Yeah haha, Bio is gettin his groove back after a little altercation between his face and the footpath
Great, now I won't bee able to take any credit for a nano write up, cos your ideas are great! Nah dude!, u ask the questions and set the threads direction, Swix is the dimwitted fool that answers...
From SHORTY
<<Also, if you are testing the setup with only water in a new testube you might have problems with superheating cause there are no neucleation points to start the boil. Try adding some boiling stones or a couple small pieces of glass. Scratch an old lightbulb or other glass object with some coarse sandpaper and then smash the glass into little pieces and you'll have enough for a lifetime. Swix just meant as SHORTY suggested and dont try and heat up plain water...add a little glass or the like so it actually boils and you can caliberate properly...
Re condenser, if u can get the famed SHORTY flouro tube condenser to work well then that is obviously the better option. Swix's only worry is the ability to seal (and re-seal) when water needs to be topped up; esp in a nano setup. But if it all works well then go for it. If the balloon gets hot in a soy bottle or the like, use a fan to cool the top, or use some fibreglass insulation tape where the balloon is connected, or get a bottle or vase with a longer neck.
Re thermometer; Swix has always prefered to put his outside after he has calculated the temp difference between oil and flask. Not because his equipment cant handle it - as the correct stuff is used - but because it creates another potential 'fuck-up zone' (man, he's scientific..). But if its looking robust then go for it as well...
Re nano post reaction workup; Swix wouldn't dick around with RP filtering etc, it doesn't hurt nor come over in the distillation.., maybe 1x NP wash before distilling if a good idea. The main point is that a well executed steam distill (on a high-quality reaction) will do 95% of the 'cleaning' for you..the last 5% 'dick-around' steps are mainly for ensuring cosmetic value. The main step after distilling is the removal of the Na-water layer undernieth the fb as it'll create salty dope.
So Swix would just dilute, NP wash, add NaOH solution to ensure enough water in there to convert to steam and carry all the freebase, yet leave enoungh in there to leave the unwanteds in the reaction vessel in solution.
THEN, once u have the crude meth hcl, rinse with acetone and recrystalise if quantity and quality justifies its effectiveness. Most often not in nanos..it'd take longer dicking round with it than it would to just get high and have a bad comedown...
