Rosin Technique....Easy DIY Solventless

[BoogerMan]

ok, so i may have had a small stoner moment. I squished a nug in the nice thick generic parchment paper, and to my horror the paper was sticky on the outside again! Finally the old rusty cog in the back of my mind clunked into place and I checked the heating plates, which still had a few beads of (very dark by now) rosin on them. I had a piece of stem pop through the thin parchment on me last night, which allowed a bit of goodness to leak through. Wiped them down with everclear and am now good to go once again. I stand by my original point of the reynolds brand being too thin for my taste, but the bleeding through might have been a wee bit of sativa based stoner extrapolation... Sorry about that one

You're not the first one. I did the same thing the other night and could not figure out how oil was getting on the outside when the parchment was not ripping. It was like black magic! Then I noticed there was some oil on my plates too haha

 

[davesmith]

I use Reynolds premium parchment. Seems ok but there is definitely a mild change in the texture of the parchment post squish. I tried paper chef as well but seemed pretty much the same. Very difficult to find out about quilon. I have read the whole thread but did we reach a consensus on a fav particular brand, or was it still that small list of quilon free as our guide?

Have to say that "dabs on demand" is a great term for rosin. No more Evaps for us small time stoners!

 

[BoogerMan]

I use Reynolds premium parchment. Seems ok but there is definitely a mild change in the texture of the parchment post squish. I tried paper chef as well but seemed pretty much the same. Very difficult to find out about quilon. I have read the whole thread but did we reach a consensus on a fav particular brand, or was it still that small list of quilon free as our guide?

Have to say that "dabs on demand" is a great term for rosin. No more Evaps for us small time stoners!

I like "dabs on demand" hey let's go have a DOD

I've been saying "it's fresh off the press" like we are dabbing newspaper or something

 

[NimbusVapor]

You're not the first one. I did the same thing the other night and could not figure out how oil was getting on the outside when the parchment was not ripping. It was like black magic! Then I noticed there was some oil on my plates too haha

I could be wrong but I have my own theory on how it appears to be going through...
I dont believe the oil is going through the parchment at all ... I think most people pinch the parchment together after handling material and I think the resin from your fingers is getting on the outside of the parchment and then transferring to the plates when pressed. you will probably notice a couple dark beads on the backside of the parchment as well and I believe it is caused by the same reason. Try to be really meticulous when handling your material and refrain from pinching the material inside the parchment prior to pressing and I think you will notice that it "does not go through"....

 

[EpicNameGuy]

Since it took me awhile to figure out myself, here's the difference between the popular "Mexican style" teks:

Enchilada Tech:
Bud or hash placed in pouch or screen, then placed in a folded parchment paper with 2 exposed ends, then placed onto the press which is also wrapped in parchment which will be used for collection. Rosin will pour out either side of the press plates during the squish.

Burrito Tech:
Same thing except folded parchment only has 1 exposed end and rosin will only pour out one side of the press plates.

This video gives a better picture of the setup inside:
https://www.instagram.com/p/9XoOiDFt3b/

Thanks for that! In that video, it looks like whatever is being pressed is wrapped in parchment inside of the burrito? Or is that a pouch?

Also, on a side note.. I don't have a good place to mount a bench press unfortunately. Until I work that out, I decided to use a home depot trigger clamp I had lying around and removed the internals of the straightener I'd been using but had cracked the case of.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/DEWALT-12-in-X-Large-Trigger-Clamp-DWHT83185/204988146

I used foil tape to secure the heaters and their pack plating to the jaws just to try it out. Well, I definitely cracked the back plates of the heaters. They don't withstand high pressures, go figure.

I'm not sure if the back plates matter much but I sort of presume I'll be breaking the heater elements sooner than later with the clamp. Sort of makes me wonder if I even should bother trying to more permanently fix the heaters to the clamp or not. It's definitely an improvement, but I'm starting to think my clamp tech is going to be too fragile.

If I do decide to affix the heaters with something other than foil tape, are there any recommendations for a material? The jaws are a very hard rubber material so they don't flex much. I'm wondering if PlasticWeld would work but not sure.

The foil tape worked for a single session, but the heaters came off right after I was done.

Alternatively, any recommendations for mounting / using an arbor press or one like the Dake H-Press without an actual work bench? I'm guessing there aren't too many options but figured it was worth throwing out there.

 

[nathan7]

There's the floor model of the H-Press:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DWB1RCY?psc=1

 

[kellya86]

I haven't read all this thread so sorry I'd this has come up. I did search with no results.

Iv started making bho and qwiso which is nice but now I want to try rosin. Iv read a fair bit of this thread and leaned a fair bit, but here is my question...

