Caulk Gun Tek
As found on HRT Cafeā.
Please read my critique of HRT Cafe brew methodology before investing too much time on their site.
Required: Combine this tek with the closed vial tek and the bubble compression tek
Items Needed
- Caulk gun
- Test tube stand or similar way to mount caulk gun
- Optional: plastic or wood to keep syringe in place
Technique
You can use a caulk gun to help you push the plunger on a syringe filter. Mount your caulk gun to a test tube stand or similar, place the syringe into the gun, leaving around 10mL of air, and filling the rest with your preparation. The caulk gun will push the plunger, which will slowly compress the air. The compressed air will push the preparation through the filter.
Fit a piece of wood or plastic around the opening of the caulk gun to help the syringe stay in place and not get pushed through when youāre triggering it
When you mount the syringe into the gun, you want to make sure the syringe filter is not inside the caulk gun itself, but is safely outside the body.
Filter into a 100mL vial like you normally would by hand, also remembering to use a vent needle in your vial.
I personally use 10mL of air in my syringe, and then compress that down to about 5mL of air. This creates a pocket of pressurized air that is strong enough to push the preparation through the filter but not so strong that it breaks the filter.
Then, around every 90 seconds, I find that I just have to trigger the caulk gun a little bit more to keep up with that target of 5mL of air.