What's new
  • As of today ICMag has his own Discord server. In this Discord server you can chat, talk with eachother, listen to music, share stories and pictures...and much more. Join now and let's grow together! Join ICMag Discord here! More details in this thread here: here.
  • ICMag and The Vault are running a NEW contest in October! You can check it here. Prizes are seeds & forum premium access. Come join in!

Butane honey oil for dummies

Thanks for the info skyhighler, I also let my patty sit in the oven for an hour before pulling vac. Helps with the muffin from going crazy, not sure if it is causing any negative repercussions or not, but I can't see how
 

flylowgethigh

Non-growing Lurker
ICMag Donor
I am looking through my scrap pile and found ...

I am looking through my scrap pile and found ...

... some 3' long 1"ID x 1.25" OD stainless pipe. I wanna make a blast tube. :biggrin:

Next post I will lay out the plan.
 
Last edited:

flylowgethigh

Non-growing Lurker
ICMag Donor
A few more BHO pictures...

A lot of info in those two action shots Mr. Gray Wolf, pic worth 1K words and all. I hope there are more. I was wondering about grounding the can, and tube(s), and your wood block clamp is a stand (I will use a pair of sawhorses with my 3' tubes) that can accommodate a single or multiple tubes at desired height (notch the wood blocks and stack accordingly). I am at page 124 and hope to have a solid plan by the end. BTW, that bubble ice troll has made reading painful. I need to look into this ignore feature.

attachment.php


Is the insulation to keep the butane from evaporating or handle the cold tube?

GW: "When the humidity gets too high, we use a deep stainless bain marie vessel, so that the edge of the evaporating pool has a deep layer of butane floating over it, so that the moisture laden air is unable to reach the dew point area".

Humidity will always be an issue here, and I was thinking of using a stainless dawg dish to collect in on top of hot water. I suppose the aspect ratio of the dish is too low (7" dia, 2.5" high) to work. Your collector could have a cheesecloth cover on top with a hole for the bottom of the tube, to keep moisture/contaminants out. I think later I read someone suggest that further in the thread. Or the cool cheesecloth could condense heated water vapor coming from the bath.

More GW pearls of knowledge (pg 132): "As a guess, I would say that I was running a 1" X 36" column at that time, with about 72 grams per load, which took three 300ml cans per load and there were probably six loads or so."

BINGO!!! It's too bad LPG (propane) can't be used for open blasting and drying, as that stuff is everywhere. I am concerned about the logistics of propane cans - both supply and disposal for OPSEC reasons. Can that BVV 710 extraction solvent be used in open air tube by using gravity and a funnel to flood, then cap the tube and blow pressurized air through?
 
Last edited:

flylowgethigh

Non-growing Lurker
ICMag Donor
Lucienne 4X @ $22/case/300ml

$57/case on Amazon now. Recovery looking better LOL.

Then again screw it. I looked at the closed columns and rigging my tube up for soaking would be easy. Damn, I used to have bunch of stainless stuff like those valves. I will rig something up then aftwr it pisses me off I will probably end up buying one of those BVV units.
 
Last edited:

Bobby Boucher

Active member
Buy a small closed column extractor. They are only 100 bucks or so on amazon.

Open blasting is kinda frowny. You have to use way too much butane.

I can do a pretty thorough rinse on ~45g with a half can, soaking as long as I like, whereas I would have used something nutty like 3-4 cans in an open tube.
 

Gray Wolf

A Posse ad Esse. From Possibility to realization.
Mentor
ICMag Donor
Veteran
A lot of info in those two action shots Mr. Gray Wolf, pic worth 1K words and all. I hope there are more. I was wondering about grounding the can, and tube(s), and your wood block clamp is a stand (I will use a pair of sawhorses with my 3' tubes) that can accommodate a single or multiple tubes at desired height (notch the wood blocks and stack accordingly). I am at page 124 and hope to have a solid plan by the end. BTW, that bubble ice troll has made reading painful. I need to look into this ignore feature.

View Image

Is the insulation to keep the butane from evaporating or handle the cold tube?

GW: "When the humidity gets too high, we use a deep stainless bain marie vessel, so that the edge of the evaporating pool has a deep layer of butane floating over it, so that the moisture laden air is unable to reach the dew point area".

Humidity will always be an issue here, and I was thinking of using a stainless dawg dish to collect in on top of hot water. I suppose the aspect ratio of the dish is too low (7" dia, 2.5" high) to work. Your collector could have a cheesecloth cover on top with a hole for the bottom of the tube, to keep moisture/contaminants out. I think later I read someone suggest that further in the thread. Or the cool cheesecloth could condense heated water vapor coming from the bath.

