Here is how I make my bho with a list of tools and step by step instructions. I would love to make improvements to my process, so please give advice or critique so I can continue to gain knowledge and improve my product But I haven't seen any post on a proper technique guide. List of equipment needed: Aluminum thermos(just big enough to fit the amount of bud you normally run) Vacuum pump Vacuum chamber Organic coffee filter Toaster oven(one that goes down to 90 degrees) Cooler Dry ice Pyrex measuring cup Pyrex dishes Ptfe sheets Metal strainer(coffee filter size) Heating element (that goes down to 90 degrees) You will have to make a makeshift lid for the thermos, something metal or glass with a hole in the middle and a few venting holes around the sides. You could possibly use the lid it came with to drill into. *I hope that is the entire list And this is just the method I use to make oil and I feel like I come out with very good results and I have the product to prove it. The thermos method is used to dewax and remove some fats out of your final product. Winterizing also does this but I like to stay single solvent. A closed loop system will do a better job than the thermos but I can't afford one of those. 1.break up bud. I like to do this by hand. Yes it takes forever but the product is always a better color and taste. And load into the thermos. Pack it a little but not to tight. 2.line the Pyrex dish with ptfe sheet 3. Make sure to freeze the Pyrex measuring cup, strainer, butane, product you are blasting(still in the thermos). I like to let it freeze overnight. 4. Put thermos into cooler and fill the cooler with dry ice so it is surrounding the thermos till about an inch from the lid. 5. Blast butane into thermos till butane is just above the weed level. Make sure it has sank all the way in and not still setting to the bottom. 6. Let it sit for 5-6 hours. 7. Take the lid off and Make sure the strainer has a coffee filter in it. Then proceed to poor the butane out of the thermos through the coffee filter and strainer into the Pyrex measuring cup. 8. Make sure the toaster oven is set at 90 degrees and inset the Pyrex measuring cup. 9. when the butane is mostly evaporated out poor the rest into the ptfe lined Pyrex dish and re insert into the toaster oven till it has reached a little more stable less butane consistency(make sure to watch carefully because if you let it evaporate for to Long you won't be able to just poor it into the Pyrex dish) 10. Make sure the vacuum chamber is on your heat source and is set at 90-100 degrees. 11. Now remove the Pyrex out of the toaster oven. Remove the ptfe sheet off the Pyrex and set the ptfe sheet into the vacuum chamber. 12. Now you will vacuum purge for a minimum of 15 hours with the pump running the entire time. This totally depends on how the oil looks in the chamber and you will get better and trimming it as time goes. 13. Remove from vacuum purger and flip the slab if you have one or fold into a smaller slab and throw it back in the purger. Do as much as you want and as you go you will figure out where you need to be at. 14. Smoke your awesome product and enjoy I'm sure I missed something on there. But here are some pics of the final product Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
How so? Are you talking about the bubbles that came from folding it and never settling since I threw it in the freezer after purging? Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
My thought exactly... according to the experts I know who do this for a living, that is way too long to let your fill column sit with tane in it. This might be why your purge is taking that long... Do a second run instead.... From what I understand of extraction processes, you don't want to remove the fats and waxes from the veg matter; you want them to stay there. Those are undesirable constituents, unlike the terpenes, CBD, and THC, which is what you want to extract. Lipids and similar compounds don't get you high, and don't impact the flavor profile or potency. Check out the word of a true expert on this subject: http://skunkpharmresearch.com/bho-extraction/ Scroll down to the section on column loading. There's also a discussion of fats and wax on that page, and their undesirable aspects in extracts.
The long process -40 degree soak removes the fats and wax's from the oil/product not add it in. When you blast butane through the bud it strips the fats and wax's from the plant and you don't remove any of that unless you winterize it or dewax. That's why I dewax with the cold Long process. If the super cold long soak is wrong then you need to start telling that to people running closed loop systems chilling in ice baths. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
Ah, I think I get you now; this is after the initial blast? The soak in the cold then pulls the waxes out of the extracted oils? Interesting. So this is looking for a similar result as winterizing. But you're doing column extracts, not a closed loop. Their processes will be somewhat different.
The initial blast is into the thermos filled with weed surrounded by dry Ice in the cooler. You then let everything sit for the 5-6 hours. They say the long soak also helps with getting more thc which I believe because I get the same yield when removing fats/wax's as when I just blast straight tube and don't remove fats and wax's. I haven't done this yet(idk why) but after you strain the butane out of the thermos and have it all collected in the Pyrex measuring cup. you could freeze the butane filled oil for a 24 hour period(if you have a subzero freezer) to help further remove fats and wax's from the final product. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
I know a team of people who use dry ice in their tech. I was talking to one of them one night and he was explaining it to me. I was pretty baked but what I can still remember is that they use the dry ice to super-cool the oil to de-wax.
