ABV Concentrate experiment: What method is best?

I was very concerned about this when i was doing the washes also, but in the end the results spoke for themselves. the return remained the same.

yep i did that for my abv too. cookie sheet in the oven at the lowest setting. 5 min in, pull out turn and let it sit out 5-10 min. then repeat until dry. your house might smell like abv for a lil bit lol

the key for doing a QW is to get it out of solution quickly. the bag won't help you here. the best way is to use a double straining technique. get a cup with a funnel and your coffee filter ready. then also use a big bowl/dish and a pasta strainer to strain your abv quickly. then dump that solution into the coffee filter setup and purge (I recommend a hot water bath, using an electric frying pan outside)
iso boils at: 82.5° C (180.5° F) so you don't really need to go hotter than that unless you have water in your solution too. but it will also evap given time!

^^^ that's almost my exact QW process. except instead of a pasta strainer, I use a coarse metal strainer for the primary filter. I don't use any heat during the purge until all the liquid's gone, unless I'm in a big hurry. Typically I just point a small fan at the collection pan, which greatly accelerates evaporation.

Are you making BHO and the washing with Ethanol filtering and evaporating that?
Since you have refined you process Weedemon could you lay out you process has refined? Sorry if I missed it earlier.

yep, i do a bho run on the abv first (no water cure)

then i dissolve the bho in ethanol, i let it sit so the fats will come out(30 min to an hour), and then i filter it, I see a sludge in my filter paper after and the solution is clear again. i then purge it like normal and enjoy!

I've had problems with every chemical extract irritating my lungs. But I think I'll give this a try. Do purge your ethanol until dry or do you leave it sort of sticky.
One more thing. Previously you've stated that you won't use your extracts in food due to contaminates, etc. Do you think that this purges it adequately?

Yes I think this is a great way to purge.

1. when you dissolve the bho into ethanol. the butane is in such a runny liquid it will easily all boil out of solution (don't worry we are talking tiny tiny fractional amounts of residual butane no worry of explosions, but the ethanol is flammable too remember!)

2. when i purge my ethanol in a hot water bath outside using my electric frying pan there is a very obvious smell to it. once this is gone (for my batches usually 15 minutes) I go another 15. I could probably stop once the smell is gone, but I want to be a little extra cautious. (I bet to lose a little flavour due to this extended time too)

if you wish you can do an overn purge too, but i don't think it's needed.

I just want to clarify there is a lot less that comes out in the ethanol solution compared to if this bho was made from buds (instead of abv like we are talking about here). this process is worth it though imo.

Great thread, just joined up.

Weedemon,
Are you using a tube extractor?

Is there anything special I need to look out for when buying ethanol?
like common contaminants to stop ingestion or anything similar?
I've got approx 100g of ABV stored up, and I'm thinking that a BHO->Ethanol run is the best wy to use it

Just make sure it's undenatured and has a materials safety data sheet to confirm.

I've always used Decon Labs 190 proof. MSDS and technical information are at the bottom of the page.

even if your ethanol does contain the contaminants to stop you from drinking them, as long as you go beyond the boiling point of the highest point then you will boil it off too!, but if you can get ethanol that has not been denatured then that is ideal I couldn't find it locally myself.

I am debating between doing a BHO extraction with a wash or without a wash. Is it really worth the extra time and effort? Is the flavor that much better? Also if I do a wash, should I do a quick wash or a longer wash for a few days?

i don't bother with doing water cure wash anymore. it's jut too time consuming for me.

just do the extraction you will get a nutty tasting oil with a kind dry and a little more harsh finish than "good" oil will leave you with. add a coffee filter with your mesh to catch more particulate than just the mesh would do.

yes a glass blown one for larger batches, and i used to use a glass turkey baster until i broke it one day. i never replaced the smaller one but if i did i would get a stainless steel one instead.

personally i'd avoid plastic ones

Thanks for the tips. That is pretty much what I wanted to hear. I don't mind the nutty taste too much. I can get good hash oil from the dispensary. I just want to get the must out of my ABV with out having to bake with it... I hate baking and eating medicine. I figured BHO would give me more potent results then the ISO or a Glycerin Tincture.

I figured it would do well enough in my ThermoVape Revolution.

yeah i also much much prefer this over eating it too! potent oil that gets you riiiipppped! yes please!

you probably read about it but do an ethanol wash on it after you run it, to clean up your oil. it's better imo.

personally, i think the revolution is better suited to more pure oils. you may find this stuff clogs up your rev and recuses performance. thats what happeend to me. havent been able to get it clean enough to get it back to how it was before that... but you are welcome to try it. user beware

I was also using a glass turkey baster, but I since had a custom piece blown for me, been using it for years now. I was gifted a pump and desiccator for my birthday last year and I've been trying to refine my techniques ever since.

This past month I started putting my extractor in a polypropylene bag and submerging it in a dry ice/acetone cooling bath for five minutes to bring the plant material/extractor tube down to -75 deg. celcius, then run butane through it, I get an increase from 7-10%. I'm thinking about changing up my technique, though. I really like what I've seen/read from the soak method, but I don't like the idea of using a thermos.

