can someone please say something about the plastic parts? it seems like a no-no to use regular plastics like that,when the product is going inside your body. so this is some resin? can i also ask who supplies stilldragon with hardware? or do you make all in house? looks really nice! ps-did you say anything about this as a continuous still?
Hello, Yes there will likely always be an ongoing debate about the use of silicone. Here is a commentary by James Bedner about the topic of using silicone: "The irony of all of this is that silicone is widely used for intravenous catheters, and are routinely used to administer drugs that use either alcohol carriers, or sterilants. The level of scrutiny, testing, and research around medical devices, especially those that are intended to be physically inserted INTO YOUR BLOODSTREAM is far more rigorous than anything else, period. Silicone is the most widely used plastic tubing in pharmaceutical manufacturing today, hands down. This is widely studied because of something called an “Ethanol Lock”, where ethanol is injected into central line catheters (the ones that go all the way into your god damned heart) to sterilize it and ensure it doesn’t become infected. The ethanol is intended to stay in the catheter until it’s used to inject something else, hence the “lock”. Sorry, if there was even the slightest inkling of anything being concerning about ethanol and silicone, this would not be a standard medical practice. For example: analyticalsciencejournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/rcm.2837 Mass spectrometry and scanning electron microscopy study of silicone tunneled dialysis catheter integrity after an exposure of 15 days to 60% ethanol solution Scanning electron microscopy (magnification 1000-20 000 times) of the inner surface of the catheter revealed no damage to the lumen surfaces of catheters immersed in 95% ethanol for 15 days compared with the reference catheter. Ok, so you have 95% alcohol, total immersion (which doesn’t happen with gaskets), and you had no damage? This was inspected with a god damned scanning electron microscope. But sure, some dude with a home-brew still in his garage spitting on flour to make a seal is going to be the arbiter of chemical compatibility? Here’s another one, this one was 70% or 10 weeks, 70 days. www.cambridge.org/core/journals/infection-control-and-hospital-epidemiology/article/abs/effects-of-prolonged-ethanol-exposure-on-the-mechanical-properties-of-polyurethane-and-silicone-catheters-used-for-intravascular-access/AA23636265A54B06A733729BE698D63C The Effects of Prolonged Ethanol Exposure on the Mechanical Properties of Polyurethane and Silicone Catheters Used for Intravascular Access These data indicate that exposure to a 70% ethanol lock solution does not appreciably alter the integrity of selected commercial polyetherurethane and silicone catheters. There are also other studies that indicate that any leaching that might occur from Silicone happens in the first 4 hours. So pre-soaking your gaskets in high proof for a few hours before washing and placing in use can be an effective technique in removing the vast majority of potential extractables/leachables. Heat simply accelerates any potential degradation that may occur. Gaskets are wear items and are intended to be replaced. If someone has concerns, simply replacing them more regularly will go a long way to eliminate any potential degradation."
Does the column offer the same control you can get out of using a column still like the one behind you? Say for example I want more aroma but lower proof, does this system give me that flexibility?
Hi Sgt! Please shoot us an email at smaug@stilldragon.com to discuss the setup. We'd be happy to get this rolling for you! You can also find published prices at www.stilldragon.com
