How To: Making Honeycomb Wax Without Vacuum

Many people wonder how to get clean, quality waxes at home without the use of a vacuum, and without destroying the flavors and THC within by unintentionally super heating the oil. This can be a little difficult to do if you are new to making concentrates, but most certainly doable with a little direction!
 
Here I will explain and show you my method of making Honeycomb Wax using just hot water, a hair dryer, and your oven.
 
Note: This should be done in a WELL VENTILATED AREA, OR OUTSIDE!!!! Do not contribute to the growing number of dummies who harm themselves or their property by being ignorant!
That being said, yes I do this in my bathroom. I use an upgraded overhead exhaust fan in my bathroom, rated at over 600 CFM. Most bathroom fans are nowhere near this powerful, and thus do not qualify the room as a "well ventilated" area.
 
 
 
Step 1: Gather All Supplies You Will Need

• Extraction tube 
• Bone dry, finely ground bud/trim
• 2 unbleached coffee filters 
• 1 hose clamp 
• 2 razor blades
• At least 1 can of butane per full tube of material 
• A clean Pyrex dish
• A plastic tub
• A hair dryer

 
Step 2: Preparing Your Extraction Tube
 
Take your finely ground, bone dry material and pack your extraction tube. You want it to be packed somewhat tightly, but not too tight. Place 2 coffee filters over the end and secure using the hose clamp. Once the hose clamp is fully secured, take a sharp clean razor and cut off the excess "skirt" of the coffee filters, this is to prevent oil loss from buildup on the filter. Lastly, find and secure the appropriate sized adapter tip into the other end of extraction tube. These adapters can be found in the cap of your butane canister.
 
Step 3: Preparing to Blast
 
Take your plastic tub and fill it with HOT but not boiling water. I use water from my tap at it's hottest, though for some this won't be hot enough. Then take your Pyrex dish and place it in the water filled tub, being careful not to get any drips inside the dish.
 
Step 4: Blasting
 
Ensure that your clamp is secured, your filter is free of any rips or holes, and your adapter tip is secure and snug. You may want to take a towel, t-shirt or rag to hold the tube as it can get pretty cold. Begin blasting into your floating, warm/hot Pyrex dish (remember to make sure NO WATER is inside the dish). For this 14 gram tube (packed with about 15 grams) I used between half and 3/4 of the can. You can usually do ok with about a can per oz, but generally you just want to blast until it comes out clear.
 
Step 5: Purging
 
Now let the butane boil inside the dish until most of it is purged off. To do this, just let it sit until it stops actively making new bubbles. When it's done, it will have large bubbles and small bubbles spread about. 
 
Step 6: Preparing Oil
 
Now you want to bust out the hair dryer. Ideally you want to use one with a hot/warm setting and have it set to warm. This isn't required, but you will need to be more careful if you don't have one with that feature. Take the dryer and just blow directly onto the oil, sweeping back and forth slowly for about 60 seconds, ensuring all the big bubbles have popped. Avoid holding it too close, or in one spot for too long. This will let some remaining butane escape, and make the oil a little more manageable while scraping in the next step. 
 
Step 7: Scraping And Further Purging
 
Now you want to take your razor blades and carefully scrape the sticky, goopy oil into the center of the dish. Once all of it is in the center, spread it out somewhat thin and as evenly as possible. Now onto the oven. Set the temperature to whatever you want, as we aren't going to be relying on it's thermostat or ever even achieving the set temp. You just want the heating elements to come on and heat up fully. Once the heating elements are red hot, place the Pyrex dish directly on the bottom rack. This is where things can get a bit tricky, so watch closely during this step.
 
The oil will slowly begin to melt and spread out a bit more, then tiny bubbles will boil out for a little while (looks like little pin pricks randomly happening all about the oil). This is your trapped butane escaping. Then once the oil has reached a certain temperature, it will rather suddenly boil all at once and turn into puddle of foamy looking goo. You want to be taking the dish out right at this point, as even leaving it in for a couple seconds too long will melt the oil beyond where it can be kicked into a wax, as well as burn off THC. Take the dish and place it somewhere that isn't heat sensitive (like, not your lap), but also free of debris, as you are going to be getting the hair dryer out again.
 
Step 8: Setting Consistency
 
Now you want to take your hair dryer and set it to HOT. Turn it on and blow directly onto the oil from about 5 inches above, but for just a few seconds. This should pop all the bubbles and give it that honeycomb look, just not dry yet. Now, hold down the cool air only button and bring the dryer down to about an inch or 2 above the oil. Blow cold air directly onto the oil for roughly 60 seconds to dry it out. If your hair dryer does not have the cool air only feature, leave it on hot or warm and hold it at least 1 1/2 feet above the oil, then do the same 60 seconds.
 
Step 9: Cooling, Collecting
 
Continue to let the wax cool and fully dry out for 3-5 minutes, then scrape it up and enjoy! Remember to seal it up tight, as Honeycomb wax like this will continue to dry out and eventually start to degrade when left out in open air.
 
 
 
Thanks for reading my tutorial on making Honeycomb Wax at home! Please feel free to post comments, questions, feedback, and of course personal results!
 
Happy dabbing!
 
 
 
 
 

 

By the way, this run was about 15 grams of popcorn and trim from my Cinex plants. I got a little under 3 grams, but forgot to weigh it up till this morning after dabbing. Please excuse the dirty scale, I'm borrowing it from a friend.

 

Anyone have any tips or input on how I can improve my method?

 

Going to try another run later with just nug, and get a whiter wax. I may let it kick on parchment paper so I don't scrape it, to keep it intact.

 

Yes I have had previous batches tested using this same method, and they always passed with flying colors. I may be able to find some PDF files in my old inbox with copies of the results. I may be wrong, but so long as the product is 100% dry, it shouldn't contain any butane. When I say dry, I mean DRY. When handled, it should crumble apart, and you should not be able to re form crumbs. They just turn to powder no matter how much you try and press them back together. Again, correct me if I am wrong, but in my experience this has held true.

 

Here are some more small batches.

 

I regularly dab my stuff side by side to lab made waxes that test at anywhere from 75 to 95%, and my stuff frequently has considerably better smell, taste, is almost always smoother, and gives a much nicer high. My patients always agree as well, and always ask for more when it's gone.

 

Just stick your Pyrex dish right on a portable electric skillet/grill at 100-115 degrees. Or scrape from the Pyrex and place on parchment paper, then put that on the skillet at 100. I just use the oven because I have it handy.

 

It can get tough when your using more trim than flower. Trim gives off more sappy oils I feel. When I blast, I use either just nug, or if it's trim rum, then only super sugar leaves. No fan leaves, not even small leaves that have a little frost, they gotta be covered to go in my blast tubes.

 

I like to get the crumbs at the bottom of my container, and melt them down a bit to form them into a ball, then dip that ball in the crumbs. Makes for good dabs

 

It's just the standard titanium nail available at most places. 15-30 bucks depending on where you get it. But thanks!

 

I was saying I would run a batch of just nug, to get an even better wax that's more white and less yellowish.

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