Did another vacuum filter, after a 2 week steep. I’ll try and show what I came up with, for a filter set up.
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It’s pretty ‘cave man’, but worked very well. Everything except the Buchner Funnel & 1.5 filter paper, was scrounged from stuff around the house. I drilled holes in the canning jar lid, for the funnel & vacuum line.
The Handi-Tak is just putty, that’s used to hang pictures, posters, etc. It’s reusable and doesn’t leave residue. I just rolled it in my hand, and made a roll long enough to go around the funnel & vacuum line. It was an easy, non permanent way to seal any air leaks.
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Finished vacuum filter assembly. Definitely not lab quality, but it works very well. At least I was able to test the process. If the NET turns out well, I’ll make something a little more ‘finished’ looking.
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A couple of tips, in case someone wants to try this kind of set up.
The vacuum line is only inserted into the lid, maybe half an inch. Whatever you do, don’t let the vacuum line get near the NET liquid in the jar. If you do, you’ll see your hard earned NET treasure, get sucked into the compressor!
Also, the first time I tried the vacuum filter, I just laid the filter paper in the funnel, and poured the NET liquid over it. Unfortunately, that didn’t allow the filter paper to seal against surface of the funnel, which allowed the liquid to sneak under the edge of the paper, bypassing the filter paper (path of least resistance).
I remedied that, by using a disposable pipette and a little VG. I ran a little ‘bead’ of VG around the inner edge of the funnel, then put the filter paper in. I allowed the filter paper to soak up some of the VG and used my finger to smear it around a little. That helped ‘seal’ the paper to the funnel surface, and the liquid was then drawn through the filter paper, instead of around it.
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Such a nice job! Though if you don’t want to make holes in lids or mess with the putty, you can buy fairly cheap buchner flasks on amazon 
(Usually with flask, funnel and filters)
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If the NET turns out decent, I’ll surely take that route, for future NETS! I have to confess, half the fun for me, is the MacGyver-ness of the experiment. I get a weird satisfaction in seeing if I can do something with what I have stashed under the workbench, in the garage, or in some junk box…lol.
If the NET turns out well, I’ll scale up the amounts, and do it with better equipment.
I was inspired to give this a try, by a youtube video of a guy that made a hand vacuum pump, out of a modified bicycle tire pump…lol.
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My 3rd attempt turned out very tasty. Considering how ‘meh’ my first 2 attempts were, I was keeping my expectations low. The taste was surprisingly good. That batch (Cavendish and Rum / Maple) is a month old now, and in hibernation.
The drawback was how quickly it gunked up the coil in the Kanger Subtank Mini. A dripper will be essential. I hope to have one soon.
I was so inspired by the success of the 3rd attempt, I started another one today. I have Creme Brulee, Coco Cream, and Irish Cream soaking now, in Everclear. I did not use the blender on these. I just put 15 g of tobacco in the Ball jars and covered it with Everclear.
I’ll see what it looks & smells like after one 12 hour session in the slow cooker, and see if I want to do more.
Making progress, learning as I go!
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That’s what it’s all about! That and doing it your way!
Soon as I get a break at the theatre, I’ll get back to my NET’s; still have a Perique and a Latakia to work on! 
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Yum. Do you have actual Perique tobacco??? Sir, you must let me know where to get it as I am a Perique F R E A K. My two favorite pipes await your reply.
I love Latakia too, but Perique. . .was my very first love.
I get my loose tobacco for NET from a tobacconist a few blocks from my home for now. Eventually, I want to give leafonly.com a try. They have about anything you can imagine in raw form.
After the 12 hrs at 150 degrees, and 12 hrs at room temp, the three latest NETS were pretty dark. I decided that was enough. Once each, through a coffee filter, and they are now in the freezer for 2 days.
120 ml of my beaten / blender batches are 1 month into their steep, and 300 ml in the freezer.
I have enough tobacco left for about five 100 ml batches, but I’m going to need more Everclear. I’m hoping the three in the freezer turn out as tasty as the ones steeping. If so, I’m going to ramp up the production a bit, and try and build up a little stash.
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Awesome!
Winterization does a lot to get rid of coil gunking properties of your NET. I usually am very gentle with the jar and try not to disturb the sediment; even have to leave behind a few ml of NET as not to reintroduce the muck into the final filtering process.
Good luck! Hope it turns out great!
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Thanks Jim. I was debating how to transfer it, during the next filtering stage, just for that reason. Thanks for confirming. I think I’ll us a 10 ml syringe and just take my time, and work my way to the bottom. Sacrificing a few mil for the greater good is worth it.
