zone. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/cr60107a002
routes around the paywall encountered above are listed elsewhere, should you care to actually read.
so demonstrate it.
maybe do some back of the envelope math to understand the volume 1kg of 100% THC would occupy as a gas at 100um and 200C (see: Ideal gas law - Wikipedia)