Making 90-95% cannabinoid extract from vapor?

I posted this on 420chan (lol) first, but obviously there are just a bunch teenagers who don't know shit about shit. So here is a (slightly modified) picture of the extraction setup I had in mind and the original text from 420chan:





"A MAPS-NORML study using a Volcano vaporizer reported 95% THC and no toxins delivered in the vapor"
- Wikipedia

"In theory, would this work? I do not even own a Volcano Vaporizer but this idea came up with my mind when reading about alcohol distillation - cannabinoid distillation/extraction from vaporized cannabis!

So, if you would slowly "pour" the vapor into the glass tube so it wont spill over from the glass jar, would the cannabinoids condense inside the jar like in the picture? If not, why not? Ofcourse, this would have to be done fast as possible because of THC oxidation into other cannabinoids... but then again, even the oxidation products (CBN & 11-OH-THC) are still psychoactive. -- The the half-life (50% degredation) of THC is 1.6 hours in an open air environment, but if you would do it fast enough so that you get ALOT of the concentrate [in minimal time], so it would clump up like hash, then the exposure of THC to air would be minimalized."

After collecting enough condensed/crystallized cannabinoids in the jar, you would simply scrape them off the wall of the jar with a spoon or a knife and store/use the crystalline cannabinoid extract (CCE? ) as you like.

...and PLEASE don't post something like "it's a waste of weed, just make hash/oil", because I just want to know if this is plausible.

Thanks for any replies!

You'd be better off rigging the volcano to direct the vapor straight into your condenser...

That should work. Make sure the residence time in the condenser is sufficient to condense all of the vaporized cannabinoids - i can see that being a potential problem. You also might need to gather it by rinsing the inside of the condenser with acetone or similar. The concept however is sound.

You'd be better off rigging the volcano to direct the vapor straight into your condenser...

I had this in mind, but I thought that the glass tube, eg. if held in the same place with a tape, would direct the vapor in a single spot, so the vapor would condense in a smaller area - so that mechanical rinsing of the extract would be easier.

Edit: oh, I somehow wrongly understood what you meant... this is what happens when you're not a native english speaker!

Make sure the residence time in the condenser is sufficient to condense all of the vaporized cannabinoids - i can see that being a potential problem.

I thought about this aswell. This is why the glass jar should be sealable (and air tight). A classic storage jar should do the trick. After pouring the wanted amount of vapor into the condenser, let the vapour settle/condense for a while. Then take off the glass tube, seal the jar and put it in a freezer - for example.

You also might need to gather it by rinsing the inside of the condenser with acetone or similar. The concept however is sound.

I'll keep that in mind. Thanks for replying!

Edited by LuSiD, 26 August 2010 - 03:25 PM.

There is no need for that. When you have a vaporizer honey oil builds up inside it. With my extreme q I get a batch of honey every couple weeks. You pour iso alcohol into a jar. Put vaporizer pieces in, swirl, pour on plate to evaporate and scrape.

There is no need for that. When you have a vaporizer honey oil builds up inside it. With my extreme q I get a batch of honey every couple weeks. You pour iso alcohol into a jar. Put vaporizer pieces in, swirl, pour on plate to evaporate and scrape.

The point is to get alot of high quality (90+% THC+CBD) crystalline cannabinoid extract in a short period of time... like making your own high quality budder (80-90% THC):


"Budder contains only pure cannabinoid vapor instead of the harmful byproducts of combustible materials found in a hit of regular marijuana or hashish"


High from the budder / cc-extract:

"Soaring, clear, cerebral, relaxing, glowing, very euphoric. Few body effects. Lasts four to six hours. Does not interfere with speech, social skills, coordination. No couchlock. Minimal hangover. -- Creates an immediate rush that starts in mouth, face and sinuses, and then travels to legs and arms. The high is mildly psychedelic. Budder should be used sparingly, perhaps once or twice a day, at most. Hold inhalation at least 15 seconds. Novices should be sitting down when they take their first hit."


Sounds good to me! I would love to get some of this for my bubbler. Maybe I'll order a volcano as soon as I get enough money!

vape resin is nothing like budder. Your idea would work for collecting vapor resin which is like hash oil.
Budder is made by heating hash oil on a pad and you have to whip it into budder. Only certain strains have the type of resin to make budder from the oil. The most familiar being OG Kush.
BTW try it but I can tell you theres better ways. You will end up with a sticky wasteful mess. The water for cooling would not work because it would crack the hot glass that is required for vaporization. Also It would take hours upon hours to collect the resin. Why do that when you can run some butane through it and be done in 15 minutes.
I would recommend ISO hash for beginners or study up on butane honey oil extractions if your old enough to play with fire. Or should I say, to not play with fire.

Edited by LoveOfTheNug, 27 August 2010 - 04:53 AM.

Your idea would work for collecting vapor resin which is like hash oil.

