this post was submitted on 25 Aug 2024
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Side project: Isopropyl distillation from resin printing rinsing (lemmy.ca)
submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
22 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Edit: Deleting this post. It's starting to get controversial, but that's OK. Not what I planned on, but whatevers.

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[–] [email protected] 70 points 2 months ago (3 children)

No no no no no.

I’m a chemist. Organic chemistry PhD, now a process chemist in the industry. I do this for a living. Do not distill isopropanol that’s been exposed to air for any meaningful length of time.

Isopropanol slowly reacts with oxygen in the air to generate peroxides that, when you concentrate them down, EXPLODE. Source. Sorry, not an open access journal. But please take my word for it.

Unless you have a way of confirming the peroxide levels in your isopropanol are near zero, do not concentrate it down by distillation. You’ll blow up your glassware, which will probably expose what you’re distilling to your heat source, which will generate a secondary fireball.

PLEASE do not do this.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Concentrated Hydrogen peroxide is scary AF!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

I love EnF. But I assure you, organic peroxide formers are scarier.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

This is the exact video I thought of and where I learned about them!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Sounds like fun! Got to go get a still though.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Please, don’t do this thing.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago

TLDR for anyone reading: Do not do this!

There is a very well laid out reason by @[email protected] in this thread, but suffice to say this is dangerous to an extreme and is not worth the risk to save a little money.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

How much $ you saving (or any other motivations)?

Don’t have frames of reference so perhaps what proportion less are you paying by doing this?

Assuming it’s no small sum/% given risks called out by you and a couple others. Glad you got a discussion going so you can give it all more thought!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yo, this thread caught my eye, but because it’s deleted, it’s unclear exactly what it’s about. Can someone summarize exactly what I’m to avoid?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Don't distill your own isopropanol in your garage/yard. Simple as that.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That is shocking because many articles on the internet suggest this, and I myself have been distilling IPA for years.

Not trying to challenge or argue, but I’m just surprised and a little embarrassed.

Can anyone comment why this hasn’t been a problem for me? Is this a matter of potency? Or number of cycles of distilling?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

This post goes into detail why you shouldn't do it: https://lemmy.ml/post/19598195

As to why there are so many articles on the internet: if there are many articles recommending jumping off a cliff... /j

That stuff is dangerous. Don't trust anyone on that stuff, just because they have a homepage.

I'm guessing you were just lucky.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Do you take any steps to clean the wash before boiling it? Filtering or anything like that?

I've had some success using aluminum sulfate to precipitate resin out of the wash based on this guy's work: Recycle Isopropyl Alcohol FAST! | Recovering IPA From 3D Printer Resin Wash

I haven't tried distillation... as you say, it's risky.

What does your waste look like after distillation? And... what would you think about using an alcohol still for this, instead of lab glassware?

[–] ICastFist 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Have you tried using typical water filters and letting the alcohol filter through? I suppose it wouldn't remain as pure as distilling, but might be mostly reusable while posing no immediate fire hazard.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

It may be worthwhile checking this out as an alternative: https://hackaday.com/2022/10/12/toilet-paper-tube-pulls-dissolved-resin-from-ipa-cures-it-for-disposal/

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

What I do is just expose the dirty isopropanol to sun or UV in general - the resin will precipitate. Then just filter it out and you have clean isopropanol.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

You deleted your comments but not the post 🤪

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

A BIT?!!! oh fuck no