Stuffing coffee filter in tube BLOW OUT

andlund0930

Active Member
Thought this was worth a post. Ive read about alot of guys putting a coffee filter in their blasting tube first to act as a diffuser. So i balled one up and put it into the end of my tube. This particular tube is 1 inch in diameter and pretty thick glass. Anyways i got to blasting and first thing i noticed is how slow it took the butane to make it through the tube and when it finally started it was a trickle of a stream. I tried to re-position where i stuck the butane and all of a sudden "pop!!" Where the butane enters the whole broke and sent a gnarly piece of glass flying. I guess if it aint broke don't fix it. Never had probs before this. I was so pissed just happy it didnt turn out worse. Like glass in the eye! Anywho thought it was worth a post. Def never doing that again. :dunce:
 
ive had this happen to a couple glass-on-glass tube tips from extraction experts , the tips are weak so i have my glass guy make solid ones, i didn't have a coffee filter packed in there ,,, but it happens, one reason i like the glass-on-glass although i think have to have him heat the older tubes up if i ever want to replace the tips ,,, they are really stuck in there now, anyway , here's some pics of a busted tip :)
dump 09092012 070.jpg dump 09092012 069.jpg
 

BluJayz

Well-Known Member
Let me be a positive word for the filter....

With a 1'' tube we would cut out only the center of a 12 cup filter and lay it over the lip using the dowel to push it to the bottom. The purpose is to prevent a direct back pressure spray of tane or leaf into your face so you don't need too much in there just enough to break a stream.

You might of had trouble because you used the whole filter? Maybe packed too tight? We have done this since run #1 and yet to break a one piece tube for that reason.
 

Fadedawg

Well-Known Member
We had conchoidal divots flake out from around the injection hole until we redesigned our injection end to be a full radius arch.

I've fractured tubes made by others because they weren't fully annealed after forming. Check your tube with a polarized light to see if yours has been.
 

budbro18

Well-Known Member
You could get stainless steel wool? Not sure what grade but i see stuff like that being used for closed loop and all stainless blast tubes. Not sure the quality you need or the quality youll be able to find but steel wool would be a good meshy thing to put at the bottom to help disperse the load on the coffee filter and possible help prevent clogging. Ive debated using it when i want to blast but dont have enough to fill the tube. But i never know which steel wool would be best or worst or react.

So FD if you know let us know!
 

andlund0930

Active Member
Ya i was pretty surprised when it happened. I figured i probably over stuffed it or balled it too tight. Which was certainly the case. I brought it back to the guy who made it and he gave me another half price and wants me to bring in the busted one so he can improve it. He felt partly responsible yet i blame him not. I def balled that fucker tight and stuffed it in there. Needless to say i ran a new run last night with 9 grams of blue dream and wound up with 1.9 grams super nice oil. 21% return make me mucho happy. Its hard to get the good quality buds around here in Wisco that can even hit 20%. AND btw....i omitted the coffee filter this run haha.
 

budbro18

Well-Known Member
Yeah especially if you dewax you only need like a 50u screen. Thats what i use and anything that slips through gets caught in the coffee filter after being dewaxed.
 

Twitch

Well-Known Member
ive had this happen to a couple glass-on-glass tube tips from extraction experts , the tips are weak so i have my glass guy make solid ones, i didn't have a coffee filter packed in there ,,, but it happens, one reason i like the glass-on-glass although i think have to have him heat the older tubes up if i ever want to replace the tips ,,, they are really stuck in there now, anyway , here's some pics of a busted tip :)
View attachment 2979071 View attachment 2979076
lol i have one made by that cheap ass company, it blew up in my face i shit you not, just straight tubes for me
 

Fadedawg

Well-Known Member
When I use an open tube, I stretch a couple coffee filters over the bottom, and cover them with a piece of silk screen, so that they can't rupture. The flare on the end, along with the clamp, keeps the filters in place, and I stopped having blowouts once I started doing so.

I also start with a waded up filter packed against the injection end, so as to diffuse the butane over the whole tube, and to keep plant material from blowing back if I release the injection pressure.
 

andlund0930

Active Member
That was the logic i had FD and its still makes sense to me, even tho i am weary to try it again. When extracting espresso, you get a much more quality shot when you do two things, buy the best diffuser possible to get the most even flow, as well as we would pre infuse the shot with very, very light pressure, only enough to get the grounds wet before we would run the high pressure for the pull. I believe there is a good correlation here. I actually have been thinking about pulsing the butane until everything looks saturated and then blast for 10 seconds-20 seconds and see if there is any noticeable difference. Im also a coffee geek haha. FD when you wad that paper up do ya keep it relativity loose? and if not and in fact it was nice and tight the way i assume it would be, could it just be bad quality glass blowing that led to the blow out and fracture?
 

Fadedawg

Well-Known Member
That was the logic i had FD and its still makes sense to me, even tho i am weary to try it again. When extracting espresso, you get a much more quality shot when you do two things, buy the best diffuser possible to get the most even flow, as well as we would pre infuse the shot with very, very light pressure, only enough to get the grounds wet before we would run the high pressure for the pull. I believe there is a good correlation here. I actually have been thinking about pulsing the butane until everything looks saturated and then blast for 10 seconds-20 seconds and see if there is any noticeable difference. Im also a coffee geek haha. FD when you wad that paper up do ya keep it relativity loose? and if not and in fact it was nice and tight the way i assume it would be, could it just be bad quality glass blowing that led to the blow out and fracture?
Not bad quality, just a bad design. After we went to a full radius arch, of uniform thickness, the problem went away.

We have our stuff made by a scientific glass shop, but did pick up some tubes from a artistic glass blower once, and they were not fully annealed after forming, so they didn't last long.
 

Blazin Purps

Well-Known Member
ive had this happen to a couple glass-on-glass tube tips from extraction experts , the tips are weak so i have my glass guy make solid ones, i didn't have a coffee filter packed in there ,,, but it happens, one reason i like the glass-on-glass although i think have to have him heat the older tubes up if i ever want to replace the tips ,,, they are really stuck in there now, anyway , here's some pics of a busted tip :)
View attachment 2979071 View attachment 2979076
Same thing here with extraction experts their tips are garbage I have gone through so many of those. After going through 10-15 I finally got a random tip from them that has not broken in the last 50 or so extractions but when it breaks I will be changing tubes.
 

blackforest

Well-Known Member
I take like about 1/8 of a filter, just lightly ball it up and toss it in. As long as it covers the hole up, I've been fine.
 

Fadedawg

Well-Known Member
That was the logic i had FD and its still makes sense to me, even tho i am weary to try it again. When extracting espresso, you get a much more quality shot when you do two things, buy the best diffuser possible to get the most even flow, as well as we would pre infuse the shot with very, very light pressure, only enough to get the grounds wet before we would run the high pressure for the pull. I believe there is a good correlation here. I actually have been thinking about pulsing the butane until everything looks saturated and then blast for 10 seconds-20 seconds and see if there is any noticeable difference. Im also a coffee geek haha. FD when you wad that paper up do ya keep it relativity loose? and if not and in fact it was nice and tight the way i assume it would be, could it just be bad quality glass blowing that led to the blow out and fracture?
I wad it up and pack it along with the material.
 
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