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Rosin or BHO??

Ions71

New member
You can buy 99% iso at a lot of grow stores in California. Gallons and gallons, no questions asked.

Here in California they sell 91% isopropyl alcohol at the drug stores. In other states they sell 99% isopropyl instead.

Amazon will send the 99% drug store bottles of isopropyl alcohol to California, you just can't buy it off the shelf here.

Here's the add at Amazon for the two attached pictures of 99%,

https://www.amazon.com/Mountain-Fal...1533599485&sr=8-10&keywords=isopropyl+alcohol

Note on the backside label it states: "CONTAINS ISOPROPYL ALCOHOL" - no other ingredients.

The backside label on a bottle of 91% will say on the back: 'contains isopropyl alcohol and water' - again no other ingredients.

I highly suggest not waisting your time and good herb trying to use 70% isopropyl alcohol, it has way too much water - you'll extract too much green stuff, and getting that much water out is too much trouble.
 

insomniac_AU

Active member
That's good to know. Iso is way cheaper in Australia.


I can get you a great deal on a rosin press. How much do you want to spend? They start around $299 plus the press. All-in-one units start around $499


I can't buy one right now I have other things to buy first like a new tent but I will look at getting one when I have some spare cash. Can you ship to Australia? There is very limited cannabis paraphernalia available here and when we import stuff the shipping is expensive. I drool over what the rest of the world has. I already own a press so I wouldn't need one of those.
 

Loc Dog

Hobbies include "drinkin', smokin' weed, and all k
Veteran
That's good to know. Iso is way cheaper in Australia.





I can't buy one right now I have other things to buy first like a new tent but I will look at getting one when I have some spare cash. Can you ship to Australia? There is very limited cannabis paraphernalia available here and when we import stuff the shipping is expensive. I drool over what the rest of the world has. I already own a press so I wouldn't need one of those.

Check E-Bay. Just make sure they ship there.
 
That's good to know. Iso is way cheaper in Australia.

I originally wanted to do it with everclear because I was afraid of iso, but it cost me 20 bucks in solvent to do like a quarter ounce of herb, now I do half an ounce for under a dollar. Its the best thing I've ever smoked in my life. People on other sites tend to shit on it, but iso and water evaporate until its nothing but oil. Just make sure its ONLY ISO AND WATER lol.

Remember to leave the iso in the freezer for no less than 2 days straight, then pour it on the herb as soon as you pick it up. Don't even put it on the counter, have everything ready, THEN get the iso. I'm not sure if that's all necessary, but my quality got 10x better once I started leaving iso in the freezer. Make sure to evap it on a pyrex so you can scrape it up easily.
 

WaterFarmFan

Active member
Veteran
To me, the question (rosin or BHO) has to include -50C ethanol as an option. The benefits of etoh are numerous, including getting close to maximum yield with a very high-quality and versatile end product. You can vacuum distill and purge in vacuum oven to get perfect shatter, or you can just use a fan over a covered dish and then double boil to get perfect decarbed oil for vape or edibles.

Second (maybe first for you) is the matter of how much material that you want to run in a single session. This is where butane/propane/co2 shines with big (and expensive) machines that can run lots of pounds.

I can easily process 150-200 grams of pure extract a day with a $1500 setup, including a few vacuum pumps, large stainless buchner, distillation glassware, heat/stir mantle and other miscellaneous items. I have a vacuum oven (not included in that price), but I don't currently use it in my process, as I remove +95% of ethanol under vacuum and then purge and decarb at same time over simple oil double boiler (fondue pot).

I am able to typically reclaim about 80% of my ethanol using vacuum distillation. Some stays wetted on plant material during filter stage while some other is inevitably sucked in vacuum pump. I find that I typically use about one liter of ethanol per 75-100 grams of cured flower or one liter of ethanol per 50-75 grams of trim.

If I process 175 grams in a day, which is two separate filtering runs with a total ~15 liters of ethanol, I will use the following:

3 Liters Everclear (lost not reclaimed or used in cleaning/prepping glassware) - $60
30 lbs dry ice - $50
60 lbs ice (for distillation condensers) - $8
Whatman filter paper - $1

It does not include reclaimed ethanol, equipment or flower material, but my expendable costs are less than 75 cents per gram. Even if you tripled the price of ethanol, you are still talking about less than a $1.50 per gram.

