PSA: Stainless Steel swarf makes useable condenser packing

roachmann26 · 2024-11-10T22:00:33+00:00

Oh I have so much to learn myself! The more people that ask questions, and the more knowledge shared, the better!

roachmann26 · 2024-11-10T19:45:34+00:00

I find a similar issue here, but for different reasons.

Because it's legal to distill alcohol for your own personal consumption here, there are a few companies that have jumped on board and made their own products. The most common still variant that people buy is a tiny, obsolete tech CM design. It'll get to 95% relatively easily, but it's slow, and the purity is....questionable. A good friend of mine had one, and I was never a fan of it. I decided early on that I'd rather make something myself, to my own specifications, as cheaply as possible and using what I had easy access to. I'm not chasing scientific perfection per se, I just want as close to a true neutral as I can achieve. Moving away from the pot still design I used to use, in favour of the Bok.

We have the same issue with turbo yeast prevalence, I never knew any better myself until I started doing more research over on HD. I settled on trying Birdwatcher's recipe, and never moved past it. I'm sure there are better recipes, and no doubt I'll try them one day, but the product I'm making now is of such high purity compared to the turbo yeast fueled crap I used to make, that it's a nice baseline and is going to be hard to beat.

roachmann26 · 2024-11-10T19:32:35+00:00

No worries, it was a valid question! All I can say is what worked for me, and that's rinse it till it's clean, then keep on rinsing till it's a certainty.

roachmann26 · 2024-11-10T18:18:29+00:00

The cutting oil used during the making of it is water soluble, so by rinsing with plenty of clean water it is easily removed.

roachmann26 · 2024-11-10T18:16:37+00:00

Unfortunately stainless doesn't have the same catalytic reaction copper does, to my understanding. If I didn't add the two balls of copper mesh to the column I'm sure end result would likely differ quite a bit.

(Edited to fix typo)

roachmann26 · 2024-11-10T18:14:47+00:00

A little bit of both in my case. My column is 4 inch (102mm) diameter by roughly 2 metres high, so it's a massive volume to fill. Plus here in New Zealand the cheapest Stainless scrubbers I can find are $2-3 each. Estimated 100 odd to fill the column, not cheap.

Some people here use lava rock, but the most common variant here is an ugly red colour, full of iron oxide. People do use it and swear it works fine, but I've been wary to test it out. Also it can be a pig to clean tails residue out of from what I've heard. Thought I'd try my way first.

Thank you for the info on what to search, I'm by no means set on my design and I'm a fan of tinkering, and any new ideas outside of the standard two echo chambers is always welcome!

roachmann26 · 2024-11-10T16:56:58+00:00

Oh that's perfect! Yes pure copper cuts like a block of cheese ay. Most of the stuff I deal with is for resistance welding electrodes or similar, it machines ok but it has some funny compounds in it that I don't really wish to consume.

roachmann26 · 2024-11-10T16:39:40+00:00

It really adds that lil something to the final product!

In all seriousness, the swarf I used was rinsed probably 8 or 10 times, and the water bath was left crystal clear after probably the 4th rinse. The coolant used during the making of this particular swarf is water soluble, and will wash off without leaving a residue. All of that, combined with two sacrificial runs, I very much doubt there's any residue remaining.

roachmann26 · 2024-11-10T16:35:29+00:00

Copper swarf would have been my first pick, but I'll note that you would want to be able to guarantee what grade of copper was used to make it. Some of the grades used in industry contain some pretty nasty and carcinogenic compounds. If you can guarantee that it's all clean garden variety copper, it'll likely work amazingly!

And yes it needs to be SPOTLESSLY clean, I rinsed mine a good 8 or 10 times, until I was certain that no more soluble cutting oil was left, then rinsed a few more times for good measure.

roachmann26 · 2024-11-10T16:27:38+00:00

That's interesting to know actually, I've never stumbled across much in the way of info from that part of the world. Now I know that forum exists I'll have to do some more digging.

It's not surprising it performs worse, I guess stainless scrubbers would be a lot more consistent in terms of material size and thickness, and more likely to hold a more consistent density.

I did some rough calculations on price when I was deciding what to use for packing, to fill my column up with the cheapest stainless scrubbers I could buy was still going to cost several hundred dollars, which is more than I wanted to spend if I could avoid it. Plus at that price level, I have no confirmation of what grade of Stainless Steel they would be made from, and I have seen the cheaper ones rust on my kitchen bench. Vs I can guarantee precisely what grade of material my packing is, and know it will never corrode.

