^^^WORD^^^
Concentrates for Noobs - Q&A
- Thread starter FlyingLow
- Start date
Puffers
Micro-Climate Mastermind
Man I don't know what you guys are paying for these gaskets but considering we are not doing (don't need/should not be doing) heavy duty super sub micron vacuum environments for purging I got all kinds of gasket materials on my truck that will hold -25inhg for 2+ days. Refrigeration, hydronic/commercial plumbing, and automotive places are your friend. You may need to take a razor blade to something but it's cheap and normally readily available if the need arises.
You guys should look into a chamber called slickVacSeal. Zero adhesive and the top never needs replacement and no more having to cut rubber gaskets off your lids.
I recommend they're stuff to alot of people.
And as far as those rectangular chambers are concerned I would have to say after all the years I've been doing this.... Is
Stick to the round stainless. Not knocking square or rectangular but I would stick to the more traditional.
I recommend they're stuff to alot of people.
And as far as those rectangular chambers are concerned I would have to say after all the years I've been doing this.... Is
Stick to the round stainless. Not knocking square or rectangular but I would stick to the more traditional.
Puffers
Micro-Climate Mastermind
True dat. Hydronic gaskets are commonly made of inert materials because they are made also for domestic water use.
I would like to point out while safety is always first an enviroment under a vac won't move or circulate air from off gassing. Inside the chamber it can be almost completely and utterly stagnant on a molecular level depending on the depth of vacuum. This is the principle that a dewar chamber or to a lesser extent a thermos uses for insulating.
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Monsoon
Well-Known Member
I got the vacuum purge kit from BestValueVacs Wednesday night and it kinda felt like Christmas getting the box and taking everything out. I quickly got it setup and then popped in some "finished" qwiso slabs. Kinda surprised how much it bubbled up, some are surely air bubbles but not all. I sampled some after an overnight purge and a couple flips and it seems to have made it smoother already and a bit harder in texture.
I just put a fresh batch of 8 g of PowerPlant in there after only 6 hours of thin purging on the pyrex. It was much easier to scrape with the razor since it still had that silky texture since it hadn't hardened up due to all the iso. I froze the scrapings for 15 minutes and then snapped the frozen oil onto an oilslick pad, pressed it out flat under heat, few minutes more in the freezer and peeled off the top pad. I put them into the chamber at around 115F and got a small foamy muffin! I'm kinda winging it at this point, I broke the vacuum a couple times to collapse the muffin and also ran the pump for a bit which seemed to help increase the bubbles. I can't run it too much since it's moderately loud. I'm going to leave it under stagnant vacuum overnight and flip when I wake up. Then I'll flip every 4 hours until the solvent bubbles stop appearing, I'm guessing after 24 hours or so.
If anyone has any tips on my purging process, I'm open to it since I'm completely new at this. I'm confident that my end product will be good but I'm always trying to do better.
I just put a fresh batch of 8 g of PowerPlant in there after only 6 hours of thin purging on the pyrex. It was much easier to scrape with the razor since it still had that silky texture since it hadn't hardened up due to all the iso. I froze the scrapings for 15 minutes and then snapped the frozen oil onto an oilslick pad, pressed it out flat under heat, few minutes more in the freezer and peeled off the top pad. I put them into the chamber at around 115F and got a small foamy muffin! I'm kinda winging it at this point, I broke the vacuum a couple times to collapse the muffin and also ran the pump for a bit which seemed to help increase the bubbles. I can't run it too much since it's moderately loud. I'm going to leave it under stagnant vacuum overnight and flip when I wake up. Then I'll flip every 4 hours until the solvent bubbles stop appearing, I'm guessing after 24 hours or so.
If anyone has any tips on my purging process, I'm open to it since I'm completely new at this. I'm confident that my end product will be good but I'm always trying to do better.
Melting Pot
Sick & Twisted
Plus not a lot of room for the muffin. IMO
Less flipping and fucking with the better.
Set it and forget it. Lol
Don't forget it just don't fuck with it.
Don't aggravate the terps there sensitive... @Monsoon enjoy the new toy and better product.
Tek tip of the day!
On your initial purge (warm water bath) I find that bringing my water to a MAX temperature of 100° and removing my partially purged material earlier while it's still in a fluid state I was able to increase my yield quite a bit.
My last 3 test runs resulted with an average return of 26%. I've also reduced vac time. My last few all finished in less than 48 hours.
Now, for those of you who have shallow chambers be warned as the muffin is fucking ridiculous when using this method.
Oh, and I've switched to Capital Butane n-blend - awesome!
On your initial purge (warm water bath) I find that bringing my water to a MAX temperature of 100° and removing my partially purged material earlier while it's still in a fluid state I was able to increase my yield quite a bit.
My last 3 test runs resulted with an average return of 26%. I've also reduced vac time. My last few all finished in less than 48 hours.
Now, for those of you who have shallow chambers be warned as the muffin is fucking ridiculous when using this method.
Oh, and I've switched to Capital Butane n-blend - awesome!
