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Vacuum desiccator, which one did you get and why?

midwestHIGHS

Member
Veteran
well I just found out there is a local harbor freight about 8 miles from my house so I stopped by and scooped up a 3cfm 2 stage vacuum pump for $168 including two year warranty!

So now I need a vac chamber and was wondering what type of dessicator do you guys have and why did you choose it? What type of plastic should I look for and or avoid?
I will be purchasing my dessicator at amazon, since there are many options figured id see what all the fellow oil heads prefer before I make my order final tomorrow

any feedback is mucho appreciated
thanks fellow resin heads
 

sneaky101

Member
Hey Midwest. I will be needing one very soon myself...good question. I was looking at the one that is $148 and says its a gallon. Better than the one that comes with the extraction experts kit. Question for you though, since you will be ordering from amazon, why didn't you get the 6cfm vacuum pump for $150? Not trying to be a smart ass, just wondering if I should look into a different pump.
 
I just went thru this same dilema, as I recently upgraded my system to a two stage pump rated down to a claimed 15 micron and needed something a vacuum chamber with a little more safety than a ball jar... just an FYI: I found the cheapest and coolest fittings in the airtool sections of the DIY/ahrdware stores; 1/4 price of plumbing isle at home depot type store...
I put quick disconnects on the ball valve leaving my chamber; making it really easy to connect/disconnect vessel. On top of the quick disconnect, the swivel quick disconnect seems to provide nearly forty-five degrees of swivel in any direction and has passed my leakdown tests with flying colors...
I was blown away how much further $10 goes in the air tool fitting department;compared to the ten dollar a piece 1/2" brass tees on my 5gallon air storage tank I turned into my vacuum reservoir from the Auto Parts Store($30). Add in some heavy duty cut to fit Air Compressor hose, and a vacuum switch and extra guage and valve depending on how automated you want your purge set-up and you are ready to rumble...

I am completely satisfied with the vacuum chamber I just bought from Inlabdesigns... It came with a 1/4"fip ball valve, 0-30"hg analog vacuum gauge, as well as the ever important bleeder valve, and last but not least, a machined taper to hold the rubber gasket securly in place on the lid for a perfect seal on my first couple dozen cycles now... I did have to add an internal thermometer to make it complete in my eye's, but that was only a six dollar, 0-250F meat thermometer that seems to be reading very close to my laser thermometer, nothing special so far...

My only words of warning are in regard to vacuum chamber sizing; just as foaf,GreyWolf, and other's have noted, a thin film vacuum purge needs to be kept at least semi-liquid in order to maintain the purge and prevent the oil from solidifying. In regards to sizing, a chamber which allows for your deired amount of extract to be purged in a film certainly under 1/4" thick would be best in my opinion. I purchased what I thought was a three gallon chamber, but I think I got confused and ordered the wrong model becuase my chamber is only 6"id and height.

This means that I can at most, purge right around an ounce of freshly sprayed, but non-runny extract scraped from the standard 9x13" Pyrex dish; which was initially purged on a 110F electric hotplate(I know the dangers, but am seeing a noticbly drier product with far less purge time by simply replacing the hot water bath purge with a Hotplate and appropriate electrical usage precautions). Utilizing a piece of Parchment Paper with the tare weight written on the back in sharpie beforehand, I just press this into the bottom and up the sides of the vacuum vessel doing my best to insure good contact with the bottom of the vessel to make a cheap liner/carrier. Then I will pull this Parchment liner out, place flat, fully opened on the table, and scrape my extract onto the Parchment liner; I find by pressing the Parchment into the vessell once already, the second press into position is much easier with the load of sticky icky waiting to be un-stickified...

Anyways, my longwinded point is to avoid all of the monkeying around with parchment in the chamber and buy a vac chamber as big as you can afford; that way you can use Ramekins of different sizes for each batch, as well as run more than one batch at a time... I'm trying to rig up a rack right now; although I just need to buy the better chamber.

I think I may be looking at a cabinet style dessicator with sparkless hotplate integrated... While I don't like to heat above 110F, in my experience, anything less is not always capable of maintaing the extract in a viscous enough form to easily allow offgassing in all situations; even 120F has not been enough with extracts thicker than 1/4" average depth. So while I once thought a vacuum oven was a waste of a cool toy when used for this process; I now conceed, as long as the controls allow temperture settings around 100F, I think an AutoClave may not be as over kill as I thought. That is what is meant by Vacuum oven, yeah? We are talking about AutoClaves?

Regardless, make sure you think about how you will keep your extract warm while you purge. Many Nalgene desicators with the thick plastic bottom plate look a lot harder to heat than a stainless vessell which can be placed on low temperature hotplate...

sorry for the ramblings... just wanted to share my latest expereice and as you may be able to tell, I have been sampling a great deal of oil lately :)

H
 

Gray Wolf

A Posse ad Esse. From Possibility to realization.
Mentor
ICMag Donor
Veteran
I picked up a glass vacuum dessicator for my experiments, so I could watch, but for production I would probably get a vacuum degassing pot used in the epoxy molding industry to remove air bubbles from epoxy poured in molds.

