Ho-kay! I may be able to help here!
So with bottletek you run into one bottle…neck rimshot - lack of being able to accurately gauge your pressure for further replication which can potentially screw you as tightness of your pre-pressed nug, volume and whatnot can influence how MUCH of a handle press you would be doing so that wouldn’t be very accurate to go by either. It would really be a shame to have a banger of a fucking harvest just for inaccurate pressure to render it rather dark, you know? I would figure that since you were into solvent based processing before solventless processing numbers are rather important to you to make sure you get the same badass results every time. Now you totally can do bottle tek with caged plates, as the low temp plates all in one frame is able to do bottle tek right off the rippity rip and I believe those are considered caged (they sell the cage kit so you know…probably?). Now from what I see on the cages it helps provide even pressure which if you’re wanting to do bottle tek would be pretty helpful considering the stop-go-stop-go nature of a bottle jack and the fact that there will be a lot jostling, creating a not so even source of pressure.
I was personally going to go with the 3x5 but honestly since I already see that you’re thinking about the upgrade for your CLS so you already are the type of dude who expands when they get good with something so you’re already in my line of thought with that, the 4x7 makes sure there’s no possible upgrades you can get except the source of pressure.
To be honest, all bottle tek is, is a WAY of loading up your puck of flower or whatnot into the press, otherwise with a stronger press you would just simply be loading a pre-press, pressing a mold of whatever size you think may work (my go-to when I want to make badass stuff lately are the purepressure bags, about 15-20g 6 inches out so it’s 2x6 worth of nug with about a half inch folded back over. I feel it’s worth the repetition when pressing flower if you want top quality dabbies out of it).
I feel as though that the Low Temp Plates v2 model like I have is the way to go imo big time since - 1. BADASS warranty. They ain’t gonna give you shit parts with that bad boy. 2. It’s fucking naked. There is no hiding anywhere in this press, I simply do not trust presses that have to hide their guts with fucking sheet metal. What are you doing? Protecting users from the electronics and making it so only rosin gets in there and shorts shit out? If you think people are so stupid that you have to make a sheet metal case why the fuck are they using a press in the first place? 3. Lack of stupid parts. I remember using a PurePressure pike’s peak, which is cool and all but dude so many things could fail on it. The keypad was garbooooo, big time. The whole right side didn’t work so 130, 160 and 190 were all FUBAR - I like to press hash at 160 and sticky ass bud at 190 so right off the bat fuck that. The low temp heat controller is a dial and a few buttons - ezpz.
Low Temp Plates v2 high profile if you decide to stick with a bottle jack, v2 LOW profile (big difference) if you intend on going hydraulic which I totally think you should as it’s easier to gauge your pressure and replicate results. Go with the hand pump at first and if you’re super into it, the next possible upgrade would be one of these bad boys
Long story short, pre built press, DIY press, low temp plates would be my go-to. I’ve seen this company since their inception awhile ago in town and holy shit they fucking rule. Least bullshit i’ve had to deal with from a company in this goddamn industry.
