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Terpenation at Terpene Station

SneakySneaky

Active member
Veteran
It exhausts through the breather port on top of the pump housing itself.

A sliding rotary vane vacuum pulls everything through the oil and the oil ends up full of lighter terpenes and solvent.

and now we know and knowing is half the battle, I. C. MAGGGG!!!!!!!

thanks for clearin that up boss man :)
 

spooneyluv

New member
Hey guys,

Thanks for all the info and the friendly tone. This is what the community is all about.

I have a few questions for you:

Is there a reason to elevate the pumps above the MkIII and the recovery tank? In your pictures, I see them elevated.

Can you elaborate on the type of coffee filters you use, and how exactly you wad them up appropriately? Can you show a picture of the top of a tube after it is packed?

What is the idea behind the sight glass? And where in the setup do you have it installed? What does it help you with? Would you recommend getting one?

What kind of yields have you been getting? We tried some 70%bud mixed with 30% bubble hash and got 29% yield! But most of our old trim and old bud sits in the 9-14 % range. We are looking to improve, any suggestions? How long of a wash are you doing? How many washes per column?

We are seeing similar colors of oils that your pictures show, but after purging in a vacuum at ~115F, the oils lose their blonde-ish look and become much much darker, like dark brown taffy or caramel. We are looking to make lighter-colored shatter or wax. Any tips? Do you also see a drastic darkening after purging and heating (in a separate acrylic-covered vessel)? Our heat bath during recovery is around 115F, could that be the reason for the dark color? We might try 75F and see if that helps.

Thanks for any help you can provide,

Thanks

spooneyluv
 
Sight Glass for MKIIIa

Sight Glass for MKIIIa

Very informative post. Where did you get the sight glass you are using at the top of the spool in the MKIIIa?
 
Sight Glass

Sight Glass

Sorry if this post is a duplicate. First time on this forum. Where did you get the sight glass on the top of the spool?
 

FatherEarth

Active member
Veteran
Hey guys,

Thanks for all the info and the friendly tone. This is what the community is all about.

I have a few questions for you:

Is there a reason to elevate the pumps above the MkIII and the recovery tank? In your pictures, I see them elevated.

Can you elaborate on the type of coffee filters you use, and how exactly you wad them up appropriately? Can you show a picture of the top of a tube after it is packed?

What is the idea behind the sight glass? And where in the setup do you have it installed? What does it help you with? Would you recommend getting one?

What kind of yields have you been getting? We tried some 70%bud mixed with 30% bubble hash and got 29% yield! But most of our old trim and old bud sits in the 9-14 % range. We are looking to improve, any suggestions? How long of a wash are you doing? How many washes per column?

We are seeing similar colors of oils that your pictures show, but after purging in a vacuum at ~115F, the oils lose their blonde-ish look and become much much darker, like dark brown taffy or caramel. We are looking to make lighter-colored shatter or wax. Any tips? Do you also see a drastic darkening after purging and heating (in a separate acrylic-covered vessel)? Our heat bath during recovery is around 115F, could that be the reason for the dark color? We might try 75F and see if that helps.

Thanks for any help you can provide,

Thanks

spooneyluv


Elevated pumps are easier to run, I dont know how else Id run em. Off the ground seems safer so you dont pull anything into the intake. I try and make sure to keep any butane fumes from those intakes as well as debris. On the floor/ground a butane leak could pool and enter if my pumps are down low. I always have two fans on high about 10-20 ft away blowing any fumes away, to prevent such a scenario. Also siphoning butane from the collection pot comes to mind. Same holds true for siphoning vac oil INTO the collection pot if you dont shut valve 1 BEFORE turning off the vac...

On the coffee filters I use a #4 cone filter the brand name is Melitta, chlorine free. https://shoponline.melitta.com/items/FILTPAPERCONE

I just ball em up stuff one in an end, then the buna mesh screen covered with 400 mesh SS then the solid end cap for packing. Ill snap a pic of the packing process and the end packed.

