pickle-
swims got that ritchie yellowjacket as well, hes glad that his pump is strong as hell, but hes now encountering problems trying to separate saf from iso etc. Swim almost wishes he got a pump that was a little weaker. What does swiy do if he has to separate semi-close boiling fractions?
Swim did yet another (seemingly) failed isomerisation 2 days ago and took 12 hours to distil (he tried going VERY slow bringing up the temp) and everything came over between 71-78C (with a half fleece jacketed vigreux), and this is with a hole punctured in the tube connected to the pump to weaken it! The last time he distilled suspected ketone (which primarily consisted of unreacted safrole) it started coming over at 58C! This was after he switched to using better (silicone) grease, using ptfe tape on the threads of his pump as well as his thermo, and adding hose clamps to the vac tubing- as well as fresh vac oil which he always changes after each distillation.
Granted, swim has been having difficulty with isomerization (that'll bee another thread once swim takes an atmospheric bp to confirm), but he knows that some of it has converted (this time he did it for 20 hours atm ala roundbottom).
The point is, swim thinks he got TOO strong of a pump, and that is causing problems for him (mind you, he is still very much in the learning phase), so bee advised.