Created a DIY pentane soxhlet extractor for cheap!
-$80 1L soxhlet extractor from eBay (holds approx 80g minced dry flower
-$50 Craiglist AC unit turned into a -12c chiller
-$20 aquarium pump and circulator (Amazon)
-$15 misc. Electronics (power bar, etc.)
-$80 magnetic stirring heating mantle (Amazon)
This is a pilot project of something I’m gonna build big! I’m currently doing a live resin extract.
A few perks are:
-No pressure
-No pumps (except vacuum at the end to purge solvent)
-Low boiling point solvent (keep terps!)
-Everything can be easily ran on a single household plug.
-Decent (I’m assuming) extract efficiency with constantly cycled fresh solvent!
-Cheap cheap!
-I put it on castor’s so it’s easy to move around when I need to!
Here’s some photos. I’ll update in couple days when finish off this 1/2lb of material.
I’m not 100% sure on extract time. I’ve been running 30 min cycles. But the pentane usually runs clear by the 3rd spill & fill. It’s probably a 15 min time tbh, but I’m just trying to maximize some yields on some nice material.
I’m guessing the extract will come out a little dark and a little waxy/saucy. I was gonna mix in some bleaching clay on the last hour of solvent evap then filter the resin. (I reuse the solvent a whole bunch of times before emptying because it seems easy.)
I think this is primarily a “baby food”/wax maker unless I drop the condenser temp significantly. But that hopefully also equates to high yields.
My worry is that I’m not doing a good job of pulling cannabanoids. But I’ll need a couple weeks to get some analytical equipment to test for residuals.
Are you going to keep testing with fresh flower or cured material? I need to get a jug of pentane for recrashing. So, I’m kinda interested in the possibility of using it for an extracts of a bunch, a bunch of keif and make a bunch of diamonds.
Edit : I could cold soak them in pentane and then filter through a buchner and winterize if necessary. Then get silly.
Quick update!
Just doing a solvent evap under vacuum.
Doing it under moderate vac at room temperature with the stir bar on. Figure since I’m making a waxy substance already there’s no harm in whipping it the whole time.
Got it going into my cold trap then vacuum pump.
Looking like about 70-80g off of 1/2lb of fresh Frozen bud.
It’s dark. Likely gonna do some post treatments on it… But if it tastes good enough… It might just sell itself I think some water may have made it’s way through, so might account for the darkness with some darker undesireables making their way in? Likely won’t fine grind the bud next time
Yeah! So I purged water and pentane over 2 more days.
Came out with a really tasty slightly runny extract.
I Definitely need to work on my purge setup. Trying to just attach a vacuum to the soxhlet gives it too long and complicated a vapor path to be very good at a purge.
I’m likely going to take it, redissolve in pentane, do a quick brine wash. Dry the pentane with a dessicant. Then re-evaporate. There was definitely a bunch of water + undesireables that fell through with the pentane. I think just physically based on the nature of the soxhlet.
Ideally I’d like to be able to create something similar to a subcritical co2 oil. Clear, terpy, and ready for a pen/dab.
Interesting; I just use 2 mason jars with stainless tubing connecting them (sealed system), then place them in separate buckets with the return one having a coil of tubing for a condenser. Pour almost boiling water into the bucket with the oil-laden pentane (3- 1 hour soaks at room temp. collected together) and it boils off into the receiving jar whose bucket I use a ice/salt/water bath. When the pentane is almost boiled off pour onto a pie plate (if needed use clean pentane to dissolve all that sticks to jar) I have maybe $75 invested in the whole thing, the biggest cost are the bulkhead connecters that, used with copper washers, whichare used to connect thestainless tubing to the jar lids.
Also, be sure to boil oil off the pentane left in the plant material for a more complete recovery of the pentane.
I think some water may have made it’s way through, so might account for the darkness with some darker undesireables making their way in? Likely won’t fine grind the bud next time