This is what a typical bud looks like after a tumble machine trim. This one did not go in ideally prepped. See those leaf stems? That's what needs to be snipped by hand after the tumble. This was ran with NO BLADE.
Garbage. The demo looked good. The concept seemed good. I thought out would be more delicate and i would lose less trichomes. Now outs in the pile of gimicky machines.
For one, it doesn't clean it up enough. The brush probably takes more off then the blades when material is dry enough. For 2, the stem that protrudes out of the base gets clipped and it breaks down all your bud to smalls. For 3, it's difficult to clean and hash builds up way fast between the two steel blades. The hash build up pushes the 2 blades apart and it starts to eat your nug. And last but not least, it's damnnnn slow.
Aint no way around using a tumble type trimmer. It's all in how you prep for the machine, and getting perfect level of moisture. Slightly moist inside, crispy outer leaf.
I'm currently using a tumbler with the blade OFF. Run it for 3-4 minutes. Touch up by hand. An unskilled trimmer can touch up lbs in an hour. It looks add good or better then straight hand trim. It does take a minute to getting the process down but once you get It, you Will never go back to hand trim.
Ive found this to be accurate, i spend the entire time hovering over the machine and picking each bud out and hand trimming as the machine works. 30-50% of my GG4 nugs has leaf that was malleable like thin silk. this machine will not remove these type of leaves and i had to hand trim them all.it doesn't clean it up enough.
the brush doesnt work as id hoped. if yo leave it loose it basically doesnt do much but brush trichomes off. if you tighten it to a fixed position that gently touchs the blades the nugs cake up behind it and the buds get demolished to smalls.The brush probably takes more off then the blades when material is dry enough.
Ive notice the slight protruding stems get chewed up vs cut and it does help to break up "colas" or nugs into little smalls.For 2, the stem that protrudes out of the base gets clipped and it breaks down all your bud to smalls.
YES! my gg4 and other high frost strains cake the blades up far quicker than it takes the machine to clean up the trimming. after every 10 mins im pulling the machine apart to scrape the resin from both base blade and rotating blade then sweeping out the interior this essentially turns every 1/2 lb 10-15 minute run into a 30 minute run + cleaning. i was definitely hoping for a better trimmed product.For 3, it's difficult to clean and hash builds up way fast between the two steel blades. The hash build up pushes the 2 blades apart and it starts to eat your nug.
is that a dry tumble trim? what machine is that?
That nug is the triminator. Trim pal does a good job also. The thing that the triminator has over the Trim pal is that it's a longer thinner barrel.
The Trim pal is kind of short and fat, so when it tumbles, it's not as gentle. It drops when it tumbles instead of just rolling with the same amount of flower in it.
Gg4 does great in the triminator. One of the easiest clean ups after machining so far. It's so sticky that it doesn't crumble tumbling even if you miss your moisture sweet spot. Really the way dry machines work, is the leaf crumbles off. None of the machines Really do much snipping. The idea is to get it right at that moisture sweet spot.
You know when you have weed hanging on the dry line, and the outside leaf is crumbly, but if you put out in a sealed tote, the inside moisture comes out and the whole thing is soft again? That's how you want it. Dry outer leaf, slightly moist inside.
There are wood floor moisture meters that are great for weed processing. They measure the moisture content of anything you put it against. Triminator even sells one that they slapped their logo on.