How big a factor is quality of starting product?

This is qwiso though... I have not yet gone the butane route, and may not need to at this rate :-)

ye i just asked about mine cause i made my fist qwiso before some days and and it wqas a bit dirty i think...like it had some plant material in it...

ok just ordered this to give qwiso another whirl. I think my last attempts were soaked too long and thus too dark. I am still going to use low-mids for this next batch until i feel that I am getting it right. If I can get this right, I will order a nail and dome and try it on some quality herb. Question though. When straining the qwiso out, i end up squeezing the coffee filter to get it all out. Is this not a good idea? Is there some other method that I have not yet come across for this?

The problem with squeezing is the filter may rip, and also it may push a little bit of very small particulate through if it doesn't rip. Honestly, if you have good filters and you're gentle when you squeeze I'd think it fine to do.

An alternative, though, is to poor a little bit of clean Iso ontop to help force through the last little bit. It wouldn't have to be that Iso either, you could use some 91% for this step if you have any laying around.

i would listen to fake name, however i was under the impression that squeezing the ISO/filter would also squeeze out some undesirables like chlorophyl and the like. i never squeeze. i just let them dry and do another run on them. i dont think your losing much to the filter. at least not enough to need to squeeze it.

correct me if im wrong.

Good point, I like the strain twice process, so by the time it gets to the coffee filter the only thing being strained out is trichome stocks. I wasn't thinking about having the bulk of the plant material in the paper filter. Yeah squeezing with the plant material will add a little bit of undesirables, but I'm not sure how much.

i just picked up a gold tone coffee filter per your recommendation and im really looking forward to trying it out.

With oil what you put in is definitely what you get out. I only vape oil, haven't smoked in two years, and always extract top shelf flowers. I've found the oil yield for 14g of tops/A+ material can be over 20% greater than the same weight of average mids. The oil is also cleaner and stronger as less "plant oil" meaning waxes & fats is extracted.

^^FYI you answered a month old question.

I empty my wash 1st through a stainless steel kitchen colander into another glass jar to separate the mix 'quickly'. Then I do the coffee filter thing into 'another' jar, followed by a final coffee filtering (3 jars total), into the purging plate.

This way you 'can' squeeze the filter out to recover your max OR, as mentioned, just pour through a bit more ISO to wash it through.

Works for 'me'

while we are on the subject of the filters... and i suppose this may need its own thread, but how do you all pre-soak your filters if you do?

are you soaking them in ISO or water before pouring any washes through them? shouldnt pre-soaking the filters cut down on how much of the wash is absorbed by the filter?

Interesting concept...... I've never really pondered it, but logically it makes sense !?

that actually does make sense, and i will be trying it out once my ISO arrives (looks like tuesday) Still gonna use average mids quality wise until i get it right, but gonna make some improvements this run

Thanks for answering a month old question also, I appreciate the answer just as much and will try to learn from any wisdom imparted.

I fold my coffee filters and dip them in the bottle of iso before I filter my qwiso. I don't know how much this actually improves the yield but I do it anyways.

ok, small test run with the 99%. about 5g of ok mids swirled for 15 seconds or so, strained through stainless sink drain, then through presoaked unbleached paper filter. I then did another run of full on shake for about 20 secs. both pans are drying now, will report back in am

first run on the bottom, second above. Neither is nearly as black as it looks in the crappy cellphone pic. It was all that yellowish and flaky. I didnt try to roll the second run together like the first, cause it seemed to get darker as i did

pic link broken

can you see me now?

No, strike 2

Personally, i use imgur and never have any problems. Yep looks like qwiso. My phone usually makes my oil look darker than it really is.

http://i.imgur.com/uAXY3hA.jpg

When using imgur, make sure you actually click on your image and THEN copy the url that ends in .jpg to enter here in your message.