Please explain inline dewaxing to a moron

toohighmf said:

Hi! Trying to purify my product a bit with my mkiii style cls. Just got a 3x24" dewax column, and I think I want to run some sort of filtration. I have a few questions. Any help would be fantastic! I'm running passive top feed. Collection pot is 6x18. No dump valve currently. No filtration but coffee filters and a viton 1.5" 150 mesh gasket (I think). I run chilled 70/30 Iso-propane. Thanks!

1) do I need a dump valve to soak my material for an hour or so, or will the time it takes to flood and drain suffice? Probably should have one anyway, but curious to opinions of the pros.

2) what are the best options for filtration that impedes flow the least? Stainless ball bearings, Ashless paper, or sock filter? Where is it best placed? Under the dewax above the dump valve?

Any tips or tricks I should know about the process? Thanks again!

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Gray Wolf said:

If you are extracting passively using a top flood, you don't need a dump valve under the column. I would put a 1 micron sock filter between the column and collection pot.

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Old Gold said:

I'll mention that while you don't need a valve between your material column and collection pot, I recommend it - as I like to be able to isolate each and every vessel individually, for maintenance and being able to have full control of the inside contents.

toohighmf: A better way to dewax would be to run solvent through the material column and dump it into a separate, empty dewax column. That way, you can get it cold for as long as you find necessary to precipitate the waxes without soaking plant material for very long.

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toohighmf said:

You guys are my heroes! Thank you!
Does the filter sock fit in a filter plate assembly?

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Gray Wolf said:

A dump valve doesn't add any liabilities that I can see, and it does afford options, so I wouldn't vote against it. I do note that I've done adequate passive extraction without one.

I only designed and built fully passive systems to demonstrate how simply they could be done, and designed WolfWurx Mk IVC/VC to be switchable between passive and active, but haven't made an effort to fully exploit the passive process, because I have yet to fully exploit the active process.

As far as the dewax column, a good point that there are multiple ways to skin the possum!! One way is indeed to flush the LPG through a column containing plant material, into a column surrounded by cooold, where it is held long enough to precipitate plant waxes at the lower temperature, before being vacuumed through a filter to remove the plant waxes.

Gray Wolf said:

A dump valve doesn't add any liabilities that I can see, and it does afford options, so I wouldn't vote against it. I do note that I've done adequate passive extraction without one.

I only designed and built fully passive systems to demonstrate how simply they could be done, and designed WolfWurx Mk IVC/VC to be switchable between passive and active, but haven't made an effort to fully exploit the passive process, because I have yet to fully exploit the active process.

As far as the dewax column, a good point that there are multiple ways to skin the possum!! One way is indeed to flush the LPG through a column containing plant material, into a column surrounded by cooold, where it is held long enough to precipitate plant waxes at the lower temperature, before being vacuumed through a filter to remove the plant waxes.
I always wonder how long to leave it and at what temps. I been doing -10 or colder for 30-40 mins. It will go as low as -50 and I dump after it has warmed to -10 or so. Measuring from the outside of t dehe dewax column. Longer doesn't change much for me for what I could tell.. I try to run butane cold but not much colder than -10. Hard to get flow at those temps passively.

I designed a system to do that, but never built one because another option is to freeze the material and extract with subzero LPG, so as to not extract the evil spirits in the first place.

You can of course, always do both...............

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I designed a system to do that, but never built one because another option is to freeze the material and extract with subzero LPG, so as to not extract the evil spirits in the first place.

You can of course, always do both...............

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flatusm said:

I am at the same point in experimentation as OP. I am a noob at extracting, but a good researcher. I couldn't find much on how long it takes and at what temp and how good the results are in an inline dewaxer.

Winterizing 10:1 95% Ethanol/goo chilled to -30C for 90-120 minutes freezes and catches the max amount of wax, fats and lipids. You need to vac-assist the filtering and keep it that cold the whole time.

I could not find similar formulas how long it takes for those things to precipitate in dewax columns with butane/propane! Maybe it is totally different with a non-polar solvent's affect on wax...I just couldn't find anything!

This leads me to think either a) you'd need to let it soak in the dewax column for a similar amount of time at a similar low temp as winterizing, or b) the inline wax column is kind of a gimmick with no hard data behind it, or c) since all the big machines have them, maybe the formulas are trade secret-y with the commercial guys. (I hope it isn't c.)

I would love for someone to set me straight on this, like, testifying to quality improvement after adding a dewax column. I originally wanted to get a dewax column to hook under my material column with just a screen between them.

But one thing makes me believe two-solvent winterizing is the way to go: the ethanol purges the residual butane immediately! No need for days in the vac oven.

So today I did just that, but since I don't have any lab gear nor a solvent capable pump, I jerry rigged my extractor to winterize. I just put two coffee filters in the filter stack, and then a bunch of steel balls on top in the material column. I used a paint pail for a dry ice jacket, chilled it to -40, and dumped the ethanol/goo mix in the open material column. I left it in for 90 minutes, keeping it between -30 and -40, then pulled a full vac on the collector tank and opened the dump valve. The stuff went down slow as a clogged sink.

Good lord was there a lot of obviously grey wax and green garbage in that filter! This was really effective.

If I was going to build a dewax column for a passive machine, I would have it the same size as the collector column to allow for more filter area at the bottom, and the capacity to hold all the washes from the material column above. Since the ones I have seen just look like a second material column, this also fuels my doubts that they are effective.

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nwlabs said:

I'm using Precision Extraction PX1 w/ in-line dewax column.
Our chiller is -50C, we push butane through the material column.
Let it soak for 5 min, then push into dewax column.

Does not work, barely traps any fats/lipids/wax.

We forgo the dewax column and go from material to collection to winterization.

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toohighmf said:

About to pull the trigger on the filtration. I can't access sweetleaf's website to find a filter sock assy, and can't find another source. Anyone have a parts list to make one? If I should go the filter plate route, I assume I use 1 filter plate per mesh size or stainless balls vs paper etc? Can I use SS balls and paper in the same filter plate? To get gold, how much filtration & dewaxing need I do?
Please school me!

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TerpChild said:

Hey SH how do you properly purge ethanol? What temps need to be reached?

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Old Gold said:

How cold is your dewax column internally
during filtration? And what volume of solvent are you using? How much material do you fit in the column?

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