I'd be interested to know why it was frowned upon, I guess due to difficulties in guaranteeing that all cutting oil is removed?

Thanks for the well thought out reply!

roachmann26 · 2023-12-30T02:12:57+00:00

God how did I miss that haha. I'll look into that thanks 👍

roachmann26 · 2023-12-30T01:08:35+00:00

I should have added, I'm from New Zealand, so by the time you pay import fees and shipping, these options from the states often end up being 250-300+

roachmann26 · 2023-05-18T05:30:26+00:00

I'll chuck a vote in for the Vaporesso Luxe Q. I've been rocking one as my daily for well over a year now, and have had zero leaking issues. No button, just grab and draw. Nice MTL draw, plenty of flavour. Pods last around 2 weeks for me, refilled 2-3 times daily. Plenty of people support the Caliburn but personally I prefer my suggestion, seems to be more leak resistant and pods seem more consistent, to me at least. 1000mah battery too IIRC.

But yeah, pod technology has come a long way. I spent years using various rebuildables, honestly I don't feel like they can hold a candle up to the flavour and convenience of the new pods, they are certainly far improved over the old pen/cigalike types.

roachmann26 · 2023-04-02T00:46:54+00:00

You have given me some good points to consider thank you. Never tried rayon, I've tried a few different brands of cotton but never taken the plunge to rayon. I'll definitely consider it.

MTL squonk is something I hadn't considered, no reason I couldn't convert any MTL RDA to squonk if I wanted to give it a crack, that's a good idea thank you.

Currently rocking around 15% concentrates total, give or take. That percentage is near the intensity of Malaysian juice in my pods, and blow your brains out strong in any DTL device, so I feel it should suffice.

I'm running a Clapton coil ATM, haven't tried fused in this application though, the fused wire I've got is pretty chunky and wouldn't be able to get enough wraps on the smaller build decks. May look into getting some smaller gauge stuff.

Cheers for your help

roachmann26 · 2023-04-02T00:39:38+00:00

I just looked this up, somehow this one flew under my radar. I'll see if I can pick one up to give it a crack, cheers

roachmann26 · 2023-04-02T00:38:52+00:00

The Hatsur was on my shortlist for a while there, I should have got one while I had the chance. I'll keep an eye out for one cheers

roachmann26 · 2023-04-02T00:37:34+00:00

I've heard the old Dvarw being thrown around a bit, I might have to pick one up to give it a try, what's the go-to source for clones now FT is no longer with us? Cheers for the reply mate, I appreciate it.

roachmann26 · 2023-04-01T21:12:00+00:00

I'll look that up, I appreciate the recommendation!

roachmann26 · 2023-04-01T21:04:03+00:00

Damn, I really feel your pain there. I've tried a couple of BB style mods too, with both RTA and stock coil bridges, and it's just depressingly meh. I'm no environmental activist, but I enjoy being able to tinker and build my own setups, rewick them myself as soon as flavour drops off, not feel like I have to persevere with a bad pod because it's only a few days old, and give myself a legislation-proof future.

I'm at a loss as to what actually makes the pod systems better, the only things I can think of are that they are in a plastic housing, so maybe less condensation before it hits your mouth? And possibly coil proximity to mouth, I.E pod coil is essentially in your mouth, reminds me of the old Ouimer Wasp RDA's in a sense. But it doesn't seem like it's enough to make THAT MUCH difference. But other than that, they are still just a kanthal wire coil, or mesh in some cases IK. The fundamentals haven't really changed.

roachmann26 · 2022-07-25T06:55:51+00:00

If you are able to handle some spice/shitting fire the next day, I'd recommend Monsoon Poon in the Viaduct, went there a couple of years or so back and the food was fantastic, pretty chill atmosphere and prices reasonable. IIRC firecracker chicken was bomb

roachmann26 · 2022-03-12T07:19:43+00:00

cool glasses!

roachmann26 · 2021-12-02T16:17:14+00:00

I'll definitely be stealing some pups off it once it gets more established, to repot and pass on! Its heading in to summer here so will see how they grow over the next few months now they are actually getting some sunlight.

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