More GW pearls of knowledge (pg 132): "As a guess, I would say that I was running a 1" X 36" column at that time, with about 72 grams per load, which took three 300ml cans per load and there were probably six loads or so."

BINGO!!! It's too bad LPG (propane) can't be used for open blasting and drying, as that stuff is everywhere. I am concerned about the logistics of propane cans - both supply and disposal for OPSEC reasons. Can that BVV 710 extraction solvent be used in open air tube by using gravity and a funnel to flood, then cap the tube and blow pressurized air through?

Here are some pictures of a can grounded to the column.

The pipe insulation does both.

I haven't used BVV 710, but we blew our columns down with a bicycle pump after injection.

Unless you are soaking below about -30C, you will pick up a lot of not targeted elements.
 

Attachments

  • Blow down pump tip.jpg
    Blow down pump tip.jpg
    15.3 KB · Views: 125
  • Dallas 018.jpg
    Dallas 018.jpg
    37.4 KB · Views: 119
  • IMG 1324
    IMG 1324
    96.4 KB · Views: 153
  • Ground clamp and support.jpg
    Ground clamp and support.jpg
    40.7 KB · Views: 126
  • Blow down pump.jpg
    Blow down pump.jpg
    39 KB · Views: 118

Gray Wolf

A Posse ad Esse. From Possibility to realization.
Mentor
ICMag Donor
Veteran
$57/case on Amazon now. Recovery looking better LOL.

Then again screw it. I looked at the closed columns and rigging my tube up for soaking would be easy. Damn, I used to have bunch of stainless stuff like those valves. I will rig something up then aftwr it pisses me off I will probably end up buying one of those BVV units.

We ended up using Apis Labs Instrument Grade LPG once it became available. Don't know where you are located, but they ship, so you might check them out. [email protected].
 

flylowgethigh

Non-growing Lurker
ICMag Donor
GW: "Unless you are soaking below about -30C, you will pick up a lot of not targeted elements."

Thanks! Do you mean plant and stem waxes? Other? Should I encase the tube with dry ice or just insulate it? Does the catch can need to heated (double container water) while blasting, or can I do that afterwards?

I can see value in the bottom valve on a tube, so the material can be soaked for a while then open the valve and blow the liquid through from up top with air. Maybe do a rinse with another butane shot to wash off the oily goodness and blow again.

I can't see any way around winterizing to get rid of that nasty wax.

This is hillbilly BHO, but didn't this work OK back when? It will be outside away from sparks and my buildings. No nearby neighbors. Heck if this works OK I may have to really step up and buy a 1 liter buchner... https://www.extractcraft.com/filtration

Vacuum port on the old PU truck engine??? Maybe the diesel tractor engine... ??
 

Gray Wolf

A Posse ad Esse. From Possibility to realization.
Mentor
ICMag Donor
Veteran
GW: "Unless you are soaking below about -30C, you will pick up a lot of not targeted elements."

Thanks! Do you mean plant and stem waxes? Other? Should I encase the tube with dry ice or just insulate it? Does the catch can need to heated (double container water) while blasting, or can I do that afterwards?

I can see value in the bottom valve on a tube, so the material can be soaked for a while then open the valve and blow the liquid through from up top with air. Maybe do a rinse with another butane shot to wash off the oily goodness and blow again.

I can't see any way around winterizing to get rid of that nasty wax.

This is hillbilly BHO, but didn't this work OK back when? It will be outside away from sparks and my buildings. No nearby neighbors. Heck if this works OK I may have to really step up and buy a 1 liter buchner... https://www.extractcraft.com/filtration

Vacuum port on the old PU truck engine??? Maybe the diesel tractor engine... ??

I mean molecules longer than about C-22, such as ~C-30 plant waxes, C-40 b Carotene, and C-55 Pheophytin.

We froze our columns overnight and then used -30 to -50 LPG for extraction. The one shown was insulated, but we also used jacketed columns on the later models, which we pumped 150F water through after extraction and during final reclaim to purge LPG.

We heat the catch pot to keep it from freezing up.

You need about -29.5" vacuum, which would be high for manifold vacuum. There are some cheap rotary vane vacuum pumps out there, or you could pull the compressor out of an old refrigerator.

