Turning hash to wax with t-shirt press???

Greetings. I would greatly appreciate some advice on how to turn ice water hash to rosin/wax. I recently bought one of those bubble an washing machines, thought it was a good way to efficiently use popcorn and trim from my harvests. I'm pretty new when it comes to rosin/wax so I thought a I'd venture in low-cost with a t shirt press(I know it doesn't beat a "pro press ," just trying make rosin on a budget here).

I recently read on another forum that people press their hash to extract the oil from it. Well, I'd like to do the same. But I don't know what I'm doing with regards to ideal temp settings and how long to maintain the press(60-120 seconds?)

Also I see these really cool spoons that people use to collect wax. What are those called? Lastly, what the ideal surface to collect wax from? Everybody on YouTube uses parchment paper. What are the alternatives?

Any and all insight would be greatly appreciated

If your budget allows under $400, I have this and love it. All you need in addition to this is a roll of parchment.


https://dabpress.com/products/3x3-dp-bj3t33-small-rosin-heat-press-machine-driptech-intergrated










.

Don't waste your money on a T-shirt press, it won't do a good job and you'll just want to upgrade. Dedicated rosin presses have come down a lot in price since the rosin craze first hit...all of em will do a far better job than a t-shirt press. Or you can try building your own HMK press using the tutorials on this forum.

You want to be able to control the temperature. The hair iron was great but something like ringodoggie has found sounds like what you want...

I'd say if you've made the effort to produce bubble hash; smoke it, it's great !



If you want rosin, press the flower.


I started with the hair iron, then a t-shirt press, then a 12-ton press. Used the t-shirt press as a pre-press to make molds of flower to press in the 12-ton. Next was a 20-ton for the heat-plates and the 12-ton for pre-pressing. Latest upgrade was replacing both Jack's with air-assist hydraulic jacks. ( Easy decision to make after having to hand crank over 100 presses in one evening....)


I find molding and pressing flower better than adding extra steps to press kief or hash.


I place approx 30g in a 5" square mold, press it down to about a 1/4" thick,( firm enough to hold it's flattened shape, but not too hard. ) I then cut that into five 1"x 4" strips and press each individually between 4"x6" plates set somewhere between 180° to 200°. Times vary due to strain and humidity levels, but I rarely go beyond about 30 seconds. Experience observing how quickly it's flowing out of the plates will tell you when you've reached the point of diminishing returns/quality. Hash/kief is better around 160°.



Many press flower using filters on every press. I find it better to do multiple presses of pre-pressed, filter-less strips. I'll then gather them up using an 1 1/2" putty knife. This 20g or larger blob is then wrapped first in coffee filter material, and then stainless steel mesh. I'll then slowly press this at about 130° to filter out any flower debris.


I've tried other films, but found nothing better than parchment paper.



T-shirt presses are a waste. If one wants to press more than a few grams, save up a couple hundred and get a true rosin press, or build one with a harbor freight type press and plates. I spent less than $600 on a 12 ton HF press and nice 4x6 dual heated plates off e-bay.


Humidity levels of the material definitely effects quality, yield, and press times. Experience will help here as each strain/batch can vary. Too dry = low yields, too humid = sappy, lower quality.

Good luck !

I tumble my raw material to get hash powder kief. If I tried to make rosin from the flower it would take me months, I don’t like the idea of using water you lose the water soluble terpenes. So If you only have a small amount of flower then just press that, but if you have a few lbs of flower it’s much easier to make some concentrate and press that...

I have, multiple times, pressed approximately 1 1/4 #'s in a day, yeilding approximately 100g. The more you do it, the faster you get.....


If time is your main focus, tumble/screen your product for the kief and press it.



Pressing the flower will get you higher overall yields, and for my tastes, a better product. Through trial and error, I've found smaller, quicker presses produce the best quality, compared to larger, time saving techniques that require longer press times.


Kiefing leaves behind a lot of resin/terps. A solvent extract on this leftover material would regain that loss, but that's adding a whole other process.