Rosin Technique....Easy DIY Solventless

[invertedisdead]

Here's a question. I understand yields vary widely between cultivars, but assuming most of the cultivars being used are high resin producers, same producer, what sort of returns could one expect from a sub $500 unit (DIY or manufactured)?

Right now I can get ounces of concentrate for $420, flowers are going for $175 (select strain specials for $99). I'm willing to spend a little more money for self made rosin per gram, but being a patient I am trying to keep prices down. My caregiver doesn't offer rosin, if they did it would be closer to $30-35/gr.

Like most of you discussing your current wish lists, I too would like to squish once a week, but preferably once a month. I go through about 7gr of concentrate per month.

My last experience with squishing indoors with the hair straightener left my house reeking like a skunk for 4 hours, my wife was not impressed. I definitely would like something I can move around, at least out onto the porch.

Here's the dead skunk and the low yield =/

Really appreciate the info from @invertedisdead @shredder @Dangus helping us newcomers with knowledge

Even at 25% yield you would need 4 oz of flower to get 1 oz of rosin. I think 15-25% is a good range for yield. It's going to vary going from colas to popcorns.

 

[matthend]

yeah hard to beat $420 an oz. Damn thats a bargain... As far as your initial squeeze went, my initial suggestion would be to prepress your nug prior to the actual squish with heat. What temp and clamping method are you using? Again, all this is would be moot for me if I had access to good concentrates at a price close to that

 

[psychonaut]

It's good, clean green certified meds, greenhouse organic. Cheapest I've found in my area. Rosin seems to have a path to self sufficiency, so I have no idea if I'll even continue to use them as my caregiver down the road.

 

[herbivore21]

@psychonaut

Holy shit, $420 a zip for concentrates is insanely cheap. Is that for high quality concentrates though, or trim run BHO? If the latter, then I'd pass up on that. I prefer resin from nugs. Trim resin is less effective for some of my medical needs and never tends to taste as good as nug resin (of course heat purging a solvent can remove enough terps from either product to make them indistinguishable).

If you can get high resin flower for $99-$175 per zip, I'd expect to get 5-8g per oz of flower. You could conceivably get similar prices on your rosin that way.

Even on a lower resin yielder, even if you spend slightly more on a zip of rosin vs bho, the rosin is going to be better tasting and you can be more sure of safety vs butane extracts. If you are using flower for rosin vs trim run BHO, then the quality of the former will be incomparably better. In either case, rosin eliminates any cumulative inhalation of residual solvent from bho. Trim usually has more sessile trichomes vs capitate stalked trichomes. The former have less terps and less THC (although more CBC has been observed in these trichomes). Sessile trichomes also contain 1/8 as much resin as capitate stalked trichomes.

Get your hands on wholesale flower or grow your own, and rosin may become cheaper than anything else you can find

 

[psychonaut]

@psychonaut

Holy shit, $420 a zip for concentrates is insanely cheap. Is that for high quality concentr ates though, or trim run BHO? If the latter, then I'd pass up on that. I prefer resin from nugs. Trim resin is less effective for some of my medical needs and never tends to taste as good as nug resin (of course heat purging a solvent can remove enough terps from either product to make them indistinguishable).

If you can get high resin flower for $99-$175 per zip, I'd expect to get 5-8g per oz of flower. You could conceivably get similar prices on your rosin that way.

Even on a lower resin yielder, even if you spend slightly more on a zip of rosin vs bho, the rosin is going to be better tasting and you can be more sure of safety vs butane extracts. If you are using flower for rosin vs trim run BHO, then the quality of the former will be incomparably better. In either case, rosin eliminates any cumulative inhalation of residual solvent from bho. Trim usually has more sessile trichomes vs capitate stalked trichomes. The former have less terps and less THC (although more CBC has been observed in these trichomes). Sessile trichomes also contain 1/8 as much resin as capitate stalked trichomes.

Get your hands on wholesale flower or grow your own, and rosin may become cheaper than anything else you can find

Yeah, it's a great deal for patients. The $99 flower would be the only way to do it. It's not a trim batch when they put it on sale, it just changes up day to day to get patients in the door every day. The last one was pennywise which I believe is a decent resin producer. TGA/subcool genetics are easy to get a hold of.

I wouldn't complain about 5gr yield from an ounce, that's slightly more money but if the terps are there, I know there's more medicine which I am always looking for. I tried my hand with vac purging my own oil but I lose all the terps =/

Looks like I need to read back through some of the more recent pages and start looking at what's needed and build a list. I got a lot of tools so I should be able to put something decent together. This will probably be a late summer project.

