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Magnetic Hotplate Stirrer

Greetings all. Thank you in advance...


I've been making small batch (8-12ml) vape fluid by hand for awhile, but would like to make larger amounts (say 40-50ml) in a less hands on way. Is anyone here using a magnetic hotplate stirrer? If so, what has your experience been? Is it an effective tool? Any advice on equipment or process would be greatly appreciated!
 

f-e

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Milk frother/coffee whisk?
Be easy to support with some helping hands. Or lab stands that hold flasks, but soon as you talk lab, it's money.

Used magnetic stirrers can be $50 items. It's not worth making your own. Though it's only a couple of bar magnets

edit: Oh, hotplate. Bain Marie.
 
Thanks for the info everyone. Appreciate the time. I have been looking at reviews etc and am considering the Scilogex MS-H280 Pro.



Is everyone heating their concentrates to a liquid first, then adding dilute/terps? Is it too viscous to run the stir bar undiluted? Doing it by hand, I've been heating the dilute and adding the concentrate a little at a time, stirring as it melts into the liquid...
 

Gray Wolf

A Posse ad Esse. From Possibility to realization.
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Our old Thermolyne Cimarec 2 still does a good job as well and they can be found cheap used.

We got the job done with the Thermolyne, and simply like the CAT's newer design, with dead nuts digital temperature controls and a stronger stirring drive best.

If you have an accurate thermometer to keep track of the temperature, you can continue to tweak the Thermolyne temperature controls yourself, and the magnetic drive is strong enough for your purposes.

Check out E-Bay for used ones like this one:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Thermolyne...=item3d7d63bf8c:g:NywAAOSwMZFbos3~:rk:19:pf:0
 

Gray Wolf

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I bet so for over $1,000 :D


Alas, it is still possible for us old war horses to get spoiled by new technology.

I gasped at the CAT price as well, but as a measure of fondness, all three of us Skunk Pharmers figured out how buy one after testing the one in my article.

Another handy CAT offering that aids in mixing, is their X-120 Homogenizer, for blending things that don't easily mix.

https://web.archive.org/web/2015070...ifying-vegetable-glycerin-and-bho-for-e-juice
 
Is everyone heating their concentrates to a liquid first, then adding dilute/terps? Is it too viscous to run the stir bar undiluted? Doing it by hand, I've been heating the dilute and adding the concentrate a little at a time, stirring as it melts into the liquid...
 

TrueTerpenes

New member
We would suggest looking into a mini shear mixer. Homogenization is an important factor. When mixing distillate or other thick concentrates, a hotplate and stir bar barely make the cut at safe temps for full terp preservation. The extract is thick and throws the stir bar out of whack. Plus, the stir bar isn't really a great homogenizer compared to a shear mixer. The only thing is, choosing your heat source to go along with a homogenizer. Water bath? Hot air? Hotplate?

It really depends on the type of fluid you're making. How thick is it? What is the starting material? What are you cutting it with? A hotplate might be just fine for your application if you're already happy with your current setup and just want something a bit more automated at a low price.
 

Gray Wolf

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We would suggest looking into a mini shear mixer. Homogenization is an important factor. When mixing distillate or other thick concentrates, a hotplate and stir bar barely make the cut at safe temps for full terp preservation. The extract is thick and throws the stir bar out of whack. Plus, the stir bar isn't really a great homogenizer compared to a shear mixer. The only thing is, choosing your heat source to go along with a homogenizer. Water bath? Hot air? Hotplate?

It really depends on the type of fluid you're making. How thick is it? What is the starting material? What are you cutting it with? A hotplate might be just fine for your application if you're already happy with your current setup and just want something a bit more automated at a low price.


Good point! You can even blend oil and water with one. We've had excellent luck with the CAT X1000D for that purpose.

It also allows you to increase your saturation rate, though if you super saturate, other wise incompatible components may separate when you heat it.
 

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Mini shear mixer. Cool... I hadn't thought of that... I ended up purchasing a hotplate stirrer a few weeks ago, as I didn't seem to have an alternative. It's certainly easier than how I was doing it, but you're right about the temps/terps and stir bar mucking up in the thick concentrate. My base material is winterized shatter, diluted with terps. While I don't like the idea of losing terps to temperature, adding some back in for cartridge use helps. After looking at the price tag on the mini shear, I'll have to go the current route for now. But no reason I can't use the digital hotplate I already have when the time comes. Curious TT and gray wolf, what kind of temps are you using with your mixers? I find my shatter deosn't really want to do much below 70-80c. Unless that thing pulverizes the material into a liquid state, I'm not sure how you'd make much headway with any equipment with temps below that. But I'm pretty green with all this, so maybe there is something obvious I'm missing. Like the mixer. Lol.
 

