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Ventilation for indoor pulls

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hysterix

hysterix

Rising Star
Hey everyone!


I am wondering what is the best method for removing naphtha filled air while doing a pull indoors? Can I use something simple like a really large shop fan pointing to an open door? Or is a squirrel cage fan and a ventilation box the best way?

I have a few ideas but am curious how other people deal with this situation.

Thanks a lot!
 
Equally curious! My FOAF just moved into a small apartment and doesn't want to wait until Summer to do a pull, so he's going to need to vent it outside. Anyone have any suggestions?
 
be very careful about venting outside..especially if other people are around..they may smell that stuff and call the cops thinking you are brewing Meth
 
Actually, FOAF considered running a hose into a snowbank, thinking it would condense in the cold before it could make a stinky vapor.

Any thoughts on secret-ness anybody?
 
I've had no trouble evapping naptha indoors in a large room with the window open. If your into a stealth operuation you may have trouble though. Xylene's the real bastard. I'd use it for everything if it didn't make me think I was Bill Clinton.
 
Yea,

This is always interesting.. My roommate and I were evaping Naphtha the other day in our APT and got a nice buzz going on due to poor ventilation. A quick opening of the balcony door cleared the scent fairly quick.

We used a LOT of Naphtha too, so I would just evap in one room with everything sealed, and go into another room. Then vent the evap room when your done. The scent wont last long outside your residence that way vs a constant ventilation. And if anyone were to smell it they would just think someone was lighting a BBQ or stripping paint or something like that.
 
Jorkest said:
perhaps a activated charcoal filter might help with that?? would this work?
Click to expand...

I'm sure that would work, that or an ozone generator would most certainly kill the odor before it is thrown outside!

I guess for the person who doesn't care, pull outdoors, to the person who slightly cares, pull inside with an open window/door and a fan or something; to the person who really cares, use the naphtha inside a vent hood, exhausted by a squirrel cage fan, filtered with charcoal/ozone generator inline before it vented to the outside world.
 
Say you applied a vacuum to a jar of naphtha using a vacuum pump. Do you think it would make a big difference on how fast it evaporated. Because then you could combine like 1000mL of pulls and evap it down to 200mL really quick. Save alot of freezer space to have it all in one container.
 
Don't use Xylene if you are worried about people smelling it!

As for naphtha I keep my pulls very small so I don't ever have to evap any.

It's not all that stinky, but just in case, have a paintbrush and some painting equipment near by (or an easel and art supplies) so that if there is any question you can simply point to that.

Fans work great too...keep the evap nice and slow and it shouldn't be too much of a problem.
 
How do small pulls prevent you from having to do any evap? Aren't you still going to have to dry out crystals at the very least? And isn't that still enough to stink up a house?
 
Hot plates work well to speed the process, or what SWIM has also used is a crock pot with a pyrex dish that fits perfectly over the top, keep on low setting. SWIM is very sensitive to solvent fumes so he always evaporates outside. To be more incognito, SWIM places a box with a bunch of holes poked in the top on top of the hotplate/crock pot. This also protects from dirt. Just make sure nobody is smoking near the box haha. There seems to only be fumes that you can smell within a 5 foot radius of the box.

SWIM has an idea for a mask that he is going to try for use when he is near the solvent (pulling, washes, etc..) Even when wearing a good solvent mask, he still can smell naphtha and gets disorienting effects from the solvents. He wanted to get an SCBA but they are expensive and usually only last a half an hour.

His idea is to take a solvent mask and run tubes from the air holes in the mask all the way down close to where his feet are. He will probably still use a fan for ventilation but since the vapor fumes rise, he will be getting air near the bottom of the room which should not have much fumes in it. I will get him to try this and let you know how it works.
 
A hotplate/back warmer is vital for Xylene. Either that or your house is going to smell really shady along with your clothes. Without a hot plate I've waited for... Maybe 2 days evapping and there is always a little bit left in there. A hotplate cuts it down maybe to 8 hours, however, remember to recrystallize in heptane.

Oh, charcoal filters work OK, but remember that you are using solvents that will break down certain plastics. A lot of the cheaper charcoal filters are held together with a glue that will dissolve. This should not be a problem with higher-end hydro charcoal filters such as those made by EcoPlus.
 
swim lives in a two staoy house w/ 3 animals.

He simply covers a baking dish w/ cheesecloth (so no dust gets in the loaded naptha) and tapes it so it's secure.

Then he puts a pretty big fan facing down on the baking dish but also in the direction of "outside" and leaves it on the medium setting.

If there are still minor fumes in the house (which there usually arent), he'll put a towell on the bottom of the door to prevent any leakage. Never a problem.

It takes him about 3 -4hrs to get down to about 1/10th of the original volume.

He's also done it on the 1st floor of the house w/out any door to protect the fumes, so he locked the cats up for a few hrs. in the bedroom.

As long as the fan is pushing the fumes out an open window the fumes arent that bad....especially w/ naptha.

Swim doesnt really worry about his neighbors because they dont have a clue.


Swim will be doing a pull with xylene and i hear that smells real bad....so he has to figure out how to let it evap outside.

He's thinking of putting a large plastic container with holes cut in it, placed over the dish w/ the xylene also w/ cheesecloth and let it sit outside for a couple days.....i dunno.

He's also wondering if the waxy spice that he'll recoup after re-dissolving it in acetone to rid it of the xylene residue is really worth it?

Endlessness gave some good advice but if anyone else has thought on the issue....i'd love to hear them.
 
In an apartment you definitely want to be weary of fume seepage. You may want to consider doing it very late at night when no staff or other people will be walking around.

If your bathroom has a suction air vent you could always buy an inexpensive solvent mask and work swiftly in there with a towel on the bottom of the door. You would want a fan in the room and the air vent on.

On a table right next to an open window with a fan blowing on it out the window has always worked with little smell to the rest of the apartment.

Good luck, don't breath in too many fumes! If your nose starts bleeding its time to take a break ;)
 
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