I have been trying to find a source for petroleum ether but am having trouble finding a place that is inexpensive, and will ship to an address without seeing tax forms (most places require you be affiliated with a school or other research institution). Anyone know of anywhere I could order this without going through the restriction hoops, and without paying an arm and a leg? I was looking for something around $20-$30 for a liter, and I expect to pay around $25 extra for shipping since it is a hazardous material. If you know of stores that might sell it locally with a decent excuse (for instance it's used to identify watermarks on stamps, or also for extracting oils like palm oil) that would be even better, but it would have be be a reason that would lead me to buy a liter or so... If not, I have also been looking at other non-polar solvents, and found that Heptane (and I think hexane?) is an even better non-polar solvent. I would be using it to mix with isopropyl oil, fraction off the heptane, and then evaporating (basically further refining the isopropyl oil which is very impure). Anyone know if Heptane, or some other more readily available solvent will work as well or better than petroleum ether?
is petroleum ether the same kind of ether you huff. because i extracted it a few times in my younger years from starting fluid
I believe so. It's not really an ether, so it's not the psychoactive stuff, but it's a very flammable heavy duty solvent, I'm sure you could huff it. I have thought about extracting it, but it doubles the amount of work this little project would take. If it comes to that I'll just switch to using butane (even though I don't suspect it is as thorough an extraction).
hm yeah that was like eight or nine years ago when i did that, i never really thought about using ether for the purpose of extraction, i wonder how it would turn out edit: the ether i was talkin about is Diethyl ether
Extracting it from starter fluid can leave dangerous contaminants in the ether, the only reason i could think someone would want to do this is to make MDMA or to huff it. But that's cuz i have a chemistry background
I think it's a little different than starter fluid (like zippo fluid is close to it, but not quite the same thing). Anyway, it all gets removed. If you have a background in chemistry, this is just simple solvent extraction/distillation, the key is getting something that is completely removed, and pet ether boils at just over room temp. It's a little easier to work with than butane since butane boils at room temp, so unless you pressurize it, you can't really soak and I don't think it's as efficient as true refluxing for making honey oil... Anyway, I'm more looking for a source for pet ether if anyone knows of one, or if anyone has any info on other solvents for hash oil extraction like naptane or hexane?
Starting fluid is real ether, not "petroleum ether" (which is just a mixture of non-aromatic short-chain hydrocarbons, hexane, heptane, etcetera - named petroleum ether because it's properties are similar to those of ether, without some of the safety problems of ether). Do not even fuck with trying to purify starting ether - you don't want real ether anyway. First off, it's a mixture of ether, petroleum ether (which boils at around the same temperature) and random other additives. Secondly, distilling ether at home is not safe, because the stuff is spectacularly flamable, volitile, and yet the vapors are heavy enough that they will hug the ground and and travel a surprising distance (while you won't always be able to smell it, because the vapors are near the floor). Finally, pure ether (real ether, not petroleum ether) slowly forms explosive (shock, heat, etc sensitive) peroxides in contact with air. This is not a problem in the can, because it's protected from air. In labs, traces of a stabilizer are often added. And, it's worth noting, real ether is only used in labs when there is a compeling reason not to use other solvents, due to the safety issues.
All very good info! The confusion between di. ether and pet ether seems pervasive, had a number of people so far think I want the anesthetic style ether... Anyway, you seem to know a decent amount about it, any idea where I can buy the stuff? It's pretty much what all the oil purification guides suggest using. The safety isn't a huge issue because it's not being heated. It's used to extract the THC oil out of isopropyl siphoned off, then evaporated (it all can even be done outside). This is an alternative to using acetone or butane.
Does that give the same quality as butane? Butane seems to have some huge advantage... clean, fast, one step... With a little bit of cleverness with your setup, you could get something that would keep the butane in long enough for it to soak a bit, and keep all the benefits of butane... I wonder if you could do it with whole (popcorn) buds, and have them come out still looking like weed (probably with only traces of actives left in them - how much could be assayed by smoking). Might be useful as a "cut" for joints/blunts when a rolled smoking implement is indicated, but the people involved have no tolerance (i know a good number of people for whom 2 hits from a joint or blunt would have them at or close to "too high" territory) heptane is available as a solvent for glue, and some brands are spectacularly pure. Others are shit though.
You can use the pet ether to further separate the alcohol tincture, which allows you to get near pure oil. The stuff you get using butane isn't pure, but is close as well (you can tell by the tint to the oil, thc is colorless). I've been thinking of ways I could use butane in a soxhlet type setup, but use pressure to control the boiling point. Not sure how easy this would be to make though. I'm starting to think that regardless of how efficient it is, it's so much easier to just use a tube and butane method, so I might just settle for a less thorough extraction for the benefit of being easy as hell to do Still wish I could get pet ether, or find someone with a better chemistry background to suggest something that would be the same or better but is easier to obtain, hehe. I am not sure heptane is good for this, I just know it's a non-polar solvent, and at least based on that, might be good. I just dunno if it's going to be safe to use, and effective. My chemistry background is just too weak
Petroleum ether is a horribly generic term. It's a term used to refer to a mixture of non-aromatic (in the chemical sense, not smell sense) hydrocarbons with a boiling point around that of real ether. It's often a bit of a witches brew, and is generally defined by the boiling range, rather than by what's in it. When sold to consumers, it's meant as safer alternative to the good stuff like benzene (shortly after that was made hard-to-get when they realized it was a strong carcinogen, petroleum ether was called "Benzine" in commercial products) and diethyl ether (which is abusable and too dangerous to keep around). VM&P Naptha is petroleum ether, but it's often dirty and doesn't even evaporate clean.