[entyfresh]

Hi guys, first time poster here. This forum was recommended as a source for reputable info on high quality concentrates, which I'm sure you're all aware is relatively hard to find online. Over my last few harvests, I've started producing live resin for personal use, and while I'm very pleased with the quality of what I produce, I feel like I should be getting higher yields. Right now, I get about 2.5g of extract out with about 90g of wet material in a pretty simple closed column setup. I've got a number of ideas about how I could change my process to improve things, but most of the options involve spending a fair amount of money, and I'd like to be able to both prioritize my upgrades and avoid spending too much.

My current procedure:

1. Put 15 lbs of dry ice in the bottom of a large cooler (enough for a weekend), along with 1.5" metal spool with caps and clamps.
2. Harvest plants, break down into 2" or smaller buds, put into bags that are open to atmosphere and place in the dry ice cooler (idea being that CO2 will displace the air around the buds and prevent condensation).
3. Pack spool with buds using a funnel with a small opening, forcing buds to break up into 1/2' chunks as they are pushed through the funnel.
4. Lightly tamp spool a few times while loading, continue packing spool until full and then put caps on.
5. Pull vacuum on column and then fill with butane from can. Butane kept in freezer prior to filling--can't keep in dry ice cooler or there's not enough pressure left in can to fill the column.
6. Place column back in cooler and leave for ~90 minutes.
7. Blast oil/butane out of column, float collection vessel on a bowl of hot water for a few minutes to evaporate most of the butane, collect and put in a lightly capped jar.
8. Wait about a week for extract to crystallize/separate into sauce.
9. Light purge at room temp

I've thought about changing a number of things: I think the extraction temp might be too low (dry ice is -78C), the column might be packed too tight, and there might be condensation interfering with the extraction. Or maybe I'm wrong, and 2.5g of live resin out of 90g of wet material isn't that poor of a result. I've attached a couple pictures of what I'm getting now--the clear stuff is a fresh pour and the other is after the live resin has sugared up. Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

[theJointedOne]

thats a well written post, im sure someone with some knowledge will drop in and answer your question. From my limited info on this subject i think you may already be onto why the yeilds are lower than youd like.

[HashoftheTitans]

In my experience, proper fresh-frozen extracts yield between 2-5%, depending on material quality, preparation, and water content. It is difficult to compare notes because of the wide range of variables and difficulty in measuring those differences compared to dry material.

[FrozenFire]

Use the search bar, as almost everything extraction related has been covered and is available to read. Fresh frozen yields low due to plant water weight, and volume undried. Greywolf has a new website up with tons of info about everything extraction related. Low temps are a good thing and part of the equation of low yields. With low extraction temps you aren't extracting much plant waxes, which is a good thing. Good luck and enjoy your stay at icmag!

[entyfresh]

I've tried searching around, but I haven't seen much discussion about live resin, and especially about using a simple column extractor instead of a closed loop.

After my original post, I found one suggestion that Grey Wolf made--and that I haven't tried--which is to pack and evacuate the column before freezing anything. I usually freeze my material with dry ice first to make it frangible in an attempt to increase surface area, but I'm guessing it's more important to get all the atmosphere out before freezing to avoid condensation. I'm hopeful that making that adjustment will help a bit in yields. I'll be taking down a few more plants this weekend, so I can try and report back.

Here's a shot of the Blueberry Headband plant that was used in the extract in my original post about a week before harvest, and another of the trichs at the same time.

[entyfresh]

Three days and no comments with any content at all? I guess I came to the wrong place for help after all. Really disappointing that the only things people seem to talk about on here are commercial setups for turning a profit, and anyone who just wants to make some medicine for themselves at home gets no help. Guess I'll find another community to be a part of.

[gumby420]

I've been having some trouble with getting my solvent to actually flood all the way through my column. if I flood 15lbs ill only get like 7lbs through and the rest will be stuck in my material column, even using vapor assist. when the tube is finally opened its just a rock hard block of ice. do you use nitrogen assist when running live material?

[TychoMonolyth]

I thought Live Rosin meant the flowers were frozen first, then dry ice sifted, then pressed?

[entyfresh]

Hey, sorry for being salty on my last reply. It's been a frustrating week, and a lot of searching for info on live resin extractions didn't really turn up much so that just made me that much more frustrated. With the number of people who blow themselves up doing stupid stuff with open blasting, I probably wouldn't be stepping forward with a lot of info myself.

Anyways, doing the same procedure as before except packing the column before I freeze it definitely helped yields. The last run this morning was 3.5g out for 75g in for a 4.7% yield by wet weight, which I can live with I think. I also used pure n-butane this time instead of a mix, and that seems to have lightened up the color a fair bit.

@Tychomonolyth: Strictly speaking, live resin is any extract you make from a freshly harvested plant, i.e. before you dry it. Most commonly, that means a plant that's fresh frozen and then extracted with a hydrocarbon solvent, but you could use other methods too. There's also "dry ice hash", where you take advantage of dry ice making the trichome stalks very brittle like you would when making bubble hash but by using only dry ice instead of ice water, essentially letting you make bubble hash without using any water in the process.

@gumby420: Sounds like your column might be overpacked?

[TychoMonolyth]

Originally Posted by entyfresh

Hey, sorry for being salty on my last reply. It's been a frustrating week, and a lot of searching for info on live resin extractions didn't really turn up much so that just made me that much more frustrated. With the number of people who blow themselves up doing stupid stuff with open blasting, I probably wouldn't be stepping forward with a lot of info myself.

Anyways, doing the same procedure as before except packing the column before I freeze it definitely helped yields. The last run this morning was 3.5g out for 75g in for a 4.7% yield by wet weight, which I can live with I think. I also used pure n-butane this time instead of a mix, and that seems to have lightened up the color a fair bit.

@Tychomonolyth: Strictly speaking, live resin is any extract you make from a freshly harvested plant, i.e. before you dry it. Most commonly, that means a plant that's fresh frozen and then extracted with a hydrocarbon solvent, but you could use other methods too. There's also "dry ice hash", where you take advantage of dry ice making the trichome stalks very brittle like you would when making bubble hash but by using only dry ice instead of ice water, essentially letting you make bubble hash without using any water in the process.

@gumby420: Sounds like your column might be overpacked?

This is what I found.
How to Make Frosin.

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