Hello Hive mind. I am new to the game and have adopted a lab. I’ve been reading on here for weeks and posted a few times. I am going to post my current understanding of making diamonds in jars with the objective of ~big~ ish diamonds.
Lets start with what I’m using:
ETS MEP 70 BHO setup with 70/30 But/Prop mix
1L mason jars
AI vacuum oven
CRC is some micron filters, Activated Alumina, T5, and more micron filters
“SOP”
Start by running solvent over socks at -20C and collect into collection vessel at 40F.
Run multiple socks into collection column and collection column. Once all material is ran we cut the pump when there is still some pressure in the column and the extract is still “pretty wet”
Pour into jars until jar is half or 3/4 full and cap.
Burp after a few minutes
Let sit overnight in c1d1 room overnight and burp in morning
Let sit for 3 weeks in c1d1 (inside a dark Styrofoam chest) room and burp one or two more times total.
Once diamonds have formed I will separate the terp sauce from the diamonds by pouring off into a clean jar or pan, and then purge that sauce in a vac over at 90F and -30 psi.
Once the diamonds are “mined” from the jars wall and bottom we will also purge those at -30psi and 90F.
That’s it… that’s the while SOP…
I am considering buying a new vac oven to control my temps better and easier hit that metastable zone. What suggestions do you have for changing this process? What mistakes am I making? Is it possible to avoid medusa stones without using pentane? Are ovens safe for this use?
I’ve been told if I use clean enough gas I can avoid medusa and still only use my but/prop mix.
I’ve also been told to mark my starting line on my jars so I can add butane back in (which I’ve never done)
I think you’re on the right track, looks like a solid SOP. What kind of biomass are you using? Fresh frozen will work best of course, since there will be almost no THC and very little chlorophyll degradation.
Capping right after pouring the wet extract into the jars probably isn’t necessary. Cap it when the solvent evaporation rate has reduced a bit. Otherwise your mason jar lids may go boom.
The only thing concerning is your vac oven pressures. Maybe I am unfamiliar with using psi for vacuum… did you mean -30 inHg instead of -30 psi? You shouldn’t pull full vacuum on the sauce portion or many of your terpenes will evaporate. When in doubt, get your purged sauce tested for residual solvents so you can reproduce it time and again.
Don’t be afraid to go hotter when purging the diamonds. They won’t melt until much hotter. I purge around 120F.
Good call. Maybe wait a few hours or even a night uncapped?
I absolutely mean inHg and not psi. Certainly not the same but I do mean inHg. I also run my pump continuously, so it says -30 but I leave it on until I stop seeing butane bubble and only see large oil bubbles. We do also test every batch we run (compliance testing) and I appreciate the suggestion.
This is good to know! I purge all my waxes at 90F I assumed I shouldn’t go any higher, maybe that’s something ill want to play with.
Few hours. Not overnight. There’s a certain viscosity that will nucleate, you’ll get familiar with the correct solvent ratio as you experiment. Kind of like you’re analyzing how full bodied a glass of red wine is.
If you pull full vac continuously on your sauce, some of the bubbling you see might just be terpenes evaporating. I recommend heating a little warmer to make your sauce less viscous, and pulling a gentler vacuum (maybe for more time to make up the difference). But if you enjoy the way your sauce tastes, don’t change it!
Ok nice that is helpful! It was also suggested to put the cap on overnight but don’t tighten the cap,. Those seem similar, the goal is to offgas until you feel youre at the right saturation.
You mentioned medusa, if you’re not seeing it yet then it looks like you have good gas rn. so this method might work for you for a while or forever or the next batch of gas might turn your stones to chalk. Just luck really. If you do have medusa gas I’ve found ‘cold(er)’ mining temps make it more likely to do so. Warm crashing is less likely to 'dusa up, though that really requires miners, you’ll blow jar lids doing it like that most likely.
For cleaning your stones from sauce, Invest in some sweating baskets. Chemtek sell’s em for wide and narrow mouth mason jars. makes cleaning up your stones super easy, and you can even use 'em with a miner to ‘wash’ with vapor reflux to get really clean rocks if you care about doing that.
It sounds like you’re on somewhat of a budget, but if you’re interested in equipment that can purge your HTE off super quick and clean with (almost) zero terpene loss HMU I can send you down the right path. But you will be looking in the 40-50k range depending. I can take ~5% butane content HTE to zero on my GC RST in ~10 min, no oven. Your method of purging the HTE absolutely works though, it’s just slow. Make sure you’re maximizing surface area.
If you want faster stone a lot of guys are having luck with 'fuges. Sugar it up, spin the terps off, then do a single solvent ReX with the isolate. You’re able to grow stones much faster and more consistently without a mystery blend of co-solvents in the mix, but you’re going to want miners for doing it with butane. Pentane is easy though.
Neat! I know I buy gas (70/30) and then distill it myself before using it and I usually find some “mystery oil” residue when I’m done.
This is helpful. I have 1 miner currently so I could experiment at least.
Good move thank you
HAHA tell my boss… But I appreciate the suggestion, Ill run it by my uppers and see what they think but I will #doubt
VERY interesting. I do have a smaller centrifuge that does work for spinning tch out of terp sauce and I’ve only done it once. ReX means redissolve probably? Boss has offered to get pentane for me and I am reluctant to use it for some reason. Probably a mental block I just outta get over. But everyone I respect on here has mentioned it.
Yeah…that’s a great practice (good job!) but boy don’t we all wish that distilling the gas took out the impurity that makes it do what it do haha
Correct, ReX is redissolve. I don’t mess w/ the fuge technique too much, I have alternative methods I use to get isolate and HTE sauce but the fuge method is very viable and easy to scale. Also it makes the THC dizzy which makes the diamonds 28% more diamondy! (don’t quote me on that, I could be off by a few % points up or down)
Pentane is easy mode, I think butane diamonds are nicer (clarity wise) but honestly pentane is the easiest way to scale to high output diamond production quickly and cheaply IMO. An oven, a fuge, some filtration, some dishes, and you’re in business. Here’s a free SOP for ya if ya want to fuck around and find out.
Yeah, this ^
Make sure you have ventilation going on. Butane wants you to know it’s spicy, Pentane is sneakier. Just get/build a vent hood for where you’re working and you’ll be fine. Remember it’s heavier than air and always use intrinsically safe heating methods!
I have done my best to dial this in and as my team gains experience its getting easier. We are now closer to 75K a day of fresh frozen. Which is more than my parent company can supply me at the moment so I am comfy there. Thank you for giving me the push to be more efficient.
I was making distillate for the past few months and we are making our way back around to Fresh Frozen diamond making. Im using the same method of filling mason jars 3/4 with solution that is fairly “wet” with solvent still. I let them sit for an hour or so, we cap, burp once at night, and let them ride fora few weeks at room temp the whole time post extraction.
I can get some diamonds but mostly I get pucks forming at the bottom of the jars over the first night.
