Terpenation at Terpene Station

[mr. durden]

How're you guys measuring the temps on your collection pots? I put a silicon heating mat under mine and set my dorksfood thermostat to 160 degrees -- the exterior of my recovery pot never gets warm to the touch -- as far as I can tell all the mat does is keep the pot from icing over -- when I test my heated recovery pot with a laser it reads 40F... I'm assuming the oil inside doesn't get hotter than that. What do you think? I'm running a 5lb Bhogart extractor and my recovery time is never less than an hour...usually an hour fifteen...

that seems way too high. ultimately you want to keep the oil as consistent a temp as possible and reduce temp fluctuations as best you can. by doing so, you minimize the amount of problems when you start finishing the product.

GW mentioned keeping water temp under 85 degrees for lighter extractions. unless you are doing a ton of tubes a day, i'd say skip the pot and go cold all the way. well, unless it is budget material.

how much did you pay for your Bhogart?

 

[mr. durden]

same here on the timing aprox 45 mins... going hot @117 F aprox 20 mins per tube, end result being a clear amber shatter with no discernible butane odor, needing very little work after collection. .
The best stuff comes cold though, ripe with terpenes and yellow golden in color. This is what the upper echelon Dab heads are after...If your oil is to be the finest in the land it should be ran cold. My 2.

definitely! i wish outdoor season would wrap up as high quality trim/flowers are harder to come by. running budget or mid grade gets old :/

our purge times are longer as we keep temps under 100 degrees unless something went wrong and when need to flash heat it to break the bonds.

although when our 1.9 cu ft oven comes along with this http://www.ebay.com/bhp/edwards-e2m30 well, ours is new courtesy of someone up your way

 

[mr. durden]

What wattage per square inch silicone mat do you have? The only round Omega's left in stock were 10 watts per square inch, which is so high the heat is probably not getting transferred well to the pot, so the thermostat keeps shutting down with the spikes. Do you place the sensor under the mat with plenty of insulation underneath to insure the sensor is firm up against the mat, and that the mat is firm up against the pot?
You didn't mention what temperatures the sensor was reading, wherever you have the sensor located...??

you would want the sensor between the mat and base of the unit. insulation will help, but isn't that big a deal. use some towels to insulate.

 

[mr. durden]

I got 1 5 watt round (the last one in stock), 2 10 watt round chemical resistant - they actually sent me 3 of these which was very cool, and 1 5 watt chemical resistant 12x18" which is the one I use for my extractor. I setup the thermostat sensor with some thick paper towels underneath the heating mat to ensure evenness and full contact with the pot. The thermostat temp usually overshoots the actual temperature by about 10-15 degrees and then settles. I'm not having that problem with my 10watt mats though.. I dial in 120 and it stays at 120.

It'd be cool if I knew some kind of math equation that could tell me what temperature I'd have to dial into my heating pad to generate enough energy to penetrate a freezing recovery tank and heat the contents to 110F.

why are you running such high temps? they aren't necessary and can lead to a darker product.

 

[mr. durden]

Dry ice... one of the benefits is that it pulls less waxes and what not. you are going to get a more pure product that falls somewhere between an absolute and an extraction done with heat/ice.

you will need a stainless hose going from the tank to the terp. if you don't, expect your hose to crack or burst sooner than later.

more than likely your hose connections will leak at the tank as cold loosens them up. check them often. the valve assembly that screws into your 50lb mastercool might leak as the metal contracts. i used some sealing goop for gas installations to keep this in check.

don't purge your recovery tank as the negative temps reduce the pressure initially. it can take 12-30 sec to run a cycle.

freeze your tubes and use pipe insulation to keep the material cold. with good material do 3 cycles, and low/mid grade do 4. take the insulation off before you dump the tube.

keep your tank in some insulated setup like FE did.

i'm sure i'll think of more stuff, but i need to get outta here

 

[FatherEarth]

Just a note...
Ive found if you keep the dry ice low on the tank like underneath and around the bottom, your hoses wont freeze. At the top of the tank the temp measures 2F degrees at the bottom where the the ice is its -7F ~ -9F when flooding the the butane in line gets down to around 10f the column was reading @ -6 during the vac down of the floods. Also my tank valves arent freezing up either...

 

[FatherEarth]

Hey durden you got a link for those SS hoses you have?

 

[FatherEarth]

to the requests about packing a column...

I put my column with the end capped and mesh buna screen in evenly wadded coffee filters first. place the column in a vise to hold, or an even easier hold the tube upright by placing a foot on the tri clamp screw.
Add a funnel ...

A stainless steel packing rod with a bent blunt end...

