Rosin Technique....Easy DIY Solventless

[jambandphan03]

I squished some 5 year old bubble hash I've had put away, and got a pretty nice yeild of some really dark shatter... during Hash Church This pic is my first press, I gave it a couple more, got oil each time... put the left over hash puck in an alcohol soak that I have for future topical use. This hash was already almost black and hard as a rock, took some time to press flat.

 

[herbivore21]

So has anyone gotten any good ideas for screens here? I have had great results with empty teabags except that the squash can tear the material through the teabag, getting particulates in the oil.

This has happened to me a bit recently. Meanwhile I also find that rosin is a bit harsh, due to wax/fat content no doubt. I would love to try winterizing rosin except that I may as well just winterize the bubble hash to begin with. That will surely retain the good stuff better!

Rosin is super tasty and can be plenty potent, but I've got to say; I believe that solvent based and solventless techs all have trade offs. Not the least of the drawbacks to most approaches is that waxes and fats still are only gonna be removed through winterization (or other, more advanced chemistry methods which are simply not cost effective or reasonable propositions in any home environment). I also definitely find that different strains may have their flavor preserved better with one kind of extraction over another, and that there is no single best method to get the best concentrates out of any given material. Our herb is an idiosyncratic one!

Remember, winterization does not need to remove huge amounts of flavour though. It is all down to your purge, your handling of material at all stages and minimizing opportunities for terps to be lost from overheating and other factors IME.

Second Edit: So also Nylon for screens scares me. Nylon describes various plastics, most/all of which are will deform and/or melt starting at about 100 degrees celsius. I really do not advise anyone to press nylon screens. The reason people talk about them deforming or 'getting weird' is because of this!

 

[farscaper]

So has anyone gotten any good ideas for screens here? I have had great results with empty teabags except that the squash can tear the material through the teabag, getting particulates in the oil.

This has happened to me a bit recently. Meanwhile I also find that rosin is a bit harsh, due to wax/fat content no doubt. I would love to try winterizing rosin except that I may as well just winterize the bubble hash to begin with. That will surely retain the good stuff better!

Rosin is super tasty and can be plenty potent, but I've got to say; I believe that solvent based and solventless techs all have trade offs. Not the least of the drawbacks to most approaches is that waxes and fats still are only gonna be removed through winterization (or other, more advanced chemistry methods which are simply not cost effective or reasonable propositions in any home environment). I also definitely find that different strains may have their flavor preserved better with one kind of extraction over another, and that there is no single best method to get the best concentrates out of any given material. Our herb is an idiosyncratic one!

Remember, winterization does not need to remove huge amounts of flavour though. It is all down to your purge, your handling of material at all stages and minimizing opportunities for terps to be lost from overheating and other factors IME.

Second Edit: So also Nylon for screens scares me. Nylon describes various plastics, most/all of which are will deform and/or melt starting at about 100 degrees celsius. I really do not advise anyone to press nylon screens. The reason people talk about them deforming or 'getting weird' is because of this!

I assume you mean cotton muslin bags not paper teabags yes? I would have thought there would be some loss into the cotton alone... suppose you can always cut the press bag up and vape it since its cotton.

be sure to boil them first.

stainless steel seemed to cause a temperature variant because it did not heat as evenly with the surrounding material and thus the oil pooled in the 25u pores of the screen. lower temps with greater pressure and time could remove that variant... I believe someone has had success with a looser pipe screen weave of ss screen... but only further experimentation will yield the truth!
please feel free to report back any ss [stainless steel] mesh tests im personally very interested.

As far as nylon goes I share your reservations. I have yet to actually order any to test since I would rather use no screen than have a melted one in some beautiful rosin... yum.

 

[2clicker]

just wanted to say that a pollen press may work well for forming pucks.

i have a 1" diameter pollen press that sounds perfect. so now i finally have a use for it.

