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filters

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opposablethumb

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Hey all, am wanting to get a buchner filter but was wondering what papers to get with it. Primarily for syrian rue extractions but interested in what filters are goof for what jobs. Cheers all

sorry if this has been covered or wrong place.
 
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In my experience you can't filter rue with lab filter papers.

You have to filter it with a t-shirt or in a pillow case, then with a funnel and cotton balls (possibly multiple times) and then finally you can use your filter papers. So as you can see you end up spending most of your time gravity filtering because rue is weird and it clogs stuff up like crazy.

But if you are going to filter them get glass microfiber filters, since they don't clog up as easy. Otherwise you can use a cotton/cellulose blend filter paper, just make sure it is very thick one.

If that sounds like too much work you can also try using diatomaceous earth and just a student grade filter paper.

You have lots of options... bottom line is it is way harder to filter than you probably think.
 
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One thing that helps a lot with filtering rue is to, before saturating the solution with salt, leave the syrian rue tea standing for a day in the fridge, and decant the liquid. Do this twice. I would also add a bit more water to the decanted solids that stayed behind and decant again just to make sure all or most actives are out.

Then once the salt is added to the now-cleaner liquid, mostly the harmalas and salt will precipitate instead of all the particles and oils from before, making it easier to filter

Also another thing: The holes in a buchner (or in an improvised funnel) are on the bottom. This means that it will clog more easily because there is not so much surface area possible for the liquid to pass the filter. If one adds a little metal sieve sort of thing in between the filter paper and the buchner/funnel, the paper wont be touching it anymore, and there will be a larger surface area for the liquid to pass.

BTW, in the final filtering of rue, you want to keep what stays on TOP of the filter.. this means you cant really use a t-shirt or cotton ball because it will be harder (or impossible) to retrieve the rue from it. It would pass through the shirt and would be hard to take off the cotton ball. So only use a t-shirt and cotton ball when what you are doing requires you to keep the liquid and throw away the solid that stays on top of the filter
 
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Yes. To clarify you never use the cotton ball or t-shirt/pillowcase if you are keeping the solids and discarding the liquid. If you want the solids use a cotton/cellulose filter, glass microfiber will stick really bad. Diatomaceous earth is also not a good idea.

Another interesting thing is if you are doing an A/B extraction on rue and you bring the pH to 11-12, your filter paper will turn to mush because strong bases are sticky and slippery. So you will have a hard time filtering pH 11-12 even if it is pure water.

However, if you do a manske extraction that stuff filters very easy, since it is acidic.
 
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Thanks guys.

Stumbled across this while searching for something else, might help someone else.

"#2) Filters!

The type of filters used makes a BIG DIFFERENCE. Glass micro fiber filters are the best for filtering hard to filter items when you need to filter out everything that isn’t dissolved. The cheap normal filters are the best for working with crystals. The glass micro fiber papers will get crystals stuck really hard to them, so only use them for filtering out things, never for catching crystals you plan to collect off of the filter. For filtering tough to filter liquid, these cannot be beat. They can outlast 10 normal papers before clogging.

When all you need to do is filter out large particles, large cotton balls are a really good choice. They are very cheap. They will work in a vacuum filter system if a normal funnel is used instead of a Buchner funnel. With really tough to filter material, sometimes the only thing that will work well is cotton balls or a handkerchief.

When filtering with a handkerchief, place it over a large wire mesh filter, the kind used in the kitchen. Pour the plant material through it. Don’t use vacuum. Let it gravity filter. If it gets clogged, pour the liquid out and wash the handkerchief and try again. This can filter the toughest of things. If you can’t filter using this method, you might want to give up with this type of filtering and maybe use cold filtering instead. That’s a technique where you leave the liquid in the refrigerator for a few days for all the solids to settle to the bottom, and then you pour of the top layer containing no solids and filter only that.

So it’s like this:

A) Thin paper filters, Buchner funnel and vacuum for crystals and easy to filter items
B) Thick glass micro fiber filters, Buchner funnel and vacuum for harder to filter items
C) Cotton balls, normal funnel and vacuum for filtering large particles and tough to filter items
D) Handkerchief over wire mesh for filtering super tough to filter items.
E) Cold filter with a Handkerchief over wire mesh.

If A doesn’t work, move down the list until something works. E is the last resort. Keep filtering until you are able to filter at B. If you can’t filter at B, you still have lots of gunk present that needs to be removed. Some people always choose E right from the start and then move up the list."

 
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