As you aren't reclaiming, contamination of the reclaim wouldn't be an issue.
 

flylowgethigh

Non-growing Lurker
ICMag Donor
Thanks Mr GW. Well, it looks like winterizing then. 190 proof Everclear is $19 out the around door here / 750 ml. Moonshine probably isn't any neater.

Well I didn't blow myself up but as simple as this is I still screwed it up. The hard part for me is processing after the butane has cooked off. Just boiling off the ethanol in an oil bath leaves a sticky goo.

LOL, my tube has all the material stuck in the middle and it is looking like a piece of rebar and a hammer to drive it out!!
 
Last edited:

Gray Wolf

A Posse ad Esse. From Possibility to realization.
Mentor
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Thanks Mr GW. Well, it looks like winterizing then. 190 proof Everclear is $19 out the around door here / 750 ml. Moonshine probably isn't many neater.

So the idea is to keep the column as cold as possible until the butane is flushed down into the collector so it stays liquid in the tube? I may be overthinking but I am worried condensation on the outside of the tube could drip own into the collector. I can insulate the tube and make a reverse funnel (little hood) at the bottom to prevent that.

Stanley has a nice little "two cup cookset" that will make a nice collector and evaporator. It even has a nice ventilated lid and two plastic cups that I bet are good for something. Ozark trail stainless 18 oz cup is just like what you decarbed in, and the lid fits it also. Both sourced at WMT.

collector: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Nesting-Two-Cup-Cookset/977020537

decarb cup: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Ozark-Trail-18-Ounce-Stainless-Steel-Cup/21633441

I collected open blasting in a stainless bain marie sitting in another one full of hot water. They are available in all sizes in restaurant supply stores.

I insulate my tubes with pipe insulation and freeze them overnight after loading them.

The square plastic stand was a scientific grade cat litter bucket with panels cut out.
 

Attachments

  • Borosilicate tubes 001-1.jpg
    Borosilicate tubes 001-1.jpg
    30.4 KB · Views: 123
  • Extraction components-1.jpg
    Extraction components-1.jpg
    108.4 KB · Views: 122

flylowgethigh

Non-growing Lurker
ICMag Donor
Ahah!! Another 1000 words. That dog dish collector in the pic with the tall tube has a low height/dia ratio, unlike the other one you show on the left which is the one I copied. I figured you froze the loaded tube - to keep liquid longer.

If I like this oil thing the 20# tank of N-butane looks ideal. Buy it once and when empty, easy to get rid of. Paint it white and trade in for a filled LP bottle!! Cheaper also per liter.
 

iccfortmyers121

New member
This forum is in serious needs of some How-to's. If this has already been covered, excuse the redundancy. If you are here to bash the safety or consumption of honey oil, MOVE TO THE NEXT THREAD!

Disclaimer

Butane Honey Oil (BHO) extraction is an extremely dangerous activity. Butane is flammable, explosive and can potentially contain poisonous and harmful chemicals. Undertaking BHO extraction may result in serious bodily injury, or Death if proper precautions are not taken. The information provided on this website is strictly for educational purposes and in no way do the owners and staff of IC.mag encourage its production or use.

Butane is Highly Flammable and ALL extractions are to be done Outdoors Only, doing extractions indoors is extremely dangerous. There have been accounts of people blowing up their houses, kitchens, bathrooms doing Butane and other solvent extractions indoors.

Butane gas is heavier than air and will pool in low areas, if left to collect butane gas becomes flammable when it reaches 1.8% to 8.5% concentration in air. A small breeze will keep the butane from being able to pool and become dangerous.

It is recommended you take every precaution possible. Wearing Safety Equipment such as Eye protection, as well as gloves and always keep a fire extinguisher near by.


Butane and your health

Some brands of butane add a smell to their butane. This smell is usually added to the butane so that humans can detect leaks, you will find it in large amounts in cheap butane, or camping butane. It can also potentially be in “Clean” butane such as Colibri but i have never seen it. A prime example of smelly butane is Ronson brand

These chemicals are usually Mercaptans or Sulfur Dioxide (Rotten Egg Smell), using cheap butane with high levels of these is harmful, Do not use cheap butane or camping butane.

It is not known what the effects of residues in butane honey oil are; it’s not even known for sure what if any residues are left over in butane honey oil after the butane is purged.

Only a GC/MS (Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometer) can give us the info on what’s exactly is in our BHO. The search is on to find somewhere to get a sample tested.

Until Then, be aware of the potential health risks and judge for yourself if it’s worth it.

Not all butane is created equally; there are 2 different types of butane that make up the most common brands of butane. Isobutane and N-Butane.

