Rosin press pressure, formula-

[MinnBobber]

Hi,
I need help determining working pressure (PSI) on a small plate/ low pressure setup please.

with 3.0" x 1.5" plate, you have 4.5 sq in of plate

If max pressure is 700 lbs, what is the working pressure (PSI) for:

1. 1" x 2" puck (2 sq in)

2. 1 x 1" puck (1 sq in)

3. tricky one - 0.7 x 0.7 puck or (0.5 sq in)

Can low pressure/low temp pressing give high quality results??
Best quality rosin is the goal, not max % extraction.

Thanks for any help on this

 

[Pressisbest]

If, by maximum pressure, you mean what your jack piston is capable of, then with a plate size of 4.5 sq. in the pressure will be 155.55 psi no matter the size of the puck you place in there.

My little press is capable of over 4300 psi based on the size of my plates and using a 12 ton press. This is overkill... but to a point. The older the flower, the more pressure I need to apply to get the rosin to come out and the quality is less, I find. Fresh flower presses the best, IMHO.

I press at 180 degrees all the time. Higher temps tend to burn the rosin. Lower temps get me a dried flaky, more waxy rosin and I need to increase the pressure to get it. Sticking with 180 degrees has given me superb results, as you can see from the photos on my thread, below.

You will need to test to see your results but more pressure will make your life easier and get you better results.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=348693

 

[mc]

Hi,
I need help determining working pressure (PSI) on a small plate/ low pressure setup please.

with 3.0" x 1.5" plate, you have 4.5 sq in of plate

If max pressure is 700 lbs, what is the working pressure (PSI) for:

1. 1" x 2" puck (2 sq in)

2. 1 x 1" puck (1 sq in)

3. tricky one - 0.7 x 0.7 puck or (0.5 sq in)

Can low pressure/low temp pressing give high quality results??
Best quality rosin is the goal, not max % extraction.

Thanks for any help on this

The plate size is irrelevant, you are correct it's puck size that holds all the pressure. So;

1. 700 / 2 = 350 PSI
2. 700 / 1 = 700 PSI
3. 700 / 0.5 - 1400 PSI

You actually increase your presses rated pressure by pressing under 1 inch puck. Ideal pressure is roughly 6-700 PSI. You can always go over but this seems to allow for max extraction.

Also, yes, pressing with lower heat and not over doing it will provide higher quality. But it's very minor, just try to stay within 180-205f and keep the presses under 3.5 min (total including ramp up) and you shouldn't hurt your end quality too much.

 

[psychonaut]

This is one of the reasons why bottle tech has been picking up a lot of steam. Good yields and you dont need to pre-press. The puck's footprint is relatively small, my 7gr pucks are about 2" diameter. That's about 1000 PSI and what I am noticing seems to be a trend amongst flower squishers. With alll the material being squished down on top of itself you can really fit a lot into these smaller plates!

 

[MinnBobber]

Thanks to all--- I was hoping that a small puck size would have the benefit of higher pressure, vs a big ol puck

And I was curious if less than 1" would actually go above the 700 PSI---cool news.

I don't have the unit yet so just trying to learn as much as possible----stayed up an entire night last week as I was finding such interesting info here and elsewhere and videos too.

Thanks

 

[mc]

Thanks to all--- I was hoping that a small puck size would have the benefit of higher pressure, vs a big ol puck

And I was curious if less than 1" would actually go above the 700 PSI---cool news.

I don't have the unit yet so just trying to learn as much as possible----stayed up an entire night last week as I was finding such interesting info here and elsewhere and videos too.

Thanks

Also remember it's the END puck that's the big factor, so even a .5 inch puck will squish out to about 2 inches round. But by that point you have also applied that much pressure but then at then end it's less.

That's why we ramp up pressure during the press, so keep it continually pressing out.

 

[mc]

This is one of the reasons why bottle tech has been picking up a lot of steam. Good yields and you don't need to pre-press.

Ya man, I'm always promoting bottle tech! People probably get tired of me saying it lol.

