03-11-04 02:15
No 494285
Swim got in a theoretical jam recently. In a dream, he was checking his "Whxstler" coffee carafes for scratches, decided it would not bee in his best interest to use them anymore.
He went to various stores where he previously knew them to bee sold and after lengthy searches was told they are a discontinued item?
Damn that sure puts a damper on the party!
I suppose he could use smaller beakers and such but that isn't exactly available to all bees and also hates the idea of having to dream of extractions in scaled down amounts.
After wasting a couple hrs searching the stores in his locale for his favorite carafe or a suitable substitute, decides to go to a restaraunt supply house.
He stumbled upon a 2 liter, stainless steel, coffee decanter. The plastic handle is connected by a stainless steel band like on the whxstler.
Swim remembers on Dwarfer's steam extraction thread, he used a pressure cooker to make his apparatus and seemed to hold up well to bases. There was also the PP/SS extraction pipe that held up well to acetone, toluene and xylene.
What about tossing tetra in the mix? Would this stainless steel decanter be chemically compatible with a tetra trap extraction?
Maybee this was just a wake up call for Swim. He is tired of living in fear because afterall, a borosilicate or pyrex coffee pot can break, jeopardizing health and freedom.
These stainless steel decanters can bee cleaned with abrasive materials, bumped or even dropped (as long as contents are not inside)
With the tetra trap, it isn't as if a bee really needs to see what is going on inside i.e dividing lines between polar and non-polar layers because all liquid is decanted in the end anyway. The cotton ball in the funnel catches any solids. One just needs to see the surface activity to make sure the NP is not going to boil over.
These decanters will probably retain heat, longer then pyrex or borosilicate glass.
Swim also bought one of them dual carafe warmers. Has two switches illuminated by an LED. As long as Swim has good cross ventilation, are these any more dangerous than a "munsxy" dual coil hotplate? Will these warmers reach an adequate enough temp to bring pseudo FB into an NP with sodium carbonate?
This is all just theoretical ramblings.
Swim would appreciate any feedback.
Refuse/Resist
(Hive Addict)
03-12-04 00:01
No 494488
It is obvious that not many bees read this forum.
By the time it takes to get a response in this forum, Swim could have very well completed the experiments himself.
The stainless steel carafe held up well with no tarnishing or adverse reaction. The coffee warmer on the other hand was not efficient enough. It took forever to bring the temp up to handle the job. Didn't feel like waiting a half an hour to do 1 pull. If Swim had the time, it probably could have gotten him by. Reached 65 deg C internal temp; best to save these for doing rxns unless one can find a glass carafe without all the plastic handles, lids and spouts.
Now that I think of it, Swim dreamed of kerplunking with a coffee warmer and glass carafe maybee a year and a half or more ago. The glass took less time to come up to temp then the stainless did and maintained a higher internal temperature.
The stainless carafe worked well placing directly on a coil hotplate. I imagine it would work just as effective, directly on a common stovetop.
The heat appeared to bee more evenly distributed. With glass carafes, the pot stays hot at the bottom and cooler towards the top of the pot. With the stainless carafe, the pot became warm at the very top as well and retained the heat longer.
Bottom line is these will work when performing tetra trap, extractions. Although not transparent, these can bee safer then using flasks, beakers or glass carafes. Especially if a bee prefers to do larger extractions with flammable solvents and is fearful that one, may eventually shatter.
Hope this helps others in a similar jam.
Refuse/Resist