Making wax- but it's too dark.

[Hash Man]

Hi, I am trying to make a light colored wax. I have the closed unit and vac chamber. I have been recovering my extract at -22hg, with no more than 80f used to recover the butane. The extract is a blondish color , and even lighter when put under vacuum with no heat until muffined out. After its stable in a puffed shape with no vacuum running, I put the chamber to -29.5 and put it on top of two seedling hearing mats that are set on top of each other. It's been there for almost 24 hours and is now brown and almost a wax. Why sO dark? The extract never got over 123 degrees farenheight. Any tips?

 

[SkyHighLer]

What is the temperature of the 'patty' with the two heat mats?

Did you calibrate your dial vacuum gauge? Here's how to do that https://www.icmag.com/ic/showpost.php?p=5869373&postcount=76

At 115F and down to -29.5" Hg it shouldn't take more than an hour of purging to remove the residual butane and moisture, and you should have a see through amber sap/shatter product. Sorry it gets so dark, that's why many of us think wax/budder sucks.
Here's a picture of how I had my heat mats set up with a wall dimmer to adjust the output and a corded indoor/outdoor thermometer's sensor at the middle of the chamber, between the mats and the wash cloths I use for insulation.
(I now use the heat mats with a thermostat https://www.icmag.com/ic/showpost.php?p=5869306&postcount=24 )

 

[Hash Man]

What's up? I didn't calibrate my gauge. I will do it later today when I get home. I have some heating pads with a temp control that are stuffed in storage, I will have to grb those before my next run. I'm assuming my resin got baked brown due to such a long heating , even tho it was low heat? Something must be off if I was unable to purge all the tane out after 1 day at 120 degrees.

 

[Hash Man]

Ok so I just got home and am trying to boil water under vac. It is bubbling slightly but not close to boiling and I am maxed out in my gauge. I must not have a good vacuum chamber. Such a pity, as I waited four months for it. I am very close to leaving a bad review about the manufacturer, I guess. I am at 2000 feet above sea level.

 

[Waxmasta Flex]

not the vac chamber...
its only one of 2 things

probably id guess ur shits old ur running...
or older...its been decarbed like naturally i think...(sci type chime in here)

or ur heating it too much, but at 125 doesnt seem so...(some will say not to go over 100, but they dont know wtf theyre talking about)

i guess it could also be ur chopping the shitballs outta ur material and grinding dry shit into dust, thus polluting ur oil w mucho planto materialo....

 

[Hash Man]

That's the thing, I have done this with old shake and new, cured shake. Also good nugs. The extract comes out blonde when I take it out of my extractor and put it on the oil slick pad. Something is going wrong during the vacuum process. I'm muffining under no heat until the shape is somewhat stable when I release the vacuum. Then I am applying heat. The extract patty did not get above 125, but I was working it for over 24 hours.

When I scratch the top of the brown wax with a paperclip, it is light blond underneath...

 

[SkyHighLer]

Ok so I just got home and am trying to boil water under vac. It is bubbling slightly but not close to boiling and I am maxed out in my gauge. I must not have a good vacuum chamber. Such a pity, as I waited four months for it. I am very close to leaving a bad review about the manufacturer, I guess. I am at 2000 feet above sea level.

In your first post you said you took it down to -29.5" Hg. The Bourdon dial gauges are calibrated against the atmospheric pressure at sea level, they are off by about 1" Hg for every thousand feet of elevation. At two thousand feet of elevation the needle of your dial gauge shouldn't indicate past -28.0" Hg...

Try warmer and warmer and water until you get a boil going, any rotary vane vacuum pump in working condition should be up to pulling a real -29.5" Hg...something's wrong.

 

[Hash Man]

Maybe I need a better gauge. It was mailed in my vac chamber with no padding and was probably tossed around pretty good during shipping. It is right in between -29 and -30 on my gauge. I will try another batch tomorrow and see if I get different results. Btw, my vac chamber went from -29 hg to -15 hg overnight when I closed the ball valve and turned the pump off.

