Collecting the earl from the cup is tough when left in too long to harden. When the earl is thick but still workable I remove it quickly with a mini spatula and put it into a food safe silicone cupcake cup to finish. It this point the vast majority of ethanol is gone and the process time is short. I have not been concerned about finishing this way because of the very limited exposure and more importantly both the Everclear and Silicone I'm using is Food Grade and meant for cooking. Having said that, the cup the guy used in the video looked like a cheap Chinese cup, so I would be wary of that.
The pressure issue from what I understand is a known and Lee, the inventor told me but I have forgotten. I'm sure he would share that info with you.
As far as being careful to make sure every last simple part of the alcohol is gone, is this really important? Everclear is food safe, it's not a hydrocarbon, and it evaporates quite easily. People invest alcohol all the time, including alcohol inhalation devices like the Vaportini. While I want to get as much out as possible with the goal of removing all for smoke quality I can't find much to worry about trace amounts.
I know I will get crucified by the solvent less guys but these are simply my opinions.
Cheers for the info. I'd be interested to find out about the pressure question and whether a solution is in the pipeline to measure pressure.
Does this unit use inductive heating per chance? Is it possible to simply switch to a more appropriately shaped glass dish in the source instead of the SS bowl for the scraping?
Also everything behaves differently in a vacuum, remember that when the pressure changes you cannot be sure anymore that you have a chamber whose conditions are safe to put anything in. I don't trust anything that isn't borosilicate and my meds inside a vac chamber. An ounce of prevention is worth quarter of an ounce of unspoiled meds for me!
I have seen silicone delaminate and stick to full melt (solventless resin), let alone solvent based concentrates with residuals (with which I've seen all kinds of weird behaviour with over time when stored in silicone containers, even when fully purged - I fully abandoned silicone container for concentrate storage or processing over a year ago).
When you have a bunch of ethanol in the mix as well as probably more terps than traditional heat purging would leave, you have an atomsphere full of hydrocarbon vapors around your silicone (a polymer rated only to be used in specific scenarios - food grade does not imply safety for use in a vacuum, nor does food grade have any bearing at all on the superheating and inhalation of a substance where ethanol is concerned).
Let me explain what I mean when I mention hydrocarbons since it is true that ethanol has a hydroxyl group and is hence not a hydrocarbon. When ethanol is superheated, it is known to release ethylene (a hydrocarbon and asphyxiant) and h2o. I have posted scholarly articles to this effect on FC before.
Of course, ethanol itself is a carcinogen and a solvent and will dehydrate your airways in enough concentration whether from too much residual in one dab, or cumulative exposure from small amounts of residual in many dabs. That for me, is beyond the risks that I am prepared to take. Of course, you may decide for yourself what you like to do bro.
With inhaling alcohol - nobody yet completely understands the long term and/or cumulative effects of inhaling alcohol. I have not been able to find scholarly studies concerning the direct inhalation of superheated alcohol (alcohol vaporists tend to use pressure/pumps to vaporize and inhale their alcohol - not heat and oxygen which changes every chemical it comes into contact with in ways that are both to some extent known and unknown!). Dabbing a residual solvent filled oil long term could lead to your inhaling ethanol (a known carcinogen!!!!!), ethylene (an asphyxiant) and more. As a medical user, this is no bueno. As a vaporist who quit smoking for health reasons - this is also self-defeating. Again, it is for you to decide if you mind inhaling alcohol and byproducts of it's oxidation/decomposition of course. As for me, I'll only use solvents for dabmaking when I can be sure that the solvent is gone.
Still, I am sure that we could make this setup work in a way that will allow full purge and collection. It will be a matter of the right tool, or replacing the stock boiling vessel/dish. What metal is that dish made of btw?
I personally wouldn't use it as an all-in-one solution for shatter unless I didn't have a choice, though for those who are okay with a bit of residual solvent left it should be workable. For my use it's fine since I'll only be evaporating down to 50-100ml and then finishing it off in my vac chamber. I also see it as a great solution for people making tinctures and edibles since those don't need to be fully purged before using.
I agree with you here my friend, this would be fantastic for tinctures and edibles! I do think that we could yet figure out a way to make this workable as a standalone shatter solution with some thought and some minor modifications! The crucial starting point is determining if this is inductive or conductive heat we are dealing with. The second would be to see what the metal vessel that comes with the unit is made out of.
For example, a titanium shovel tool with a long handle could be great for scraping this dish! You would just want to be sure that the metal dish was much harder than ti though, and that you were careful not to scrape metal shavings off as you collect. Another possibility as I mention above would be to replace the vessel with something else.
I'm fascinated to see what can be done here! If we can overcome this issue and get pressure measurement - sign me up!
. I'm happy to hear that they fixed it though.