I plan to get a magnetic stirring plate, a large volume Pyrex beaker and a large volume wide-mouthed Pyrex Erlenmeyer flask with a threaded polypropylene cap to drill holes for butane and ventilation.

First, I would put my butane cans in the freezer for 24 hours. Then I would put the magnetic stirrer into the Erlenmeyer flask and set the flask inside of the beaker so it's sitting on the bottom, fill the beaker with acetone and add dry ice.

Next, I'd break apart plant material/flowers, load up the flask and screw the cap on. By this point the flask should be well below the boiling point of butane, so I would take butane out of the freezer and empty it through the cap and into the Erlenmeyer flask, then turn on the stirring plate.

After about 45 minutes have passed, I would pour 95%-100% undenatured ethanol into a Pyrex measuring cup, then bring it to a boil in the microwave and let it simmer down. All of the oils should be well extracted and dissolved into the butane by now, so I'd remove the flask from the beaker and let it warm up. As soon as the butane starts to bubble, pour the solution through a fine strainer and into the measuring cup of hot ethanol.

When the cold butane mixes with the hot ethanol, the butane will start to evaporate through the liquid solution. This way, the oils in the butane won't have time to solidify because they are simultaneously being dissolved in ethanol, which helps when trying to purge all butane.

Once all of the butane has boiled out of the ethanol, I would coagulate the fats/waxes/lipids, pour the solution through a filter and into a Pyrex pie plate. Because of the small amount of ethanol used and the high surface area due to using a pie plate, a thin film vacuum purge is ideal. Place the pie plate in vacuum chamber, bring pressure down to 29 in Hg and the ethanol and water will boil off, with only the hash oils remaining. Remove from vacuum chamber, heat the oil to a viscous state and vacuum purge one last time.

The end product should be the cleanest most absolute BHO I've made yet.

any other tips for the ethanol wash. It might not be as easy to get the ethanol in my state. I was looking around for more info for it. Sometimes it is so hard to find the stuff buried in this forum.

I had a couple question about the BHO tube. I got a couple of nice tubes for the extraction. One is smaller one is larger. How tight does the material need to be packed? Can there be space at the top, or does it need to be full packed? Do I need to pack it down tight, or just dump in the chamber and let it be sort of loose.

I was looking into how to find the ethanol but I can't seem to get much luck here in my area.

Is this a product that will work:

http://www.gelfuelethanolfireplace....hanol-fireplace.asp?utm_source=GoogleMerchant

or

http://www.amazon.com/CO-Z-Fire-Eco...S4/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1337377353&sr=8-12

Pack it firm enough so that you can get a lot of nug in there, but not so tight that there are air pockets that butane can't get too. The key is consistency, you don't want to be repacking your tube four or five times. I always repack once, anymore than that and I'm really wasting butane. It's hard to ensure you're getting absolutely all of the oils with one pass.

As for ethanol, I only use what is safe for consumption. IDK if they will ship to you, but try Fisher Scientific: link

i find a medium to tight pack is what i like best. a void space at the top or bottom doesn't really matter as long as you have a mesh screen and hose clamp to keep the screen on there for ya! one of hte last things you want is for the pressure to be too high and for that screen to come off. (blow out)

as fulvic said consistency is the key

It looks like I need a bunch of permits to buy the product in my state. I don't think I can get it very easily at all. I guess I will just have to skip that step for now... unless I feel like applying for a yearly permit and paying some fee or something. I don't think I even qualify for the permit. Oh Well...

Is there another option for a final wash other then Ethanol? I wonder if there is a reliable buyer off eBay or something.

I may be wrong, but the way I understand it: if you are in a state that has banned 95% ABV, retail/iquor stores can't sell or posses it, but you can have it shipped to you from a licensed/willing distributor. If not, you could distill some 151 Everclear and get to 190 proof.

If there are alternatives, I wouldn't know about them. I only use what is safe for consumption.

Most states have 180-190 proof grain alcohol. Check your local liquor store.

Washington state is pretty crazy. You have to have a permit to buy Everclear... anything 190 proof or above you can't sell to the general public. At least that is what I understand in terms of the research I did. In order to distil a lower proof wine I would have to buy some equipment. I am not sure the initial investment is worth the payout. Is the Ethanol rinse that much better?

if it's that much work to do then i wouldn't bother. it is better, but not enough for me to go and distill my own to do it.

That is kind of what I was thinking. If it was worth it I would work out how to distil my own. That would probably take an investment in some equipment.

This state is pretty conservative about alcohol. I remember visiting here before I moved when I was 17 back in 2002. I was in a small town. It was late (9-10 at night) and the only place in town I could get food was a bar. They would not even make me food to go because I was underage. I thought it was so strange.

We just passed a law saying the state has to stop running the liquor stores. We were one of two states left that had state run stores. It was really lame. There were not very many, the hours sucks, the price was expensive, the service sucked because it was government owned. I pretty much quit buying alcohol because of it. Soon though we will be able to go to Costco and other big box stores and buy hard alcohol. I don't think the law changed about 190 proof and above though. I think you will still need a permit.