A modified large aluminum pressure cooker will work as well, as long as the material is contained in glass or stainless.

I use a sparkless lab hot plate inside, which can either be set and left at that temperature, or turned wide open and controled using a Variac varible transformer outside the chamber.

I use 6" Petri dishes inside, for a large surface area and little depth.
 

OrganicBuds

Active member
Veteran
I am looking for the same items, but I need something that holds a 9x9 pyrex dish. A 6" petri dish would be very hard to collect your tang in, so does that mean you pour your material into the dish after purging in something bigger?
 

Gray Wolf

A Posse ad Esse. From Possibility to realization.
Mentor
ICMag Donor
Veteran
I am looking for the same items, but I need something that holds a 9x9 pyrex dish. A 6" petri dish would be very hard to collect your tang in, so does that mean you pour your material into the dish after purging in something bigger?

Yes. I use the Petri dishes only for thin film vacuum purging. They have a larger flat area and straighter sides than a 6" Pyrex Tart dish.

PS: A 2 1/2 gallon or larger paint pressure pot is large enough for a 9" pie dish.
 

midwestHIGHS

Member
Veteran

hammalamma

Member
Veteran
Im trying to keep it under a $100, but If I have to spend more I will.


-This one has nice inside diameter and doesn't hurt the pocket to bad
http://www.amazon.com/Bel-Art-Scien...te-Diameter/dp/B002VBW9VO/ref=pd_sbs_indust_1

-Here is nice sized glass one and also not to expensive
http://www.amazon.com/Glass-Vacuum-Desiccator-8-210mm/dp/B002WD6VLK/ref=pd_sbs_indust_17

vacuum ovens would be the way to go, but im only making small personal batches like a 7g at a time.
If you are only doing 7 grams at a time just vac in mason jars, they are built to hold a vacuum. I have a big glass dessicator but whenever I can I vac in mason jars with a food saver lid. Also the pump you got is so overkill, the hundred dollar one would have been more than enough. Those desiccators are huge for what you are doing.
 

midwestHIGHS

Member
Veteran
lol ya I know I'm not doing much right now, but I will be doing much larger amounts in the near future.... so I figured might as well just get the stronger one now so I don't have to upgrade later.

Hot damn I thought the electric vac would break a mason jar! Nice im going to rig me one up with a food saver lid and get vacc'n!
I also have big pressure cooker that I could rig into one...

In the future, I will be purchasing a larger glass desiccator, glass seems like the obvious choice for heating from below. I heard of people using ceramic tiles that have been warmed in the oven then placed in the desiccator to keep the oil warm. anyone ever try this?

thanks for the quick replies everyone :biggrin: stay oily
 

krunchbubble

Dear Haters, I Have So Much More For You To Be Mad
Veteran
old one on the left, new one on the right....

custom made for me, i can now heat up the chamber and purge, no dicking around back and forth to the oven....


 

sneaky101

Member
Nice krunch!

I've got a FoodSaver too and will have to try and set my little oil dish inside and set the mason jar on my candle warmer next time. If that works, it will save me some $ till I start running more than an oz at a time.
 

hammalamma

Member
Veteran
lol ya I know I'm not doing much right now, but I will be doing much larger amounts in the near future.... so I figured might as well just get the stronger one now so I don't have to upgrade later.

Hot damn I thought the electric vac would break a mason jar! Nice im going to rig me one up with a food saver lid and get vacc'n!
I also have big pressure cooker that I could rig into one...

In the future, I will be purchasing a larger glass desiccator, glass seems like the obvious choice for heating from below. I heard of people using ceramic tiles that have been warmed in the oven then placed in the desiccator to keep the oil warm. anyone ever try this?

thanks for the quick replies everyone :biggrin: stay oily
You should prolly hook up some kind of vacuum gauge when using that super beefy pump and mason jars. 29hg is plenty. Get the half size wide mouth masons and line them with martha wrap.
 

midwestHIGHS

Member
Veteran
What up erllbody ! I couldn't find a local store selling foodsaver vacuum tops... so I got a valve to set up on a mason jar lid, but my old stainless steel pressure cooker worked great and I just kept it on my hot plate viola! also my pyrex dish fit inside of it!
This is some of the sappiest sap I've ever made and it's soooo yummy! but this run of outdoor jillybean had a HORRIBLE yield 14% wtf I got 16.8% few days ago! came out super tasty tho

krunch your desiccator is clutch!

vape on!
 

Jibman

Member
Do you feel the lid isn't thick enough? Just want to be sure that i get a good chamber. I wouldn't be using it all the time. Mostly to do a few runs every once in a while. That have some other interesting chambers on ebay.
 

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