Well, keep in mind that both have their advantages and disadvantages. It sort of dawned on me when piuiher mentioned the speed of HCl production via H2SO4/NaCl. The speed at which HCl is produce by the reaction between H2SO4 and NaCl is slower but really manageable. The first time I ever did this I wasn't really sure how exactly to proceed so I made my system in a fashion that made sense to me. So I put together the whole distillation set-up. This was a long time ago but let me see if memory serves. This meant I put the whole thing together. So first a lab stand was brought in and then a 500ml round bottom flask which was about half full with NaCl was clamped to the stand. On top of the 500ml boiling flask was fitted with a claisen adapter. On top of the Claisen adapter is obviously the need to fit two pieces. On the side arm of the adapter was placed a dropping funnel with H2SO4. The top of the adapter was fitted with a distillation head (75 degree adapter) and a stopper/plug on top of that. Now I was ready for the west condenser. First, notice that pretty much every West condenser in the world has these three glass prongs in it so that the condenser can be used for more than just a condenser. In this instance I added a small piece of cotton but, in retrospect, just a small piece of tissue paper would have worked just as well. Now the condenser was filled about 80% of the way with CaCl2 and this made for a decent drying tube. Now the vacuum adapter was fitted and clamped. I used a piece of surgical tubing and placed that, somehow, on the end of the vacuum adapter. Okay, so now this whole giant set-up with way, WAY too many pieces was brought to a level where the tubing was about over the xylene/MDMA solution. Now all that remained was to let in H2SO4 as needed to produce HCl gas and lead it out to the beaker holding the goods. There were several problems with this set-up/ One it had too many parts. If I had done it this way more than a few times I would have surely started breaking pieces. Second, surgical tubing is a little soluble in xylene, so towards the end of the gassing my tube was dissolving at an alarming rate into the mess of MDMA/MDMA.HCl/xylene/latex surgical tubing. Go-go gadget acetone ;-)! The advantage was that I could easily control the amount of HCl being produced in the system by just adding H2SO4 slowly. Overall, if I hadn't abandon H2SO4/NaCl, I would have had to streamline that whole set-up but the advantage of producing gas according to my needs was a plus.
When you produce it with CaCl2 and HCl(aq) the whole thing gets simpler...or it gets simpler than my overly complex monstrosity of a system. Instead of a boiling flask ye ol' 1.5 liter water bottle is used. Now, keep in mind that when you add HCl(aq) to CaCl2 you get lots and LOTS of HCl very quickly. Also, even though the HCl(g) starts to get produced more slowly with time, if you need to slow it down considerably to say filter out some of the MDxx.HCl, there is no way. The only way to stop the production of HCl gas in this set-up is to quench the whole thing with water and start over. Anyway, all one need do with this is fill a 1.5 liter water bottle 1/2 to 2/3rds full with CaCl2. I used to use lots of 19/22 glassware, so this sort of utilizes that. On top of the bottle was placed a 24/40 to 19/22 bushing adapter and this was taped together with electrical tape. Now I placed a 19/22 distillation head (75 degree adapter) on top of that. A plug was added to the top of the distillation head and electrical tape was used to keep that in place as well as seal leaks. Now a West condenser was fitted with some tissue paper (just enough to keep the CaCl2 from falling through end of the West condenser) and the condenser is filled with CaCl2. This was taped, again with electrical tape, tightly to keep the condenser in place as well as to keep HCl(g) on the right path by stopping leaks. To the end of the condenser was added a piece of polyethylene tubing and that was taped in place very securely. Notice the only part of this whole set-up that I not taped together well is the place between the bushing adapter and the distillation head. This is so that you can add 31% HCl(aq) as you desire. This system works well enough. Just make sure that the amount of HCl(aq) you add is small in the beginning. The speed at which HCl(g) will evolve will depend upon how much HCl(aq) you add and the size of CaCl2 you are using. In the U.S. the CaCl2 that is available without going to a lab supply company is medium sized chucks. Traditionally adding 50ml of 31% was not too much for the CaCl2 that was being used but if you had finely powdered CaCl2 it'd all happen way too fast and much less HCl(aq) would need to be added. Just go slowly until you figure it out...like add small amounts at first...10ml or so. Otherwise you won't be able to keep the thing together and the last thing you want is to make a HCl(g) bomb!!! Also, you must blow a small amount of air through the whole apparatus first to make sure gasses may flow through this thing before you start adding HCl(aq). Otherwise, again, you won't be able to keep this thing together.
Moriarty
