Just stood on this
Way to put your foot down, bro! The foot has spoken!
Hi Herb, I hope you will report all steps of your method when you'll finally find the best working one!
Aside the nice appeal what were your intentions to do that? Just optical reasons or effects too?
You bet I'll post more information in my usual haunt when I've decided on the best method
This is mostly experimenting with consistency at this stage, but there are some other phenomena I am looking at here for my own creations.
That's interesting, does immature resin means clear vs. cloudy trichomes?
I also grow and I'm still struggling a bit to judge when it's time to harvest.
Clear trichomes are generally going to be immature still, if they are all clear. The size of trichomes is also a major factor. It can be helpful to identify your glandular stalked trichomes and sessile trichomes on the same part of the plant under high magnification. In most cases IME, a mature glandular stalked trichome found in your nugs (the ball part on the end of the stalk) should be much, much larger than stalkless, sessile trichomes found on the distal leaves. Mature glandular stalked trichomes are recognized in the literature to be ~8x larger than sessile trichomes.
Remember, the color of your trichomes may owe to excessive light exposure, too much heat or other factors. It is not just the color that is important. Color, size, smell and taste are all crucial. Generally, you should aim for the late end of the flowering period recommended by the seed bank. Most of the development of the glandular stalked trichomes takes place very late in flower. If you cut down too soon, you will have drastically less resin in the same flower - this is very wasteful of your efforts.
No hair straightener will ever compete with a full built tonnage press. Laws of physics. One thing to note, is to ask these guys to do a complete video from start to finish. I bet their yields are a little over stated. Who am I to second guess the internet and all it's truth?
Actually, most hair straightener's won't even survive a 1 ton vise IME. Don't use a bottlejack press or hydraulic/pneumatic press with straighteners people!
@herbivore21
Yes we agree there too. Colour doesn't indicate quality despite the Instagram culture of hypercriticism.
But it is appealing to the eye and commands a better price.
Although I hope to turn that around with a cob cure of racey narrow leaf.
I tend to press below 200, rarely cured and the majority of it budders.
But as mentioned above, you seem to have a different consistency there.
My favourite rosin was vine dried untrimmed and cured 12wks. Never buddered, medium orange pull and snap.
lol you're right about instagram etc, I stay far, far away from social media cannabis communities.
By the way, IME full melt hash always comes out darker than rosin from the same material. That full melt hash is also always better looking to the eye than any rosin, and commands a much higher price
As you say, color doesn't necessarily matter a damn so long as the goods are there. IME any expert extractor knows this.
I too prefer cured material for pressing. What is interesting is that the color does not continue to change past that orange color IME during curing. I have flowers that have cured for 2+ years that still squish a pale orange!
I have little interest in live resin or fresh frozen. Too harsh on the throat for my liking, and the flavor is less developed. Cured resins, especially when made into full melt give a much richer, spicier, creamier aroma. They develop a perfume-like smell that just doesn't come out of live/recently harvested material.
What do you guys recommend for a cheap way to multiply force? Bench vice? Vice grip? Quick Grip? Arbor Press?
I was going to get a Quick Grip
@hashmasta kut style, but then I actually saw a post from him in this thread where he mentioned switching to an Irwin 11sp c clamp vice grip and getting better results. Then I see an Arbor press can be found for $20 more with quite a bit more pressure. I don't have room for a 10 ton at home so I'm looking for the next best. Thanks!
I only recommend vice grips, not actual bench vises or other larger presses, which will get too much pressure and damage the straightener. Check out that irwin one.
Actually, this is not the case. 10 tons = 20000 pounds. The psi is a measurement of pressure applied over a surface area, which is the latter part of the equation.
5" plates = 1018psi over area.
If you were pressing a 5 square inch puck, you would get 1018psi. The plates are not what you should measure when determining the force being brought to bear on your nug. The surface area of the puck is the appropriate measure for that equation.
If you have less pressure and less surface area on your press/plates, you simply need to squish less nug at a time. It may be more work, but you do not need to waste anything. I use a 2000 pound vise with 2" round plates at 190-200f depending on what I am doing. I can completely dry out a .4-.5g nug in a single press. 16-20% yield, flatter than 2mm, dry with no visible resin coverage when looked at with a microscope under 300x magnification.
A straightener can certainly dry out a similarly sized nug, but it will take 2-3 presses and will require more effort to control temps depending on the straightener. I must highlight that I have used a small handful of straighteners that allow you do set 230f-240f and maintain that temp reasonably accurately. For a very occasional dabber's personal stash, this is no problem at all.
Somebody with 10 pounds to squish would not use a straightener or even a vise press like I use. They would be buying a larger press that is tried and true from an established vendor (you do not fuck around when you need to press that kind of quantity!).
An Irwin clamp and the PTC heaters from a straightener (1-1.5in/sq) can give 400-600 PSI.
As above, this is not the way to calculate PSI man.
PTC from a straightener? Are you serious? They are the most unstable platforms for temp! The ramp and overshoot are ridiculous compared to a quality PID controller. Go ahead, tell me differently.
While you are right that straighteners do not do a great job of controlling temp most of the time, surely you can concede that if one uses external temp measurement (like a meat thermometer) that one can achieve the temp they want with a straightener sufficiently for personal occasional use?
I have not nor ever built a 70 dollar press... you are right, I don't know. I don't shop at the thrift store either. I build quality commercial Rosin presses. That is what I know. Anyone that is looking to build a $70 press IS CONCERNED about quantity of their yield. Do you think that a guy with 10lbs of bud is going to go to the thrift store and build a 1" square press? No.... He will call me
Man you have spent a lot of time repping your product in this thread and thumbing your nose at smaller scale options for personal squishers.
In my understanding, FC rules require that manufacturers should keep this sort of commentary to a thread that is
specifically and centrally about their own product only.
See the following quotes from the rules (
http://fuckcombustion.com/rules/commercial/):
- Don’t post about your product in any thread where your product isn’t the primary and central topic of discussion.
- Don’t post about any product you don’t make unless it’s a 100% positive post.
This means it might be worth making a thread for your own presses rather than continuing to talk about the selling points of your product here - just a thought man. Also it really doesn't help to get into these kinds of disputes with the community if you are a vendor, especially if you are berating the methods of people who clearly aren't pressing enough volume to consider your product in the first place
Just to clarify, I am obviously not a mod. Still, this discussion is really being derailed from general discussion of rosin tek and I thought it might be relevant to mention this here.
I give props to my old friend Hashtag (who no longer posts here) every day for that one, and to his mentor, Frenchie Cannoli who passed this on to him IIRC.