Most cheap brands use Isobutane (2-METHYL PROPANE) and is more toxic and hazardous than N-Butane. For making Honey oil N-Butane is what we want, it extracts better and leaves very little to no residues in the oil.
Other brands use a mix of the different types, and some, like Colibri, use propane as well as Iso and n-butane

Boiling Points
ISOBUTANE: -11.7 C
N-BUTANE: -0.5 C

No source of pure N-Butane has been found available in stores, only through Gas Supply Companies. The best brand of butane I have used is Colibri Butane. I highly recommend Colibri, and you should be able to find it at most Fine Cigar and Tobacco Shoppe’s. Below is a list of other brands that are good for making Honey oil with. If you cannot find Colibri try to find one of the butane brands listed. And by all means avoid Ronson, Bernz-o-matic or other butane not listed below, they add smell to their butane and this smell is left behind making the oil taste very bad.

Other Brands that are good to use: COLIBRI, NEWPORT, CORA, CTC, COLTON, DUNHILL, DAVIDOFF, FACKELMAN, WIN, NIBO, SAROME, CALOR GAS MATCH, UNILIGHT, K2, SUPERGAS, VENTTI, VECTOR, King butane, Lucienne and Blaster. However this in no way is a complete list.

Places to get good butane online
https://kingbutane.com
Ebay
Blazer butane

When you purchase the butane make sure you find the largest size of can you can. I use the 300ml/167g (6oz) cans of Colibri. Most places only carry the little 2oz cans, these are not enough. You will need at least 8oz of butane for every 1oz of plant material.

If you find a brand that’s not listed you can do the mirror test to check to see if it’s ok to use. Spray butane on a clean mirror and let it evaporate. See Below.

Clean mirror

[URL=https://www.icmag.com/gallery/data/500/4961-thumb.jpg]View Image[/url]

sprayed butane

[URL=https://www.icmag.com/gallery/data/500/4962-thumb.jpg]View Image[/url]

Butane after evaporation......not good!


[URL=https://www.icmag.com/gallery/data/500/4963-thumb.jpg]View Image[/url]

Plant Material

This is the most important factor if you wish to achieve high quality honey oil, Good fresh dried uncrushed bud makes the best honey oil, and you should easily achieve clear oil using uncrushed buds. Grind them up and do a second extraction to get a lower grade “B” wash, not as tasty or clear like the first batch.

Butane extracts the smell from the plant material, so if you have some great smelling buds the oil will also take on that smell. If you use bad smelling or tasting plant material, you will get bad tasting oil.

Using crappy plant material can also result in low yield a, remember "what you put it is what you get out".

  • 1oz high quality 12oz butane needed 3-6g expected yield
  • 1oz average 10oz butane 2-4g yield
  • 1oz low grade(schwag) 9oz butane 2-3g yield
  • 1oz high quality trim 12oz butane 3-5g
  • 1oz trim and leaves 10oz butane 2-5g
  • 1oz fan leaves 8oz butane 1-2g

The extraction tube

This might be the more difficult but essential piece of equipment to obtain. I personally use the okief x-tractor tube which is stainless and free standing. If you are the DIY type BY ALL MEANS you can always make your own. The extraction tube should be no wider than 1.5”, I find 7/8-1" to be the best. The tube should be made of Stainless steel or Thick glass Only, You can use a copper tube if you cannot find stainless or glass, but only if you clean the tube well before each extraction. Copper tarnishes and the tarnish can potentially be extracted by the butane, it also has that nasty copper smell which can be carried to your oil. You can also use aluminum but that would occasionally need to be cleaned as it oxidizes in high humidity.

Avoid ALL Plastics, brass, steel and galvanized steel pipe, these all can contaminate your oil and make you sick.

Phife uses a cheap stainless steel turkey baster which works very well with little modification and is OK for small amounts.

The extraction

Make sure your plant material (Leaves, Trim, Stems, or Buds) is very dry, the dryer the better. If you want clear honey oil with a lower yield, pack the tube without grinding or breaking up the plant material. If you use whole nugs that are very dense, it's best to brek them up a little to allow more exposed trichomes. The butane will extract the high quality oil on the outside of the plant material then unpack the tube, Grind up the plant material lightly and definitely not a powder for a lower grade oil.

The better the starting material the better the oil. If you use males or just fan leaves don’t expect awesome oil or mush oil at all. You can also use butane extraction to salvage moldy buds.