 

[herbivore21]

Yeah, it's a great deal for patients. The $99 flower would be the only way to do it. It's not a trim batch when they put it on sale, it just changes up day to day to get patients in the door every day. The last one was pennywise which I believe is a decent resin producer. TGA/subcool genetics are easy to get a hold of.

I wouldn't complain about 5gr yield from an ounce, that's slightly more money but if the terps are there, I know there's more medicine which I am always looking for. I tried my hand with vac purging my own oil but I lose all the terps =/

Looks like I need to read back through some of the more recent pages and start looking at what's needed and build a list. I got a lot of tools so I should be able to put something decent together. This will probably be a late summer project.

Good idea man, it sounds like you are in a very good position to produce rosin for yourself, getting a press sounds like a plan

 

[nosmoking]

I have low temp 3x5 caged plates. ($479) and a 20 ton HF press ($150) minus a 20% online discount code. Add to that a pre press mold ($57 amazon) parchment paper, mesh bags, wax scraping tools, and that's about it.

It seems the cages are valued at about $200-$300 for 3x5 or 4x4 setups so an extra $79 for a cage seems like too sweet a deal to pass on after more thought. Plus the plates are both 1" thick in the caged version instead of 1 being 1" and the other being 2" thick. Finally, shipping and taxes are covered by them. Thanks for hanging in there with me folks...especially @invertedisdead @Dangus @shredder

I am gonna sleep on it but I plan on buying the 3x5 low temp caged kit and laying it horizontally in my vice until I pick out a small heavy duty press from harbor freight. There is one a couple miles away from me and I get 20-25% off coupons often. But I dont think I will rush on the press. I have a 2 car garage which is where my vape area exists, but between all the kids toys and tools I dont really want a huge press standing. I keep a lot of my vape stuff in a wooden tv closet/dresser and I was thinking it would be nice if I could fit it in there. This is where the nugsmasher mini intrigues me but I still can't seem to convince myself that it will be sufficient enough. So off to harborfreight.com to look at small presses with high PSI

@shredder Is there any chance you can link the pre press mold you got from amazon?


Edit: Would a 6 ton press or even a 10 ton press put out enough PSI? I can't remember but @herbivore21 is really good at calculating this. Lets say 3 grams on 3x5 plates with 6 ton PSI and then at 10 ton PSI...can you do the leg work for me on this ☝

 

[invertedisdead]

You don't want that 6 ton A frame, a lot of people have broke them to the point they are considered dangerous and not recommended. You can get a good deal on the 12 ton. 12 ton (24,000 Lbs) / 15 (3x5") = 1600 PSI squishing the whole plate size, PSI increases as press size decreases so it's pretty competent. 3000 PSI if you squish a 2x4" pre press. But you never want to use these machines at max capacity either so figure 80% of these numbers.

 

[nosmoking]

I went ahead and purchased the 3x5 caged kit from LowTemp-Plates this morning.

Thanks for doing the math for me @invertedisdead I am thinking the 6 ton will not be enough pressure cause like you said I don't want the machine at max capacity. I wanted to be able to conceal the press, however I have no real reason to hide it. I have a garage full of tools and I often do my own mechanical repairs and I can't tell you how many times I have driven an hour just to use my stepdads press for bearings or other things. So for the matter of keeping costs down, a 12 or 20 ton H press will be the right idea.

 

[Caelar900]

If your looking for something on the smaller side still I would recommend this guy from harbor freight https://www.harborfreight.com/20-ton-air-hydraulic-shop-press-with-oil-filter-crusher-65330.html

 

[nosmoking]

I was looking at that one but it is 2x the cost. I do have a 26 gal compressor that rarely sees use but I don't intend on going pneumatic as it just seems unnecessary and overkill perhaps. Maybe you guys can tell me otherwise

I also really do like orange tho! You guys are totally taking advantage of my bank account right now.

 

[Caelar900]

If you plan on squishing flower and ever want to utilize a good portion of the 3x5 plates I would definitely go for a 20 ton over a 12. And it has a manual option so your not locked into pneumatic if you don't want to use it, thought it is always there if you do. But yes, it is about $100 more than the H frame version so its really down to whether the reduction is size is worth that increase in price.

 

[miguelovic]

I use a 12t on 3x5 plates.

The pucks usually expand from 8 inch square to roughly 12-13. There isn't much of a yield difference above 1000PSI, though I have heard it is beneficial for >80C 4+ minute presses.

 

[Caelar900]

Eh, I do not doubt that YMMV but I prefer 2500-3000psi for flower and 1000-1500 for hashes.

 

[miguelovic]

Well hey now, a difference of opinion? Them's fightin' words.

I was tinkering with the thought of a nice 20+t. To fool with more pressure, larger plates and to have one press just for pucks.

I usually add that what I say is just my own opinion. It can sound a bit definitive but is not.