Mate Dave

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picture.php


This is used to bath propagation material before dissecting & flasking cultures. It's Quality..

It also helps evaporation of oil & performs decarboxylation.
 

TrueTerpenes

New member
mixing

mixing

Mini shear mixer. Cool... I hadn't thought of that... I ended up purchasing a hotplate stirrer a few weeks ago, as I didn't seem to have an alternative. It's certainly easier than how I was doing it, but you're right about the temps/terps and stir bar mucking up in the thick concentrate. My base material is winterized shatter, diluted with terps. While I don't like the idea of losing terps to temperature, adding some back in for cartridge use helps. After looking at the price tag on the mini shear, I'll have to go the current route for now. But no reason I can't use the digital hotplate I already have when the time comes. Curious TT and gray wolf, what kind of temps are you using with your mixers? I find my shatter deosn't really want to do much below 70-80c. Unless that thing pulverizes the material into a liquid state, I'm not sure how you'd make much headway with any equipment with temps below that. But I'm pretty green with all this, so maybe there is something obvious I'm missing. Like the mixer. Lol.

Yeah, the mini shear mixers can be around $500 if you really scout for a used one, but regular ones can cost about a grand. That's a big tag for an at home user. It seems like the higher end hot plate stirrers have stronger magnets, but it's still a tough match for a thick concentrate.

The lowest temp we have seen to be able to mix most concentrates while preserving the most terps is around 130f or 54c. You can sometimes get an ok consistency at a lower temp but mixing is harder. Note that if the hotplate is reading that temp, most likely your concentrate will be a lower temp, which is why you're probably operating in the 70c range on your hotplate.

An alarm thermometer is a great tool to check the temp of your mix rather than just relying on the temp of the hotplate. It allows you to take your eyes off of it while its mixing because you can program it to alert you when it goes over a certain temp. I would say working between 54-60c is best but you can push it if you're having trouble mixing. The problem with hotplates is that the heat is only on the bottom, so the sides sometimes do not mix well. Manually stir intermittently throughout the blending process and scrape the sides, a hair dryer or heat gun is good for warming the walls of the vessel.

https://https://www.amazon.com/ThermoPro-TP06S-Digital-Thermometer-Grilling/dp/B0194TQ394/ref=sr_1_19?ie=UTF8&qid=1549917962&sr=8-19&keywords=alarm+thermometer

This is one example of an alarm thermometer. They also have a wireless type where you can keep the display with you while the probe is in the product. We have used thermometers like these but not these exact products so read reviews and choose carefully. https://www.amazon.com/Wireless-Thermometer-Upgraded-Different-Delicious/dp/B07KR51WV9/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1549918625&sr=8-16&keywords=wireless+alarm+thermometer

Lastly, have you played around with using our terps/viscoisty diluent in your formulas? Adding some viscosity might help you operate at a lower temp because it will be easier to mix.
 
Alarm thermometer sounds pretty cool. I have IR thermo'd the hotplate and used a regular candy thermo in a beaker of oil to kind of get an idea where temps actually are, but something in the solution would clearly be most accurate. The Scigolex I bought does have a remote thermo option...


I have considered a Viscosity like product. I understand some people decarb to thin the oil so less diluent is necessary, but killing the terps seems like a bad idea to me. I keep my process as low temp as possible, from extraction through purge.


Thanks to everyone who has responded with info. Having no exposure to how the big companies do things, it's a lot of trial, error, and asking for advice like this.
 

WaterFarmFan

Active member
Veteran
At that kind price I would wonder if shaken might be preferred over stirred.

Hey Gry! I know that you were joking, but after trying a bunch of different mixing techniques, I only shake my mixtures in sealed glass vials with PTFE lined caps:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=glass+ptfe+vial

My basic process:

1.) Extract with -50C ethanol
2.) Decarb to ~70%
3.) With vial on digital scale, transfer (using large glass syringe with stainless tip) exact amount of hot extract needed for batch
4.) Allow to cool to room temp
5.) Add desired amount of terps to vial (but leave at least 25% headspace for good mixing)
6.) Tightly seal vial with PTFE lid and place in 170F oven
7.) Shake every few minutes until vial reaches full oven temp (10-15 minutes)
8.) With oven mit, shake the absolute shit out of mixture for a couple of minutes.
9.) Place in refrigerator to cool completely
10.) Open and load carts at room temperature

The logic of this is that by mixing in a non-reactive sealed container, one can keep all of the terps, as any that boil off will re-condense once cooled.

Hope this helps.

WFF
 

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