Terpenation at Terpene Station
- Thread starter FatherEarth
- Start date
hounddogg
Active member
That's good to know. I left some butane and oil in a recovery pot over night in the freezer and it came out dark. After talking with the supplier of the trim, it was probably due to the plant being harvested late.
I'll have to do two runs with the same material, one with a little heat and one without and see the difference.
I'll have to do two runs with the same material, one with a little heat and one without and see the difference.
Young Bull
Member
So back to my pyrex vacuum chamber... 
Would something like this even be safe?
The pyrex that is. This is just some pic from the internet but basically what I want to make. Can the pyrex stand up to long term vacuum?
If it turns out that it is safe would it be possible to take it one step farther and to put two pyrex dishes together with a good gasket and a hole drilled in the top one with a glass drill bit?
Also what are your thoughts on food grade neoprene as a seal for the vacuum chamber? It is rated excellent for butane, and ethanol, but only conditional for isopropyl alcohol. I could get it for pretty cheap and if i cleaned it with ethanol instead of iso do you think it would be okay?
Would something like this even be safe?
The pyrex that is. This is just some pic from the internet but basically what I want to make. Can the pyrex stand up to long term vacuum?
If it turns out that it is safe would it be possible to take it one step farther and to put two pyrex dishes together with a good gasket and a hole drilled in the top one with a glass drill bit?
Also what are your thoughts on food grade neoprene as a seal for the vacuum chamber? It is rated excellent for butane, and ethanol, but only conditional for isopropyl alcohol. I could get it for pretty cheap and if i cleaned it with ethanol instead of iso do you think it would be okay?
I have those cut at Paramount Supply
icdog
Member
Does anybody have an pics of how things look with the pour method? I'm curious whether the amounts and liquidity of the material with the butane is basically the same as when doing an open blast.
I saw a vid on youtube, the guy poured it out but it looked very syrupy. Most of the butane was recovered but enough still enabled a pour.
I saw a vid on youtube, the guy poured it out but it looked very syrupy. Most of the butane was recovered but enough still enabled a pour.
rb extractors
Member
mine looks like colored butane, but I'm pouring 3-5lbs at a time on my larger system.
When you pour out 5 lbs at a time are you pouring out in to multiple pyrex containers?
5 lbs is like 1 case of Butane man!
Are you even recovering any?
Dropped off my 10" End plate for machining and welding today.
I went with a 3/8" vent down tube going in to the tank, I saw the Mark V uses a 3/8 tube and figure that is plenty.
I had a thought to drill a 3/8" hole in a 1.5" end plate and weld that to the nipple instead of use a threaded nipple with TriClamp to NP to make everything but the valves 100% tri clamp.
5 lbs is like 1 case of Butane man!
Are you even recovering any?
Dropped off my 10" End plate for machining and welding today.
I went with a 3/8" vent down tube going in to the tank, I saw the Mark V uses a 3/8 tube and figure that is plenty.
I had a thought to drill a 3/8" hole in a 1.5" end plate and weld that to the nipple instead of use a threaded nipple with TriClamp to NP to make everything but the valves 100% tri clamp.
HighStateToke
Member
I had something very similar in mind, would love to see the progression and final product!
rb extractors
Member
It depends on what we are making.
We always extract cold, but how we reclaim will depend on what we are making. For edibles we add bottom heat via a large amount of hot water to reclaim all of our butane. We then purge for a couple hours in the spool and scrape.
For nug runs and good trim, we do one long blast, say 30sec to a minute, and then dump the main column. That will fill up the spool a little over half way most of the time. Then we purge for about 2 hours with no bottom heat which leaves us with about 3 9.5" pie plates worth of oil and butane. I have never actually weighed how much butane it is, but quite a bit since the spool is 10x12".
Yes, we recover about 2/3 of the butane. Recovering cold is hard on your recovery pump and n-butane is cheap.
We went to all tri-clamp connections on the lids except the return tube, but we do that because of some different features we've added.
we switched to 1/2" stainless braided ptfe hose rated to -100 rather than the stainless tube like it was originally designed. Mostly because it allows our customers to run different sized packed tubes more easily, although we also do swappable return tubes. You only really need one other sized return tube to fit smaller/shorter tubes.