Maybe you, or someone else who reads this, can shed some light on something else. It’s about using the nicotine test kits out there. I know the test process is based on the color change of the test kit solution. When one is testing something as dark as my NETs (pic attached), how in the world would a color change be noticed?
I thought about reducing the test sample to something ‘lighter’, like 10% NET & 90% PG (or some similar ratio) in order to see the color change. Then multiply by 10 to get the result for the NET itself???
I’ve tried searching other NET threads, but opinions about the nic strengths in NETs are all over the map. There are as many opinions as there are solvent & extraction methods.
Here is the color of the last batch. The recent ones in the freezer don’t seem to be much lighter at this point.
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In my opinion, any NET you produce using a heated method is going to turn out dark, as you have pictured. The cold (freezer) ethanol method produces a much lighter and less coil gunking NET; that and filtering the crap out of the NET!
Nic volume in NET:
I really haven’t been too concerned with this factor. From what I’ve read, getting proper Nic levels with a NET takes a special type of voodoo titration kit. 
There’s a thread on ECF that deals with this and it’s been such a long time since I’ve read it I can’t remember the end results with the testing procedure. All I know is, if I don’t get a sickening nicotine high after 3 X 10 to 15 pulls in succession, the Nic levels have to be below, say 10mg/ml. This is evidence I’ve discovered over time when doing taste testing of my own non-NET mixes which have a level of 10mg Nic; nicotine which was physically added to the mix by me.
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Have another batch of NET in the crock pot.
I had 15 grams of Irish Cram, Creme Brulee, and Coco Cream. Also had some Rum Maple & Cavendish, that when combined, was 15 grams. Combined 15 grams of RYO natural tobacco to each of the four pipe blends, and put that in Ball jars, and covered them with Everclear. I brought the blender out again, for this batch.
Ended up with 250 ml of unfiltered NET, in each of the Ball jars.
Curious to see what the 50/50 pipe/RYO combination will taste like. I’ll do the coffee filtering tomorrow.
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Well, that was a huge fail.
I usually put something like a plastic fork, under the edge of the crock pot lid, to control the temperature, and keep it at 150 or so. I forgot the fork.
When I checked it this morning, the water was doing a low boil, and the Everclear had all evaporated from the Ball jars. That made them float off the bottom of the crock pot and lean to one side. When I lifted the lid, one fell over and took on a bunch of water. Two others just have damp tobacco in them, and one has just a bit of Everclear left in it.
In the name of experimentation, I decided to re-cover the tobacco with PG, in the three jars that didn’t take on water, and put it back in the crock pot (with fork under the lid). What the hell, I’m in this deep. Whats a little PG and a few coffee filters?
The Everclear must have extracted something that was just absorbed back into the tobacco. When I added the PG and gave it a little stir, the PG went pretty dark, almost instantly.
If nothing else, it will be information gathered, and a lesson learned. Maybe that was the missing step to perfection!
As the saying goes, when dealt lemons, make lemonade. Lets see what happens.
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That’s what it’s all about! Life is pretty much…live and learn! I remember that when my Mom said “you don’t ever want to put your hand on a stove eye honey!”
…I did it anyway! 
=:confounded:
Keep calm and NET ON !
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Finished my 1.5 micron vacuum filtering, on my latest experiment. I ended up with about 225 ml of very dark NET.
I sampled it in a dripper, but the NET itself was just too potent, and the dripper, as usual, was too strong as well. I just don’t get along well with drippers. I haven’t met one yet, that wasn’t too strong for me.
I decided to try the NET like a flavoring. I made a little 3 ml mix, with my normal base. 60V / 40P, .4 nic. I added 2.5 % Hangsen No 5, and 2.5% NET. I chose No 5 because it’s not a potent flavor. Good but not overpowering.
It’s a pretty darn good vape. I dry burned the coil, and put in fresh cotton, so I’ll be able to see how gunky the coil is, when I’m finished.
Over all I’m optimistic, considering how this batch started off on the wrong foot. Considering it’s only a week old, it should get even better. I’m actually kind of excited, that I produced something that’s almost strong enough to hold it’s own with an actual flavoring, when used in equal amounts. The flavor of the NET is right there, with the Hangsen, in the mix. You can definitely tell it’s there.
That brings my total NET stash up to about 800 ml or so.
This fail turned into a win, in my book. I’m looking forward to seeing how it turns out in a couple of months.
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