Alternatives to carding

[mofeta]

Hi everyone.

I found a big ball of shit clogging up a few of the threads here in this subforum, and I thought I would try to pull something useful out of it.

So,

It has been pointed out that the use of a card to manipulate material on a screen can lead to increased contamination.

People use lots of implements besides cards to move stuff around on the screen, my favorite is a brush:

There are lots of other things that work well too. What is your favorite?

 

[Green Supreme]

Drum on the screen with your fingers. Peace GS

 

[Chamba]

It has been pointed out that the use of a card to manipulate material on a screen can lead to increased contamination.



It all depends. ....

if you have a flat screen that is 125 Mesh (125 lines per inch or 150 micron mesh) and you use a card to move the plant material around over the mesh, then you will tend to break it up and these little bits of broken leaf and bud will pass through the mesh with the resin heads and add to the contamination, so don't do that and instead hold the frame in two hands and shuffle it forward and back and around and around on a horizontal plane to gently agitate the plant material (this is one way, there are many others) so the resin falls off and through the mesh with the minimum of contaminant. Do this gently with small amounts for a short duration and the result will be very clean, flavorsome dry sifted resin, it will easily press into a solid with light finger pressure, but under magnification, it will still contain 50% or more of contaminates (broken up leaf, stalks, dust etc).

once you have this rough dry sifted resin you can smoke it or further purify it by working it over a fine mesh (or finer meshes) ....this is where a card can come into use. What you need to do is separate the contaminant from the resin with a mesh that has holes smaller than the mature resin heads. A card can be used to break up the broken leaf into tinier bits so it passes through the fine mesh (with the stalks and immature resin heads) and the larger sized, mature resin heads remain on top of the mesh. This re-sifting mesh could have hole openings the size of 50 ~ 80 micron (depending on the resin head diameter sizes you want to purify).

Use the search feature on the top of this page to read hundreds of posts about the many the different dry sifting methods, and there's quite a few posts about carding too.

 

[DrySiftWizard]

It all depends. ....

if you have a flat screen that is 125 Mesh (125 lines per inch or 150 micron mesh) and you use a card to move the plant material around over the mesh, then you will tend to break it up and these little bits of broken leaf and bud will pass through the mesh with the resin heads and add to the contamination, so don't do that and instead hold the frame in two hands and shuffle it forward and back and around and around on a horizontal plane to gently agitate the plant material (this is one way, there are many others) so the resin falls off and through the mesh with the minimum of contaminant. Do this gently with small amounts for a short duration and the result will be very clean, flavorsome dry sifted resin, it will easily press into a solid with light finger pressure, but under magnification, it will still contain 50% or more of contaminates (broken up leaf, stalks, dust etc).

once you have this rough dry sifted resin you can smoke it or further purify it by working it over a fine mesh (or finer meshes) ....this is where a card can come into use. What you need to do is separate the contaminant from the resin with a mesh that has holes smaller than the mature resin heads. A card can be used to break up the broken leaf into tinier bits so it passes through the fine mesh (with the stalks and immature resin heads) and the larger sized, mature resin heads remain on top of the mesh. This re-sifting mesh could have hole openings the size of 50 ~ 80 micron (depending on the resin head diameter sizes you want to purify).

Use the search feature on the top of this page to read hundreds of posts about the many the different dry sifting methods, and there's quite a few posts about carding too.

There is no reason to use a card, ever, except for cleaning up the product.

If you cannot get a quality sift in the first or 2nd try it's basically a waste of your time.

40 minutes to still see green matter and fragments with the naked eye?

Uhh.. pass.

The trick is figuring out how to produce said quality withOUT having to re-sift it.

It's really not that difficult if you think about it.

 

[foomar]

Found a high end paintbrush or artists brush made of sable cut short and stiffer to work better , would avoid synthetics as they wear fast against metal sieves esp stainless lasercut , a tiny amount of nylon could taint the flavour.


Feel a lot of dry sieve is over purified , loseing flavour and individual character in the process , one pass over a 250 mic sieve and dust removed suits me fine and others like it too .

 

[Chamba]

There is no reason to use a card, ever, except for cleaning up the product.

We're in agreement there

If you cannot get a quality sift in the first or 2nd try it's basically a waste of your time.

