Just digged through the forum, and cannot find this particular thing, so I will leave it there as an idea for people with tight budget (like me in the beginning). Or without access to proper labware.
It happened to me, that I had no access to Buchner funnels, despite owning filtering flask. This thing just do not perform that well as original Buchner (I think this is obvious from the first sight
), but it serves much better than dripping the solution through the fluted filter for hours.
1L HDPE bottle, cut into three pieces (depending on how deep you want it to be at the end), and small holes are punctured through the bottom with hot needle. Than sand the inside to flatten the surface as much as you can. Do not use larger holes than are seen on original Buchner filters. Otherwise the suction will tear the filter.
As you press the neck and bottom parts together, fitting isn´t perfect - it will obviously leak air and do not hold vacuum for long. This is somewhat helpful accidentally - deeper vacuum you have, more pressure is applied to the flat bottom, meaning thinner HDPE plasic could tear apart. But it never happened to me, using this DIY gadget for few years
I do not recommend use similar principle for building bigger things, like from 2,5 or 5L bottles, as the surface area of the bottom will be very wide, and it will bend badly, and possibly break apart.
On the top of all disadvantages, there is one advantage over typical ceramic Buchner - this one you can dissasemble and properly clean from the inside if needed
Be safe and happy refining
It happened to me, that I had no access to Buchner funnels, despite owning filtering flask. This thing just do not perform that well as original Buchner (I think this is obvious from the first sight
), but it serves much better than dripping the solution through the fluted filter for hours.1L HDPE bottle, cut into three pieces (depending on how deep you want it to be at the end), and small holes are punctured through the bottom with hot needle. Than sand the inside to flatten the surface as much as you can. Do not use larger holes than are seen on original Buchner filters. Otherwise the suction will tear the filter.
As you press the neck and bottom parts together, fitting isn´t perfect - it will obviously leak air and do not hold vacuum for long. This is somewhat helpful accidentally - deeper vacuum you have, more pressure is applied to the flat bottom, meaning thinner HDPE plasic could tear apart. But it never happened to me, using this DIY gadget for few years
I do not recommend use similar principle for building bigger things, like from 2,5 or 5L bottles, as the surface area of the bottom will be very wide, and it will bend badly, and possibly break apart.
On the top of all disadvantages, there is one advantage over typical ceramic Buchner - this one you can dissasemble and properly clean from the inside if needed
Be safe and happy refining
