So I posted this earlier http://forum.grasscity.com/harvesting-processing-medical-marijuana/1278069-need-helpopinions-iso-asap.html because I was being an idiot and lazy and didn't feel like experimenting. I ended up experimenting anyways and decided to (kind of) document it via photographs. Tomorrow when I'm finished I will be presenting the 3 processes I used and the before and after evaporation, then after purging pictures. I hope you will enjoy this. It's nothing groundbreaking, 3 commonly used methods to evap, but I think the comparison will be cool non-the-less. Stay Tuned!!
Ok, almost done. In a few short hours I will present what I have found works best. For me anyways. Keep in mind this is gonna be a very crude diary haha, since it wasn't intended to be one from the start.
Ok, so this is what I started off with. I did 4 15-20 second washes out of 3 mason jars. The first two washes went into the jar on the left, and the second two went into the jar on the right. The first thing I tried was to evaporate a large amount quickly. I poured almost the entire first jar (left jar) into an 8x8 Pyrex casserole dish. I wanted it to get done quickly, so I did the whole "double boiler" thing. I put the dish on top of a sauce pan with rapid boiling water in it. I let it evaporate till there was about 1/8th of an inch left in the pan, then I turned the heat down a bit as to not burn the oil. After this I scraped the dish and spread the oil onto parchment paper and used a heat gun to purge and re-spread. This is what I came up with (after it being in the freezer for a few minutes)
Well sorry for the delay folks, Anyways, I think I covered the first way I evaporated my iso extract. Second experiment went like this: I had heard that evaporating at lower temps made shatter, rather than "oil". I got one of those nu-wave induction cooktops for christmas and it has digital temperature control, so I decided to use that. Since its induction cooking, it can't be used with anything that isn't magnetic. Only magnetic pots and pans, and certainly no glass. I could've just put the the Pyrex dish on a pan, but I figured a water bath would spread the heat more evenly, so that's what I did. Here is a pic of a some iso evaporating in the water bath with the nu-wave set to 110F And another I know you can't really see much, but it's the best picture I could get of it. Also, during the second experiment, I have another type of electric cooktop thing made by GE. It has these almost rubber type pad things that heat up. Anyways, I just through the plates right on the cooking "things" haha. Here is a picture of that Over all I really really liked using the nu-wave!! The GE was too hot and took a loooong time to evaporate the iso. The Nu-Wave on the other hand didn't take very long at all, and stayed at a very very reasonable temp throughout the process. Both of these did however produce nice shatter when used at a low temp, as opposed to the oil that was the result of putting a Pyrex dish over boiling water. Don't get me wrong it's not super gooey oil or anything, you can still pretty much pick it up. You'll just get sticky haha. Stay tuned for part number 3 of this in a little bit. Part 3 isn't really a different way to evaporate, I just decided to do something different with the end product. I'll give you a hint........ I pretty much followed these guidelines hahaha https://forum.grasscity.com/harvesting-processing-medical-marijuana/374856-osgs-golden-goodness-isomerized-frozen-hash-oil-crystals.html
So, Like I said this isn't another method of evaporation that I used, but I different way of "processing" for lack of a better term. I pretty much followed the recipe for OSG's 'Golden Goodness' - Isomerized Frozen Hash Oil Crystals. The only thing I did differently was put it on 200F for around 10 minutes instead of 220F for 15-20 minutes. In order to let the extract sit overnight without getting any dust or other particulates that could be floating around I just wrapped a dish up with plastic wrap and poked super tiny holes in it wit a safety pin. If I had any handy thought I would've much rather used cheese cloth. Either way here's a picture of that So the next day(today, well yesterday if you follow that whole 12am is the next day thing. For me it's not the next day til I wake up or the sun comes up haha) I threw it in an oven with convection setting turned on. Once it was cool enough to handle (like recommended by the aforementioned tutorial), it was put in the freezer for around 2 hours. Once a buddy of mine and I scraped it up this is what it looked like: Pretty fucking cool if you've never seen it before!!! So that's it, 2 different evap settings/methods, and 3 different end products. Pretty awesome for about a full days work haha. Here are a few pics of the final products of each: Oil: Shatter: And the Oil Crystals: And all three together : As far as smoke goes, they are all awesome! All get have a super stone and really nice body high. The oil is kind of harsh on the lungs, but I've always felt that way about oil. Dabs fucking kill me I swear haha. The shatter and the crystals are very smooth, and very very tasty. The oil is tasty too, but I think evaporating at such a high temp killed some of it. Overall I am very very pleased, and seeing as how this is only my second or third time making iso, I'm quite proud of myself haha. Feel free to comment and critique, any and all feedback/criticism is welcome and encouraged. Thanks for reading! Let me know if you have any other questions, in case I left something out. I have been allll day after all hahahaha.
I ALMOST FORGOT!!! This project also gave me a reason to use the abundance of origami paper I've had lying around the house for so long haha. I don't have any of those oil-slick, or no-stick containers or anything, and to be honest parchment paper is a fucking eyesore. So I decided to make some origami envelopes with parchment paper inserts to house my extracts. I had some extra time on my hands and it was pretty damn fun haha. Here's a pic of them: I'd be more than happy to tell you how to, or at least provide a link that describes how to make these, and how I put in the parchment paper insert. All you have to do is ask! Thanks again for reading, and let me know what you think!