Can One Use a Coffee-Grinder for a CWE?

[ZugZug]

Swim was wondering, if he uses a coffee grinder to grind his pills will that make the resulting powder to fine and cause to much acetaminophen to pass through his coffee filter?

[Nagognog2]

First off - no. Solubility is not affected by the size of the particles and a coffee filter should be okay. But it's overkill. Two pieces of paper and a rolling-pin is ample.

Secondly - thread title changed:

From the rules:

• Use descriptive Topic Subject. This will help others find what they want to read. Topics with bad Topic subjects may be deleted! - there's nothing more annoying than looking at all those stupid "A stupid question" subject lines. I mean, I'm damn lazy, but how hard is it to type "A stupid question about (insert something here)"? As a rule of thumb, most thread titles should include the full name of the drug discussed.

A rule many tend to forget will cause a mass of warnings soon...Rules are here:

http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/ann...t.php?f=43&a=1

[Tortoise]

Originally Posted by ZugZug

Swim was wondering, if he uses a coffee grinder to grind his pills will that make the resulting powder to fine and cause to much acetaminophen to pass through his coffee filter?

Not at all. But I agree that it is overkill, in fact Swim throws the pills in whole and just lets them dissolve. No prior crushing necessary. This does work better with cartain brands, some take ages to dissolve and Swim informs me that he avoids those brands.

[samuraigecko]

Originally Posted by ZugZug

Swim was wondering, if he uses a coffee grinder to grind his pills will that make the resulting powder to fine and cause to much acetaminophen to pass through his coffee filter?

There are both right and wrong in two things.
it probably is overkill, crushing the pill is probably all that is necessary.

the smaller the particles the greater the surface area contact.

EXAMPLE: one large pill will have a smaller surface area than A LOT of smaller particles of equal weight / volume.

The only reason for the smaller particles is that solubility occurs quicker because of the higher total surface area in contact with the liquid or whatever one is using for extraction.

It is probably better to keep the grind up a little coarse because it is the water solubles you want and not the precipitates which are not water soluble. If you make the particles TOO small you may have precipitate which will make it through a fine filter.

hope that has been of some help. cheers