I put the rod in the tube and leave it. Add handfuls of material to the funnel, then jiggle the rod while moving it up and down to pack..

repeat until full...

 

[FatherEarth]

once full add your coffee filter, then I place a cap that came with the tubes on the end and put em in the freeze. Clamp not necessary...

 

[FatherEarth]

This may be boring to some but I thought Id share some pics of the latest crystals. The slower the evap the bigger the crystal. This is from a cold run of trimmed buds, ethanol purged slow evap after 5 days off and on in the vacuum chamber. This is the sample Ive prepared for testing. I have yet to find a lab that can provide the testing.. I may have to go north to seattle to get it done...

 

[mr. durden]

http://www.flexicraft.com/Industrial_Hose/SB1/ there is thread here somewhere that mentioned them.

i grind our material in a ninja, sift, and then put in about 3/4" of a cup of material, pack with a dowel, then add more. i average about 190g per tube.

i don't think you are getting your tank cold enough.

 

[FatherEarth]

whats the yield off your tube? 190g per tube seems like a lot, are you sure your getting it all?
I started off grinding my material but stopped as it pulls more undesirable things out like plant waxes /chlorophyll and generally makes darker colors in my end product. It didnt increase yield enough to make up for the darker results. How cold do you think my tank should be? Please share the reasoning behind your suggested temps.

I can get it colder but without the proper hoses Im not sure that its wise, my hoses are rated for a min -20, I dont like to see em freeze makes me nervous.. after I get new hoses Ill see how cold I can get it...
Thanks

On your question about the cooler size its 100quarts.
here are the specs ...

http://www.coleman.com/product/100-...er/6200A748?contextCategory=8581#.UjTcyLwtc_M

 

[FatherEarth]

I see why you said not to use a finer mesh screen if you are grinding your material. Also noticed it takes longer to get your butane clear when using ground material...When I dont grind I can get it clear in 3-4 pulls, when I grind it never quite gets clear. Starts to go green... Subsequent extractions on my spent material yields aprox 1.3 -2 grams per column...

here is what my butane looks like when the column is finished.

 

[FatherEarth]

here is what I mean by put a foot on the tri clamp screw...

And for those columns that were packed too tight and you cant get the 100psi to blow them out..(happens quite often to me) This will unpack almost as fast as I can get the compressor ready and cleared. A twisting motion and its all coming out.
Flat and tapered.

 

[mr. durden]

i scope material every so often and i'm sure we don't get everything, but enough. i'd say i average 180ish but the last time i weighed a tube, it was 190. that is why we run it super cold, like -40 to -60 and freezing our tubes. grinding mostly comes from my partner and his group that are some good oil makers from the north side of the bay area. they have made more oil than i can even possibly imagine and they learned via trial and error.

also, my understanding is that stems, fan leaves, etc, impact color and flavor.

i might add a sight glass one of these days, but then i'd need to redo my dip tube, etc.

you are right, if you are running just ice, grinding wouldn't be ideal. for budget material, it is all good.

 

[Gray Wolf]

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=267036

I made thread not to long ago about the possible dangers of running vacuum pumps in closed quarters. Mineral oil vapors are not something we want settling in our lungs or on our freshly purged oil.

try some tubing hose clamped to the exhaust and then feed out a small hole to the outside.

Good point. If you can add a filter, you can add an exhaust hose to the outside.

 

[mr. durden]

i use a spade bit attached to an extension. i keep the drill on a low speed.... works pretty good. i ground down the sides of the bit to remove sharp edges so as to not score the sides of the tube. i think it is a 3/4" bit. although i routed compressed air into my space, the other way works well enough for me.

 

[FatherEarth]

I know your a butane ninja Durden...but the sparking brushes in the back of your drill x butane in your tube doesnt concern you? I heard a local story about a person doing just what you are talking about clearing a tube with a drill....

 

[mr. durden]

as soon as i take a tube off the system, i take it outside and let it sit in the sun for awhile. the tubes are usually pretty hot before i get around to cleaning them. we have six, so it takes awhile to get around to cleaning them. i only run the terp inside, we do the pouring out of oil outside, etc. we have enough venting indoors and run the system so cold, i'm actually not worried about the butane if the system were to leak in some fashion.

what makes me nervous is using alcohol for winterization, tinctures, etc. if anything sets off the alarms, it is the alcohol, denatured, etc. but i don't use that stuff with anything on.

my partner has told me of numerous people having explosions or burning themselves because they were not cautious with the alcohol. i will be happy when the rest of the parts come for the alcohol reclaim still

 

[mr. durden]

FE, is your sight glass 1.5" or a 1"? did you change your gaskets? can you use the 1" on the 1.5" tubes?