Contaminated BHO... Can I clean it?

[AmeriSkunk]

Well the titles sort of sums it up... I want to be specific and say that the contaminant is most likely dissolved zink...

I bought a galvanised pipe tonigh, end caps, ect. Made a more efficient extractor than I had before, blah blah blah... This pipe was for use in water lines so I though it wouldnt leach... WRONG!!! I can smell the metal in this oil and its not even scraped, its still on the pyrex. I vaped a tiny dab, tasted like I licked a welders ass crack...

Would strong iso re-dissolve the thc and not the zink? is there any way to seperate the two compounds?

Its not even alot of oil, I did a test run specifically to see if it would leech and it did, so im returning the pipe tomorrow, lol.

Im just going to go back to my plastic extractor..

 

[jd4083]

you're returning the pipe? holy shit

 

[AmeriSkunk]

lol, damn right. I was kind of just making a joke but... I might, idk yet, depends on how it smells and looks after I knock that oz of pre washed bud out of it. if it looks okay then yeah I guess I would return it.

Plus this shit just fucked up my entire 1 1/2 oz run of good unwashed bud, I guess there was a microscopic amount of this shit on my pyrex that I did clean thoroughly, it made the butane foam during the purging, (never in 100+ extractions have I seen that) turned black upon scraping... 5-6gs of black ass comtaminated freakin bho.... this is one of those times where I want to kick my own ass for screwing with what works..... I will say the inline pipe makes far more oil than some extractors that have a chamber or that are too wide

 

[AmeriSkunk]

okay so I looked up zinc poisoning, and its basically not possible. So the oil that got fucked off in the good run is safe, it taste like shit so im not jacking with it unless I can clean it with alcohol or something. From what ive read it most likely has zinc oxide mixed in with the oil.

Im thinking I can get some 90% Iso Alcohol, dissolve the bho in it, place the glass in th freezer, allow the heavy metal oxide particles to settle on the bottom, then strain twice for good measure, and hopefully it will be clean.

 

[Rednick]

you're returning the pipe? holy shit

Funny.
Copper works fine, or SS or borosilicate glass.

Don't know how to remove zinc or zinc oxide.
Grey Wolf may know?

 

[TickleMyBalls]

yeah, just go with stainless steel or copper next time buddy. chalk this up to experimentation.

 

[SB7]

Go back to your plastic .... ?
First ,I'd ditch the oil if there's any doubt of it's purity, you aren't sure what the contaminant is , so how could you be sure you've removed it , with whatever process anyone might suggest.
Just get a stainless steel tube and do it the right way.
I use a stainless thermos ( Food grade 304) and soak fresh frozen material. After short soak, I pour it through an unbleached coffee filter into teflon beaker liners and then purge from there. No scraping no mess, no problems.

 

[AmeriSkunk]

Well man the only reason I want to clean the oil is because its about 5gs of some really nice amber off of some dank buds. Now that every bit of the tane has evaped I'm left with a big blob of orange/black sludge. Upon doing a light check I can see the zinc oxide particles, this means they have re-solidified so I should be able to dissolve with iso, wait for the o ide particles to fall to the bottom, strain, strain again, and it should be pure.

Again this is for sure a metal oxide, if it were plastic contaminated I would for sure toss it, done that before. I think zinc is non toxic, you can get zinc poisoning though. I have looked thoroughly into this and I have little fear of consuming this oil once cleaned.

I'm a man of science and I know its scientifically possible to seperate my thc(oil) from a solid(metal), only under an extreme condition were these two compounds able to fuse together, I'm almost 100% sure alcohol won't dissolve the zinc oxide, if it does then I guess I junked an oz of goon buds...

 

[AmeriSkunk]

@SB7, where can I get those teflon bags? I seen this method done on youtube last week, looks easy enough. I think that's kind of a large scale tech only though, idk how well retrieval of 5-7g's of oil would work with the teflon bags.

Btw I was looking for stainless last night, they dint have any and if you have ever put a piece of copper tubing in your mouth that's why I didn't get copper, I was afraid that taste was going to leech into my oil... I wish that was the only problem I had at this point...

 

[AmeriSkunk]

Well, im in the middle of dissolving the bho in the 91% iso, as it dissolves, I can see the oxide flecks floating around in the solution, just as I had hoped, the oxide flecks did not dissolve in the alcohol, so I should be able to strain them off with the coffee filters, but I wont have a final smoke report to see if this did in fact purify the bho to its original dankness until tonight when I get home from work.

Peace

scratch that its going to be a couple days, I was looking at the solution in the light and damn... there is alot of oxide in there, the solution is cloudy yellow. Im going to let gravity do its thing over the next 24-48hrs and see what im left with, I have it in a snapple bottle that is securely proped up at an angle so all the oxide particles fall to a corner in the bottom so when I pour the solution out the particles do not mix back in like they would if I just sat the bottle flat, then poured.

 

[jump117]

oxide flecks did not dissolve in the alcohol, so I should be able to strain them off with the coffee filters.

flakes like these?

 

[jd4083]

I'm of the opinion that you should toss it and take it as a learning experience. Inhaling zinc oxide might not be quite as bad as other heavy metals, but it surely isn't worth the risk, imvho. Wish I could give you some insight on how to properly filter it so that you have a safe product, but I don't know for a fact that what you want to do is possible, and I'm just paranoid enough about that kind of thing not to try personally.

