WOO! So the fiancee and I started the process last night. 0.5oz ABV, 0.5c EVCO in a small mason jar. Did the dishcloth as you suggested
@Enchantre. Lid on, mason jar just slightly cracked to avoid big-badda-booms. It ended up going for about 12 hours.
This morning we found the jar slightly tipped over. It doesn't look like any water got into the jar (probably because it was simmering inside) but a little oil got out into the water. Not a lot, though. The loss was pretty negligible. I blame the tilt on the mason jar being so small and not weighing very much. The cloth may have been folded one too many times as well (it's a medium crock pot, not a ton of room). As you can see there are only a few oil slick splotches floating on the surface.
I've read a lot about people saying it smells and tastes bad. To me, it smells EXACTLY like Girl Scout Caramel Delights (or Samoas, depending on your location) and the taste of oil straight up is nice... almost like dark roast coconut-flavored coffee (or, to anybody who has ever homebrewed, tastes like chocolate malt with coconut). But then again I'm a big fan of bold, roasty, bitter flavors: favorite coffee is dark roast served black, favorite chocolate is at least 60% cacao dark chocolate, and favorite beer is a face-meltingly hoppy IPA.
I strained that sucker through that fine mesh strainer you see in the background. It worked really really well. There are still some tiny fine particulates in the oil but that's no biggie. I'd rather have those in there than have cheese-cloth soak up any goodness.
The image below shows the color... however the camera is a dirty liar. The color is actually a very nice dark olive green, not the burnt umber the image shows.
It seems like the majority of the 0.5c oil was conserved. I spent quite a bit of time pressing the ABV through the strainer to make sure I got as much out as I could.
Also, I initially caught the filtered oil in a coffee cup so I could test the strength with whatever was still clinging to the side of the cup. I let everything settle as I brewed a pot of coffee. This seems like a decent amount for a potency test. Again, the color is misleading.
I will report my findings as well as an image of the solidified oil. Hopefully that will let the real color come through.