Hockeydemon - 26-2-2013 at 15:49
Hey everyone, I just wanted to share a schematic for a rotary thin film evaporator that SkunkPharmResearch has put together for their research and
kindly shared with everyone.. Here is a copy and paste along with an image:
"What deep dark alchemist lair is complete without a rotary evaporator, but how many of us’n poor brothers or sisters can afford one?
How nice a Rotovape looks, but hard to clean, besides expensive. Hee, hee, hee, let’s see what we can do better, cheaper?
Behold the Evapanator rotary thin film evaporator, in next years prototype build schedule.
The Mk I Vapenator uses twin drums constructed from 6″ X 6″ stainless steel sanitary couplings from Glacier Tank. The clamped on lids are
modified to include a hollow shaft, which allows the drums to be rotated on their sides in a hot water or oil bath, while a vacuum is being pulled on
them, through a rotary vacuum union.
The hot water bath can handily be provided by a 1200W Wyott W-3Vi 12″ X 20″ counter top food warmer, and Deublin Co can provide a suitable
17-051-045 rotary vacuum union.
The shafts through the lids rest in a vee between two 1 1/2″ roller bearings and a 2″ X 15 tooth #35 sprocket rests on a moving roller
chain, powered by a 2 rpm gear motor.
Still checking specs and prices for the gear motor and trying to decide on the incremental utility of a variable speed gear motor, vis a vis fixed ~2
rpm unit, giving the drum about 1.6 sq/ft of thin film evaporative surface per minute under vacuum, per drum. I may jury rig the first unit with a
variable speed motor, to determine optimum speed. The cool thang, is that you just disconnect the vacuum hose, and the whole drum assemblies just lift
out. Cooler yet, is both ends of the drum come off via 6″ Tri-clamps, which gives full access to the inside of the stainless drum, to clean out
the viscous resins.
Here is my conceptual of the purdy thang! For those of ya’ll who understand it at a glance and are off to do it one better, ah hope you will share.
For those with patience enough to wait for it’s schedule in the queue, watch this space for detailed drawings and our own prototype shake down."
smaerd - 28-2-2013 at 11:09
What kind of rotary vacuum union are you considering using? I've been looking for anything useful that's available to consumers at a decent price and
haven't found anything.
Cool design though, simple but to the point. Lots of surface area as well.
If you check under member publications you will see that I have also made a DIY Rotovap and I have to say it was fun to do and its very useful.
Organikum - 28-2-2013 at 21:42
Nice concept, good ideas, the big opening for example, not enough chemical resistance to be useful in the lab.
Smaerd, you find the Deublin catalogue here. The parts he names are actually not vakuum specific but will do it for sure. The price will be as outstanding as the quality, thats top
notch in every regard.
/ORG