Correct it will separate and accumulate at the bottom with all the good clean product ontop(clean apart from the butane) Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
the idea is keeping the butane liquid and cold, skipping the ethanol by accomplishing the same thing here -right?
technically its not the same thing. Destearination, AKA winterization, is generally defined by a hydrocarbon extraction dissolved into a solution of ethanol and chilled, filtered etc. Seeing as ethanol is hygrophilic(loves moisture) and contains water, with butane being hygrophobic(hates moisture) and containing extremely low amounts of water, you could assume they would remove different elements of your extract, with the ethanol removing certain water-soluble compounds that may have made it into the extraction. Its been shown through testing that you can achieve a higher cannabinoid content through a proper ethanol winterization as oppsed to single-solvent dewaxing with butane. Not sure exactly why but maybe that water content has something to do with it. and thats not to say single-solvent dewaxing is inferior, if you dont have or want to use ethanol, using the single-solvent method is still a cleaner option than not doing it at all. and i would encourage anyone regularly doing single-solvent dewaxing to save up the contaminants you pulled from your oil and try dissolving it into ethanol for a secondary winterization, there could be oils still trapped depending on how cold you got it. you dont want to go below -40F, -20-30F is ideal
Jimmy carter always dropping massive knowledge. I have been thinking about winterizing lately but do you really see a large noticeable difference? Like thc numbers and terps etc etc compared next to each other Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
Obviously cannabinoids are gonna go up but the terps might either be lost or improved depending on your process. A lot of times when you winterize with ethanol, you lose some flavor but theres tricks to getting it to stay tasty like a room temp evap followed by a 100F vac. with single-solvent dewaxing, you generally lose no flavor and because butane boils at such a low temp, you can effectively purge at lower temps
Problem with this "single solvent" dewaxing is that it does nothing. winterizing removes the fats,waxes and other lipophillic (fat loving) compounds. What makes them lipophillic or hydrophillic is based on polarity... butane is nonpolar (lipophillic) ethanol and iso are relatively polar, meaning they won't allow lipophillic substances... Solubility is largely based on polarity and temp. so if you heat the polar ethanol or iso it will absorb the extract left from a butane wash. After freezing it the solubility of the waxes and fats decreases. These lipophillic non polar waxes precipitate as a solid out of the solution. It can then be filtered The waxes and fats removed make up the harshness and congestive properties smoked hash oil can sometimes bring. This process does not remove terpenes and will drastically increase the quality of a butane(non polar) extract... if you start with an iso or etoh wash its not as necessary and shatter can easily be produced using a single polar wash.. iso in the middle of butane and ethanol polarity wise giving the best extract only using a single wash......but for compounds such as thca and precursory cannabinoids to move about the plant (as well as all compounds within the plant) they must be relatively polar. Because of this iso or etoh can extract a dirty product if left in solvent too long....which is why a long soak in butane that's allowed to pull every last cannabinoid and wax/fat. And then winterized to remove the wax/fats will give a better yield of quality product than iso or etoh. Fats and waxes are highly lipophillic basically long chain esters. For a compound to have drug likeness it must be polar to a slight degree(allowing crossing of the blood brain barrier and to be soluble in the blood).. this slight polarity helps keep them in the ethanol as all cannabinoids have a hydroxyl group when the also lipophillic fats get pulled , the fats and waxes are also larger heavier compounds which hinders solubility. winterizing is how commercial perfume/essential oils are made, and if done properly will not harm the flavor,though I should mention the waxes and fats pulled often are somewhat fragrant.. It should be noted thc itself is an aromatic terpene, anything affecting flavor effects potency to an extent. I do all my extracts in the dark and under 70 degrees even in the purge. 75 degrees or so is when lighter terpenes began to volatize into the air (I also dry/cure at 70or under for this reason) vapor pressures aren't linear too polarity is relative, butane does not have a polar hydroxyl group same with the waxes and fats, -oh while iso and etoh do . This is responsible for iso's high boiling point, even though its molecular weight is very similar to butane. and why water boils at a much higher temp, being much lighter than butane or iso. Hydrogen bonding is the strongest intra molecular force. Imfs are what determine solubility. Their is no defining line between polar and non polar. Its how polar or non polar. To find out,the biggest clue is molecular structure. ch bonds are non polar making hexane with more carbon a better non polar solvent. These hydrocarbon solvents lack the polarity iso and ever clear have.. but for them to hold cannabinoids in suspension and dissolve them they must also have a non polar side,which is why you can't winterize in water...likewise You can't winterize in a completely non polar solvent either. Iso is actually quite non polar, so is ethanol. Look at a ph index polar water is 9, iso somewhere around 4 etoh 6 and butane 0 or .1.. this is just an estimate off memory.. Etoh is best, iso will work butane will not. This is because of the waxes increasing solubility in the non polar solvents. This is a direct quote from another site where the validity of "single solvent" dewaxing with butane is being discussed.
So basically in everyday language. Reducing the temp of a POLAR solvent should drop the NON-POLAR compounds. Reducing the temp of a NON-POLAR solvent should precipitate the polar constituents. Fats and waxes are more polar than cannabanoids. So lowering the temp of a NON-POLAR solvent like butane will not precipitate out any NON-POLAR constituants like fats, and waxes. This is science. No way around it. No idea where this "SingleSolvent" dewaxing with butane came from, or who is advocating it.