Can I make rosin by using a metal record vice for the pressure, and then instead of a seperate source of heat, can I run a current through the vice, on a variable resistor, to produce the required heat. I could imbed a thermocouple or 2 in the jaws to monitor heat.

Is this possible?
Is this more hassle than using straightners?
Has this already been done?

I seem to have been ignored. Is my idea so stupid it didn't deserve a reply?

 

[Joel W.]

I seem to have been ignored. Is my idea so stupid it didn't deserve a reply?

I think most people that can't answer a question, don't post. I don't know exactly how you would run enough current through the vice itself, to heat it, without being dangerous and shorting out through your oil?

I don't think anyone has tried it.

 

[nathan7]

I haven't read all this thread so sorry I'd this has come up. I did search with no results.

Iv started making bho and qwiso which is nice but now I want to try rosin. Iv read a fair bit of this thread and leaned a fair bit, but here is my question...

Can I make rosin by using a metal record vice for the pressure, and then instead of a seperate source of heat, can I run a current through the vice, on a variable resistor, to produce the required heat. I could imbed a thermocouple or 2 in the jaws to monitor heat.

Is this possible?
Is this more hassle than using straightners?
Has this already been done?

Hi. I doubt you were ignored intentionally. I don't post much with limited use of only one hand, but I've read along for some time.

Your idea sounds fine. How much pressure does that make? If you can do that electrically, you should be good. You'll want to regulate the temperature to around 210F depending on available pressure.

Good luck experimenting!

 

[kellya86]

Thanks for the replies, at least now I know this is a possibility, a few car batteries are easily enough to heat a vice, the arc from a 12v battery can weld 2 spanners together, found this out before. And as long as I insulated the layer before the parchment then no current should reach the oils. Also id need to insulate the handle for winding the vice up. Will try this at the weekend and report back.

 

[Copacetic]

Thanks for the replies, at least now I know this is a possibility, a few car batteries are easily enough to heat a vice, the arc from a 12v battery can weld 2 spanners together, found this out before. And as long as I insulated the layer before the parchment then no current should reach the oils. Also id need to insulate the handle for winding the vice up. Will try this at the weekend and report back.

Sorry, but I can't help but think that heating the entire vise would be horribly inefficient and unnecessary.

I don't want to step on the spirit of invention here though, so perhaps there is some advantage to this approach that I'm not seeing?

I suppose that if you were to squish dozens of nugs one after the other in quick succession then the heat 'sunk' in the vise would keep temps from fluctuating too wildly.
But you'd either have to pour an awful lot of energy into the vise to heat it in a reasonable timescale, or wait an age instead.

I think the approaches that people here have developed using hair straighteners are a better bet for a budget setup.
And the big hydraulic/pneumatic presses with Joel's custom plates look like a good 'high' end setup.

I wish you luck if you decide to go for it though, if no-one tried new approaches rosin tech would not exist.

 

[kellya86]

I'm all for constructive criticism, that's why I posted.
I see the point about it being inefficient.
More thought required.

Ok my next idea is fuck the vice and heat source completely. Can't this be done very simply in a vacuum bag? The vacuum would create the heat and pressure?

Any thoughts on this rosin people?

 

[Copacetic]

I'm all for constructive criticism, that's why I posted.
I see the point about it being inefficient.
More thought required.

Ok my next idea is fuck the vice and heat source completely. Can't this be done very simply in a vacuum bag? The vacuum would create the heat and pressure?

Any thoughts on this rosin people?

Disclaimer first:
My direct experience of rosin tech=nada, so my opinion <most others here

That said, I believe that even if you have a pump that's very powerful, a vacuum bag will only allow a max pressure equal to atmospheric pressure (15 pounds per square inch?).
Probably a lot less than can be achieved with a decent vise?

Having said that, I suppose that pressure is used for fairly robust industrial applications, so maybe I'm wrong.

If you already have a vise, I'd start there.
Do you have vacuum/pressure equipment?


EDIT:
I suppose that even a modestly priced bicycle 'track pump' can achieve 100+psi with a bit of effort, so although I can't imagine that it would be worth it, it might be possible to set up heated plates wrapped in an inner tube, placed inside a very robust container that can take that kind of pressure (steel tube?) to provide 'the squish'.

Hydraulics are generally preferred over pneumatics for high pressure applications though, so I'd look there for the muscle required for rosin tech.

 

[kellya86]

I could put the vac bag in the vice while under pressure. I'm trying to avoid using straightners

 

[ReggieB]

Sounds dangerous and inefficient to be dumping 2 car batteries worth of current through a vice, just my initial thoughts on the matter, what are you going to use to regulate the power/heat?

While we're at it, what's the ultimate aim of using a bottle jack bench press? I get that it's to put the contents under more pressure but I haven't really seen anyone mention 'diminishing returns' and how the extra hardware relates to better yields?