Melting Pot
Sick & Twisted
So, I made some more yesterday and took some shots of the pyrex, etc:
These are the tools used.
A closeup of the pyrex dish with the evaporated goodness yet un-scraped
Scraped into a nice pile.
And onto the no-goo pad.
I put another pad loosely on top and fold into the tin foil. From there I place it on the heating pad for about 5 minutes.
After freezing for a little while. This one was very "shattery"
I got 2.2 grams from a dry starting material of 20 grams. I like that the return is always pretty consistent.
Just for fun I put the new shatter in the container with the stuff I made the other day. I then repeated the heating and cooling process.
Now I have a perfectly round disk weighing 4.6 grams. This is too much fun!
Hope this explains my tek a little better. If anyone has any suggestions or comments, please let me know!
These are the tools used.
A closeup of the pyrex dish with the evaporated goodness yet un-scraped
Scraped into a nice pile.
And onto the no-goo pad.
I put another pad loosely on top and fold into the tin foil. From there I place it on the heating pad for about 5 minutes.
After freezing for a little while. This one was very "shattery"
I got 2.2 grams from a dry starting material of 20 grams. I like that the return is always pretty consistent.
Just for fun I put the new shatter in the container with the stuff I made the other day. I then repeated the heating and cooling process.
Now I have a perfectly round disk weighing 4.6 grams. This is too much fun!
Hope this explains my tek a little better. If anyone has any suggestions or comments, please let me know!
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Hey everyone,
Thought I would jump in with a noob question.
Can I get some opinions on the *starting* state of the dried material used to make concentrates?
My experience (yeah, yeah -), I came to realize, is still to process dried colas that...the stork brought me...the same way that I did back when I wanted it for combusting.
5-7 day dry on branches (bone dry RH - 20% on a high day), then I would trim buds into mason jars and cure for 2-3 weeks.
But I am getting old, and would like to just hang branches for 7-14 days until dry enough to do an ethanol extraction (RSO oil method, QWET).
I have been trying to be more scientific in my approach to things, and realized that I have a HUGE blind spot with making cannabis oil - the state of the starting material. And I had a hard time finding consistent information and/or opinions.
Basically, how dry is *too* dry to make oil, as in "Do I need to make sure I don't get to xx point when drying?" Is curing absolutelynecessary? Those kinds of questions I simply didn't ask because I was still doing a full cure on bud as if I was preparing it for display or something, if that makes sense. I would like to simplify to a "14 day dry only" or something, but don't want to dramatically hurt my final quality and/or yield.
Even some general opinions would help a lot.
(If any heavy-hitters like @Puffers or @DieHard could weigh in I'd appreciate it).
Peace and good things to everyone.
Moisture doesn't make for a prime situation but it's not going to hurt you if watch a few things.
If it's moist because it's super fresh your going to get cloudy milky fluid pouring from your tube as opposed to the yellow piss (lol) that we're all used to. This is a good thing, it may not shatter up as freshies have a tendency to be a bit sticky cause of the higher lipid count. Keep the process a little warmer than usual. If you run typically at 100° then I would go anywhere from 105° to 110°.
My reasoning behind this is material as fresh as were talk also runs thick. It should be sappy. If your running to cold the fucker will never bubble. Unless of course you go above 30hg but I wouldn't recommend it.
If the freshies don't run cloudy than I hate to say that it may be moist with other less organic things.
Many may tell you to freeze it. This is a completely different process that if it isn't done correctly your going to add moisture to your plant material.
Monsoon
Well-Known Member
If you heat up the dish to around 105-110F before scraping it will melt the powder enough to make scraping a lot easier and lead to less potential for loss (ah-choo!). If you toss the blades in the freezer for a few minutes, the collected oil should cleanly snap off and then you can press it together under low heat.So, I made some more yesterday and took some shots of the pyrex, etc:
These are the tools used.
A closeup of the pyrex dish with the evaporated goodness yet un-scraped
Scraped into a nice pile.
And onto the no-goo pad.
I put another pad loosely on top and fold into the tin foil. From there I place it on the heating pad for about 5 minutes.
After freezing for a little while. This one was very "shattery"
I got 2.2 grams from a dry starting material of 20 grams. I like that the return is always pretty consistent.
Just for fun I put the new shatter in the container with the stuff I made the other day. I then repeated the heating and cooling process.
Now I have a perfectly round disk weighing 4.6 grams. This is too much fun!
Hope this explains my tek a little better. If anyone has any suggestions or comments, please let me know!
Did you do any heat purging post evaporation?
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First run of the PowerPlant in the vac ended up mostly auto-buddering. Out of 8g I only got 1.5g of clear shatter. I was purging around 115F under vac with the pump off most of the time, for the 2nd run I'm trying to stay closer to 100F and see how it goes.
When it auto-budders, how do you know when it's done purging? It was pretty buddery at 24 hours so I ran it an extra 12 hours just to be safe. Seems to taste okay as far as I can tell.