On the yield Ive been getting 19 grams of oil from a packed tube with 150g of trim consistently. I dont run my terp like the instructions suggest. So I do more valve opening and closing than usual. My tube is packed so tight it takes a while til its done. I get far better yields for the time spent running the terp than packing loosely. I do recommend a sight glass for the simple fact you can see whats going on and if the material is done. I run it til its starting to clear up. It starts off dark amber yellow and gets almost clear by the end. The way I run my MKIII is I flood the tube til I see it get to the sight glass top/ vent tube. I allow it to boil off under vac through the vent tube until its out of the sight glass then I dump the column to the collection pot. When the gauge hits 0 I close valve 3 and flood again. If while Im doing any of the procedures the tube begins to freeze or frost up I stop and close the valve and or flood with fresh butane. This stops the freezeing and saves me a bunch of time. I dont vac down under 0 until the last run. I keep exchanging the butane in the tube by pushing in fresh and the saturated butane gets pushed out the vent tube or dumped out the column. This way is faster for me and takes less floods to get all the yellow soaked butane out. If you let your tube freeze up it takes a while to recover. I am constantly working the valves though. Not a sit around and watch terp session. Im reading the gauge and and working the terp. Keeps me busy and cuts down run time. Only thing is just making sure you arent over flooding the collection vessel and sending your oil through your inline filter and G5. Not hard just dont overfill and open valve 3 and your good. I always open valves slowly and in the initial flood I only open valve #2 1/3 of the way for a slow fill, once it gets to the top I close both valves 4 and 2 and let it briefly soak (under 1min)

I dont notice my oil getting darker after a vacuum session unless I let it go too long or IF I get the temps too high I have seen it get dark and turn waxy. Looks cloudy and far less appealing to the eye.. Normally it gets clear and loses all the bubbles for a lighter looking finish. Remove your water bath all together and youll get a waay lighter result. As long as its not cold outside it still recovers in a reasonable amount of time. IF the pot freezes up put it in a room temp water bath and it will keep going...


PenZen, I got my sight glass at Brewers Hardware, only because Glacier tanks is sold out most of the time. GW says they have new sight glasses that dont need gaskets, Id go for that. I was at Glacier the other day and did not see the sight glass he mentioned but they did have the one we need in stock. I like the protective cage that the one from glacier tanks has. ..

Hope this answers your questions.

With Helping Hands,

FE
 

FatherEarth

Active member
Veteran
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Gray Wolf

A Posse ad Esse. From Possibility to realization.
Mentor
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Hey guys,

Thanks for all the info and the friendly tone. This is what the community is all about.

I have a few questions for you:

Is there a reason to elevate the pumps above the MkIII and the recovery tank? In your pictures, I see them elevated.

Can you elaborate on the type of coffee filters you use, and how exactly you wad them up appropriately? Can you show a picture of the top of a tube after it is packed?

What is the idea behind the sight glass? And where in the setup do you have it installed? What does it help you with? Would you recommend getting one?

What kind of yields have you been getting? We tried some 70%bud mixed with 30% bubble hash and got 29% yield! But most of our old trim and old bud sits in the 9-14 % range. We are looking to improve, any suggestions? How long of a wash are you doing? How many washes per column?

We are seeing similar colors of oils that your pictures show, but after purging in a vacuum at ~115F, the oils lose their blonde-ish look and become much much darker, like dark brown taffy or caramel. We are looking to make lighter-colored shatter or wax. Any tips? Do you also see a drastic darkening after purging and heating (in a separate acrylic-covered vessel)? Our heat bath during recovery is around 115F, could that be the reason for the dark color? We might try 75F and see if that helps.

Thanks for any help you can provide,

Thanks

spooneyluv

You don't have to elevate the pumps, it is just a handy height for us. I've run them sitting on a piece of plywood on the ground. Probably safer in case of a leak, as noted by FE.

Glacier now has sight glasses that the silicone rubber seals are easily changed to Viton in, but not completed units. They are not suitable as is. They are a good idea to watch what is going on.