 

[mc]

The Nugsmasher mini is a great portable press, however the plates do not hit flush without guidence. This hasn't' held me back though, the paper is not crumpling up at all. It's only good for small amount though, 1-3.5 max.

For 14-28 at a time, I suggest a 20T with 3x5 plates or longer. PSI is measured at the material, and you need to take the ratio of your ram size compared to 1 inch square to be fully accurate. If your ram is 1.5 inches, you need to calculate the difference from 1 inch/s. Then base that against the puck size throughout the press. That's why you need to ramp up pressure during the press, the puck gets wider, lower and you lose pressure.

Always virtical "gift" filter method if you want the best one hit results. No pre-press needed. I only prepress if I want to go filterless but I'd rather use filters to avoid the clean up process.

 

[Hogni]

Sorry, this ram factor I don't totally understand!?
Could you give an example for calculation, please?

Up to now I was calculating psi by ton x 2000 (= pound) ./. square inch size of material (l x w) = psi.
What to do with other ram diameters than 1 inch for this calculation?

 

[mc]

Sorry, this ram factor I don't totally understand!?
Could you give an example for calculation, please?

Up to now I was calculating psi by ton x 2000 (= pound) ./. square inch size of material (l x w) = psi.
What to do with other ram diameters than 1 inch for this calculation?

This is a direct quote from kindasf on reddit because I'd like to give him the credit;
"Let's say you have a 10 ton cylinder with a 1.5 inch diameter ram that has an operating ceiling of 10,000 PSI.
That means that if the hydraulic fluid between the pump and the cylinder is at 10,000 PSI, the force across the 1.5 inch ram is 10 tons, or 20,000 lbs.
Let's say you also have a 4x4 prepress mold, that's 16 square inches.
Now that we know those things, we can convert the force at the cylinder to PSI at the material.
First we divide the cylinder circumference area by the material area to get a ratio.
A circles area is Pi x Radius squared. Solve for 1.5 diameter, and you have 1.77 square inches of surface area.
16 square inches of material / 1.77 square inches of cylinder head area = 9.039
So now we can use that ratio to divide the force.
20,000 lbs of force / 9.039 = 2212 pounds of pressure at the material.
Divide that by 16 square inches and you have 138 PSI at the material.
This is a good example of why a narrow cylinder at 10 tons is not enough pressure for a 4x4 pack.
Don't forget that you really don't want to push hydraulics past 75% if you want them to last."

 

[Hogni]

I got it. Thank you very much, Sir, for that explanation!

 

[invertedisdead]

This is a direct quote from kindasf on reddit because I'd like to give him the credit;
"Let's say you have a 10 ton cylinder with a 1.5 inch diameter ram that has an operating ceiling of 10,000 PSI.
That means that if the hydraulic fluid between the pump and the cylinder is at 10,000 PSI, the force across the 1.5 inch ram is 10 tons, or 20,000 lbs.
Let's say you also have a 4x4 prepress mold, that's 16 square inches.
Now that we know those things, we can convert the force at the cylinder to PSI at the material.
First we divide the cylinder circumference area by the material area to get a ratio.
A circles area is Pi x Radius squared. Solve for 1.5 diameter, and you have 1.77 square inches of surface area.
16 square inches of material / 1.77 square inches of cylinder head area = 9.039
So now we can use that ratio to divide the force.
20,000 lbs of force / 9.039 = 2212 pounds of pressure at the material.
Divide that by 16 square inches and you have 138 PSI at the material.
This is a good example of why a narrow cylinder at 10 tons is not enough pressure for a 4x4 pack.
Don't forget that you really don't want to push hydraulics past 75% if you want them to last."

So using this same math, a 40,000 lb press only ends up as 276 PSI on the load? That sounds off to me.

 

[mc]

So using this same math, a 40,000 lb press only ends up as 276 PSI on the load? That sounds off to me.

That's with a 4x4 puck, which is pretty big. And this is why those $5 presses say they can do 500PSI and that it's more than enough, because it actually is in the end. That's also why a 600LB dwalt can still max yield 1 gram.

 

[Caelar900]

Huh... I have never calculated or heard of anyone calculating their psi this way. Not saying your wrong necessarily but I would love someone else to chime in and confirm.

 

[mc]

I was not calculating it this way either until he posted this on reddit a while back, but it makes sense.

 

[miguelovic]

Nope.

A four by four puck expands. The actual PSI is arrived at by dividing applied pressure (ram width does not play a role) by final material area.

That was intentionally definitive. I never followed his logic on Reddit.

Makes some fine looking rosin regardless.

 

[mc]

We already said the puck size pre and post squish matters. The question is if you need to calculate the ratio or ram size if it's not exactly 1s inch. I'm still on the fence about it.