Does anybody remember the "Isomerizer"? It was basically a reflux unit, with an interior basket, which made it work like a coffee percolator. A light bulb was the heat source. They included 190 proof ethanol to use as a solvent, and concentrated HCl, or H2SO4 (can't remember which), which supposedly isomerized the THC into a "higher rotated form" (I believe this is the phrase they used) which supposedly gave a more "psychedelic" high. I purchased this unit in 1978 through the mail from an ad in High Times.
While I never noticed this enhanced effect, it made some very potent oil when I used good pot. Of course since it was heated up, cooked if you will, the resulting oil was a very dark color, black, with a golden hue.
The other problem with the Isomerizer was that you could only run at most 1/4 lb, maybe less, it's really hard to remember that far back. and that was bricked Columbian. If it was fluffy shake, a lot less.
A few years later I had a girlfriend, whose sister's boyfriend "grew" up in Redway, so I had access to large amounts of trim/shake. I had to figure a way to be able to process larger amounts. I designed and built a custom extraction unit. I used a one burner plug-in electric stove as my heat source. I placed 4 bricks around it arranged in a square. I took a square board and cut a round hole in the middle several inches larger than the heating unit. I placed a 20 gallon oil drum with 3 L shaped pieces of metal welded to the inside to hold my filter unit. The filter unit consisted of a piece of cylindrically shaped sheet metal held together with rivets. I attached a piece of expanded metal to the bottom of this cylinder and used a bedsheet as a filter inside this to place the herb.
Instead of a classic reflux set-up, I made it an enclosed system. I used a gold pan that I glued a strip of gasket around so that it would seal on the top of the drum. I drilled 4 holes on the corners of the wooden base and around the rim of the gold pan. I put eye bolts in the holes in the base and cinched the cable tight with those twist things (don't remember name) that secure TV antennae to roofs.
I used di-chloro methane as a solvent. It was relatively cheap, highly selective for cannabinoids, and completely non-flammable. It would put out matches that were thrown in it. You could evaporate the solvent off on a gas stove. It was great, except for the fact that is an ozone depleter, and as such is has become more tightly controlled over the years and is hard to find these days. I ran about 2 lbs at a time overnight. This is, in hindsight, is obviously going way, way, overboard, but back then there was no internet, and only one book and a few lame pamphlets that I could find with any information, and they all said cook back then.
Back in the early 80's I got lbs of shake/trim from between 20-75/lb depending on the quality. Growers didn't know what to do with trim and leaf back then. I really was paying them more for saving the pot for me, instead of throwing it away or burning it in a bonfire. I would rent a car and drive up to Humboldt and bring back anywhere from 7 to 20 lbs at a time.
From a $20-30lb I would get 16 grams/lb. 1 gram per ounce that would sell for $15/g or $200/z. The $75/lb stuff, which included lots of little buds, yielded close to 2z's/lb which sold for $20/g or $300/oz. It was a little hard to move, as hardly anybody had heard of it, and it was kind of expensive (Columbo was 40-50/oz, green 120-150 if you could get it) and kind of a pain to smoke. I'll do the math. A $75/ lb cost me, including car rental and gas, and solvent, about $100 to process into oil. It went for $600 wholesale or over $1000 retail. Serious gravy trainage. I smoked so much and gave so much away. It was great!
Then I started learning how to purify the oil. The first method I used was to filter the oil through activated carbon. You dissolve the oil in a solvent and run it through a water aspirated vacuum pump funnel. It attaches to a hose and creates suction which pulls to solvent through the activated carbon sitting on top of a filter paper in the funnel. Instead of slowly dripping through the coffee filter, it is instantly sucked through. After running the oil through several times, I got a cloudy reddish oil that was incredibly potent.
Someone told me a chemical, which I remember as fluorocil (sp?, it was an activated mg something or other), but when I look it up I don't find it, that was used to make honey oil. He just said you pack it into a glass tube and pour the oil through it. I had no other instruction but I was determined to try it. The local chemical supply shop didn't carry it, but I found a place a couple hours away that I could procure the magic powder.
I bought a graduated pipette, about a foot long, and filled it with the fluorocil. I then started dripping dissolve oil through what was essentially a chromatography column. It took so f'ing long. I didn't have any compressed air to force the HO solvent through the column. I worked on it for 6-8 hours and ended up getting about an 1/8 oz of some amazing clear yellow orange oil from about a 1/2 oz of black. It was very inefficient, but EVERYBODY that tried it was totally blown away.
I only did this 3 years. The trim/leaf was only available at fall harvest (no indoor back then) and then in only a small window, as trim/leaf was a nuisance, not an asset to many growers at that time who disposed of it, because they didn't know what to do with it and the legal consequences of shake was the same as bud.