115F is hot enough to darken the oil during recovery. Because it is not so hot outside, we are currently using no heat on the lower Terpenator tank and 115F only at final vacuum purge, while watching through the Polycarbonate lid.
 

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SneakySneaky

Active member
Veteran
Put my down payment in for the last mk5 in the first run today!!! gray wolf, saw that chamber sitting on your young ladies desk....wow! you know this things gonna be massive when the person helping clean up mistook it for a trash can!

FE, im definately gonna be buying that sight glass for my terp! the more we know whats goin on the more we can refine our methods :)
 

FatherEarth

Active member
Veteran
So I was running the terp and ran into a problem that my sight glass allowed me to see.... No matter how much I left the #4 valve open I couldnt flood to the top of the sight glass. I was low on butane! This was making my runs take increasingly longer although my column wasnt freezing up as easy as it does after the refill... Much better time per column now that its up to the right level. Added 3 cans now Im moving along...


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Notice the super light color, vigin oil thats never seen any heat.


I had to stop in the middle of this run clean the collection vessel so I could add some fresh cans. Also, I had a good amount of propane vapor still in my tank. When opening a valve you would hear a whistle then a spike in pressure. It would shoot up to 50-70 psi real quick and take seemingly forever to pump down. After I added the new cans I bled off the propane vapor and the pressure is much lower and running faster. . .


FE
 

Lebniis

Member
Questions 1: (More directed at GW, since FE I understand this isn't your process, but please do answer)

I am curious about 'dumping' the column at the end of the cycle.

Why do you only dump the column after the last cycle? What happens to the butane/oil solution during the cycles that aren't dumped?

I am understanding the instructions as: fill column, recover column, fill column, recover column, dump column at 10"Hg.

It would seem to me that the oil extracted would simply be all over the plant matter again once the butane in the column is boiled off.

What am I missing?

Question 2:

What is the purpose in the design of extending the tubes into the collection vessel? Seems pointless in that it only creates a bigger mess and with my experience (Modified Terpenator) without any tubing protruding, there is no noticeable drawback. Is there a benefit to the extended tubes into the collection vessel that I am not understanding?

Question 3:

What methods can be used to cool the refrigerant tank besides ice and brine? Looking for cost effective methods that are ideally portable, but other solutions such as a used freezer may work.
 

FatherEarth

Active member
Veteran
I believe the extended tubes into the collection pot keep the #5 valve from sucking oil into the appion. It fills the pot from the bottom this way preventing this if operated properly.

I too wonder why only dump the #3 at the end. It seems to me that the boiling off through the vent tube concentrates oil into the material at the top of the column then the last dump doesnt grab that oil out. i see my spent material full of yellow oil at the top of the column when Im finished. This is why I started dumping mulitple times. Maybe GW can explain...?

I use reusable freezer packs and cold packs for hurt limbs. I also freeze water in Tupperware to make ice blocks as well as frozen quarts of milk. Seems that milk keeps frozen longer and the quarts you can freeze over and over. Ive been filling a ice chest with quarts of milk and water and putting it in the deep freezer. Remove the ice chest, frozen solid, then placing my tank in the chest when Im ready. I am modifying the cooler lid to be able to close and save my frozen material so it lasts longer...

My 2,

FE
 

Lebniis

Member
Thank you for explaining. Great stuff the internet is... Anyways, I am interested in buying an MKIII or two. I really would like a MKV but may be out of my price range. I definitely could build by own but not sure it is worth the time waiting on shipping considering Specialized Formulations has dried up most of the supply of spools and building time=operating time.

Sounds like the sight glass could be very helpful. I would hope to incorporate that into an MKIII if it isn't already.

Anyways, hopefully I can get my question above answered by others to gain perspective.
 

FatherEarth

Active member
Veteran
Dark oils can be good when done right... This stuff is the hardest stuff Ive ever put together. Broke glass with this stuff trying to snap some off a petri dish. This one is a head buster.

"Erl" Shatter, Sativa
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FatherEarth

Active member
Veteran
you thought I was joking...


Had to winterize this one or risk having glass in the oil so I put it in the vac with some 190 proof...

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