I got a chance to get a couple first presses in.
I started with two 3.5g presses of some cheap Bubblegum popcorn I bought from the dispensary to use for experimenting. Both in 160 micron bags bottle tek style and went for 3 minutes. One at 190F and one at 200F. I ended up getting 12% on the former and 14% on the latter. Both turned into baby poop color gritty budder on the plates. I read
@psychonaut mention sometimes this texture can create a dam preventing the oil from escaping the plates and I think this was the case here.
Next was 2g of Sour Joker at 185F at 3min in a 160 micron bag. Yield wasn’t great ~ 10%. I got a medium orange color pull & snap from it. I dabbed a bit and it had a beautiful taste - like sparkling sour peach candy. One of the tastiest dabs I have ever taken.
Last press was 3.5g Gorilla Glue at 185F using the dabpress prepress and bottle tek with 160 micron bag. I had planned to pull it at 3 minutes but took it closer to 4 as the oil really started flowing towards the end. Turned out as amber pull & snap and got an impressive 21% yield on the first press (another 3% on the 2nd).
I had pressed this flower previously on a flat iron and I always lost the cocoa and spice that comes through with the flower leaving just the funk undertones. The result with the dabpress was able to pick up quite a bit more of this flavor. With that nice yield, I will probably try and take this one at a mn even lower temp next time.
So far so good!
Awesome! Looks like you're getting the yields up.
Question on your material since it came from a dispensary. Did you check the RH of your buds when sealed in a jar before pressing? I recommend to jar them up with a RH gauge ASAP and let them sit in the jar for about 4-5 hours to check the stabilized RH. If it's under 55% you'll need to get some more hydration into the buds through a boveda/boost pack, or a paper towel moistened with some distilled water then taped to the inside lid. 58-62% RH seems to be the juice zone from my experiments and research.
For the autobuddering material I think pressing that stuff a little warmer is good if you're looking to try and keep the sap/oil consistency but even that doesn't do it with some efforts. My hydro buds seem to have the buddering effect moreso than my organic buds, could just be the cultivars tho
Also pressing in a cold room can be problematic with buddering while pressing, my room stays pretty cool but when it's at it's coldest, low 50's, some of my hydro bud will budder up before the press is finished.
I never repress my pucks as I save them for washing, but I am pulling consistently about 3% yields in a grain alcohol wash with 4oz of pressed pucks, which I assume is getting "the rest" of the resin. That 3% also includes chlorophyll which I dont mind for edibles/canna caps.
Would be interesting to see what others yields are on the wash. I think that pretty much tells the tale of how efficient we are with our presses, and ultimately if our material was really as good as we thought?
My autos have all been fairly lackluster, I got 17.8% yield on swiss cheese auto colas yesterday with 1500 PSI @ 200F for 2.5m, dont think that one will give up much more until it's washed. I know I pressed it too hard as the oil started to get a darker green tint, so I figure the lil extra yield I got was pigment and plant matter.
New 10 ton driptech arrives beginning of next week! I need to get that pump. I’m almost out of flower for a few months as detailed above . But to test the press I have 5 or 6 grams of great full spectrum bubble(Orange Bud and bubblegum green crack resin) Any tips as never used a pump operated press. Double bags ? Microns? I know to go slowly and not too much pressure have pressed hash on the 6 ton but should I keep an eye on the gauge, how much pressure? Also 5 g isn’t much pre press or flat in a bag? Cheers Dabpressers
Congrats! The pump will be a lot like the bottle jack as far as how it works in the hand, takes probably twice as many pumps to close the plates as a bottle jack, those move the hydraulic fluid faster like a 3/8" NPT pump does.
I
dont press hash so hopefully someone else can give their experience, but I've heard double bagging 25 or 37u filters work well. They say to stuff the filter with hash by hand tightly, make sure the filter is wrapped on the puck tightly, then use lower temps and pressure vs buds. If you have a gauge, you wanna keep the PSI around 600-800 PSI. Heat you want 160-200F. Higher quality/more delicate material you should go on the lower end of pressure and heat. My understanding is that you want the hash puck to sit on the heat for a bit to preheat it and get it melting before applying pressure, then just ease into the pressure slowly.
With the hr10t35v cylinder and pump with gauge, you just wanna get the math right for calculating PSI on the bag.
PSI on bag = (PSI on gauge x 2.25) / surface area of puck in sq/in
i.e. 4 sq/in puck (2x2") with 1000 PSI = 4000 lbs total force
1777 PSI on gauge x 2.25 = 4000 lbs total force
1777 PSI on gauge on 4 sq/in puck =
1000 PSI on puck
