robinair vucume pump

[queequeg152]

The thing about the oils that mj produces, is that it pretty much defies all organic chemistry. My brother is a chemist and has worked in labs his while life. I had him look into a bunch of things and he was surprised to find that what he thought were common techniques, people were reporting won't work with the herb. Idk myself I never went past 101. Here are some links that might help you...

interesting. ill look at these links when i get some time off.

i didn't get much further personally. i only had 2 years of chem. gchem 1&2 and ochem 1&2, which might sound like alot of chem, but its really nothing in the grand scheme.
its just like being taught what all the basic tools in a wood shop do, as well as how they operate... and thats about it.

 

[Sunfire]

Soooooo, the "bake off" thing works!!!! I did it accidently and was amazed by the results. I always close the isolation valve and open the gas ballast all the way before turning off pump as per the manufacturers recommendations. I started leaving it for like 30 seconds as opposed to 3 seconds after your suggestions.

Well i did this and went to go do something else and forgot about it. I came back between 15 to 30 minutes later. Omfg the oil was crystal clear!!! It was super white milky before, and now it's clear as new!!! As Charlie sheen would say..."winning"!!!

 

[A6 Grower]

lol ive been doing this and also having great results. I think the key is having the pump as hot as possible when you do it. Usually i do it every other morning when i get in and the pump has been running all night. I was just as amazed the first time. No more going threw oil like a mad man

 

[queequeg152]

Soooooo, the "bake off" thing works!!!! I did it accidently and was amazed by the results. I always close the isolation valve and open the gas ballast all the way before turning off pump as per the manufacturers recommendations. I started leaving it for like 30 seconds as opposed to 3 seconds after your suggestions.

Well i did this and went to go do something else and forgot about it. I came back between 15 to 30 minutes later. Omfg the oil was crystal clear!!! It was super white milky before, and now it's clear as new!!! As Charlie sheen would say..."winning"!!!

wait so... were you using cloudy oil thinking it was normal? or just letting it dry out by some other means?

this cloudiness was butane or moisture?

if its moisture... super milky white sounds bad imo.
i dont think you ought to let it get so saturated. if you are pulling in that much water, id suggest periodically opening the ballast during what ever operation you are performing... or just leaving it cracked while the bulk of the water is comeing over.

alternatively you could get trap for this vapor, one you could fill with dry ice even.

 

[A6 Grower]

meh, its a $100 pump that can go a year without an oil change(i may have done this.... long time ago, like 6 years lol) Its easier to just let the oil catch the water and replace the oil or just let it bake out for 15-30 min once a week. if i had a nice pump id defiantly have a cold trap and bake out the oil every day.

 

[queequeg152]

meh, its a $100 pump that can go a year without an oil change(i may have done this.... long time ago, like 6 years lol) Its easier to just let the oil catch the water and replace the oil or just let it bake out for 15-30 min once a week. if i had a nice pump id defiantly have a cold trap and bake out the oil every day.

what are we talking about here? solvent vapor( butane) or actual water?
i had it in my head that what you guys were doing would involve minimal amounts of water, but now im not sure.

its not an either or situation here, you just have to think about ways to maximize your use of time.

if your oil is super saturated with water you should not use it. it causes corrosion and degrades the quality of the vacuum. i dont see how you could not have the time to swap the oil in this case since badly containated oil will increase the amount of time you are spending drawing down a vacuum.

when its saturated, if you dont have the time, id suggest capturing the contaminated oil in a clean container, and simply drying it some other time.

badly discolored and or oxidized oils are typically discarded. pump oil should start out all but colorless... once it turns to shades of brown it is typically tossed.

you can even install an oil drain valve and periodically remove the oil for decanting or drying DURING any process... you just have to isolate the pump, drain it out, maby flush it with a small quanity of flushing oil, and then refill to the appropriate level.

you can even built an external oil cleaning system... while hardly common for small setups, they are easy enough to build... just a gear pump and filter, and what ever equipment you need to treat what ever contamination is occurring.

 

[Sunfire]

Yes the pump oil needs to be hot.