Hope this helps.

WFF
 

WaterFarmFan

Active member
Veteran
I originally wanted to do it with everclear because I was afraid of iso, but it cost me 20 bucks in solvent to do like a quarter ounce of herb, now I do half an ounce for under a dollar. Its the best thing I've ever smoked in my life. People on other sites tend to shit on it, but iso and water evaporate until its nothing but oil. Just make sure its ONLY ISO AND WATER lol.

Remember to leave the iso in the freezer for no less than 2 days straight, then pour it on the herb as soon as you pick it up. Don't even put it on the counter, have everything ready, THEN get the iso. I'm not sure if that's all necessary, but my quality got 10x better once I started leaving iso in the freezer. Make sure to evap it on a pyrex so you can scrape it up easily.

Great advise on freezing your alcohol and acting quickly! If you incorporate some dry ice, you can get it as cold as -50C and it is very forgiving as temps rise to -30C, which gives you more time to work and get it filtered.

I don't think using Iso is a issue if you really take proper steps to purge it. However, problems arise when you start using larger quantities indoors. I would personally much rather breath ethanol vapor over iso:

https://www.brainstuffshow.com/blog...ng-alcohol-methanol-and-isopropyl-alcohol.htm

We run into all these different kinds of alcohol. Let's look at the differences.

First there's the alcohol you drink, like whiskey, beer and wine. This is ethyl alcohol that is produced by yeast. The yeast eat some kind of sugar or starch and turn it into carbon dioxide and alcohol. In wine the process is pretty simple - yeast eats the sugar in grape juice and creates alcohol. In whiskey, the alcohol is distilled to get the concentration higher. See how whiskey works for information on distillation.

Ethanol that you purchase as a car fuel is the same kind of alcohol found in whiskey, but it has been distilled to the point where it is nearly pure alcohol (as opposed to whiskey which is typically only 40% alcohol and 60% water). See this page and this page for a quick introduction to ethanol production.

Denatured alcohol - found in bottles at the hardware store or the drug store - is also ethanol. But it has been poisoned to keep people from drinking it. It turns out that ethanol is a good solvent, and also useful as a fuel. And it is pretty cheap to make it. But if you sold ethanol for $2 a gallon at the hardware store, lots of people would be drinking it to avoid the "sin taxes" on beer, wine and whiskey. So they poison the ethanol and sell it without the sin taxes.

Methanol is sometimes found in windshield wiper fluid to keep it from freezing, and it is also used as the fuel for Champ cars and Indy cars. It is sometimes called wood alcohol because it used to be made from wood, but today its made from natural gas. Methanol is poisonous, and it is one of the chemicals that can be used to poison denatured alcohol.

Isopropyl alcohol is a slightly bigger molecule than ethanol (Methanol is CH4O, Ethanol is C2H6O and Isopropyl alcohol is C3H8O) and is often cheaper to make. It is not as poisonous as methanol (an ounce of methanol can kill you and a third of an ounce causes blindness). So it is useful as a solvent in the same way acetone is useful as a solvent. It also burns nicely. We saw isopropyl alcohol being used to make a cloud chamber in this post. It can also be used to make bottle rockets:

Rubbing alcohol is a generic term that can be either denatured alcohol or isopropyl alcohol.
 

Gray Wolf

A Posse ad Esse. From Possibility to realization.
Mentor
ICMag Donor
Veteran
To me, the question (rosin or BHO) has to include -50C ethanol as an option. The benefits of etoh are numerous, including getting close to maximum yield with a very high-quality and versatile end product. You can vacuum distill and purge in vacuum oven to get perfect shatter, or you can just use a fan over a covered dish and then double boil to get perfect decarbed oil for vape or edibles.

Second (maybe first for you) is the matter of how much material that you want to run in a single session. This is where butane/propane/co2 shines with big (and expensive) machines that can run lots of pounds.

I can easily process 150-200 grams of pure extract a day with a $1500 setup, including a few vacuum pumps, large stainless buchner, distillation glassware, heat/stir mantle and other miscellaneous items. I have a vacuum oven (not included in that price), but I don't currently use it in my process, as I remove +95% of ethanol under vacuum and then purge and decarb at same time over simple oil double boiler (fondue pot).

