laser cut titanium closed loop with 1.9 cu ft vac oven and recovery tank. the one with orange brim is open loop with 2 gal vac chamber and pump for smaller amounts. the closed loop can blast a kilo of material at once while the butane is recovered and turned back into a gas form and recycled and re used. the oven can have up to 4 treys purging at once and more or less dial-a-temp for personal preference. very costly but abosoltely worth it in a short while
A lot of ppl don't realize that under vacuum, every solvents boiling point becomes much much lower. I commend you for that, because 90% of extractors don't even know that. Shatter that turns to dust is so dry and has boiled off terpenes. Anywhere from 105 to 110 under vacuum will create enough viscosity to allow the bubbles to purge through. I wouldn't go any hotter than 113, as it starts losing it's stability. A room temp purge I don't think will allow enough viscosity to do anything.
Ok sounds like I am on the right road thanks! I just cant see very far ahead.Lol What is meant by "loose its stability"? I see that everywhere, but I am not understanding its meaning. I have created some glass like shatter and some pull and snap type, and some stringy sap like resin. They were all similar, but I think the glass like was the best purged.
Thanks for pointing that out, that does make the fine line a little more manageable.
Some oil is isn't stable because of one of a few things. 1) Too high in terpenes (definitely not a bad thing IMO, pure terpenes have a water like viscosity), it makes "sticky" slabs, 2) heat, when put up passed 140 during purge, you can bet it will be again "sticky" 3) running material too cold, yes this is possible freezing solvent with dry ice and column prior with dry ice. There has to be a certain amount of fats/lipids present to make stable oil, and running it that cold will reduce it's polarity to a point that it picks up near to no fats and lipids. Comes out quite clear without cloudiness because of that.
What are you calling appropriate vacuum? How are you measuring temperature?
My setup is small and simple. I have a stainless vessel about a gallon size. A top that has ball valves and a gauge, I also use a CPS CV200 digital vacrometer. The setup rests in a electric skillet in a sand bath. I measure temp of the sand bath with an IR thermometer, and when I take the lid off I quickly check the surface temp of the oil with the IR. I feel pretty confident that I can regulate temp fairly well. I keep my vac/temp levels below the THC delta9 boiling point according to the chart. For example this time temp was just below 120F and vac was 4000 microns which roughly translates to 29.7 I think? I have also tried other temps. I am considering some type of PID to regulate the electric skillet temp tighter, and a thermocouple in the chamber to get a better idea of actual temps. I have spent many hours working/babysitting this process over the last 3 months, it bugs me that I am having so much trouble. My best results come from rolling the oil between 2 pieces of PTFE to less than 1 mm thick, purge at 120F till the action stops, flip it, and do it again, and again, and again?
