Dabpress Rosin Plates

[SquirrelMaster]

Congrats on your path to Rosineer!

Speaking for myself, it has been life changing. There is such a wealth of knowledge on FC, post up any questions as you go!



Admittedly, I do not favor chottle and prefer full bottle tech. I definitely encourage you to try every method and technique you come across. You will come to find what works for you, and what works well on some strains may not be the best method for others. It is a fast learning curve if you press often- enjoy every minute of the experience!

Rosineer, I like that term . I already have some 90 micron bags (rosin tech iirc) ready to go and the press and pump are supposed to be here Friday. I can't wait to do my first press . I want some 37 micron for hash, also a cylindrical pre-press. I need to get some rubber feet and I'll probably grab a mixed bag or two. DabPress said the 90 micron bags are a while away. 90-120 seems like a popular choice.

I figured I would need to try a few methods to see whichbI prefer. Bottle tech seems to be the most popular but the little I was hearing of chottle made it sound really good. Missing the top and bottom of a bag is a little odd but I guess some even press without a bag?

 

[LesPlenty]

Missing the top and bottom of a bag

I never had any luck that way but others swear by it!

 

[FlyingLow]

get yourself a small hygrometer for your jar.

Perhaps your buds are not at 61% and may need to incubate with the boveda packs longer.
It is a lot of experimenting.

 

[Blargas541]

I actually got a hygrometer a few days ago and all looks good as far as humidity goes... That's why I'm especially disappointed because I got some real fresh, sticky and high quality stuff.

I tried pressing a single 1g bud to see if I got a better yield, all the wax stuck to the outside of the bud though, attached a pic. This was the Lemon Mintz, no more left.



Just now, I pressed a smaller amount of the dry sift, just 3.5g, the yield was better but still poor for sift, just 0.6g and I had to use fairly high temp (190F for 2 mins got me most of it and 220F for 2mins got the last bit)



I am wondering about the pressure, do you folks with bottle jacks without gauges crank it pretty hard? I have to put some muscle into it and I haven't maxed it out as far as I know, not sure how hard I should be going

 

[LesPlenty]

I am wondering about the pressure, do you folks with bottle jacks without gauges crank it pretty hard? I have to put some muscle into it

The 3t needs maxing out on larger loads for it from what I have seen, I like doing as large a bottle tech that I can fit between my press jaws without having to do more than lean on my pre-press so I have more bud to bag ratio so less bag to hold rosin and easy to manage.

 

[invertedisdead]

Your temps are on the low end for flower and your time sounds pretty short for the temp. Yield is always going to suffer at those temps.
Try going straight to 220F if your trying to get a lot. But quality and quantity are always proportional...

I probably wouldn't press more than 4g flower at once with a 4 ton.

Wouldn't pre-press too hard if at all either, usually just enough to fit between the plates

Quite a bit of stuff just doesn't press well / isn't worth it - better to load in a convection vape.

You can press flower at hash temps, and get better quality, but the yield will always suffer because there's too much plant material to melt through compared to pressing hash.

 

[LesPlenty]

Your temps are on the low end

I have to disagree...I never press over 99c(210f) and only go that high on the second press of my puck. I usually get 13-15% return at 70c(158f) to 75c(167f) and another 4-8% on the second press at 95c(203f) to 99c(210f) for a total of 17 to 23% depending on which part of the plant my buds come from and how well that crop went.
I do agree that the time could go a bit longer...3.5 to 5 minutes including a heat up as I slowly add pressure, usually just enough pressure to flatten the puck until it heats thoroughly (usually 90 seconds) then start cranking on the pressure for some flow for another or 4 minutes(or when the rosin stops dripping).

 

[invertedisdead]

I have disagree...I never press over 99c(210f) and only go that high on the second press of my puck.

210F on the second press is hotter than 220F on the first press with the entire RH to buffer the resin. Just like how you can hit convection vapes hotter on the first go. With some strains a warmer temp helps it run away from the heat instead of buttering up and cooking on the plates, depends on the resin.

Worth a shot if trying for higher yields, though IMHO it's not really worth chasing yield with rosin. Hash making is cool, but efficiency isn't really its virtue.

 

[LesPlenty]

I quite often do a single press on a fresh 10g puck while the plates are up to temp after the 2x press just to check and it always ends up the same amount as the 2x separate runs of the other puck added together... never as nice as the first low temp press and the separate blak/dark rosin from the second press is helpful for my sleep, just makes me a bit dozy.
I do this to get 3 different styles of rosin from one strain (all I got for a while now and for a while into the foreseeable future)

 

[invertedisdead]

But don't you always press the same strain every time?
Seems reasonable to consider things could be different with different resin.