 

[farscaper]

just wanted to say that a pollen press may work well for forming pucks.

i have a 1" diameter pollen press that sounds perfect. so now i finally have a use for it.

it will work great I bet. The hammer press is basically the same thing with a smooth shaft instead of threaded. so you can whack it faster. the pollen press will just take a little longer. rig it up to a drill or something thatll be fast!

word of warning though.... pressing it cold like that... if the material isnt fully cured it will give your rosin that olive hue... you know that amber with a hint of chlorophyll bleed.

ironically the techniques we use in solvent extraction to combat the chlorophyll bleed wont work at all here cause we are using heat... so freezing it is out of the question.

if you leave it in a bud and dont compress it into a puck is the best way to handle not fully cured but dried flowers... although at a loss of some yield. although the flavor is not the samevas if you extracted the chlorophyll with a solvent. much more subtle... not all that irritating either... chlorophyll bleed in a solvent extract can be pretty intrusive and in my opinion unpleasant.

 

[jdee]

just wanted to say that a pollen press may work well for forming pucks.

i have a 1" diameter pollen press that sounds perfect. so now i finally have a use for it.

Same here..I've had a pollen press sitting around for ages, it's coming in handy now to make pucks out of flower or keif. After a few presses in the hair straightener I put the puck in the crafty and vape whatever is left after dabbing up whatever came out. Tastes good, works great.

 

[herbivore21]

I assume you mean cotton muslin bags not paper teabags yes? I would have thought there would be some loss into the cotton alone... suppose you can always cut the press bag up and vape it since its cotton.

be sure to boil them first.

stainless steel seemed to cause a temperature variant because it did not heat as evenly with the surrounding material and thus the oil pooled in the 25u pores of the screen. lower temps with greater pressure and time could remove that variant... I believe someone has had success with a looser pipe screen weave of ss screen... but only further experimentation will yield the truth!
please feel free to report back any ss [stainless steel] mesh tests im personally very interested.

As far as nylon goes I share your reservations. I have yet to actually order any to test since I would rather use no screen than have a melted one in some beautiful rosin... yum.

Actually I was using paper bags. However, I realize now that this can potentially be unsafe (due to use of plastics in the paper blend, as well as the presence of residual bleach/dioxin in the case of white bags). I think though that this is the sort of thickness we need for a filter for rosin.

I think that muslin may be too thick to really let the resin through the bag, however I think this is the logical next place to look. I will report back!

Edit: About to squoosh some 60-70% melt bubble in a piece of thoroughly iso cleaned and then heat purged muslin. I had a nice thick piece of it sitting around the house already

I'll be back with results, just gotta clean up the pressing apparatus lol

Ok, so it definitely requires more pressure, potentially more than I can deliver with my current apparatus. However, I believe that muslin may be the way of the future, it works well, is reclaimable/reusable and is safe at the heats we are using too!

 

[Jared]

Got tired of waiting on USPS to bring me my flat iron so I went by goodwill and picked one up for 6 bucks. Pressed a gram of cooking grade hash and only got like .2, but I also pressed some first wash 45u Tora Bora and got about .3 back from a little less than .7. Not real happy with the cooking grade result, was hoping for at least .3 from a gram but oh well I'm sure there's some left. I'll try pressing it again later.

As for the nylon screen unless you're pressing ENTIRELY too hot it isn't going to be an issue. The lowest "grade" nylons melting point is 428 and if you're pressing anywhere near that you're doing it wrong.

First press from cooking hash:

All presses from cooking hash:

Cooking grade collected:

45u first press:

45u collected:

Edit: Got another ~.1 out of both with some more pressing.

 

[farscaper]

Got tired of waiting on USPS to bring me my flat iron so I went by goodwill and picked one up for 6 bucks. Pressed a gram of cooking grade hash and only got like .2, but I also pressed some first wash 45u Tora Bora and got about .3 back from a little less than .7. Not real happy with the cooking grade result, was hoping for at least .3 from a gram but oh well I'm sure there's some left. I'll try pressing it again later.

As for the nylon screen unless you're pressing ENTIRELY too hot it isn't going to be an issue. The lowest "grade" nylons melting point is 428 and if you're pressing anywhere near that you're doing it wrong.

First press from cooking hash:

All presses from cooking hash:

Cooking grade collected:

45u first press:

45u collected:

looks nice though!
.... so what makes it cooking hash? just its non meltability or because there is plant matter in it?

