Vacuum purge , whats your style ?
- Thread starter teemu shalanie
- Start date
deeppurple87
Member
I read that link when I was first purchasing my vac chamber setup. It seemed like there was no inexpensive way for your average joe to do this though.
I want a better extraction setup then just the glass tube, butane can, and coffee filters; however I am not prepared to drop thousands on all that equipment. I am having difficulty finding good info on how to use these tools as well.
I made my first batch of shatter! it came out well but I could not get all the bubbles to pop (at 105 for 24 hours -29.5hg) So i turned the heat up to like 120 and they all popped, however the consistency is somewhat waxier and less clear than before the additional heat.
Before the heat it was clear as glass (with some amber hue).
How do you get all those bubbles out at low temps for really good shatter.
My vac is a 5cfm dual stage and can pull -29.9, I have a digital heating pad from best value vacs for the heat source.
Thanks again!
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You might consider a passive Lil Terp extractor. I built mine for under $500.
I use 115/120F and -29.5" Hg for purging.
I get there in stages incrementing the vacuum up as the boiling subsides, so as to spend the least amount of time under higher vacuum, so as to preserve the monoterpenes.
Can fraction the heat as well. That was easier for me as the stock vacuum gauges suck and the digital one I know just doesn't read right when plugged into a manifold. So i just ripped a full vac at around 90F. Then did 5 degree increments.
His main question though was about distilling, which is extremely important. Idk how to do that without a proper system though.
His main question though was about distilling, which is extremely important. Idk how to do that without a proper system though.
deeppurple87
Member
thanks for the quick responses guys! I can probably drop around 300 or so for an extraction setup (I already have a decent vac pump if those are required). Think that would get me the passive lil terp? or something like it
Even at full vac my bubbles weren't popping more than a few at a time until I turned the digital heat pad up to 132 f or so.
I have taken chemistry 1 and 2 so I sort of get basic chemistry. What I don't understand, is if distilling the butane is an important step to making good shatter, why don't these companies (like puretane) sell it pre-distilled? I mean they are clearly targeting the BHO market.
Thanks again!
Even at full vac my bubbles weren't popping more than a few at a time until I turned the digital heat pad up to 132 f or so.
I have taken chemistry 1 and 2 so I sort of get basic chemistry. What I don't understand, is if distilling the butane is an important step to making good shatter, why don't these companies (like puretane) sell it pre-distilled? I mean they are clearly targeting the BHO market.
Thanks again!
Yeah, we have both cat and dog hairs to deal with, besides mine and Grayfox's annual shedding.
Since it starts out as shatter, the better question might be how long have I purged to get rid of solvent, and still ended up with shatter.
The answer is that it depends heavily on the material and film thickness.
If the material is rife with monoterpenes, some of them have to be removed as well to obtain brittleness at room temperature, otherwise they stay pliable with the terpenes acting as a solvent.
I usually process small test amounts, so in small paddies and thin films I've gotten below 50 ppm residual in under an hour.
When experimenting with larger and thicker slabs, its takes longer. This 266 gram one took about 28 hours.
Because I increment up the vacuum and the paddy is relatively tame by the time I get around to flipping the first time, I usually only have to flip once or twice, but have flipped it more.
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Yes thin slabs seem the way to go at least for ease of purging. Is that the color you usually end up with? I'm sure that does vary as well depending on strain/quality/ etc... Is your shatter usually end up dark amber or have you been able to get yellow shatter? You seem pretty set at the 115 for shatter but going to a lower degree which some people are doing I'm assuming is to possibly to obtain lighter colors. By going less in temperature let's say at 90-95 will everything still be purged (of course with longer purge times)? Will the shatter still release everything at lower temps or is there a certain temps that need to be obtained for the tane to be released completely? Or does it get trapped for any reason? Otherwise with enough purging and flipping at lower temps the same result should be able to be obtained? Sorry hope I'm clear typing on the fly here.
Holy cow gw that looks so stable it appears to be crystalline? !?
The color depends mostly on material and especially age of material. Then the temp of the solvent can make a different, you don't want to use warm solvent. Quicker initial washes will have better color but be less productive. A second wash or longer washes will produce more and be more terpy however darker in color and more waxes will be extracted.
People keep saying you need to do at least 109F to get out the heavier contaminant solvents like pentane and hexane. I have no idea though and I'd like to argue if your solvent is properly distilled, all those heavier solvents should only be in your first run.
