SwampNut Posted June 5 Posted June 5 Tagging @mikesail and @superhawk996 for engineering help and also what they might have laying around in their massive piles of hoarded useful items. I need to dry some 4a molecular sieves, and can't find my 1000 degree muffle furnace. Vacuum and a small heater should do it. In case you don't remember, I do have a very nice vac with 100% duty cycle. But I think I'd be smart to run it in bursts? *** Vessel You want metal, not the clear-lid degassing chambers sold for resin/silicone. Those acrylic or polycarbonate lids soften around 130–140°C and will sag or craze under heat plus the external atmospheric load. Better options: A stainless steel vacuum pot with an all-metal lid is ideal — SS conducts heat into the beads through the floor, handles the temperature, and takes full vacuum without drama. A heavy-wall borosilicate sidearm/filtering flask (Büchner type) also works well and the sidearm is your built-in vacuum port; just heat it evenly to avoid thermal-shock implosion, since a flask under vacuum that cracks goes inward violently. *** So...would this implode? Should be easy to add a vac line fitting. The pump already uses auto-type QDs, and I have various hoses and adapters. *** Heater — this is your wheelhouse A silicone heating pad bonded to the bottom/sides of the metal vessel, run through a PID controller with a thermocouple, is essentially the same hardware as a 3D printer heated bed. Cheap, controllable, even, and you can hold a setpoint precisely. That's the cleanest DIY answer for you. Alternatives: fiberglass heating tape (BriskHeat-style, rated 200–400°C) wrapped around the body, or a flat-bottom SS vessel sitting on a hot plate. For a round-bottom flask, a heating mantle. *** I may actually have this...somewhere... But also probably dirt cheap on Amazon. PID...meh...why not run it full speed/heat? Quote
superhawk996 Posted June 6 Posted June 6 I have a vacuum pump and chamber, the cheapo SS pot with clear lid. Pretty sure I still have an old pressure cooker that's been relegated to industrial usage. I have Mike's 500w hot plate that I forgot to return last night so there's a heat source. He doesn't need it, fuck him. So, if you can translate to English; what are you trying to do? Quote
superhawk996 Posted June 9 Posted June 9 You don't need no moleculeing sleeves to make shine ya dummy. But if you want 100% ethanol then you do, or something similar. A friend used to be a microbiologist and getting pure alcohol was such a pain they'd make it from Everclear and a drying agent, possibly molecular sieves. 1 Quote
SwampNut Posted June 9 Author Posted June 9 On 6/5/2026 at 8:41 PM, superhawk996 said: the cheapo SS pot with clear lid. Source? Brand? Or...how to find one? Clear lid never crossed my mind with heat and vacuum. On 6/5/2026 at 8:41 PM, superhawk996 said: old pressure cooker Shit, that's why I ask here, didn't cross my mind. Obviously it can take any heat/vac I can dish out. Duh. Off to the thrift store. Quote
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