Homemade graham style condenser

Here are some pictures of a condensor I am making. I fused several pyrex tubes together and bent them around a metal pipe using a propane torch. It was pretty easy and really quite fun once I got the hang of it. It is actually very easy to get several pyrex tubes to stick together and be air tight. Then I placed the twisted tubing into 3 water bottles, sealing around the holes with silicone.





Sorry about the size of the pictures, I could not figure out how to size them down but wanted to post them.

Best wishes everyone,

bluefloor

Wow that's really cool making your own equipment! Are you just experimenting for now or are you going to try to use it?
once again !

I will be using it before too long.

That's a pretty awesome an inexpensive way to make a home made graham style condenser bluefloor! They can be quite expensive for beginners who don't have much money to go towards lab equipment. Glass tubing is much cheaper. That is certainly the best method I have seen so far for making a distillation unit, because it will be able to condense so well, even smoke from burning Tartar can be condense into a liquid Alkahest with it.

But I see you left out the input/output for pumping water through the bottles. Why is that? A simple 5 dollar aquarium pump will do the job just fine. It's essential to keep ice cold water moving through the water bottles that surround the glass pipe. Such a shame to make a perfect condenser, but then not add the water pump!

And good idea using that foil tape. I've also used that for patching things water with a water tight seal, it's great stuff.

Yes very inexpensive, around $20 for the tubing including shipping. And yes of course I will be feeding ice cold water through it when I use it (I was just excited to show this part of it.) My plan was to make a hole just big enough in the bottom cap to keep water flowing at a slow pace and then supply it with plenty of ice water from a gravity feed from above. Thank you Nick now I know I can also get an aquarium pump for just $5.

Earlier, I tried a distillation using just water bottles with bags of ice wrapped around them. It failed bad. From this I learned that it is essential to sqeeze the air down through a small space that is surrounded by cold to ensure that you condense your product. So I ordered some small tubing, 6mm I believe that came in 15 inch sections, and it turned out very well.

Great work! This thing you made is amazing..I always use to put my plastic bottles to use but this is just incredible.
Congrats on a good job well done!!

Adam

If anyone is thinking of making a condenser like I did with glass or pyrex tubing, you will want to not order the smallest tubing. I used the 6 mm OD (outer diameter), and by the time the pieces were all fused together and the tubing bent, the air is constricted too much. It takes too much pressure to push air through it. This I think is the major factor that foiled my first attempt using it. I am going to switch to 10mm OD, with much better results I imagine..