First run using Honey Bee Extractor?

equatorgringo

equatorgringo

Well-Known Member
Hello all,

I have been reading/watching/learning some on BHO. Unfortunately where I live I have no access to concentrates whatsoever. I am really interested in trying it myself. I would like an easy, safe, but solid method. I have been looking at the HoneyBee extractor and was wondering if that is a good option for a newbie like me to use? I would just like to try it once to see how I like it, how it goes and if BHO is something I would like to continue using.

There are so many videos and so many methods I am finding it a bit overwhelming to really soak it all in and choose which info or which parts to go with, to combine a solid first-try method. I know I CAN NOT use a vacuum for purging. The whole purging part I am a little confused on anyway. The steps before that seem pretty straight forward.

Could anyone help me with this? I would really only like to do 7g of material for the first run.

TIA for any comments!
 
equatorgringo,
tepictoton

tepictoton

Well-Known Member
think 7grams is to little for the honeybee?

for purging without vac I suggest you look into spraying directly into alcohol(and then you can winterize it or evap)...

please do read as much as you can up front, and decide for yourself what you feel might work best...proceed from there on.

PLEASE TAKE SAFETY PRECAUTIONS!!!
 
DieHard

DieHard

Accessory supplier
Accessory Maker
equatorgringo said:
Hello all,

I have been reading/watching/learning some on BHO. Unfortunately where I live I have no access to concentrates whatsoever. I am really interested in trying it myself. I would like an easy, safe, but solid method. I have been looking at the HoneyBee extractor and was wondering if that is a good option for a newbie like me to use? I would just like to try it once to see how I like it, how it goes and if BHO is something I would like to continue using.

There are so many videos and so many methods I am finding it a bit overwhelming to really soak it all in and choose which info or which parts to go with, to combine a solid first-try method. I know I CAN NOT use a vacuum for purging. The whole purging part I am a little confused on anyway. The steps before that seem pretty straight forward.

Could anyone help me with this? I would really only like to do 7g of material for the first run.

TIA for any comments!
Click to expand...
Do not be intimidated by this process just be SAFE. ALWAYS do butane extractions outdoors. Keep any potential source of spark away from the process. I have a fan blowing on the area I extract in from about 20 feet away to keep the fan motor away from I the process but still get air flow. I blast into a Pyrex dish floating in an electric skillet with water at 120 degrees. I turn off and unplug the skillet when blasting for safety. 1 can of butane should be enough for 7g. But you can do a second wash after grinding the material again (first grind is rather coarse). Wear safety glasses to protect your peepers! For such a small amount (7g) purging is just a matter of maintaining gentle heat (120 deg) under the Pyrex until large bubbles stop forming in the oil. Pop the bubbles with a razor blade. When only very tiny bubbles are visible remove heat. These tiny bubbles are co2 and terpenes (flavor compounds). Scrape up oil and enjoy!
 
equatorgringo

equatorgringo

Well-Known Member
Perfect! Thank you both very much for the responses. I try to be a very cautious and safe person, I've heard and read about the dangers while doing this process. Definitely going to take every precaution I can to avoid a potentially dangerous environment.

@DieHard Thank you so much for that run-down. Definitely filled in a lot of the blanks I had for the process. I had a couple of bonus questions...Do you think 7g would work in a a HoneyBee? Or would I need a glass tube designed for such small runs? Also, you say you blast into a Pyrex floating in an electric skillet with water at 120 degrees. Do you mean that you heat up the water first to 120, then unplug the skillet and begin blasting into the Pyrex that is on top of the heated water? From the videos I have seen, people blast into Pyrex then put it into an already heated skillet, is this what you meant? Sorry if these are silly questions, I just want to get it really figured out so I don't do anything stupid! Thanks is advance again!
 
equatorgringo,
DabComa

DabComa

Stuck in Dab Coma
I would suggest going to your LHS for a glass tube designed to run a quarter ounce. You'll get the best return on tightly packed tubes. I personally use a honeybee designed for 28 grams... Plus to make it a hair tighter, and prevent any dish contamination, I place 4 cottonballs in before any flower, this prevents any pieces no matter how small from blasting out the hole in the top when you pull out (giggity). I personally don't blast anywhere near any open source of heat ... Even if it is off. I'd rather not find myself lying in the hospital going, " I know I turned it off , what happened".

if you have a gas stove or are just uncomfortable evaporating inside (as everyone should be) a good method is to get a pan of water boiling then bring it outside , then after it's cooled a little you can bring the Pyrex outside just untill the visible pool of butane is gone, then back indoors you can go with a little more feeling of ease knowing the vast majority definitely made it outside.

Personally I heat 110 for maximum flavor retention but to each there own. I don't use a heat gun, but I have verified this method with one. I keep my water hot enough (or cool enough?) That I can keep my fingers in it for at least ten seconds. That's generally between 110 and 115 for me, but everyone's pain tolerances are different so that may not be the best method for everyone.