In an effort to at least be somewhat helpful, however, I will note that despite the folks who scream "no copper!" for extraction rigs, I switched to a simple copper "pipe bomb" from stainless steel only about 18 months ago and haven't looked back. Just make sure that if you use copper you clean it well in between runs.

 

[jump117]

Why you decided its zink oxide? The flakes maybe fats and waxes separated from bho in alco.

It’s the usual procedure for getting canna-absolute. Freeze the solution overnight before filtrating to better results.

 

[chuckyoufarley]

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[AmeriSkunk]

@Jump, idk man, this oil only has trace amounts of oxide in it. I couldnt see it before I scraped it, even on the test run. the oil looked bright yellow before scrapin, after the scrape, glossy black. I can only see the oxide in the alcohol/bho mixture, I cocked my snapple bottle at an angle and over 8hrs while I was at work the oxide has settled to the bottom. Its microscopic man, I couldnt see anything until I looked at the oil in direct sunlight, then I saw how much oxide molecules are in the solution.... Mind you this solution got contaminated via a bad clean job. and it has tons of particles, the oil that I got that was sprayed in the galvanised pipe isnt even worth messing with. Im sure upon dilution in alcohol it would cloud so bad you wouldnt be able to see through it... Even if I have to repeat this process 5x im going to because its science, and im human, theres no such thing as "cant be done" its just a process, takes time, gotta be patient.

And I know its zinc oxide from some things my dad has told me about galvanised steel, that was his job before he retired, he ran a galvanizer. Plus zinc is far more easily manipulated by chemicals than steel is. The smell, the fact that butane actually diussolved it fully, many things point to zinc oxide, it could be steel oxide, doesnt matter its metal. In a natural state oils and metals DO NOT MIX so all i have to do is find a way to seperate the two and I think i have with the settling thing.

To all the naysayers.... Its science people, not all chemicals remian in things, its chemistry people, I know science and Im going to use it. There is no such thing as "impossible" or "totally ruined", not to me... there are such things that are "not worth the trouble"(lol). Just because you are unaware of how to do something doesnt mean everyone else is... Pot smokers need to apply real world technology to the weed scene and all of this rediculous "BHO is POISON" crap will finally stop. idk why people look at pot/thc as something other worldly, unchangeable, ect... This is 2011.. think outside the box people...

 

[SB7]

AmeriSkunk, I understand you wanting to keep some good BHO, and nothing is impossible, (wrt cleaning) but it always comes down to risk to benefit ratio.
Would I risk my brain for 5g of the best BHO in the world ? no, but that's just me.
If there were any hint of doubt in mind, it's in the trash. JMHO

I get the beaker liners /bags from welchfluorocarbon. They are somewhat expensive, but you get what you pay for. w_w.fluorolab.com/ ( a la FOAF )

 

[AmeriSkunk]

I understand what you mean, if after I clean it and its still fucked I will just toss it because that gets to the point where its not worth the trouble. And I will say that im in the middle of cleaning it and idk, it didnt look good when I ran only one filter... so I filtered again with a single filter, then again with two filters at once and after than im going to double filter it yet again

 

[AmeriSkunk]

okay so I ran this soultion through about 14 coffee filters, first I ran it through 1 coffee filter twice, two coffee filters 3 times and 3 filters once and 4 filters once. And still its tainted, its 10x better but its still contaminated. So off to the trash this goes. Im not giving up because its impossible, its just not worth my time. I have lots more, this just kinda chapped my ass a bit.

15 filters total... 3 an 4 at a time even, ran tight together. Maybe an actual piece of writing paper would do the trick, idk, im not jacking with it anymore. Im also tossing the pyrex dish, got a sale at Wallys might as well buy a new one, got the two fer for $5, lol

Peace

 

[Gray Wolf]

okay so I ran this soultion through about 14 coffee filters, first I ran it through 1 coffee filter twice, two coffee filters 3 times and 3 filters once and 4 filters once. And still its tainted, its 10x better but its still contaminated. So off to the trash this goes. Im not giving up because its impossible, its just not worth my time. I have lots more, this just kinda chapped my ass a bit.

15 filters total... 3 an 4 at a time even, ran tight together. Maybe an actual piece of writing paper would do the trick, idk, im not jacking with it anymore. Im also tossing the pyrex dish, got a sale at Wallys might as well buy a new one, got the two fer for $5, lol

Peace

You might try redissolving it in ethanol, adding activated charcoal, and then refiltering.

 

[hippydan]

To all the naysayers.... Its science people, not all chemicals remian in things, its chemistry people, I know science and Im going to use it. There is no such thing as "impossible" or "totally ruined", not to me... there are such things that are "not worth the trouble"(lol). Just because you are unaware of how to do something doesnt mean everyone else is... Pot smokers need to apply real world technology to the weed scene and all of this rediculous "BHO is POISON" crap will finally stop. idk why people look at pot/thc as something other worldly, unchangeable, ect... This is 2011.. think outside the box people...

Gotta agree. Science > Stoners. I'm no chemist so I don't know if what you are trying to do is possible/worth the trouble, but if you've done the research and trust your methods I'm not going to tell you otherwise without facts to back it up. Sorry it didn't work out for you.