Home Brew Filtration system

[MagusSteele]

I was going to add this to another thread, but couldnt decide which one would be good to add this to, SO, it got its own.

I ran across this device yesterday.
This one I am linking to was found on EBAY. Its sure not cheap, but it had a real good picture to show you.
SOME of you die hards in the E-smoking realm may want to get one for your home brews. I cant afford it right now, but if someone gets one, let us know if it works to strain/filter your home brews. It Looks a Heck of a lot better then a coffee filter.
I had not seen it listed before.

FILTER FLASK BUCHNER FUNNEL 250ml VACUUM PUMP GAUGE - eBay (item 280120820346 end time Sep-22-08 18:15:01 PDT)

 

[Denni]

We had those in the lab, connected to the sink for vacuum.

Note that you will need filter disks. Also--with the small volumes of liquid--a syringe filter would be preferable, but it would have to be relatively coarse so as not to gunk up straight away. Which is why this should be left to the manufacturers.

I think that filtering the juice any further would probably not help. Rather it's the heating of certain components that seems to lead to the atomiser problems.

 

[MagusSteele]

This one I linked to comes with the filter discs.
I was thinking to use it for filtering a batch you made yourself at home, hence "Home Brew".
Filtering the viles of ready made, that MAY be clogging our atomizers, I am not sure what to do. I am thinking of remixing them myself. But some kind of filter might help too.
I will have to look up the syringe type, that might be good to use on the ready made i have. I hate to throw it away, but may end up doing that.

 

[MagusSteele]

I found these
Syringe Filters: Whatman Millipore Waters Nalgene Titan - eBay (item 300258709664)
If you worked in a Lab for real Denni (or anyone who could answer)
Do you think 1 Micron? or Smaller? would work.
Its been so long since i was in chemistry class, hehe
1um dosent sound small enough for some reason.

 

[jpc815]

I found these
Syringe Filters: Whatman Millipore Waters Nalgene Titan - eBay (item 300258709664)
If you worked in a Lab for real Denni (or anyone who could answer)
Do you think 1 Micron? or Smaller? would work.
Its been so long since i was in chemistry class, hehe
1um dosent sound small enough for some reason.

Maybe you could send him a message about what you are wanting to filter and he could advise you on which one would be best. He might know what each is used for.

 

[MagusSteele]

I wouldnt know what to tell the person. What are we trying to filter out? If its just particals, 1 micron would be fine I think.
IF i remember right, an average hair is 10 microns wide.

 

[icemanmaz]

I realy would not bother with the expence. We have them in our lab and we only use them for first stage filteration.

 

[TropicalBob]

I've used these filters in with home cooked tobacco, as you'll read in other threads on DIY Liquid. If you use gravity feed, this is a veerrrrrrrry slow process. My filters came from a science lab at a local state college. They just gave 'em to me, cause the things are so cheap. I still have a bunch, but won't likely use them again.

They did NOT remove the color. I had thought the filtration would be so complete that I'd end up with clear liquid. No. The color did not change at all. It remained a dark brown, almost black, liquid after cooking and filtering. And the particulate residue collected by the filter wasn't all that much greater in volume than when I used two layers of coffee filters.

I still think the best bet for home cooking is to put tobacco in reuseable tea bags, which can be bought online to brew herbal teas. This keeps tobacco out of the liquid being cooked. Think of it as pre-filtering.

I've also distilled the liquid -- but that is kind of frightening in terms of unknown nicotine. Distillation produces a clear, almost gummy liquid; I added a small amount to a mixture of vegetable glycerine and Bickford flavor. But I won't do that again -- due to the unknowns.

 

[MagusSteele]

TB,
This flask has a Pump, so it would be a lot quicker then gravity feed.
The Other is fed by the syringe pressure.

I have to re-read, but if Nicotine is water soluable, wouldnt it steam away with the water? depends the gas/boiling point.
Interesting, I will have to look that up.

 

[TropicalBob]

A pump would do faster what gravity finally did. I just let it sit. Who cares? It finally all went through.

P.S. Never boil your liquid. Never. Simply simmer it, like momma slow-cooked the black-eyed peas! I have a lid on the little pot, anyhow, so condensation drips back into the liquid. Still, without adding an acid of some kind, I think I get very little nicotine in the final liquid. Mostly, I'm after flavor -- and even that isn't as strong as I want it.

 

[MagusSteele]

I was thinking about flavor yesterday.
The rolling tobacco i bought will be fine, but i think i am going to buy some real good pipe tobacco with a a good flavor/taste to smooth it out.
I am still in the research phase.

 

[scrubadub]

Hello I’ve been reading this section of the forum with some interest and DIY juice is something that appeals to me (not that I’ve even tried smoking these things yet ☺).

Anyway I was wondering if anybody has tried three stage filtering and ice filtering as part of their homebrew filtration effort. It doesn’t seem to have been discussed anywhere so thought I’d post it on the off chance it’s of any use to you. This is a method I came across some time ago on a forum dealing with extracting essential oils and alkaloids from plant material. Not sure if this is will help with extracting flavourings or not but here it is:

If you’re heating up plant matter then there’s a good chance you will have a load of plant fats in your final solution which could be causing issues when vapourising it. The first step to a cleaner solution is constructing a three stage filter:

Take a large kitchen funnel and make a wire circle which fits low in the funnel and attach a high count silk screen to it. Then make a wire circle that fits in the filter about half an inch above the previous circle and attach a low count silk screen to this. Then make a final circle with some wire mesh formed into a cup shape that sits about half an inch above again. This should give you a much more efficient initial filtration as the larger bits of plant matter get trapped first but allow the smaller particles to move freely to the next layer. On the final screen if there are plant fats present you should see them as a kind of sludge. You could then pass the final solution through lab grade filters.

The next step is to pour the solution in to a plastic bottle, a fizzy drink bottle is perfect but make sure you don’t fill it all the way. Lay the bottle on it’s side in the freezer and keep checking it. Once it just starts to form ice, a bit slushy, filter the solution from the ice and lay on its side in the freezer again. Repeat this 3-5 times. The reason for doing this is as the solution begins to freeze it traps larger molecules such as fats. Also laying it on its side means more surface area to ice up so it speeds the process.

The final stage, which is optional, is to heat up some paraffin wax and pour this into the solution. The hot wax will bond with plant fats and trap them as it solidifies. Run this final solution through the three stage filter to remove the wax and you should have a much cleaner solution to work with.

So there you go, may be a way to filter if lab equipment isn’t an option. As I said above this isn’t my method so I make no claims to its usefulness but it is highly regarded in other circles so thought it worth sharing.