 

[Jared]

looks nice though!
.... so what makes it cooking hash? just its non meltability or because there is plant matter in it?

Just really low grade no melt hash. They had it labeled as cooking grade at my dispensary is really the only reason I called it that haha. It's normally 10/g but they sold me one for 5 just to try out the whole rosin thing.

 

[herbivore21]

Got tired of waiting on USPS to bring me my flat iron so I went by goodwill and picked one up for 6 bucks. Pressed a gram of cooking grade hash and only got like .2, but I also pressed some first wash 45u Tora Bora and got about .3 back from a little less than .7. Not real happy with the cooking grade result, was hoping for at least .3 from a gram but oh well I'm sure there's some left. I'll try pressing it again later.

As for the nylon screen unless you're pressing ENTIRELY too hot it isn't going to be an issue. The lowest "grade" nylons melting point is 428 and if you're pressing anywhere near that you're doing it wrong.

First press from cooking hash:

All presses from cooking hash:

Cooking grade collected:

45u first press:

45u collected:

Dude, that is some nice rosin!!!

By the way, melting point is not what you want to go by brother. The melting point of nylon is the point at which a solid and liquid phase are present in equilibrium. At this exact temp, the substance may appear liquid or solid to the observer, with a little more or less heat to fully liquefy or solidify the sample respectively.

However, in reality, at the micro level, different parts of the substance will be heated more or less than other parts. As such, you will have deformation and liquefaction of some of the sample of a substance before temps reach the relevant melting point.

In simpler terms, deformation starts well before the melting point and this can lead to bits of nasty shit getting into your rosin. Bubbleman and others have cited their bags deforming or going 'weird' after repeated pressing. I wouldn't risk it.

Thankfully, muslin is working well. I think I'm gonna need to get something to apply more pressure though lol. You guys using super strong presses will probably get better results still than I do with muslin. Give it a shot!

 

[Jared]

Dude, that is some nice rosin!!!

By the way, melting point is not what you want to go by brother. The melting point of nylon is the point at which a solid and liquid phase are present in equilibrium. At this exact temp, the substance may appear liquid or solid to the observer, with a little more or less heat to fully liquefy or solidify the sample respectively.

However, in reality, at the micro level, different parts of the substance will be heated more or less than other parts. As such, you will have deformation and liquefaction of some of the sample of a substance before temps reach the relevant melting point.

In simpler terms, deformation starts well before the melting point and this can lead to bits of nasty shit getting into your rosin. Bubbleman and others have cited their bags deforming or going 'weird' after repeated pressing. I wouldn't risk it.

Thankfully, muslin is working well. I think I'm gonna need to get something to apply more pressure though lol. You guys using super strong presses will probably get better results still than I do with muslin. Give it a shot!

If you put massive amounts of pressure on just about any material it's going to stretch and deform to some extent, I'm not saying it's 100% definitely not dangerous to use pressing screens as filters for this but I'm also saying that deformation of that material doesn't 100% mean it's being degraded from heat when massive amounts of pressure are being applied to it while it's being stretched around something else.

 

[Caligula]

@Deadshort480

 

[Hoosier]

Have been following this for a few weeks, but I had plenty of bho+ejmix already. Realized that my wife had an extra straightening iron right as I was finishing my last tank. Did a couple of presses yesterday, about .3 gram. Rehydrated some very dry/crumbling flowers and threw it in a micro g pen I had laying around. Worked so well I pressed another 1.5 g with a .3 g return. Nice change of pace from my pax and my liquid daily drivers.

 

[Joel W.]

I have read a few posts where people are heating pyrex pans to 300 and standing on them instead of using parchment paper and hair press. I am not suggesting people stand on pyrex but I hear it's easier to scrape the rosin up? hmmm.

This gives my roller scraper idea some legs. I grabbed two 12" beveled edge hardened tool steel scraper blades. These are accurate to +-.001" over 12" length. These might work to scrape some rosin off my rollers.