We always extract cold, but how we reclaim will depend on what we are making. For edibles we add bottom heat via a large amount of hot water to reclaim all of our butane. We then purge for a couple hours in the spool and scrape.
For nug runs and good trim, we do one long blast, say 30sec to a minute, and then dump the main column. That will fill up the spool a little over half way most of the time. Then we purge for about 2 hours with no bottom heat which leaves us with about 3 9.5" pie plates worth of oil and butane. I have never actually weighed how much butane it is, but quite a bit since the spool is 10x12".
Yes, we recover about 2/3 of the butane. Recovering cold is hard on your recovery pump and n-butane is cheap.
We went to all tri-clamp connections on the lids except the return tube, but we do that because of some different features we've added.
we switched to 1/2" stainless braided ptfe hose rated to -100 rather than the stainless tube like it was originally designed. Mostly because it allows our customers to run different sized packed tubes more easily, although we also do swappable return tubes. You only really need one other sized return tube to fit smaller/shorter tubes.
PenZenMaster
Member
Pyrex will work very well
Pyrex will work very well
I have 16 of these and most days I have 8 - 10 loaded and purging.
Plain old Pyrex dish and Lexan lid.
Pyrex will work very well
I have 16 of these and most days I have 8 - 10 loaded and purging.
Plain old Pyrex dish and Lexan lid.
HighStateToke
Member
Now I understand some folks do not like constructing a recovery tank from tri clamp parts due to the fact that it is not a solid unit. In an effort to prevent any rust before it begins..would any issues arise from welding together some SS spools and end caps to create a solid tank?
Sanitary spools are usually full penetration welded, meaning the flange on the ends is essentially one piece with the tube.
They are also designed for food service and are acid etched after welding for corrosion resistance. Most are done by automatic equipment so the welds are about as perfect as you can get with TIG.
Simply welding the end caps on a standard spool won't necessarily make it stronger, and unless you do a very good job it most likely will be weaker.
Peace
The ends of tanks are where they typically fail, because of deflection, where the wrappers are under direct tensile.
I made the original Mk III and Lil Terp cutting available spools in half and welding on new bottoms.
I had the bottom blanks CNC plasma cut out of 1/2" 304L by BBC Steel in Canby, Or, and then had them surfaced all sides and a grove cut in them for the body wrapper to fit into.
Finally, I had them welded both sides and the inside weld blended.
The .430/.440" sanitary lids deflect considerably on the larger spools, above about 100 psi, and after computing how thick they would need to be to deflect less than .001, I realized that the overall weight would be excessive, so have gone to 100psi Swageloc pressure relief valves on those units, protected on the vacuum side by a check valve.
The outlet has a 1/2" FNPT for a hose to vent any releases to a holding tank or a safer location.
In the process of building a lil terp/mkIII myself and this is the first I'm hearing about pressure relief and check valve for the recovery tank. Is that something useful on spool sizes above 6" or would the smaller 6" also benefit from these additions? Is the check valve also set to 100psi?
The check valve is just to protect the pressure relief valve from vacuum, because it would possibly leak. Spring pressure is less than half a pound.
The pressure relief is factory set and seal wired at 100 psi.
A 6" spool has the same thickness lid as a 12", so is unlikely to reach high enough pressure to vent, unless it has a sight glass on the column between closed valves and then the failure is the sight glass, not the lid.
There is also a difference between building and using one myself, and building a commercial unit that has to meet OSHA and please the fire marshal. I've never seen any Terpenator reach more than 80 psi, but it is possible to exceed that with high heat all the right screw ups. When designing it for use by others, I have to assume that they will make every possible screw up.
Those 2 valves add around $300 cost if using 1/2" ones (Swagelok SS-RL4M8F8, Swagelok SS-8CPA2-50) not including the additional holding tank, if there are other more cost effective solutions for preventing psi levels from going over 100 I would be interested. Is a gauge and cracking the vapor valve to release pressure not sufficient?
I have 2 sightglasses I was planning to use, one for the recovery port on collection pot and another for the top of the column, but I thought the check valve was for the recovery tank, not the collection pot? So to clarify, check and relief valves are going on recovery tank or collection pot? thanks for help, really appreciated.
PenZenMaster
Member