Thanks, I was thinking of trying that, but I really don't mind the scraping. And I do not heat purge. I mean I heat it up so it sticks together and forms into shatter, but I don't heat to purge. I always thought with QWET you didn't need to. I'll try it though! What is the process?
Also, if you re-heat and freeze, like I did in the above post, does it affect anything? I was thinking of getting a large no-stick container and melting it all together in that. Then I would have like a 1/2 ounce chunk! Or, measuring out 1 gram chunks and melting them in a small no-goo container
Also, if you re-heat and freeze, like I did in the above post, does it affect anything? I was thinking of getting a large no-stick container and melting it all together in that. Then I would have like a 1/2 ounce chunk! Or, measuring out 1 gram chunks and melting them in a small no-goo container
with your tech and the fact its qwet your doing fine. if its crispy hard like that at room temp then yoy heating it into a block and if it remains stable your fine.Thanks, I was thinking of trying that, but I really don't mind the scraping. And I do not heat purge. I mean I heat it up so it sticks together and forms into shatter, but I don't heat to purge. I always thought with QWET you didn't need to. I'll try it though! What is the process?
Also, if you re-heat and freeze, like I did in the above post, does it affect anything? I was thinking of getting a large no-stick container and melting it all together in that. Then I would have like a 1/2 ounce chunk! Or, measuring out 1 gram chunks and melting them in a small no-goo container
most of the concern with qwet purge is of moisture really.
hydrocarbons are a diffrent story.
Melting Pot
Sick & Twisted
Looks tastyOK, I tried warming up the pyrex dishes before scraping and it worked out great. I placed them right on the heating pad and it made for much easier scraping.
I started with 20 grams again:
I got exactly 3 grams this time
I would just watch temps.
Lower & Less = more flavor
Remember terps are the first to go.
Monsoon
Well-Known Member
I've found making QWISO that purging is necessary after evap, though how much is open for debate since most people can't test their batches. Before I got a vac I purged on the pyrex anywhere from a day or two at around 110F, I'd usually see a fair number of tiny bubbles pop up during that time. Then I'd scrape, flatten it out between parchment/oilslick pad and purge it a bit longer on each side until I don't see any bubbles any more and/or it tastes okay and doesn't sizzle.
Using ethanol should be safer than ISO though you still want to get as much out as you can as it can affect tastes and cause it to be more harsh. Actual safety is still open for debate since there's basically no research on this yet but I don't think anybody has died yet because there was a tiny bit of solvent left in it.
Also, if you re-heat and freeze, like I did in the above post, does it affect anything? I was thinking of getting a large no-stick container and melting it all together in that. Then I would have like a 1/2 ounce chunk! Or, measuring out 1 gram chunks and melting them in a small no-goo container
Should be okay though you'll want to watch the temps, if you go above 115F or so make sure it's not for an extended period of time.
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2clicker
Observer
my apologies for not picking up what you are laying down... but how are you increasing your yield?
what do you mean by removing partially purged material? while its still in its fluid state...?
I'm glad you both asked. Never be scared to ask anything, I'll never make anyone feel stupid.
What I meant by my previous comments was that when we run our initial purge (after you've blasted and your liquid is in a double boiler) keep the water at about 100° and instead of letting it fully bubble down to a syrupy texture remove it from the warm water while it's still somewhat bubbling (the end of the process).
This allows you to pour your partially purged material onto your parchment, ptfe, glass, etc... As opposed to scraping.
What ever is left on my dish that needs to be scraped is kept seperate and vacuumed on a different sheet. Most of the time this is the material that sugars.
As far as my increase in yield it's simple... Since I've been using what I just described or on a closed loop system is call a drip plate my yield has increased. Not by a landslide but it definitely increased. Much less waste.
What I meant by my previous comments was that when we run our initial purge (after you've blasted and your liquid is in a double boiler) keep the water at about 100° and instead of letting it fully bubble down to a syrupy texture remove it from the warm water while it's still somewhat bubbling (the end of the process).
This allows you to pour your partially purged material onto your parchment, ptfe, glass, etc... As opposed to scraping.
What ever is left on my dish that needs to be scraped is kept seperate and vacuumed on a different sheet. Most of the time this is the material that sugars.
As far as my increase in yield it's simple... Since I've been using what I just described or on a closed loop system is call a drip plate my yield has increased. Not by a landslide but it definitely increased. Much less waste.
2clicker
Observer
so by partially purged you mean partially evapped?
i dont blast, but if this can help my qwet then ill try it.
so you are blasting and doing the water bath. then evapping until the solvent is ALMOST gone (for the most part)? then you are pouring that liquid (errl and tane) onto parchment/ptfe/glass to evap and purge the rest?
so the increase is from the lack of scraping? i saw the 26% part and was wondering how i can get that type of return on my qwet runs.
thanks team!
Absolutely bro. And what I scrape I keep seperate. Scraping induces air into the errl, air causes it to break down and purge unevenly resulting in a sugared up load.
Here's my last...
Poured
Scraped
Same load, same strain, same solvent.