Fill the extraction tube full with the powdered plant material; avoid making air pockets in the tube. I like to fill the tube a little then lightly push it down till i feel slight resistance and repeat until the tube is full.Never pack the tube like you would a cannon, this causes dense spots that make it difficult for the butane to pass, causing back pressure and possibly a blowout = a face full of tane.


Don’t pack it to much and try to make sure the tube is full, if you don’t have enough plant material to fill your tube then try to get a smaller tube. Air pockets let the liquid butane expand to gas and lower the efficiency a little. After your tube is filled then you can place your screen on the bottom, . The picture shows a steel mesh screen on an okief tube Find some way to mount the tube on a stand or get an oven mitt as the tube gets very cold, and you won’t be able to hold it with your bare hand for very long.

[URL=https://www.icmag.com/gallery/data/500/4964-thumb.jpg]View Image[/url]

Before i go OUTSIDE, i place a large pan of water on the stove and turn the burner on high. You want the pan of water Hot BUT NOT BOILING

[URL=https://www.icmag.com/gallery/data/500/4965-thumb.jpg]View Image[/url]

You will want to use a pyrex dish that will easily fit inside your pan of water. Be sure the dish is atleast 1.5" deep. Next take all your stuff outside.
I place the tube in the pan and begin injecting butane, i do this for 30 seconds, stop and wait 15 seconds and continue till the can is empty. You will know the can is empty when you hear a slight pitch in sound coming from the can. For this run i used 2 6oz cans per tube.(you will see some already dark areas in the pan, that was some left over from a previous run)

[URL=https://www.icmag.com/gallery/data/500/4966-thumb.jpg]View Image[/url]

Once you have finished let the tube sit till it stops dripping. Go get your pan of hot water and TAKE IT OUTSIDE to purge the butane from your oil. Besure your water is not BOILING. This will cause a violent reaction when the freezing butane meets boiling water and go everywhere.

[URL=https://www.icmag.com/gallery/data/500/4967-thumb.jpg]View Image[/url]

It really starts going after about 15 seconds

[URL=https://www.icmag.com/gallery/data/500/4968-thumb.jpg]View Image[/url]

Getting close to done

[URL=https://www.icmag.com/gallery/data/500/4969-thumb.jpg]View Image[/url]


[URL=https://www.icmag.com/gallery/data/500/49610-thumb.jpg]View Image[/url]

Done with this portion. Notice the cloudy bubbles - trapped butane. At this point i pop the bubbles and place the dish on a heating pad on high for one hour, to insure all butane is gone.


[URL=https://www.icmag.com/gallery/data/500/49611-thumb.jpg]View Image[/url]

Placed on a heating pad -set on low-for one hour.

[URL=https://www.icmag.com/gallery/data/500/49612-thumb.jpg]View Image[/url]


Purged oil

[URL=https://www.icmag.com/gallery/data/500/49613-thumb.jpg]View Image[/url]

Now for the rewarding part....the scrape

[URL=https://www.icmag.com/gallery/data/500/49614-thumb.jpg]View Image[/url]

[URL=https://www.icmag.com/gallery/data/500/49615-thumb.jpg]View Image[/url]

I would also like to point out that foaf has a method to avoid scraping, using a teflon bag.....ingenious: The foaf method

Depending on how well your oil is purged and the quality of material used you can wind up with some very fine hard oil. These sculptures sre entirely of hard honey oil

[URL=https://www.icmag.com/gallery/data/500/496honeyoil_snake-thumb.jpg]View Image[/url]

[URL=https://www.icmag.com/gallery/data/500/496BHO1-thumb.jpg]View Image[/url]


[URL=https://www.icmag.com/gallery/data/500/496hard_oil2_8061-thumb.jpg]View Image[/url]

By all means use safety precautions and do everything outside.Be safe and enjoy!

*Credits to Phife and foaf for some of this information*
It is useful.
 

need4weed

Well-known member
Veteran
I'm going to ask a silly question. Can I use a 12kg butane bottle. The type used for patio heaters etc. If so does it need to be turn upside do let the liquid through rather than the gas? And will the regulator let the liquid pass through or do they have a safety device to only allow gas and not liquefied gas
 

star crash

We Will Get By ... We Will Survive
ICMag Donor
Veteran
I'm going to ask a silly question. Can I use a 12kg butane bottle. The type used for patio heaters etc. If so does it need to be turn upside do let the liquid through rather than the gas? And will the regulator let the liquid pass through or do they have a safety device to only allow gas and not liquefied gas

What kind of equipment are you using to extract?
 

Latest posts

Latest posts

Top