The result anyone can get with short duration gentle sifting will definitely not be a waste of time, as matter of fact it will be flavorsome and melty.

40 minutes to still see green matter and fragments with the naked eye?

(Edit) I can process a few ounces of trim, a little at a time with very gentle sifting and then resift it over a fine mesh faster than it takes a hungry man to eat a pizza...that's the easy part, the hard part is separating the other 50% of the resin that's still on the plant material to a decent level of purity

Uhh.. pass.

The trick is figuring out how to produce said quality withOUT having to re-sift it.

It's really not that difficult if you think about it.

There's lots of ways to dry sift, that's how I do first runs most of the time and I love the result, actually I enjoy the taste and buzz of my first sift resin better than any hash I've tried....you can keep your 99.99%, your double sided tape and the $30 expense, I'm super happy with my easy to make less than 99.99% dry sift.

 

[DrySiftWizard]

You process a few ounces of trim, a little at a time with very gentle sifting and then resift it over a fine mesh faster than it takes a hungry man to eat a pizza...that's the easy part, the hard part is separating the other 50% of the resin that's still on the plant material to a decent level of purity

I do nothing of the sort.. this is the 2nd time you've told me I am doing something i've told you i'm not already.

 

[RulaTone]

-Air Jet sieving
-Electrostatic sieving

Never had the chance to try that though....
No one that feels to try??

 

[foomar]

-Air Jet sieving

A company like endecotts would use these in a commercial design for fragile materials like trichomes , with cold air.

Tempted to try a diy version useing useing a compressor/airpump and gentle vacuum , might have some use and the lack of hard contact should avoid smearing and mesh clogging.

 

[Chamba]

re : 40 minutes to still see green matter and fragments with the naked eye?

Chamba replied You process a few ounces of trim, a little at a time with very gentle sifting and then resift it over a fine mesh faster than it takes a hungry man to eat a pizza...that's the easy part, the hard part is separating the other 50% of the resin that's still on the plant material to a decent level of purity


Wiz replied I do nothing of the sort.. this is the 2nd time you've told me I am doing something i've told you i'm not already.

Sorry, my mistake, it should read as : I can process a few ounces of trim, a little at a time with very gentle sifting and then resift it over a fine mesh faster than it takes a hungry man to eat a pizza.

 

[DrySiftWizard]

Chamba post some macro/micro shots of your product from the tumbler.

And 5 oz of trim? What kinda yield are you pulling from that, and in how many grades?

 

[Chamba]

I don't post photos online, never have, I don't have a weighing machine in the house, (living in a country with one of harshest cannabis laws in the world is the main reason!) so I haven't got a clue about yield weights, I don't sell anything, I give seeds to friends (and to friends of friends) and around here no one I know sells bud or hash, they share it.

and calm down about the tumbler, (but, hey, did a tumbler fall from a 3rd story window and kill your pet dog or something? if so I can understand your hated....) but anyway, here's what happens, you put trim in it, press a button, it rotates and then you scoop up the sift....what you do is for quality (but you ain't tellin'), a tumbler is for quantity but if you separate the first 5 minutes worth of resin from the following 15 or so minutes of resin then you will have two grades of hash, the first will be blond and very clean, the second run will still press into a commercial grade hash.

 

[DrySiftWizard]

I don't post photos online, never have, I don't have a weighing machine in the house, (living in a country with one of harshest cannabis laws in the world is the main reason!) so I haven't got a clue about yield weights, I don't sell anything, I give seeds to friends (and to friends of friends) and around here no one I know sells bud or hash, they share it.

Bummer.

and calm down about the tumbler, (but, hey, did a tumbler fall from a 3rd story window and kill your pet dog or something? if so I can understand your hated....) but anyway, here's what happens, you put trim in it, press a button, it rotates and then you scoop up the sift....what you do is for quality (but you ain't tellin'), a tumbler is for quantity but if you separate the first 5 minutes worth of resin from the following 15 or so minutes of resin then you will have two grades of hash, the first will be blond and very clean, the second run will still press into a commercial grade hash.

Yeah, I know how a tumbler works. Surprisingly.

 

[foomar]

If tempted to try an EP this looks to be a safe(ish) , useable and relatively simple design with readily available components new or from strips , nothing too complex with a 555 chip.

How To Make An Electrostatic Precipitator.