 

[psychonaut]

Ya man, I'm always promoting bottle tech! People probably get tired of me saying it lol.

Have you tried little kief press to pre-press smaller amounts of flower w/o bags? That's where I'm wanting to go next see how some smaller footprints in a similar vain to bottle tech. So many good methods out there!

 

[mc]

Have you tried little kief press to pre-press smaller amounts of flower w/o bags? That's where I'm wanting to go next see how some smaller footprints in a similar vain to bottle tech. So many good methods out there!

Yes it works great for small amount but ONLY for very small amounts because it still spreads out HUGE. Like 2 grams will squish out past my 2.5 inch round mini-nug smasher plates.

This isn't helped by the fact that I like to use the Oilslick paper because it doesn't break like normal parchment, but you cannot use that stuff without filters. It's WAY too slick.

Also the more you do the more you have to pre-press it and when you do that you affect quality because it's too difficult for the cooler rosin to flow through that hard brick.

 

[shredder]

Also the more you do the more you have to pre-press it and when you do that you affect quality because it's too difficult for the cooler rosin to flow through that hard brick.

Never heard that, could you explain? And or provide links?

I could surmise the opposite as rosin is somewhat filtered by the herb making a higher quality product.

When I've winterized used pucks I find much more wax than winterized rosin. So I assume there's some filtering going on with the herb trapping more wax.

 

[mc]

The more hard packed the puck the darker the resulting rosin. That's just experience. Now maybe it's because we have to up the pressure and time, but the result is what matters.

I also don't consider the amount of wax part of the quality, it's not winterized so it's going to have wax. The amount of wax is very dependent on how cured it is when you press it and how you press it.

Maybe a harder puck produces less wax, it would be nice to find out for sure. Then you have to start figuring out what quality means to you, and adjust accordingly.

 

[shredder]

The more hard packed the puck the darker the resulting rosin. That's just experience. Now maybe it's because we have to up the pressure and time, but the result is what matters.

I also don't consider the amount of wax part of the quality, it's not winterized so it's going to have wax. The amount of wax is very dependent on how cured it is when you press it and how you press it.

Maybe a harder puck produces less wax, it would be nice to find out for sure. Then you have to start figuring out what quality means to you, and adjust accordingly.

Heat isn't the only thing that makes rosin dark, mature buds with darker tricombs also make darker rosin.
That applies no matter how hard packed the puck is. I see no correlation between how hard the puck is packed to anything other than too much herb might break the bag.

Rosin is subject to many influences, like heat, plate temp, ambient heat, age of the materials, moisture of the materials, humidity. In fact I'm no longer surprised at what I find when I press because the rosin can vary so much. I've found no correlation between rosin color and strength/quality.

I harvest about every three months and press rosin as needed over that time frame and have seen a lot of rosin that looks much different than rosin of the same herb pressed at a different time. So I'm very skeptical of claims like yours. Links or research would be more valuable than personal experience here. I don't discount your experience but it sure hasn't been mine.

 

[mc]

just try it yourself. Press the same stuff with a filter and no prepress. Then press the same stuff pucked to hell. The amount I've pressed at this point is staggering.

This is also why slug.33 rosin is so dark, you have to press it through itself.

 

[invertedisdead]

In my limited experience, I do think the idea that bottle tech allows the rosin to flow easier makes sense to me. The extract has to follow a capillary like route. With bottle tek, the flower can reach thermal equilibrium while maintaining larger escape "veins" to facilitate oil extraction than densely pre-pressed material, which relates to my experience with bags. My bottle tek pucks seem quite a bit drier than my pre-pressed pucks but I'm a beginner.

The Nugsmasher guys claim with dense pre-pucks you are smashing the resin into the plant material, but that it is easier to extract that resin when it's not homogenized in.