Oh yeah, I should mention our preferred method of consumption back in the day. You put a quarter on a coiled electric stove element and heat it up to where it vaporizes drops off pins inhaled with a cardboard tube.
My, oh my, how times have changed.
While I never noticed this enhanced effect, it made some very potent oil when I used good pot. Of course since it was heated up, cooked if you will, the resulting oil was a very dark color, black, with a golden hue.
The other problem with the Isomerizer was that you could only run at most 1/4 lb, maybe less, it's really hard to remember that far back. and that was bricked Columbian. If it was fluffy shake, a lot less.
A few years later I had a girlfriend, whose sister's boyfriend "grew" up in Redway, so I had access to large amounts of trim/shake. I had to figure a way to be able to process larger amounts. I designed and built a custom extraction unit. I used a one burner plug-in electric stove as my heat source. I placed 4 bricks around it arranged in a square. I took a square board and cut a round hole in the middle several inches larger than the heating unit. I placed a 20 gallon oil drum with 3 L shaped pieces of metal welded to the inside to hold my filter unit. The filter unit consisted of a piece of cylindrically shaped sheet metal held together with rivets. I attached a piece of expanded metal to the bottom of this cylinder and used a bedsheet as a filter inside this to place the herb.
Instead of a classic reflux set-up, I made it an enclosed system. I used a gold pan that I glued a strip of gasket around so that it would seal on the top of the drum. I drilled 4 holes on the corners of the wooden base and around the rim of the gold pan. I put eye bolts in the holes in the base and cinched the cable tight with those twist things (don't remember name) that secure TV antennae to roofs.
I used di-chloro methane as a solvent. It was relatively cheap, highly selective for cannabinoids, and completely non-flammable. It would put out matches that were thrown in it. You could evaporate the solvent off on a gas stove. It was great, except for the fact that is an ozone depleter, and as such is has become more tightly controlled over the years and is hard to find these days. I ran about 2 lbs at a time overnight. This is, in hindsight, is obviously going way, way, overboard, but back then there was no internet, and only one book and a few lame pamphlets that I could find with any information, and they all said cook back then.
Back in the early 80's I got lbs of shake/trim from between 20-75/lb depending on the quality. Growers didn't know what to do with trim and leaf back then. I really was paying them more for saving the pot for me, instead of throwing it away or burning it in a bonfire. I would rent a car and drive up to Humboldt and bring back anywhere from 7 to 20 lbs at a time.
From a $20-30lb I would get 16 grams/lb. 1 gram per ounce that would sell for $15/g or $200/z. The $75/lb stuff, which included lots of little buds, yielded close to 2z's/lb which sold for $20/g or $300/oz. It was a little hard to move, as hardly anybody had heard of it, and it was kind of expensive (Columbo was 40-50/oz, green 120-150 if you could get it) and kind of a pain to smoke. I'll do the math. A $75/ lb cost me, including car rental and gas, and solvent, about $100 to process into oil. It went for $600 wholesale or over $1000 retail. Serious gravy trainage. I smoked so much and gave so much away. It was great!
Then I started learning how to purify the oil. The first method I used was to filter the oil through activated carbon. You dissolve the oil in a solvent and run it through a water aspirated vacuum pump funnel. It attaches to a hose and creates suction which pulls to solvent through the activated carbon sitting on top of a filter paper in the funnel. Instead of slowly dripping through the coffee filter, it is instantly sucked through. After running the oil through several times, I got a cloudy reddish oil that was incredibly potent.
Someone told me a chemical, which I remember as fluorocil (sp?, it was an activated mg something or other), but when I look it up I don't find it, that was used to make honey oil. He just said you pack it into a glass tube and pour the oil through it. I had no other instruction but I was determined to try it. The local chemical supply shop didn't carry it, but I found a place a couple hours away that I could procure the magic powder.
I bought a graduated pipette, about a foot long, and filled it with the fluorocil. I then started dripping dissolve oil through what was essentially a chromatography column. It took so f'ing long. I didn't have any compressed air to force the HO solvent through the column. I worked on it for 6-8 hours and ended up getting about an 1/8 oz of some amazing clear yellow orange oil from about a 1/2 oz of black. It was very inefficient, but EVERYBODY that tried it was totally blown away.
I only did this 3 years. The trim/leaf was only available at fall harvest (no indoor back then) and then in only a small window, as trim/leaf was a nuisance, not an asset to many growers at that time who disposed of it, because they didn't know what to do with it and the legal consequences of shake was the same as bud.
Oh yeah, I should mention our preferred method of consumption back in the day. You put a quarter on a coiled electric stove element and heat it up to where it vaporizes drops off pins inhaled with a cardboard tube.
My, oh my, how times have changed.
Thank you for sharing!
