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Still Chillin
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Ckbrew
Well-known member
This is my still I use for making tinctures. It is a ground glass labware setup which uses connections that are common in the components so different components can be configured for different uses and processes, kind of like the lego concept. Everywhere you see a green clamp on the glass joints is a male and female connection. The glass is ground smooth to make an air tight fit. This equipment is more for a small batch lab type process. It is to small to process large volumes required for making shine but is the same chemical and physical process. Yes you can distill ethanol with your water still. The basics of the process is to exploit the difference in boiling points between ethanol and water. Ethanol boils at 78*C and water at 100*C so the ethanol starts boiling first. Then the ethanol vapor is collected then cooled in the condenser to convert it back to a liquid. But there is a catch with water and ethanol called azeotrope. When the ethanol concentration reaches 95% the water and ethanol combined have a lower boiling point than water alone. Which is why ethanol greater than 95% can not be made with a still.
The basic concept is extract the TCH from 30g of decarbed bud with chilled 95% ethanol, filter out the solids, then concentrate it down to 60ml while recovering the ethanol. Ethanol is my preferred solvent because it is mostly non-polar at high concentration so it will dissolve the THC and other cannabinoids, easy to obtain, and is non-toxic at least in small doses. The draw back is expense, but if it is recovered in the process that is no longer a big factor. As opposed to isopropyl, methanol, acetone, naphtha, which all could be used as a solvent but then need to be purged from the final product. And like butane, all the mentioned solvents are flammable, so no open flames are recommended. And if the solvent is not recovered extreme ventilation is required to avoid a potential fire and/or explosion. But back woods moonshiners often use open flames. That is why every once in a while the still blows up.
More can be seen at https://forum.growweedeasy.com/forum/growing-community/532902-making-tincture-how-i-do-it
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The basic concept is extract the TCH from 30g of decarbed bud with chilled 95% ethanol, filter out the solids, then concentrate it down to 60ml while recovering the ethanol. Ethanol is my preferred solvent because it is mostly non-polar at high concentration so it will dissolve the THC and other cannabinoids, easy to obtain, and is non-toxic at least in small doses. The draw back is expense, but if it is recovered in the process that is no longer a big factor. As opposed to isopropyl, methanol, acetone, naphtha, which all could be used as a solvent but then need to be purged from the final product. And like butane, all the mentioned solvents are flammable, so no open flames are recommended. And if the solvent is not recovered extreme ventilation is required to avoid a potential fire and/or explosion. But back woods moonshiners often use open flames. That is why every once in a while the still blows up.
More can be seen at https://forum.growweedeasy.com/forum/growing-community/532902-making-tincture-how-i-do-it
​
DabberDog
New member
Jeez. Random questions as I look at it.
Are you chilling with continuous water through your tap?
What I see is a bit of tube coiled up in the sink and out to the condenser. The condenser drains back to the sink. What I'm imagining is the sink tube in a sink full of ice water. Every so whenever, the tap is turned on just enough to flush heated water from the condenser.
How fast does the condenser heat up?
Is the meandering tube out the flask for pressure?
I know about rotary evaporators. Yours is the same thing without the rotary. Mine is a bowl of raw RSO on a rag in a bowl of boiling water. Because I know about roto-vapes I slosh my raw RSO a few times while it is cooking to keep things from settling and getting too hot. In your setup, do you have issue with any sort of buildup on the glass or burning?
Got to looking at roto-vapes. Way cheaper than they used to be. Am I reading correctly that there are setups for both organic and inorganic solvents? Different sorts of chillers? Is a chiller even necessary or just highly recommended to make things easier?
I'm too high to have seen your setup.
Are you chilling with continuous water through your tap?
What I see is a bit of tube coiled up in the sink and out to the condenser. The condenser drains back to the sink. What I'm imagining is the sink tube in a sink full of ice water. Every so whenever, the tap is turned on just enough to flush heated water from the condenser.
How fast does the condenser heat up?
Is the meandering tube out the flask for pressure?
I know about rotary evaporators. Yours is the same thing without the rotary. Mine is a bowl of raw RSO on a rag in a bowl of boiling water. Because I know about roto-vapes I slosh my raw RSO a few times while it is cooking to keep things from settling and getting too hot. In your setup, do you have issue with any sort of buildup on the glass or burning?
Got to looking at roto-vapes. Way cheaper than they used to be. Am I reading correctly that there are setups for both organic and inorganic solvents? Different sorts of chillers? Is a chiller even necessary or just highly recommended to make things easier?
I'm too high to have seen your setup.
Ckbrew
Well-known member
Yes the water is cold from the tap, goes through the tube then in the condenser on the right side of the horizontal(ish) condenser and exits out the tube on the left side. That tube just goes up then down to keep it out of the way, then back to the sink. I have a deep drilled well, the water is cold and inexpensive. All it costs is the power to pump it which is minimal. Once the system is filled the water is kept on but at a very low flow rate, doesn't take much to keep it cold. The outside of the condenser jacket is kept cold at all times. The hot vapor flows down the center, condenses, then runs down hill to the receiving flask. Once the cold water starts it is never turned off. Doing so may induce thermal shock and cause the glass to break. The heated vaper flow changes at startup, during addition of wash to the boiling flask and when the batch is done. The tube on the far right is a vacuum line. The system runs under -15 in Hg to reduce the boiling temp of the ethanol. The heating mantle on the left under the boiling flask is electrically powered and has a magnetic stirrer in the base which spins a stir bar inside the boiling flask. The spinning bar keeps heat input even and prevents bumping which is a sudden large vaporization of the solvent which if happened would puke the concentrate down the condenser, spilling out the THC concentrate and mixing the batch.