 

[WelshBrok]

I don’t really ever go over 180f and until I started having plate alignment issues was getting around 18-23% return on the first press and I don’t bother with second presses.

i also don’t think bovedas make much if any difference to yield as all they do is prevent more moisture from evaporating from the trichomes. They don’t rehydrate the trichomes. Once it’s lost it’s too late

really I think it comes down to finding flower that’s come out of drying at the top end of the RH so it retains that tacky/stickyness. I’m always looking for bud that’s almost crispy on the outside of the nugs but sticks your fingers together when you break the buds up to go in the grinder. No stickyness = no point pressing for me (so am now dry sifting non-sticky bud so it’s still pressable hopefully)

 

[LesPlenty]

But don't you always press the same strain every time?

Yep and that is why I say it makes no difference as my variables are only from where off the plant came from.
Most I converse with say I am a heathen for pressing at 99c.

 

[Blargas541]

Another failed experiment tonight, unfortunately. I am starting to lose hope... used a different strain this time as well as different techniques and still the yield was less than 5%.

Anyone see anything obviously wrong in the pics attached? I tried chottle tek this time, to see if I was losing all my oil inside the bag, but it doesn't appear to be the case. I pressed 5g at 175F for about 5 minutes and when I checked the parchment there was almost nothing. Increased the temp to 205 and gave it 3 minutes and got a very small amount of low quality rosin. Overall yield 0.23 out of 5 grams.

 

[LesPlenty]

I think you need more pressure on that bottletech puck, should look like a wheel with rosin for a tire, here is 2500 psi on a couple of different branded bags (the maths was done earlier that this is around a good starting weight),

And here is 3000psi (a little higher than I normally would do to check the bags out)

As you can see it would be quite hard for me to get the puck back open and pull the buds out plus I usually have a dent in the parchment paper when finished.
Make sure the plates have had enough time to completely heat soak (try 185f) as well.

 

[Chicken No Name]

@Blargas541
Try pressing small amounts without bag. Dirtier output but might help you dial in. Then once you are comfortable, go with larger amounts in a bag.

I press no higher than 90c. Never needed to. Pressure on gauge is 3t. Often 2.5.
Press for maximum of 2 mins with a 30 sec warm up as I press the plates on the bag but no registered gauge pressure. Once those 30 secs are up I apply the pressure to say 3 t over the 2 mins.

BG C99 gives me 27% all day long.
But others can be as low as 12.
I never second press. Just collect to be iso soaked one day.

Use 90 bag.

 

[bizwaxzion]

@Blargas541
Les and Chicken have some good ideas. I also think you might need more pressure. I aim for 900-1000 psi on a 30mm puck and I'll have a noticable indent in the parchment. No way I'm getting the sleeves off my pucks when them come out. Maybe press a single bud hard enough to tear the parchment and see what that amount of pressure feels like. Obviously it's too much - but now you know what it feels like.

I press flower at 180F - 200F. 180 can be a little to cool if it's cold in my garage. How long is the press running before you actually press? I turn mine on at least 30 minutes before use. If you have a laser thermometer you might shoot the plates to see if they are at the temp the controller reports. I don't time my presses - but I suspect it's close to 5 minutes. I let the pucks heat soak and then apply pressure very slowly - I don't know how to describe it other than I can feel the warm flower yielding to the pressure as it's applied.

It can be a little nerve racking early on - especially if you don't have a lot of material or you are pressing material for someone else. Don't lose hope - you just have to explore some more - find the limits of the press. As to yields, I've got everyting from 6% to 26% with an average of 16% across roughly 1000 grams of material.

 

[Southeastern]

Bizwazion your method is very close to what I do. I'm generally at 180f to 200f for 4 to 5 min. Those parameters work well for me.

@Blargas541 I did not realize until a few days ago that on my 6t the surface of the plates is around 10 degrees cooler than the reading on the controller.

Have you checked the temp of your plate surface?

I also have a bottle jack without a gauge and I put a some muscle into it and squish it real good.