Well, according to this study the vapor from the Volcano contains as much as 95% cannabinoids if vaporized around the optimal temperature of 185'C (toxins begin to vaporize above 200'C). If I remember correctly, hash oil is around 70-80% cannabinoids, so in theory, if you do this correctly, you should get 90-95% cannabinoid extract which is more potent than hash oil. And I do mean in theroy, since there are other factors like air humidity which affect the quality of the final product. (I have an idea how to minimilize water content in the final condensed extract, but it might not be 100% foolproof...)

The water for cooling would not work because it would crack the hot glass that is required for vaporization.

The method I introduced does not include a phase where you heat glass. Vaporization happens in the Volcano from where the vapor is directed to the glass jar which is placed in ice / ice crush / icy water so the vapor will condense inside the wall of the jar. The jar itself is not heated though, as I said.

Also It would take hours upon hours to collect the resin.

Depends how much condensed vapor you're about to collect, but I disagree. According to the above study, it would seem that you get one cannabinoid-rich Volcano balloon from every 0.1g of vaporized product, and it takes approximitely 45 seconds for one balloon to fill up. Assuming it would take around 90 seconds to direct the vapor through the glass tube into the jarr, you would process one balloon full of vapor for 135 seconds = 2 min 15 seconds. For a gram of well grinded bud (10 x 0.1g, doh) it would thus take around 22 minutes 30 seconds to extract. If the bud is 15-25% THC, this would mean you get anywhere from 0.15g to 0.25g of the condensed extract in around 22-25 minutes. Maybe not the fastest method, but it wouldn't take hours to collect the vapor. Ofcourse, you'd then have to collect the condensed vapor from the jar (mechanically and/or with acetone/ISO) and that takes some time too.

Why do that when you can run some butane through it and be done in 15 minutes.
I would recommend ISO hash for beginners or study up on butane honey oil extractions if your old enough to play with fire. Or should I say, to not play with fire.

I've made QWISO with my friends before. This just came up with my mind and I'm not even sure if I'm ever going to go thru with this, but as I implied earlier this is just for "theoretical thinking". Still, if I ever was to buy a Volcano, I would give it a try (and post results here, ofcourse ).

The method I introduced does not include a phase where you heat glass. Vaporization happens in the Volcano from where the vapor is directed to the glass jar which is placed in ice / ice crush / icy water so the vapor will condense inside the wall of the jar. The jar itself is not heated though, as I said.

The oil will solidfy without heat. Sorry dude wont work. Vape resin is extremely thick and the consistency of the goo will not drip down without heat.

The oil will solidfy without heat. Sorry dude wont work. Vape resin is extremely thick and the consistency of the goo will not drip down without heat.

That is the point: to condense the cannabinoid vapor into a solid cannabinoid extract that can be scraped off the glass jar (or washed & collected with ISO). Did you look at the pic?

ive had this thought too. all you need is a distill. its simple, you have a line coming from the vapor device, a suction device on the other end, and have the line connect to a cooling tube in the middle. the vapor will condense on the cooling tube. presumably you can scrape or use a solvent to collect the hash.

That is the point: to condense the cannabinoid vapor into a solid cannabinoid extract that can be scraped off the glass jar (or washed & collected with ISO). Did you look at the pic?

What are you gonna do with the constant byproduct of heat? that is a SHITLOAD of vapor produced by the fan inside the vaporizer. The fan blows air. What are you gonna do with that air have a mile of condensed tubing or be nonstop chiefin on the end of it?

Thats exactly what I do with my vaporizer buddy.. no contraption needed. Buy an extreme q they have an all glass airflow and even a remote.

Edited by LoveOfTheNug, 29 August 2010 - 08:09 PM.

Idea?

Run herb through the vaporizer into a bag, then stick the bag in the freezer. Repeat ad nauseum.

Then, after, cut the bag open and either wash with a (safe) solvent or harvest deposits by hand. The repeated freezing and warming should cause crystals to form on the inside of the bag. If you cool the bag down slowly each time, crystals will likely be larger, and more pure.

Might take a lot of fills but I want to see you go ahead with the experiment.

I posted this on 420chan (lol) first, but obviously there are just a bunch teenagers who don't know shit about shit. So here is a (slightly modified) picture of the extraction setup I had in mind and the original text from 420chan:





"A MAPS-NORML study using a Volcano vaporizer reported 95% THC and no toxins delivered in the vapor"
- Wikipedia

"In theory, would this work? I do not even own a Volcano Vaporizer but this idea came up with my mind when reading about alcohol distillation - cannabinoid distillation/extraction from vaporized cannabis!

So, if you would slowly "pour" the vapor into the glass tube so it wont spill over from the glass jar, would the cannabinoids condense inside the jar like in the picture? If not, why not? Ofcourse, this would have to be done fast as possible because of THC oxidation into other cannabinoids... but then again, even the oxidation products (CBN & 11-OH-THC) are still psychoactive. -- The the half-life (50% degredation) of THC is 1.6 hours in an open air environment, but if you would do it fast enough so that you get ALOT of the concentrate [in minimal time], so it would clump up like hash, then the exposure of THC to air would be minimalized."

After collecting enough condensed/crystallized cannabinoids in the jar, you would simply scrape them off the wall of the jar with a spoon or a knife and store/use the crystalline cannabinoid extract (CCE? ) as you like.