Hope it helps. Stay safe.
 
z9

z9

Well-Known Member
I suggest you don't use a honeybee extractor. Look into stainless steel turkey basters for a cheap, benign tube or get a glass extraction tube.

Nothings easier than the mason jar method though. There are guides and videos online but here's the short version.
Put the mason jar on ice, spray butane into the jar, drop your weed in. Soak times are widely disputed, I tend to do about 10 minutes. Filter out butane into a dish with alcohol and evaporate.

I also do a quick wash with ethonal immediately afterwards to capture whatever's left in the jar and combine it with the still evaporating butane. I require such a small dab to get off that I don't mind a small loss in potency in exchange for increased yield and what is IMO a slightly more well rounded high.
 
DieHard

DieHard

Accessory supplier
Accessory Maker
equatorgringo said:
Perfect! Thank you both very much for the responses. I try to be a very cautious and safe person, I've heard and read about the dangers while doing this process. Definitely going to take every precaution I can to avoid a potentially dangerous environment.

@DieHard Thank you so much for that run-down. Definitely filled in a lot of the blanks I had for the process. I had a couple of bonus questions...Do you think 7g would work in a a HoneyBee? Or would I need a glass tube designed for such small runs? Also, you say you blast into a Pyrex floating in an electric skillet with water at 120 degrees. Do you mean that you heat up the water first to 120, then unplug the skillet and begin blasting into the Pyrex that is on top of the heated water? From the videos I have seen, people blast into Pyrex then put it into an already heated skillet, is this what you meant? Sorry if these are silly questions, I just want to get it really figured out so I don't do anything stupid! Thanks is advance again!
Click to expand...
.
I don't use a honeybee, so I'm not familiar with the capacity. I use a copper pipe about 13" long by 3/4" ID. With about 4-5 screens in one end. I prefer a smaller diameter tube to avoid "dry" spots. My last run was 7g and I got 1.3 from the first blast and .4 from the second. I do unplug the skillet before blasting for safety. I also place the Pyrex in the hot water just before blasting to avoid water condensing on the dish. I don't use the alcohol except to clean and reclaim the oil lost in the scraping. IMO the alcohol dilution and winterizing are good for purity but compromise flavor.
 
jdee

jdee

Well-Known Member
I would recommend the 10gram ds glass extractor (single piece, not glass on glass) from extraction experts for your purpose. Purging without a vac chamber is easy, if you have a toaster oven. Preheat oven with pyrex plate and ceramic tile. Fill pan with hot water and place outside, put prewarmed pyrex in pan with hot water. Blast your packed tubed with preferably frozen material into the pyrex, stop when it turns clear. When most butane that can readily escape has (which is quickly when using double boiler) , place pyrex back in toaster oven shortly, then scrape to parchment spreading it out as thin as possible. Place parchment on ceramic tile in toaster oven. Escaping solvent makes large bubble, escaping terpenes make small co2 like bubble. When the puddle of oil is nothing but small co2 bubbles, you can stop heat purging.
 
DabComa

DabComa

Stuck in Dab Coma
I've started out using the mason jar methods but found the returns to be slightly lower then with the tube method, especially when the tube is properly packed. While preferring the tube, two property's of the glass turn me away from it:

1):)Glass can break.... Plastic will not, at least in a violent sense. And with the constant heating and cooling you'll be subjecting your tube to, you better believe the glass will eventually break

2):) the honeybee tube is threaded at the end and a cap screws on. When you have to run high pressure, there's a great risk of the material your using on the glass to filter like a coffee filter... Can burst, which would ruin the entire run... This has happened to me twice with glass, and zero times with the honeybee... Inarguably the way to go for me for that reason alone... Any one who's ever experienced a blow out and waisted 300$ I'm sure would agree with me. No matter how well you clamp your filter to the tube, there's a multitude of problems that can occur.

Edit: those aren't supposed to be smiley faces and I can't get rid of them for whatever reason...
 
Last edited:
darkrom

darkrom

Great Scott!
DabComa said:
1):)Glass can break.... Plastic will not, at least in a violent sense. And with the constant heating and cooling you'll be subjecting your tube to, you better believe the glass will eventually break
Click to expand...

Why would your blasting tube ever come in contact with heat?
 
darkrom,
DabComa

DabComa

Stuck in Dab Coma
Not heating in the sense of hot like your thinking.

Going from 60 degrees before the run, to 32 while doing the run, then back to 60-70 room temperature.

Heating and cooling.
 
DabComa,
darkrom

darkrom

Great Scott!
Ok that makes more sense. I was wondering what uber secret you guys had that involved heating the tubes lol.
 
darkrom,
DabComa

DabComa

Stuck in Dab Coma
Lol probably not a good idea to heat the tube... Or anywhere near the tube.
 
DabComa,
Wizsteve

Wizsteve

Well-Known Member
i want to say metal is far safer due to freezing however metal and plastic can also break when frozen.
and pyrex still would need to be thick to avoid breaking under pressure.

wouldn't the honey bee risk getting plastic in your bho batch? is a solvent after all .
 