I am able to typically reclaim about 80% of my ethanol using vacuum distillation. Some stays wetted on plant material during filter stage while some other is inevitably sucked in vacuum pump. I find that I typically use about one liter of ethanol per 75-100 grams of cured flower or one liter of ethanol per 50-75 grams of trim.

If I process 175 grams in a day, which is two separate filtering runs with a total ~15 liters of ethanol, I will use the following:

3 Liters Everclear (lost not reclaimed or used in cleaning/prepping glassware) - $60
30 lbs dry ice - $50
60 lbs ice (for distillation condensers) - $8
Whatman filter paper - $1

It does not include reclaimed ethanol, equipment or flower material, but my expendable costs are less than 75 cents per gram. Even if you tripled the price of ethanol, you are still talking about less than a $1.50 per gram.

Hope this helps.

WFF


An excellent point! Around -30/-50C, ethanol is highly forgiving and is easily scaled up, besides being less flammable/explosive.

The larger diameter you make the collection pot with BHO, the more expensive it gets to meet ASME Section VIII 3X pressure capabilities, but with ethanol that is not an issue.
 

Mengsk

Active member
^ nothing to add other than iso has really volatile fumes. While it costs less I'd say it's a safety concern to attempt that without a fume hood or standing next to an exhaust fan. Re safety, to just try with a small bottle and 7g it's quite simple. But if you plan to extract an ounce or more of plant material it needs to be outside or with a good HVAC system going.
 

Mr. Greengenes

Re-incarnated Senior Member
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Love rosin! It's the best tasting concentrate and the effects are very close to whatever flower it was pressed from. Plus it makes amazing medicine if you suspend it in oil and eat drops.

fywv2dl1cb311.jpg


I just started pressing a few months ago. Bought plates, PID and a 10 ton and cobbled it together in the living room. I've only got a few pounds under my belt so far, but I've tried many strains and variants of temperature, pressure, time and humidity. Here's some points I've thought of;

1. Low temperatures preserve more terpenes but make more 'ugly' rosin. My first try was at 200f and produced a light green, sparkly jewel rosin that looked fabulous. As I got better at lower temperatures (165-180f) the rosin got lumpy and less translucent. It was some ugly looking 'sauce' but the quality is MUCH better!

2. Pressure is relative to the square inches of the puck, which can expand during pressing. Personally, I don't think bags do much in the way of filtration. They might help with crumbled old flower, but I've been using fresh. They are important for confinement of the puck as it tries to spread under pressure. I switched to using double layer #90 mesh cheese cloth and wrapping the pre pressed (squeezed in my hand) in an oval shape, which spreads out best in rectangle shaped 3"x5" plates. I'm able to press 28 grams at once and dry the puck out almost completely in one shot this way, but it sure took practice to get it to this point. Yield varies hugely depending on the strain.

3. Humidity is very important. You won't get much yield unless the flower is at 55% or higher. I just drop in water drops off the tips of my fingers and feel, but a boveda pack is much more professional.

4. The quality of the flower makes the biggest difference of all. I haven't tried, but I doubt you could make good rosin from less than grade A flower. This is where rosin and concentrates really part ways.
 

Mengsk

Active member
^ sure something that I didn't see discussed is once you go from flowers to oil, the visibility or mystery aspect of what's in there changes. While before some might have questioned if black market stuff was laced or sprayed, now you're trusting the regulators and/or growers because it could be anything in there trim, leaves etc.
 

Loc Dog

Hobbies include "drinkin', smokin' weed, and all k
Veteran
Any tips on recovering Everclear with a cheap still, or a better still to use?

Last time I tried, I think it ran too hot, since the collection liquid was brownish. Maybe it was bubbling up.

What temp would you run it at, and where and how do you monitor temperature?
 

Gray Wolf

A Posse ad Esse. From Possibility to realization.
Mentor
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Any tips on recovering Everclear with a cheap still, or a better still to use?

Last time I tried, I think it ran too hot, since the collection liquid was brownish. Maybe it was bubbling up.

What temp would you run it at, and where and how do you monitor temperature?

You have to be above 173F to boil the ethanol.

Unless you pressurize it, you can't get a liquid hotter than it's boiling point, so temperature becomes critical once most of the alcohol is gone and the temperature begins to rise.

To extract at a lower temperature, try a vacuum still like the Extract Craft Turbo.

The dark brown color may also be Pheophytin. How old was the material? https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=346942&highlight=color
 

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