Why are you running pump all night? You have it hooked to 5 ovens? Cycling is fine imo or have you discovered this as a secret for some awesome technique?

It's water vapor for sure but mostly terps I think! Dude my pump exhaust smells soooooo good. I bake it off and the round I smell that strain, oh the terps! The terps! While the pump is running there little a it bubbles involved too which makes it look milkier but yeah there water vapor. I recover down to -5 hg and use a heat mat trick I enjoy for a bout 20 to 30 minutes so there not much moisture going into the ovens, it's mostly terps I assume. My other pump on the machine, well all my material is bone dry so and it doesn't seem contaminated at all, like seriously still very clear.

My jb platinum costed 420 and the robinair cooltech was 320. Not cheap, I bake the jb on the ovens out often now.

 

[A6 Grower]

I use the cheap harbor freight Pittsburgh pumps. And ya i have 1 pump for 3 ovens right now. Works for now, i only pull a vac one oven at a time then once they are all full vac i open the vac for all of them. This works for how i do things as i only am working with one oven per day. lol no its not a secret tech, my lab isnt at my home so cycling over night doesn't work for me, so i just leave it on all night as i dont like just leaving it at full vac. I cycle during the day while im there working. I can get <10ppm results across the board in 3 or 4 days normally with this process

 

[Sunfire]

3 or 4 days? I've heard claims of 20 ppm in 4 hours and 0 ppm in 12. I believe the consensus is harder and faster a cruelly preserves more terps. I'm giving up on shatter for now. I'm whipping the fuck out the oil on seed mats and then into the ovens, still dialing it in but trying to master shatter and wax at the same time is frustrating the shit out of me.

 

[A6 Grower]

3 or 4 days? I've heard claims of 20 ppm in 4 hours and 0 ppm in 12. I believe the consensus is harder and faster a cruelly preserves more terps. I'm giving up on shatter for now. I'm whipping the fuck out the oil on seed mats and then into the ovens, still dialing it in but trying to master shatter and wax at the same time is frustrating the shit out of me.

Ya i could be getting my slabs thinner but i run a lot of differnt stuff every day and run out of room in my ovens really quick. Are those just butane tests or all residual solvents. Butane comes out super easy, its that damn neopentane lol. Even with super low temp distillations i still get some.... I run so much differnt material for differnt people its hard to really dial things in for shatter. Wax is easy lol, whip it up and vac that shit at a high heat for a day and your good to go with almost no residuals. I just dont like wax for long term storage and it doesnt look as pretty lol

 

[Sunfire]

Oh do share sir! Why no likey for long term storage? What high heat exactly are we talking?

 

[queequeg152]

Yes the pump oil needs to be hot.

Why are you running pump all night? You have it hooked to 5 ovens? Cycling is fine imo or have you discovered this as a secret for some awesome technique?

It's water vapor for sure but mostly terps I think! Dude my pump exhaust smells soooooo good. I bake it off and the round I smell that strain, oh the terps! The terps! While the pump is running there little a it bubbles involved too which makes it look milkier but yeah there water vapor. I recover down to -5 hg and use a heat mat trick I enjoy for a bout 20 to 30 minutes so there not much moisture going into the ovens, it's mostly terps I assume. My other pump on the machine, well all my material is bone dry so and it doesn't seem contaminated at all, like seriously still very clear.

My jb platinum costed 420 and the robinair cooltech was 320. Not cheap, I bake the jb on the ovens out often now.

how interesting. IMO you should place a good sublimation trap just after this vacuum oven... you can get them rather cheaply.

you would hold this trap on a ring stand with a basic gripper, positioning it such that it rests within a dewer filled with dry ice... then cover the whole trap with foil to protect it from air currents.

these volatiles should be condensed inside this trap... this material could be recovered with wash of solvent and pipette.

t'would be a lovely experiment.

 

[Sunfire]

Yeah I'm too far away from any di sources to use it in a practical sense.

I know it's not proper but the bake off tech is working great for me! The pump exhaust is blowing outside so I'm not concerned about blowing up or anything.