Wizsteve,
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2clicker

2clicker

Observer
z9 said:
I suggest you don't use a honeybee extractor. Look into stainless steel turkey basters for a cheap, benign tube or get a glass extraction tube.

Nothings easier than the mason jar method though. There are guides and videos online but here's the short version.
Put the mason jar on ice, spray butane into the jar, drop your weed in. Soak times are widely disputed, I tend to do about 10 minutes. Filter out butane into a dish with alcohol and evaporate.

I also do a quick wash with ethonal immediately afterwards to capture whatever's left in the jar and combine it with the still evaporating butane. I require such a small dab to get off that I don't mind a small loss in potency in exchange for increased yield and what is IMO a slightly more well rounded high.
Click to expand...

why not just do an ethanol wash to extract...? skip the butane altogether. wash is only 3 mins.
 
2clicker,
z9

z9

Well-Known Member
2clicker said:
why not just do an ethanol wash to extract...? skip the butane altogether. wash is only 3 mins.
Click to expand...

My living situation doesn't allow me to freeze my materials. I used to regularly do alcohol washes but the anxiety of prepping my materials was too much, I can do a soak at a moments notices without hassling with freezing. That and I have a bunch of cans of Lucienne that I need to use up.

I actually prefer the effects of a straight ethanol wash but this method seems to be a good middle ground. Its so much faster to make and my product is always golden (not that it isn't with alcohol washes).
 
2clicker

2clicker

Observer
z9 said:
My living situation doesn't allow me to freeze my materials. I used to regularly do alcohol washes but the anxiety of prepping my materials was too much, I can do a soak at a moments notices without hassling with freezing. That and I have a bunch of cans of Lucienne that I need to use up.

I actually prefer the effects of a straight ethanol wash but this method seems to be a good middle ground. Its so much faster to make and my product is always golden (not that it isn't with alcohol washes).
Click to expand...

ahh makes sense
 
2clicker,
DabComa

DabComa

Stuck in Dab Coma
Wizsteve said:
i want to say metal is far safer due to freezing however metal and plastic can also break when frozen.
and pyrex still would need to be thick to avoid breaking under pressure.

wouldn't the honey bee risk getting plastic in your bho batch? is a solvent after all .
Click to expand...

Like I said breaking violently, as In lots of product and blood loss lol. Supposedly according to their company the honeybee is made of a special solvent resistant plastic polymer ( as Wikipedia would say " needs citation") but to set ones mind at ease one can simply do the regular mirror test for butane, just through the empty tube on the mirror, and you can see that their is no residue still... Assuming you have good butane.
 
DabComa,
DabComa

DabComa

Stuck in Dab Coma
Hmm my edit option is gone, forcing me into the unknown world of double posting...

upon arriving home after posting the last comment i decided to inspect my tube, which now I'm glad I did. A small crack has (or had) begun forming somewhere between the threads and the lid that screws on, which if i had not caught at this point, would almost certainly have blown out on the VERY NEXT RUN. PHEW! As i said before I'm no fan of blowouts. You find yourself cleaning essential oils off of some strange surfaces... walls... tables... small furry animals... Oh well too much detail. But valuable lesson learned today kids, before EVERY run do a full tube inspection! It may be worth the extra 25 seconds.

Now i need a new HoneyBee.

BTW: Ive used mine for probably 6 months at the least and probably around 25-35 runs. But i always freeze everything before hand for at least two hours, and pack very tight for very high pressure, could have daunting effects i guess on any material
 
DabComa,
DieHard

DieHard

Accessory supplier
Accessory Maker
DabComa said:
Hmm my edit option is gone, forcing me into the unknown world of double posting...

upon arriving home after posting the last comment i decided to inspect my tube, which now I'm glad I did. A small crack has (or had) begun forming somewhere between the threads and the lid that screws on, which if i had not caught at this point, would almost certainly have blown out on the VERY NEXT RUN. PHEW! As i said before I'm no fan of blowouts. You find yourself cleaning essential oils off of some strange surfaces... walls... tables... small furry animals... Oh well too much detail. But valuable lesson learned today kids, before EVERY run do a full tube inspection! It may be worth the extra 25 seconds.

Now i need a new HoneyBee.

BTW: Ive used mine for probably 6 months at the least and probably around 25-35 runs. But i always freeze everything before hand for at least two hours, and pack very tight for very high pressure, could have daunting effects i guess on any material
Click to expand...
This is why I use a copper tube. 3/4"x13" plus 2 3/4" copper end caps, 4-5 screens (I use brass).
Drill small hole in one end cap sized for butane nozzle. Drill 3/8" hole in other end cap. Push screens into end cap with large hole. Place end cap with large hole on tube and tap on with a mallet. Of course all parts boiled and cleaned thoroughly. The end cap with small hole will be where you fill from. The end cap fits snug so don't cram it on too hard after filling. I have never had a blowout. If the copper doesn't clean or begins to look iffy scrap it and off to Home Depot.
 
DieHard,
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