DabberDog
New member
I'm laughing because your answer was so good!
The system is a partial vacuum. Makes sense to lower the boiling point. Is it necessary? Is your pump made for flammable gasses like ethanol vapor? My pump is a simple thing I used to purge butane. Never blew me up but most of the butane was gone by the time I got to using it.
I wouldn't figure you had the magnet spinner in that setup. Doesn't the RSO get too viscous for the spinner, or do you do a final evaporation off your system?
I want your well. I don't pay for tap water, only drinking water which has gone up to 60 cents a gallon from a machine. Unless I can get to a water store where it's only 25 cents.
The system is a partial vacuum. Makes sense to lower the boiling point. Is it necessary? Is your pump made for flammable gasses like ethanol vapor? My pump is a simple thing I used to purge butane. Never blew me up but most of the butane was gone by the time I got to using it.
I wouldn't figure you had the magnet spinner in that setup. Doesn't the RSO get too viscous for the spinner, or do you do a final evaporation off your system?
I want your well. I don't pay for tap water, only drinking water which has gone up to 60 cents a gallon from a machine. Unless I can get to a water store where it's only 25 cents.
Ckbrew
Well-known member
Pulling a partial vacuum is not necessary but it speeds up the process. Also if there was an overheat or boil over situation the boiling can be stopped instantly by releasing the vacuum. I use a mighty vac hand pump. It is a hand operated pump usually used in automotive diagnostics or brake bleeding. It takes a few minutes to pump down the system but once it is there it holds the vacuum. It occasionally needs to be pumped because as the volume of ethanol increases in the receiving flask the volume in the vacuum side decreases. I never evaporate off all the ethanol in the boiling flask because it would turn into goo and never come out and it would burn the oil and make a terrible mess. If I want to drive it all off I transfer the concentrate to a small measuring cup and use a potpourri warmer to drive off the remaining ethanol. That is what would be used for dabs. I like to keep some ethanol in the tincture as is makes it easier to dose out in drops for edibles and is easier to disperse. And if you put it in something hot most of the small amount of ethanol vaporizes off. You are not the first person to envy my well.
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DabberDog
New member
Switching gears.
What happens to the terpenes that vaporize at lower temperatures?
I see your setup as real close to being able to make distillates. Would your magnet spinner be able to spin if the RSO was heated to higher terpene and THC-A evaporating temperatures?
The hand pump. Damnit man! Much more ghetto than my cheap pump. Less cumbersome. I dig.
What happens to the terpenes that vaporize at lower temperatures?
I see your setup as real close to being able to make distillates. Would your magnet spinner be able to spin if the RSO was heated to higher terpene and THC-A evaporating temperatures?
The hand pump. Damnit man! Much more ghetto than my cheap pump. Less cumbersome. I dig.
Allotrope1000
Active member
Yo, Ckbrew!
You have an absolutely SUPERIOR distillation set up. I nominate it as the very best in the forum! Hats off to you.
Dabber, if you want to stop boiling away your alcohol, duplicate Ck's set up.
Or, the one in my pics on "Hash talk #2". Filter flask on hot plate, output tube to a condenser container in a bucket of ice. Does not run under vacuum like Ck's, but super simple, cheap and works. You can buy a brand new 1000 ml filter flask and Buchner funnel online for less than $50.
You have an absolutely SUPERIOR distillation set up. I nominate it as the very best in the forum! Hats off to you.
Dabber, if you want to stop boiling away your alcohol, duplicate Ck's set up.
Or, the one in my pics on "Hash talk #2". Filter flask on hot plate, output tube to a condenser container in a bucket of ice. Does not run under vacuum like Ck's, but super simple, cheap and works. You can buy a brand new 1000 ml filter flask and Buchner funnel online for less than $50.
Allotrope1000
Active member
Go, Dabber.
Go to the hardware or pet store to get some aquarium tubing. It will take heat of boiling alcohol. Don't forget a small hose clamp to secure it tightly to the flask. You'll wonder why you ever did the double boiler thing.
Send us some pics when you are set up!
Go to the hardware or pet store to get some aquarium tubing. It will take heat of boiling alcohol. Don't forget a small hose clamp to secure it tightly to the flask. You'll wonder why you ever did the double boiler thing.
Send us some pics when you are set up!
Ckbrew
Well-known member
The terps get blown out through the pump. Makes the lab smell good but they are lost. The magnet will not spin if there is significant torque applied to it. When I make glycerin tincture for my friend with ALS I have to go at very slow speed until the glycerin heats up and gets thinner. Even then it can't run at full speed. If it is run to fast with torque the magnetic couple looses grip and the stir bar just kind of wiggles back and forth with no stirring action. I have studied other people's setups for distillates. That would need a step up in labware. First pass condensers, chillers, vapor traps, cow separators. I'm not motivated enough to do that. I'm trying to keep things from getting to complicated. I let that happen with making beer. A 3 day advance in making the culture, 9 hour timetable on brew day, 2 hours for racking, 3 hours for kegging, etc.. The beer was excellent but It started to turn into work. When my first son was born I somehow had a vision of him sitting in a chair swing watching me brew for 9 hours. First time I tried that reality set in fast. That was the only time I just gave up and dumped a batch. I had to cut corners, the quality dropped so I quit that. Now I don't drink alcohol anymore.
DabberDog
New member
Low-temp terp loss is inevitable if we're going to apply low-temp. Accepted.
I'm not sure if I'm going to make anything more than I'm doing, happen this round. Every time I look over to where the magic would happen, I have a hard time figuring out how to fit a system in the little space.
I'm not sure if I'm going to make anything more than I'm doing, happen this round. Every time I look over to where the magic would happen, I have a hard time figuring out how to fit a system in the little space.