 

[shredder]

In my limited experience, I do think the idea that bottle tech allows the rosin to flow easier makes sense to me. The extract has to follow a capillary like route. With bottle tek, the flower can reach thermal equilibrium while maintaining larger escape "veins" to facilitate oil extraction than densely pre-pressed material, which relates to my experience with bags. My bottle tek pucks seem quite a bit drier than my pre-pressed pucks but I'm a beginner.

The Nugsmasher guys claim with dense pre-pucks you are smashing the resin into the plant material, but that it is easier to extract that resin when it's not homogenized in.

AFAIK, it's still heat and pressure that moves rosin.

But it does sound like we may have different experiences because we use different equipment. I'm using a 20 ton press, on 2x4 pre pressed pucks of 12-20 grams and in mesh 160micron Arizona press bags. I press buds at 185-200 depending on the herb, conditions and what not.

My used pucks are smashed very thin, and you can see flecks of rosin on the outer most edges of the bags. When I strip that rosin with iso, and winterize with ethanol it's over half plant wax. But if I winterize rosin that I harvested it has much less wax. So I think the herb is acting somewhat like a filter in that it holds back a high percentage of plant waxes.

I've found anything from gooey clear rosin that's hard to pick up to shatter like rosin. A lot of the differences is due to the herb itself as it ages. And ambient conditions. But again I think a lot of the differences were seeing on this forum are due to equipment differences. I'm not seeing what others might see and vice versa.

As long as we're happy it's all good.

 

[mc]

the temp and cure time are the primary factors in both consistency and color, agreed. No one is arguing that.

My used pucks are smashed very thin, and you can see flecks of rosin on the outer most edges of the bags. When I strip that rosin with iso, and winterize with ethanol it's over half plant wax. But if I winterize rosin that I harvested it has much less wax. So I think the herb is acting somewhat like a filter in that it holds back a high percentage of plant waxes.
.

You just said above that your "pre-puck" rosin is half wax, and then you say the pre-pucking is removing wax? Can you explain this a little better, I'm a bit confused.

I believe you are almost always going to get out a certain %, so if a cultivar is expressing 18% avg it's going to give you that much no matter if you pre-puck or not. So you should be getting the same amount of wax, no? This si the situation we are discussing, where all your variable to get the same yield are intact, but now you want to maximize quality. So to me, having the "wax" move out quickly and easily provides a better end result.

I welcome you to try this. The same cultivar, using filters of course. But try your pre-puck method and really slam it down for us. Then do the same amount using bottle tech, vertical filter style. And compare both at the end. If there is ZERO different, then I'll try it again myself. it has been a while since I've pre-pucked to test.

 

[shredder]

the temp and cure time are the primary factors in both consistency and color, agreed. No one is arguing that.



You just said above that your "pre-puck" rosin is half wax, and then you say the pre-pucking is removing wax? Can you explain this a little better, I'm a bit confused.

I believe you are almost always going to get out a certain %, so if a cultivar is expressing 18% avg it's going to give you that much no matter if you pre-puck or not. So you should be getting the same amount of wax, no? This si the situation we are discussing, where all your variable to get the same yield are intact, but now you want to maximize quality. So to me, having the "wax" move out quickly and easily provides a better end result.

I welcome you to try this. The same cultivar, using filters of course. But try your pre-puck method and really slam it down for us. Then do the same amount using bottle tech, vertical filter style. And compare both at the end. If there is ZERO different, then I'll try it again myself. it has been a while since I've pre-pucked to test.

Your right, you are confused lol. Go back and re read what I wrote, I'm afraid you got it all wrong.

I said the rosin left on USED pucks, once stripped off the pucks and then winterized, had a lot of plant waxes. Then further, I never said, my pre pucking is removing wax. don't know where you got that, lol.

 

[mc]

ahh ok, I see what you are saying. I've washed rosin chips a few times and did not even attempt to correlate the amount of wax I stripped to do with how pucked it was. You'd have to show me a little more evidence of a correlation. I can provide detailed numbers on yields under both methods being relatively identical, which would indicate the same amount of wax coming out.

To do a real wax comparison we'd have to wash both methods results and then compare.