Just something i knocked together for steam distilling post al/hg rxn solution.

I used a empty 5litre acetic acid drum as the main distillation vessal.
In the lid i cut a hole and inserted a 24/40 fitting off some broken glassware. pulled it tight and teflon taped it up.
I heated a piece of pyrex - the straight tube section from inside a broken longer spiral coolcoil and pushed that through the top of the drum (i have some cheapo right angle pyrex pieces what would do the job nicely too) its attached to a hose leading to a steam stripper as external steam source.
Put a plate or something similar in bottom of a stew pan,(stops the plastic overheating on the base) the drum inside that, fill pan with water and set it up ready to go..

i fill the drum about 2/3rds full with already pretty warm post reaction solution.(3litre) give it 10-15 minutes to get a bit hotter, adjust the condensor again cos the plastic swells and warps a bit.
Then just let the fucker rip with the external steam source.
once its too temp turn off the gas - yeah its on the cooker lol - the stewpan water insulates enough to let the steam do the work well enough.
The drum rinses clean after distillation - just like that.

Its just an easy alternative if you break your bigass glassware, or get sick of pissing about cleaning it out.

yeah sure akcom, ill have it out again in a coupla days n take a pic or two.

gonna have to look into getting one of those toasters for my lab

No metal containers available where you live ?

The connections get weak and leak and the whole shit is deforming, plenty of additives to the plastic are leached into your soup and they steamdistill nicely...
Hey ya know the softeners in plastic mimic estrogene? Just they are not degraded by the body and go on and on and on until excreted what takes some time. You and/or your friends who consume the product may soon be known as the "tits-gang" 

Ok thats exaggerated. I hope.

But this will go wrong sooner then later its an accident to happen.

Pls get a fucking steeldrum, canister, whatever, something from iron, thats still ghetto and far better style.
Iron is fine with the Al/Hg no problems.

sent you a PM which hopefully helps (if I guessed right) 


/ORG

Thanks fish, you are of course entirely right (i didnt know that about the plastic leaching btw) my friends may grow breasts? dont tempt me!

Cheapass decent size post al/hg rxn distillation vessal Version 2 coming up shortly.. metal. cheers for the pm 

I just used junk material what was to hand in front of me in all honesty, needed a rig quick no one to help me and couldnt call the A team..

Sneak, no ive had no issues as such except initially leakage. I expected that and sorted it out with teflon tape in the first dry run. fishs comments sound like someone whose 'been there' and are bang on.. the plastic does distend when hot and the rig needs to be adjusted for this when running. Its lasted over 20 runs, would probably last many many more but il go for the metal version upgrade.

Metal/iron got all the benefits and none of the drawbacks tbh hes right.  More durable n robust, better heat transfer, less toxic.. s a f e r!  Its actually that obvious i dunno why i even tried the plastic can  ... probably because it was in front of me at the time.

Carl_nnabis about the looks, Id like any ghetto setup too look and comprise of everyday stuff tbh and not scream thousands of $$$$$ of professional equipment.  Theres the chance cursory examination misses the setup altogether, and theres a disparity in sentencing between 'well organised professional commercial setups capable of producing XX amount per day' and some dude knocking up a hunk of junk what works just as well (but they dont know that) completely amateurish. probably half the sentence.. but yeah your comment could easily become reality if the pan ran dry of water and the plastic heated a littlemore

Its the charge itself fractal.  The value of the equipment would give reason for a commercial production and theyd argue intent or conspiracy to supply which is even worse as theyd use an exagerrated projection of output and add the value of the equipment to the total enterprise.
With cannabis (sorry i cant directly compare to this as ive no working example) thats the difference between personal use (sometimes with intent)  to commercial production and conspiracy or intent to supply.  They value your grow setup and decide if its feasable you really did spend all that money on equipment just for a personal smoke, and what the estimated yield would be.
In that case the difference in sentencing guidelines is about 2 years instead of a fine depending on the conviction charge been personal or commercial.
Caught bang to rights id not dispute my criminality but i would dispute my level of. Chemistry interest, yeah sure id admit it. Otherwise my only interest must be making drugs for profit given what im caught with..  Have i made controlled substances, yeah sure lots of different things.. Can i justify having a 1-2k chemistry set?  yes i can BUT the law says above a certain value is a commercial enterprise no matter how i spin it and im screwed on an elevated charge which wont drop because of the point in law about the amount of money involved.
The difference is about 14 years. 8 if im lucky. A first offence will usually escape a prison sentence for personal sythesis of illegal-controlled substances. Thats if youve a reasonable understanding of the points of law used to levy the correct charges where i am. Id also lose the value of my mitigation if the charges was elevated in court to trial beyond personal and found guilty.
ghetto setup= cheap n amateur personal interest/hobbyist level
laboratory setup= expensive professional commercial profiteering level
Or thats how id present my argument at least. If/when the worst happens the money involved in chemistry equipment etc is my weakest link.
Must be shit in USA them laws are draconian.

b6baddawg already told to switch to some iron vessel and thats allit .
Metal vessels have many advantages over glass so thats a valid option, I like to use metal whenever possible and when I have watched the reaction often enough to feel there is no need for this kind of control.

And I admit to tried similar  flimflam myself in the past and whoever is without guilt may throw the first stone!

Ouch!
Pharisees!

There is a lot of stuff available which enables me to build rather welldesigned apparati without workshop and welding or brazing.
Everybody interested may have a look into "corrugated stainless steel tubes" standard and spiraled, and the connecting systems available for them. Available in SS316. Great stuff. A condensor buildt from this beats glassware any time  in performance and durability.

The gasstove looks like the one I had in the Czech Rep. years ago, hui was that a nice 3 meter flame from the sideneck of the flask when I forgot the stopper when boiling alcohol in a methylamine synth.
Quite impressive.
And you just have to igore the flames and put the stopper in.
Sounds so easy ... 

/ORG

I deleted my post as after reading again it sounded like i described your setup as disgusting, oh no that was never what i meant, apologies! 
The disgusting and horrible mess ive spoken about was what i imagined in the worst case scenario, it was no offense to your attempts.
But as I saw the idea of plastic (yes, even PP), mercury and this being externally heated combined so i replied quick in bad english(maybe a bit rude..).
Ive only spoken about above said hypothetic accident so that you not be get used to such an apparatus and underestimate the dangers with a not-standardized thing like yours.
We know polypropylen buckets or gasoline canisters are used for the reaction itself too, but I wont expect they will stand this heat more than a very few times.
Well ghetto equipment isnt bad but sometimes if youre like going to distill HCN for example ore using mercury you would surely do better to do the effort to get a ground glass joint setup instead of risking mercury vapors everywhere, please be very careful if youre still about using this apparatus for your owns sake!

That looks very nice

I want the square cup in the corner