Extracting and winterizing while skipping the butane

I’ve tried doing everything on top of dry ice…

You’re right about there being a negligible amount of fats and waxes picked up at minimal extraction times and cold temps.

We can both agree though that they’re still there and that the magic dirt (filter media) helps further remove them.

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It definitely improved the crude, but it’s so old there’s no flavor profile whatsoever. It’s just potent. The high was much clearer and cleaner though for sure.

4 tubes and 8 cans later and I didn’t even make a dent in my trim. Looks like a big pile of shit lol. I probably have 10 more tubes to run. I’m so tired of blasting. I have enough trim I’ll try qwet next.


Looks to me that you are way over-milling your biomass. Did you run that through a coffee grinder? Trim is already milled more than enough. Bladed instruments cut cell walls, releasing undesirables into your extract. That is likely one reason you have such dark extract.

No matter what method you choose next, please don’t grind up the biomass like that.

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Well shit, I did. I ran it all through my food processor…I’ll remember that next time.

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Where did you pick up that piece of advice?

Size reduction is absolutely helpful, opening cells is not.

…and if what you started from was “trim”, there was zero need to further reduce the size.

What you want is not only on the outside of the cell wall, it is held up high for you to retrieve.

…don’t feel too bad about it, there are folks who’ve wasted tens of thousands of dollars on systems explicitly designed to open up every cell in search of cannabinoids…

Maybe try using activated charcoal when you winterize this time.

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I was trying to get more material to fit in the tube since I had so much. Now I know, don’t do that. All this trim was pretty old and I ground up all of it so it’s too late for this stuff. But I have a fresh trim coming up tomorrow so I’ll remember not to do that from now on.

That run is all mixed up in everclear and winterizing right now.

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I do alot of 3d designing and printing for my job irl. I could probably design some sort of apparatus that allows you to use charcoal cannisters from those filters and allows you to change them easily, and hooks a vacuum pump up to the side or something. Necessary? Probably not but I bet I could design something that would work.

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Or maybe buy one of those filters and some nylon barbs and hook them to the side so I can hook a vacuum pump to the side so it filters faster.

No reason to reinvent the buchner funnel :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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And I already have one of those lol.

Not really related to extraction but here’s a fan duct that I designed for my pre-veg/clone/seedling tent because I didn’t like the alternatives available. I don’t have infinite space so I had to make as efficient use of the space I did have as possible. The actual duct part on the right is 2 pieces, one for the part that attaches to my fan and one that’s the actual duct part. You glue magnets into those bigger round holes and use more magnets to attach it to the tent. Works like a charm. The piece on the left is also 2 pieces and that’s for whatever air filter media you decide to use. I just used some regular air filter foam doubled up and it clamps it in place.


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In my considered opinion there are always fats and waxes and nobody is ever producing a wax free product (perhaps with the exception of by recrystallization for CBD/THCA).

If you think you’ve ever produced a 100% waxless extract, by any common method, I encourage you to try winterizing that extract with acetonitrile as the solvent… I guarantee you will see waxes drop that even methanol cannot drop… and for all I know, there are other waxes still remaining after that, that nobody has ever detected for lack of known way to test for them.

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I figured that out with the early days of the c02 concentrates. After I learned about winterizing with everclear I was buying dabs from dispensaries and winterizing them to see the fats and waxes.

My point is I don’t think it’s fat free even after winterizing. Just because you dropped a lot of fats doesn’t mean that there aren’t further fats that aren’t so easily dropped.

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I agree entirely.

15.08 ounces from my most recent harvest. Hlg 550eco at 70% (70% because my tent is only 5 feet tall so 100% will fry the lady and the temps get way out of control). That’s like 1.25 grams per watt so not too bad I guess. I used to have help trimming but my help moved too far away so now I’m riding solo. Fuck me this shit took forever. Also bought a trim bin thinking it would make it easier and it did not. I just sit on my couch and watch TV while trimming and the trim bin was too small and uncomfortable. I’ll remember to not do any more grinding of the trim this time and run it as it is. All the help and advice is greatly appreciated.

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