DIY Vacuum Distiller - Anybody Interested?

What is facebook? :rofl:

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@mota Thanks for that.

I’d say tell him you love him even if you think he can’t hear you or isn’t listening.

I don’t want to assume anything but a man much wiser than myself once said “there is a bridge between the living and the dead and the bridge is love”

I think it was Thornton Wilder in “The Bridge of San Luis Rey” a book I treasure, give away, and share when appropriate.

There’s a marvelous quote from Mark Twain that is better but I always butcher it from memory. It’s exactly what we’re trying to convey about fathers and sons. Always hits the mark……:handshake:

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Well, I guess I’m all in now. Dabbing some of my rosin last night and looking at a jar of everclear filling with recycled pucks got me thinking. Oh shit here we go! I decided to go the direction of using lab equipment instead of laying around the house stuff so not sure if it counts as diy or just put it together? Not exactly sure which direction you were thinking of going Nitt? The way most of my projects usually turn out not saving alot of money but learning a ton along the way. I am sourcing everything though amazon so it easily accessible. I bought a 2 liter vacuum distillation apparatus, fraction column, couple stands, Buchner funnel setup with filters. I’m sure there will be a few more pieces before it’s over with. Already have a hot plate/stirrer for doing infusions which should work as a heat source. Next buy will be a vacuum pump. Looking at a diaphragm style with gauge and regulator. The whole set up will probably wind up costing as much as a turbo extractor but should be more versatile. Hell I don’t know, but I’m going to give it a shot. It’s Nitts fault.:rofl:

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Water pump with aspirator much cheaper then vacuum air pump.
It was used for clandestine manufactures in old times. Cold water makes strongest vacuum, i dont know why.

All types water pump Will work. Submersion type unlikeble becose of Hot. Also if somebody wanna use fresh material for extract, need extra step redistill all the time. Or maybe add extra part - distill column, this choice May save more time with 96+% purity.

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Hmm, interesting. Thanks for sharing.
Looks like too much work and I’m not sure what the advantage or purpose for doing this would be? I only just briefely glanced over the article though.

Thanks again.

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Only one adventage - price.
In my area not everyone has tapwater meters, some just connect the aspirator to the tap and make moonshine faster.

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I’m actually considering building this contraption. The lab pump that’s been in my cart for a couple days is $300. This would be cheaper and another advantage would be circulating the water through the condensing chamber since I would have to rig up a bucket for that anyway. My only concern would be that it would pull enough vacuum. I’m just a machinist not a scientist . I just gotta figure it out as I go.

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“The circulating water of the water aspirator vacuum pump can be utilized to provide circulating cold water to a condenser or other apparatus. Using the circulating water to cool a condenser will lower the vacuum strength somewhat, as the water pressure will be lowered. When configured solely as a water aspirator vacuum pump, an average vacuum strength of 460 mm Hg (+/- 2% error) was achieved with a maximum vacuum strength of 480 mm Hg (+/- 2% error).”
That’s from the article, so it should be able to pull a hard vacuum but it says less if you also use it to cool the condenser.

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The advantage is actually pretty clever. With no vacuum pump to contaminate with vapors, the maintenance cost should be lower.

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Ah. The ‘not contaminating with vapors’ part, I see the advantage there.
The pumps that I’ve been looking at are diaphragm pumps, and don’t use oil, so I think it’s less of a concern in that regard (the contamination, particularly of the oil that piston pumps require).

Sounds good. Feel free to share links or post pics, whatever you like. I’d like to see what equipment you went for.
As for the pump, if you check the blog post, or watch his video and skip ahead/pause at the right parts you can get a decent look at the one used in IBC’s setup. That’s the one I’ve been looking for, and found. It’s not too expensive, I guess. Around $225 cad.
And yea, if you can get the capabilities of the “EtOH Pro” with the cost of the Source Turbo, that’s a win. The EtOH Pro would be around $2900 cad; absurd. So in reality, if I could put a system together for even $1000 it’d be fantastic.
I’ve been wanting a magnetic hot plate stirrer for a couple years now. I just can’t choose a brand. It needs to be quality (the junk, cheap ones ruin themselves with the heat and magnet combination) and the better ones are at least $300-500 cad.

Glad I could “help”, haha.

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This is how we “live on” - the real immortality -the real treasure that life offers: -the people we meet, their impact upon us and our impact on them. My son shocks me everyday with playback from our conversations…he was listening! :heart::star_struck:

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@Smoklahoma
Did you get anywhere with this yet?

Slowly but surely. Still waiting on all the pieces to arrive. Got three deliveries coming this week. Decided not to build that vacuum contraption after doing a bit of reading. Alot of conflicting results with using it to run through the condenser as far as pressure. Ordered the lab vacuum pump, hoping it will be more adjustable. The main apparatus will be delivered between the 9th and 25th. Then I can put it all together hopefully make it work🤞

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Cool. Sounds good. I hope you’re able to share what equipment you got, and that it works out. Did you get a look at the components/parts list?

I’ve never been on Facebook so I didn’t see a parts list. Only read the links that you provided. It looked like his system would work good for large volumes but I didn’t need something that big. This is the route I went with.

I will take picts when it all gets here and set up.

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Ok, I hear ya. For me, the 300mL limit of the Source Turbo sounded too small. I thought something closer to 1000mL would suit me.
I looked at a couple similar style glass ‘vacuum’ distillation kits, after seeing one in a youtube vid. Cool.
It’d be pretty nice if that works out well, as one wouldn’t need the vacuum lids and stuff. But…I duno if the lack of a pressure gauge, and maybe the valves, will make that setup trickier to use. Maybe those items could still be (relatively easily) incorporated.
Edit: Oh, the other thing I wonder about is the condenser “length”, will it be enough? I don’t know.

Great. Thank you.

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The valves and gauge was a concern for me as well. I got a valve to replace where the thermometer goes to release the vacuum. Hoping to keep temp in check with a ir gun. As for a gauge, there is one on the pump. Thoughts were to leave the pump on and use the adjustment switch to hold desired vacuum. This should be here today.

The condenser length is questionable too, figured I would try the one that comes with it. If it’s not enough been looking at the 500mm Graham condenser. This is all new ground for me. Hell I’m still trying to learn how to grow great medicine.

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Protect your eyes friend, when you start doing what you do.

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Yes, for sure. My wife is blind so I can’t afford to lose my sight too. Besides, I wouldn’t look like a mad scientist without some cool goggles.

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Cool. I can’t picture where that’d go.

That could work. I didn’t know there’s more to using ir thermometers than I thought. Check out thermoworks website, they have some articles/info on them. (aiming, distance, color of object being measured, type of object - eg: clear liquid, black object, etc.).

Cool, I’ll check that out.

Same with me. Growing great medicine is not easy.

This is the pump I think is used in the blog/vids: Maisi dual diaphragm vac. pump
The one you ordered looks to be the same brand, but I don’t remember seeing it in my searches. Looks interesting.

Thanks.

That’s good advice.

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