I'm still thinking its the chamber for some reason

I don't understand how it could take so long to get all the butane out at 125 f.

I just tried to boil 80 degree water and couldn't.

 

[hammalamma]

I don't think you are getting enough hg, or try heating first then vacuuming.

 

[Gray Wolf]

Hi, I am trying to make a light colored wax. I have the closed unit and vac chamber. I have been recovering my extract at -22hg, with no more than 80f used to recover the butane. The extract is a blondish color , and even lighter when put under vacuum with no heat until muffined out. After its stable in a puffed shape with no vacuum running, I put the chamber to -29.5 and put it on top of two seedling hearing mats that are set on top of each other. It's been there for almost 24 hours and is now brown and almost a wax. Why sO dark? The extract never got over 123 degrees farenheight. Any tips?

Joe, our biochemistry brain trust, suspects caramelized plant sugars from heat are producing the darkening colors.

123F is hot enough to darken the extract over 24 hours. I usually make shatter, unless I'm making something by request, and can purge blonde shatter in a thin film, in less than an hour to look like this:

 

[SkyHighLer]

Maybe I need a better gauge. It was mailed in my vac chamber with no padding and was probably tossed around pretty good during shipping. It is right in between -29 and -30 on my gauge. I will try another batch tomorrow and see if I get different results. Btw, my vac chamber went from -29 hg to -15 hg overnight when I closed the ball valve and turned the pump off.

I'm still thinking its the chamber for some reason

I don't understand how it could take so long to get all the butane out at 125 f.

I just tried to boil 80 degree water and couldn't.

Replace the gauge, directmaterial.com > Pressure Gauges > Dry Utility Pressure Gauges > 'diameter dial you need' > '-30 Hg to 0'

I think you've got a leak somewhere (or a defective pump...) something bigger than the hose off gassing or the ball valve bushing leaking. Check everything over again, use plenty of teflon tape on every connection you can (some ball valve's bushings can be teflon taped and adjusted tighter.)

Picture of your setup would help....

 

[Hash Man]

Thanks for all the help. I have 2 pumps and have the same results with both. I'm trying lower heat right now and am at a standstill posted above.

I have only 1 heating pad under my chamber now reading 130f. I can't tell the temp of the muffin because I don't want to lose pressure and have to wait hours for the muffin to puff out again. I have had this muffin going for hours and am wondering what to do next. Should I just leave it overnight?

 

[Gray Wolf]

https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=47027&pictureid=1106376View Image
Thanks for all the help. I have 2 pumps and have the same results with both. I'm trying lower heat right now and am at a standstill posted above.

I have only 1 heating pad under my chamber now reading 130f. I can't tell the temp of the muffin because I don't want to lose pressure and have to wait hours for the muffin to puff out again. I have had this muffin going for hours and am wondering what to do next. Should I just leave it overnight?

The muffin as pictured, is still purging solvent. That is what the large bubbles are.

It will be easier to maintain and solidify the muffin, if you drop your temperature below about 100F and keep pumping.

 

[Hash Man]

Thanks graywolf, I'm tryin to get a stable muffin, since that seems like what everyone is doing before they melt it down to shatter. It's been close to 12 hours and there is no change in the size or shape of the muffin. I took the chamber off the heat and left the vacuum running. Once I get a stable muffin that keeps shape once I release the vacuum, I am planning on melting it down to shatter, well trying to anyway.

Looking at how inefficiently I did this- I can see how prolonged heat at this stage would not be beneficial. I have seen guys on YouTube get to the stage I am at in a few minutes. I'm thinking I have been using too low heat for far too long.

I am scared of burning the resin, but that caution is preventing me from getting up to the right temp for a SHORT amount of time?