90F will work but can take up to a week or so as the solvent bubbles will be less apt to pop. I've seen muffins last for an entire day or more at that temp. I think the analytical consensus is that harder and faster preserves more terps, but I personally have no evidence to support that idea.
I've had yellow shatter, and wax. You'll start to get an idea of how the product color will be as soon as you open the collection pot and look inside. Those pics gw posted say propane one them. Propane or a propane blend will yield better colors at he sacrafice of production. However bevause it's boiling point is so much lower and it's a much colder solvent, perhaps that loss of yield is only to having less waxes being extracted. Once again, just theory.
The color depends mostly on material and especially age of material. Then the temp of the solvent can make a different, you don't want to use warm solvent. Quicker initial washes will have better color but be less productive. A second wash or longer washes will produce more and be more terpy however darker in color and more waxes will be extracted.
People keep saying you need to do at least 109F to get out the heavier contaminant solvents like pentane and hexane. I have no idea though and I'd like to argue if your solvent is properly distilled, all those heavier solvents should only be in your first run.
90F will work but can take up to a week or so as the solvent bubbles will be less apt to pop. I've seen muffins last for an entire day or more at that temp. I think the analytical consensus is that harder and faster preserves more terps, but I personally have no evidence to support that idea.
I've had yellow shatter, and wax. You'll start to get an idea of how the product color will be as soon as you open the collection pot and look inside. Those pics gw posted say propane one them. Propane or a propane blend will yield better colors at he sacrafice of production. However bevause it's boiling point is so much lower and it's a much colder solvent, perhaps that loss of yield is only to having less waxes being extracted. Once again, just theory.
No worries. Feel free to pm if you need any help I'm usually online way too much because of politics. By the way, if you are a cali medical patient you need educate yourself about AB266 and the government wanting to strip our medical rights and insert regulation that makes the rich richer and the patients more poor.
Probably about the color we end up with running that thick a slab for that long.
Strain colors vary, but in general the thinner the slab, the lighter the color, for two reasons. One is the Beers/Lambert effects of the anthro cyanins present, and the other is the time at temperature darkens the color.
Joe opines that some of it is because we are caramelizing plant sugars, but as we also know, aging trichomes change from clear to dark amber.
Opinions are rampant, but mine is that you need the puddle hot enough for the puddles surface tension to drop to the point that the molecules of gas can readily break it and escape, as they ricochet around in a highly agitated state, looking for a way out.
That seemed to be between 110/115F on the puddles I played with, but I go up to 120F for Ethanol purging.
I try to stay under 120F, above where decarboxylation is more rapid.
It is crystalline and so fragile that pieces readily fly, without applying some heat.
Pharmer Joe is running a counterflow heat exchanger to chill the 50/50% propane/butane mix at the Mk IVB injection port, using liquid N2 on the cold side.
It was recovered to cotton candy consistency, reduced to dust, and spread on a tray made of foil backed parchment.
Final processing was in a TVO-2 Cascade TEK at 120F for 28 hours.
After initial melt at 120F to consolidate, he incremented down the vacuum until it was stable at -29 Hg and then flipped it. I don't know how many flips he made, but typically around two.
Yes, it acts like a diffusion pump in that the exiting nitrogen draws other molecules with it, and the nitrogen atoms act like cannon or cue balls, knocking loose molecules stuck to surfaces or in enriched layers above the puddle, inhibiting gas molecules below the surface from readily escaping.
Dunno if this goes in here or not, but we purge at a full vacuum in a hot water bath, which is refreshed every 15 mins. Water temp starts at 160 and drops to ~120F by the time more water is added, which then maintains a 150-120F range. I haven't used a laser thermo to see the temp of the pot and we use a old pressure cooker which doesn't allow me to see the action inside.
We normally see a good smokeable amber in a couple hours. I've noticed having the top of the batch exposed to allow evaporation more easily makes a big difference. Folding the puddle up in paper before purging seems to make a big difference in purge times.
I'll do a report soon, so I can be corrected and made better.
We normally see a good smokeable amber in a couple hours. I've noticed having the top of the batch exposed to allow evaporation more easily makes a big difference. Folding the puddle up in paper before purging seems to make a big difference in purge times.
I'll do a report soon, so I can be corrected and made better.