 

[farscaper]

I have read a few posts where people are heating pyrex pans to 300 and standing on them instead of using parchment paper and hair press. I am not suggesting people stand on pyrex but I hear it's easier to scrape the rosin up? hmmm.

This gives my roller scraper idea some legs. I grabbed two 12" beveled edge hardened tool steel scraper blades. These are accurate to +-.001" over 12" length. These might work to scrape some rosin off my rollers.

I actually had the idea of using 2 thick plates of glass in this new press... but I fear I would shatter them with pressure.

it would be totally pure off glass and would probably squish better too...

maybe some quartz glass plates?

 

[herbivore21]

Pyrex (wait no, Quartz!!!) boots. Call them Glass Slippers.

Every fairy will want to put them on before dancing their way to the ball.

Sells itself really. Send me royalties when you do this.

Kindest regards,

Herbivore21

 

[farscaper]

someones lazy ass doesnt give a fuck about toothpick tech today!

no screen was used.
single press each puck
300°f
4x pucks total weight 3g
6% yield off first run. more may come from higher temp second runs but idk that I will retry... maybe stack them all up and repress... we will see.

notes: strain was Missing in Barcelona and it is not a hash strain. with solvent my highest single run yield was 10% off top nug. I am happy to say the effects compensate for the yield.

this was also the inaugural run on the new dab smasher so im sure my technique will become more defined as I continue.

edit:
see above
@VaPeD&CoNfUsEd @blankrider

 

[CrazyDiamond]

Dab smasher? Something new or your name for the hot iron?

 

[farscaper]

Dab smasher? Something new or your name for the hot iron?

gecko 6"x6" heat transfer press

I have already broken 2 flat irons lol... needed something with more beef.

 

[CrazyDiamond]

Ahhh...so heated on both sides, where did you get it, and how much? Sorry for inundating the questions brother.

@blankrider

Edit: NM, found the gecko on amazon

 

[Jared]

Got my flat iron in from eBay and its soooooo much better than the Goodwill one. The two inch plates make a massive difference for me. Before I really wasn't getting much of anything when I pressed bud but I just compressed some super old grinder shake and kief and got a surprisingly good amount of oil from it.

Edit: Just pressed a small nugg of some Watermelon OG. I like rosin more every time I make some.

 

[farscaper]

Ahhh...so heated on both sides, where did you get it, and how much? Sorry for inundating the questions brother.

@blankrider

Edit: NM, found the gecko on amazon

I got mine on ebay. they are only top heat, but a 300watt heater and only a 6"sq surface it makes good use of surface area to heat exchange with no cold spots.

I preheat the lower plate.

there were minor mods to make it totally functional like removing the massively thick pad on the lower plate. since it was new it wasnt very stuck down so I just pealed it up... I guess if I wanna I can still use it.

I added a washer and I may add another since once you remove the pade the adjustment doesnt work unless you raise the platform. i may try to find a slab of metal to put on top as s thermal heat sink but it seems to me the lower plate holds enough heat to hold a fine temp.

I like that I just have to squish it... I lean on it a bit too. I just use it on the floor. the big benefit to this over like a full size tshirt press is that this one takes up a little less space.

 

[CrazyDiamond]

I do like the smaller size...how do you pre-heat the bottom? It may not even need to be heated...the top heat might be enough...did you try it without pre-heating the bottom? I seem to remember from physics stuff that as you increase pressure that more heat gets created just from the friction of the pressing...so higher pressures would need less heat? Not that it really matters too much as long as the temps are not getting rid of goodies, which it seems this tech doesn't really remove any good stuff, which is awesome!

 

[farscaper]

I do like the smaller size...how do you pre-heat the bottom? It may not even need to be heated...the top heat might be enough...did you try it without pre-heating the bottom? I seem to remember from physics stuff that as you increase pressure that more heat gets created just from the friction of the pressing...so higher pressures would need less heat? Not that it really matters too much as long as the temps are not getting rid of goodies, which it seems this tech doesn't really remove any good stuff, which is awesome!

to preheat you just set if for like a 300 second cycle and lock it closed. actually it stabilizes temp better that way.

havnt tried it with a cold bottom plate but I may at some point.