 

[Kushed_]

Replace you vac guage w/an American made (accuracy, quality, accuracy). Test your chamber, if you think you need to. You may need a new seal. They make stiff putty product on a roll that will make an excellent seal. Get an adjustable mat, set to 90-95F and vac. You can never say how long you are going to vac., it takes what it takes. Use the very best, fresh, dry, high quality nugs and put them into a blender before packing column. When you vac the temp of you product increases. You will have the blondest, highest quality, highest terps that you probably will have ever had!

 

[Hash Man]

Hi guys, I have been trying a variety of different approaches. I have has success with keeping a blonde color for longer , but cannot maintain the color. Also , I am still unsuccessful in even getting all of the butane purged out.

I made this last night and had it stable at room temp and no vacuum.


I heated it and revacced overnight and got this at room temp and no vacuum.


It now looks like this


It was heated to about 125 pretty much the whole time.

Here is how much I have wasted this far, I will have to make some candy.


I'm going to go look for the putty that was talked about above to get a better seal than this ridiculous cell foam. I did make a chamber out of a mason jar that will boil water at room temp, instantly, and have been doing smaller batches with same results. Any idea what I am doing wrong? Thanks , hash man

 

[FatherEarth]

First off, why would you spend so much time trying to get this "muffin" only to melt it down once you get it?

Light colored oils are easy, if you try too hard youll brown em almost every time. I found a few things that help in getting lighter colors. Dont grind your material first. Dry it until its crisp and when loading break it lightly with one gloved hand. Dont worry if its chunky, just pack it in. Dont overdo it, you want the soak time to be very short. The sooner you stop running your floods and start scraping the better. The brightest colors Ive gotten were from runs that I stopped early. When vacuuming make the thinnest film possible. GW says an 1/8" thats what I shoot for. 6" petri dishes are great for that thin film and can be stacked in the vac. Remember that sometimes the lighter colors are from the butane still trapped in the oil. Ive seen some super yellow that people were bragging about that was chuck full of butane. A lot of times your oil is just too thick and looks really dark, a thin film you can see its a lighter color. SO dry your oils then then scrape em, so you still have the bag appeal you are after. My couple pennies worth.


Respectfully,

FE

 

[Hash Man]

Father Earth, thanks for the reply. I'm running something very similar to a terpenater, and have come out with lots of different colors, depending on material, number of rinses, and also pressure used . I try to run for 2 quick rinses and use no heat to recover my tane. It takes a bit longer but is summer here , and I can recover butane to -22 hg fairly quickly, I would say, from first blast of tane , two rinses, and full recovery, in less than 45 min.

I want to make a muffin, then melt it down to shatter, and then vacuum under low heat until I get wax. If I am misunderstanding the process, please explain. I have turned light colored blonde starting product and burned it. I am now baffled at how hard it is (for me) to get some wax.

 

[CarefulGrower]

The 'muffin' shouldn't stay for long. It should rise, 'muffin' and then deflate due to escaping butane creating holes in it. I have had runs where the oil will not collapse after rising (it freezes at the muffin stage), it's been from oil being too cool, I just reheat the entire patty or bump the heat up a bit and vacuum it again. As more butane escapes, the muffin stops and smaller bubbles of butane start forming/popping, after they stop forming, you're left with shatter that has no reaction under vacuum.

If you keep your oil in the chamber after that, under heat, it will wax up.

 

[budelight]

The 'muffin' shouldn't stay for long. It should rise, 'muffin' and then deflate due to escaping butane creating holes in it. I have had runs where the oil will not collapse after rising (it freezes at the muffin stage), it's been from oil being too cool, I just reheat the entire patty or bump the heat up a bit and vacuum it again. As more butane escapes, the muffin stops and smaller bubbles of butane start forming/popping, after they stop forming, you're left with shatter that has no reaction under vacuum.

If you keep your oil in the chamber after that, under heat, it will wax up.

That is a great short "how-to" carefulgrower, thanks for sharing!