I want to make ethanol. The method I was going to use as approach was use a large plastic 5 gallon paint bucket, put yeast and sugar, allow to ferment. After fermentation is complete, filter the liquid (or part of the liquid) to a boiling flask and proceed to a fractional distillation.
I would rather use glass lab appartus because it is usualable for other purposes rather then just buying or creating a fractioning still or relux still for $300 when I can easily obtain all the lab glass necessary for less than $100 on ebay.
Using other lab glass appartus for fractional distillation
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- Alchemist75
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Re: Using other lab glass appartus for fractional distillati
Glass sucks for building a fractional still and this is coming from a chemist. Just that simple.
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- Copperhead road
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Re: Using other lab glass appartus for fractional distillati
A glass lab flask and glass condenser can be a very small pot still, I have one that I use for tiny experimental Gins, experimenting with different amounts of botanicals, rose petals ect.....
I found the complete $250 dollar set up on eBay but the ceramic hot plate that came with the kit was rubbish so I replaced that with a $50 one from target.
I found the complete $250 dollar set up on eBay but the ceramic hot plate that came with the kit was rubbish so I replaced that with a $50 one from target.
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- bluefish_dist
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Re: Using other lab glass appartus for fractional distillati
Chemistry sized stills are far too small to make any usable quantity of alcohol for drinking. Most are 1-2l flasks, that will only make 100-200ml of alcohol. Very hard to make cuts.
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Re: Using other lab glass appartus for fractional distillati
Number years back, I had glass blower make me a practical full size column on the amphora PDA1 design , big bigger though , it was so delicate made me nervous every time I connected it to the boiler, bet there is a picture of it on here somewhere , and cleaning it was another nightmare
- Alchemist75
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Re: Using other lab glass appartus for fractional distillati
I guess I should be a bit more elaborate with my comment as I did spend many years running with glass. Here's a laundry list of problems you'll encounter trying to use a glass set up to do fractional distillation:
Cost: glass, even in the smaller sizes is pretty costly.
Fragility: you gotta be confident and competent with glass hadling, it'll break on ya if you're not well versed with it.
Time: glass is a piss poor thermoconductor which means it must always be run slow even with strips. You'll never get a pencil sized stream unless you have multiple condensers connected end to end. Also, you have to use a bath to safely heat it.
Poor equipment options: the fractionating columns they make for lab glass stink. You can pull some reflux and get a LITTLE HETP but not like you can with packed metal columns. You'll not make vodka on glass, or at least not with any prefab glass columns under 6'.
Modularity: glass has little to offer here unless you or someone you know are an adept glass blower. You won't be able to build half the cool shit you see the folks on this site building.
Glass has it's place in the lab and if you know what you're doing it will serve well for specific processes but making ethanol in any significant volumes is a bitch with available equipment.
Now, all this being said there is a distillery in Hawaii that makes a well known pineapple vodka on glass fractional stills but they had to get the equipment custom made. As I said before, glass sucks for fractional distillation. Sorry.
Cost: glass, even in the smaller sizes is pretty costly.
Fragility: you gotta be confident and competent with glass hadling, it'll break on ya if you're not well versed with it.
Time: glass is a piss poor thermoconductor which means it must always be run slow even with strips. You'll never get a pencil sized stream unless you have multiple condensers connected end to end. Also, you have to use a bath to safely heat it.
Poor equipment options: the fractionating columns they make for lab glass stink. You can pull some reflux and get a LITTLE HETP but not like you can with packed metal columns. You'll not make vodka on glass, or at least not with any prefab glass columns under 6'.
Modularity: glass has little to offer here unless you or someone you know are an adept glass blower. You won't be able to build half the cool shit you see the folks on this site building.
Glass has it's place in the lab and if you know what you're doing it will serve well for specific processes but making ethanol in any significant volumes is a bitch with available equipment.
Now, all this being said there is a distillery in Hawaii that makes a well known pineapple vodka on glass fractional stills but they had to get the equipment custom made. As I said before, glass sucks for fractional distillation. Sorry.
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- Yummyrum
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Re: Using other lab glass appartus for fractional distillati
Just bear in mind that some countries have glassware legislation where your info is given to the authorities .
Heres an example of Australian glassware 2012 legislation .
Depending on what state you are in , the rules change . Looks like Queensland doesn’t want its meth cooks using any too flash .
http://www.sciencesupply.com.au/Nationa ... on_web.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
Heres an example of Australian glassware 2012 legislation .
Depending on what state you are in , the rules change . Looks like Queensland doesn’t want its meth cooks using any too flash .
http://www.sciencesupply.com.au/Nationa ... on_web.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
My recommended goto .
https://homedistiller.org/wiki/index.ph ... ion_Theory
https://homedistiller.org/wiki/index.ph ... ion_Theory
- Alchemist75
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Re: Using other lab glass appartus for fractional distillati
If you can find that picture you should post a link. Glass may be impractical but it is pretty to look at and run. Some aspects of distillation are assumed based on things like temperature and take off but when you can literally see into the system you understand in a whole new way.stillvodka wrote:Number years back, I had glass blower make me a practical full size column on the amphora PDA1 design , big bigger though , it was so delicate made me nervous every time I connected it to the boiler, bet there is a picture of it on here somewhere , and cleaning it was another nightmare
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Re: Using other lab glass appartus for fractional distillati
I did not have to fill out an EUD and I am in QLDYummyrum wrote:Just bear in mind that some countries have glassware legislation where your info is given to the authorities .
Heres an example of Australian glassware 2012 legislation .
Depending on what state you are in , the rules change . Looks like Queensland doesn’t want its meth cooks using any too flash .
http://www.sciencesupply.com.au/Nationa ... on_web.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
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