I have no need to start building anything, just that this thread has got me intrigued, it's gone from hair straighteners and a bit of parchment to making your own backyard amber/synthetic diamonds

 

[Copacetic]

I could put the vac bag in the vice while under pressure. I'm trying to avoid using straightners

The vac bag won't provide any real heat though will it?
Unless you're referring to something heated that I'm unfamiliar with?

Sounds dangerous and inefficient to be dumping 2 car batteries worth of current through a vice, just my initial thoughts on the matter, what are you going to use to regulate the power/heat?

While we're at it, what's the ultimate aim of using a bottle jack bench press? I get that it's to put the contents under more pressure but I haven't really seen anyone mention 'diminishing returns' and how the extra hardware relates to better yields?

I have no need to start building anything, just that this thread has got me intrigued, it's gone from hair straighteners and a bit of parchment to making your own backyard amber/synthetic diamonds

Our favourite herbs are expensive though, so there will always be a desire to maximise yield, and I got the general impression that those who have been upping their game by increasing pressure are reporting increased yield too.

I think that the bottleneck with ever increasing pressure is the parchment paper (or other pressing/collection material).

If I could afford herb to experiment with, and the gear, I'd go with the highest pressure that I could achieve (and press on Ti foil instead of parchment!)

 

[kellya86]

The bag won't provide heat. But being in a vacume should lessen the heat required, water boils at room temp in a vacuum so surely if I dump some trim and popcorn nugs in a parchment envelope, with areas for oil to escape, then stick it in a vac bag, something should happen.

 

[Derrrpp]

If I do decide to affix the heaters with something other than foil tape, are there any recommendations for a material? The jaws are a very hard rubber material so they don't flex much. I'm wondering if PlasticWeld would work but not sure.

You should be able to just pull the rubber pads off of the jaws of the clamp. Then I would use J-B Weld to affix the heaters to the jaws.

 

[Copacetic]

I

The bag won't provide heat. But being in a vacume should lessen the heat required, water boils at room temp in a vacuum so surely if I dump some trim and popcorn nugs in a parchment envelope, with areas for oil to escape, then stick it in a vac bag, something should happen.

I think your terps will see the vacuum as an excellent getaway vehicle, but if there's something for them to condense on, maybe it will work?
One way to find out.....

 

[ReggieB]

@Copacetic I can't really see much science behind this increased yield, logic says it probably should be better but how much better is really unclear.

 

[Copacetic]

@Copacetic I can't really see much science behind this increased yield, logic says it probably should be better but how much better is really unclear.

True that Reggie, I feel the same.
I suppose that there's few here equipped to do genuine, controlled, scrutiny resistant science, but I personally think that the headroom provided by equipment capable of high pressures is currently a reasonable investment (assuming someone plans to invest in equipment in the first place).

If I were a betting man, my own money would be on very high pressure/low temp being the eventual champ for yield and taste.

My general impression of the thread so far is that current best practice is:
Entry level - Hair irons.
Basic setup - Hair irons + hand held clamp.
Advanced setup - Modded hair iron heaters + bench vise.
Very advanced setup - custom heater plates + bench vise.
Bleeding edge - Hydraulic press + custom heater plates.

YMMV though

Early days yet for both concepts and science, but even the middle ground seems to getting good results at an affordable price.

Newer and better ideas may yet improve things further?

Anyone have access to a heated centrifuge?

I'll get my coat......

 

[GuyLeDuche]

Haha, my stoner gears were spinning watching a show where they used airbags to lift multi-ton rocks lol. Just not a practical thing, but fun to kick stuff around, you never know where it will lead.

As to raising the pressure, for me it's a matter of more squish = less heat needed, less heat = better flavor. My current rig I actually get a little less than with the clamp and plates rig, but it tastes way better and takes 0 effort. I don't drive myself nuts over yield, I always get what's left one way or another

 

[kellya86]

So is it possible that with enough pressure, no heat would be needed.

What about a hydraulic servo assisted brake caliper?

 

[Copacetic]

There are lots of hydraulic tools which might be re-purposed.
How about cable crimping tools:

or:

I've seen crimping tools that claim 16tons for under $45 on e-bay.
OK, you'd need to have custom heaters/plates, but it's possible, no?

It would be very convenient if extreme pressure would negate the need for heat, but I'd be surprised if that turns out to be the case (dunno why, no science here either! )

 

[GuyLeDuche]

Honestly ATM I think temps can't go much lower until we get the next iteration of collection media. A simple vise build will push the oil right through the parchment and blowouts happen all the damn time. I can't lead the charge on Ti foil, but if guys find it the bee's knees I'll get some