 

[Blargas541]

Thanks for all the tips everyone. I had read some people saying you shouldn't need to put much force into the jack, so maybe I am under doing it. The shape of the 4-ton is kind of wobbly and awkward when I try to put my full weight into it, maybe I should try to mount it on something. Typically, I can't even see any gap/puck/rosin flowing between the plates because I squeeze them so tightly together but maybe that is not enough. On my second presses, I've had bag blowouts from going really high pressure but never ripped the parchment, I've also seen oil seep through the parchment to the plates (very little, not enough to account for the loss of yield). I will try to go even harder and see how it affects things but a bit sceptical that is the issue.

I also only let the plates heat up for about 5-10 min and I am in a cold place so I will let them heat up longer and get a heat gun to check the accuracy.

When pressing small amounts without a bag for testing do you guys recommend to use a prepress/form into a puck or should I only press one bud at a time this way? I do a lot of dabs daily so pressing 1 bud at a time is not going to get me anywhere really haha but will definitely try it to see if the yield is better

I wasn't expecting 20-25% on every squish but after doing like 10 trial runs I still don't have enough concentrate to last me beyond the squish session itself, blowing through a lot of flower this way so I will certainly try lower amounts to dial in before doing any more big loads as you guys suggest.

 

[SquirrelMaster]

My pump showed up yesterday, it's huge! I've used hydraulic hand pumps a fair bit in the past but the 11ton pumps I used were half the size of this monstrosity. I'm not complaining, it'll be easier to pump, it just surprised me.

The 12-ton press is showing up later today so I'm hoping I have time to do a press tonight. How extensive of a clean would you recommend for these units? I thought of ISO wiping the plates at the very least to get rid of any machining oils.

 

[bizwaxzion]

How extensive of a clean would you recommend for these units?

Initially, a quick wipe down should be sufficient. I also wipe down the plates, handle and parchment magnets at the end of the session as they tend to pull stuff off my gloves while working. I will sometimes wipe the plates during the session if there's bleed through.

 

[SquirrelMaster]

Initially, a quick wipe down should be sufficient. I also wipe down the plates, handle and parchment magnets at the end of the session as they tend to pull stuff off my gloves while working. I will sometimes wipe the plates during the session if there's bleed through.

Do you use a single piece of parchment or do you double up? Somewhere I watched a video and they were doubling up so there was no bleed through. I was not sure how common that is or if that's an unnecessary step.

 

[bizwaxzion]

Do you use a single piece of parchment or do you double up? Somewhere I watched a video and they were doubling up so there was no bleed through. I was not sure how common that is or if that's an unnecessary step.

I pull a 6" piece of parchment and fold in half. This, while pricey, has been a great addition to my pressing station. I was chasing directional folding for a while, but found it to be a PITA. I always employ drip tech when pressing more than a couple grams.

 

[SquirrelMaster]

I pull a 6" piece of parchment and fold in half. This, while pricey, has been a great addition to my pressing station. I was chasing directional folding for a while, but found it to be a PITA. I always employ drip tech when pressing more than a couple grams.

Do you mean you fold it in half in the Dabpress or before you put it in? Starting at the top plate>parchment>parchment>rosin bag>parchment>parchment>bottom plate?

 

[bizwaxzion]

Do you mean you fold it in half in the Dabpress or before you put it in? Starting at the top plate>parchment>parchment>rosin bag>parchment>parchment>bottom plate?

Before. Cut off 6" of parchment and fold in half (now 6"x7.5"). Place puck(s) inside parchment, close plates a bit if needed and slide in the sandwich. I leave ~3/4" hanging out the back of the plates. Close plates just until the parchment doesn't move around and use magnets to spread the front. For me it's top plate>parch>sleeved puck(s) or double bagged hash >parch>bottom plate.

 

[Blargas541]

For the folks with the bottle jack presses, can you kindly describe a bit about how much force you have to put in to crank it, and for how long? I'm not sure if I'm a weakling or if something is wrong. Most tutorials I read say to tighten it every 30 seconds or so, not sure if that means one crank or tightening it to maximum. Anyway, I've cranked my bottle jack for a few minutes straight putting a lot of power into it and it never seems to max out, and now my wrist is kinda sore. Within maybe 10 cranks the plates are touching, or close to it, but I can continue to crank though the resistance is very high. Still, the yield was around 7% with a small 3.5g chottle puck, and the second press tore through the parchment but barely got any more oil. Maybe it is the product I am using?

When people say it depends on the strain do you mean it varies a lot batch to batch on a lot of factors or if I get the highest end stuff I can buy will it be almost guaranteed to be a good squish?