...and PLEASE don't post something like "it's a waste of weed, just make hash/oil", because I just want to know if this is plausible.

Thanks for any replies!

Me and you are thinking on the same page. I posted a thread about this earlier tonight and didn't see yours until now. I just read through this thread, has anyone suggested running the vapor through a container or tube containing a vegatable oil or olive oil. Wouldn't that trap the cannabanoids in the oil which could the be used for edibles or putting into gelcaps for thc pills.

Any thoughts on that?

You'd be better off rigging the volcano to direct the vapor straight into your condenser...

That should work. Make sure the residence time in the condenser is sufficient to condense all of the vaporized cannabinoids - i can see that being a potential problem. You also might need to gather it by rinsing the inside of the condenser with acetone or similar. The concept however is sound.

A glass whip from a box style vaporizer would work great. You would just have to hold the bowl end of the whip over the filling chamber on the volcano and then connect the whip hose onto the condensor.

Buy an extreme q they have an all glass airflow and even a remote.

OK, so I just ordered the Extreme-Q 4.0 and I believe the 3-feet hose will do the trick better than balloons (I also just quit smoking cigarettes so a vape is perfect for me). I have an idea about the design of the condenser that should be better and more convenient than my original idea, but it will remain to be seen if it works the way I imagined. Also I won't get to try the idea for a month or so - not untill my babies are ready.

If the method I imagined works well, I will post a complete pictorial guide for making condensed vapor extract. Stay tuned n' blaze up!

I just read through this thread, has anyone suggested running the vapor through a container or tube containing a vegatable oil or olive oil. Wouldn't that trap the cannabanoids in the oil which could the be used for edibles or putting into gelcaps for thc pills.

Any thoughts on that?

The first problem I see, even if the oild WOULD trap the cannabinoids (which I doubt, since most of the vapor wouldn't be in contact with the oil - unless I missed something), is dosage. You wouldn't know how much cannabinoids the oil contains, so you would have to 'guess' the right dose for one person (unless you get ALL of the cannabinoids from x-amount of bud to x-amount of oil, eg. 1oz of oil would contain cannabinoids worth 10 grams of bud or so).

Edited by LuSiD, 01 September 2010 - 07:25 PM.

The first problem I see, even if the oild WOULD trap the cannabinoids (which I doubt, since most of the vapor wouldn't be in contact with the oil - unless I missed something), is dosage. You wouldn't know how much cannabinoids the oil contains, so you would have to 'guess' the right dose for one person (unless you get ALL of the cannabinoids from x-amount of bud to x-amount of oil, eg. 1oz of oil would contain cannabinoids worth 10 grams of bud or so).

What I was thinking was to run the hose to a long horizontal pipe filled with oil and a attach a hose coming off of the other end of the pipe to recirculate back through the pipe and through the oil, this way the vaporizer could run for however long was needed and the vapor would just keep recirculating through. I wish I could post a pic of what I'm thinking of to make it easier to understand but I'm working off of my phone now.

As far as dosage goes, Im not too concerned about that. I figure if y'all guys think it's possible than I'll test it using a small amount of oil, say 6 fl oz or so and run 10 bowls or so out of the volcano. I would think that that would be enough for a first run to see if it had any effect at all. I'll be the guinea pig so I'm not worried about taking too much. I've waaay over done it with edibles and tincture before and felt horrible but it still wasn't unbearable lol. I'd be down to "over do it" again lol.

What I was thinking was to run the hose to a long horizontal pipe filled with oil and a attach a hose coming off of the other end of the pipe to recirculate back through the pipe and through the oil, this way the vaporizer could run for however long was needed and the vapor would just keep recirculating through. I wish I could post a pic of what I'm thinking of to make it easier to understand but I'm working off of my phone now.

What about the extra air coming from the volcano? You can't recirculate the vapor in the hose-tube-hose system without running the vaporizer, and the vaporizer blows air... sorry man but it seems that unless you find a way to overcome the overpressure in the system without losing any vapor, it won't work.

What about the extra air coming from the volcano? You can't recirculate the vapor in the hose-tube-hose system without running the vaporizer, and the vaporizer blows air... sorry man but it seems that unless you find a way to overcome the overpressure in the system without losing any vapor, it won't work.

Holy shit, duh, sorry man, I feel like a dumbass.....

I'll see if I can build something like I described and see if works. Ill just get one of my friends to inhale the vapor that comes out of the pipe lol. That way it won't be as much of a waste if the oil doesn't work.

Holy shit, duh, sorry man, I feel like a dumbass.....

I'll see if I can build something like I described and see if works. Ill just get one of my friends to inhale the vapor that comes out of the pipe lol. That way it won't be as much of a waste if the oil doesn't work.

Happens to us all. Especially when you're a pothead!

But, eh, if you only run the vapor thru a tube with some oil inside, the oil wont absorb much of the cannabinoids. You should somehow get ALL of the vapor inside the oil so it sticks there... otherwise you'll lose like 90% of your cannabinoids.