First time ever doing Extraction/Winterizing (couple questions)

I just started my journey into concentrates i never had any previous experience working in this field nor do i have any previous experience in the science field just a lot of experience in the smoking field lol.

i bought a small scale co2 extractor so i ran couple extractions and im at 100 grams

it looks very gunky not sure if this is good or bad? color is kind of dark but it smokes good.

i did a 1:7 ratio of the crude to 94% food grade ethanol

i tried my best to get it to -70c but i was able to only get it to -40c with dry ice.

then i put it through my Buchner for the first winterization and then i did a elite 545 and carbon scrub at around 70c this is what the finished product looked like (looks good to me) feel free to critique

this is where i came into problems i plugged up my Roto Vap (first time using it!)
set my bath to 50c , rotation at 60 rpm maybe 45-60mins my chiller is at 0c - 5c
3 CFM vac (chinese one from amazon) i stopped it when i didn’t see anymore condensation on the coils.
oil was very dark not what i imagined it would look like

took it off mixed my terpes and loaded my first ever cart. it was runny as hell and i smoked it and i got a little alcohol taste. so right there i knew that it didn’t say in the rotoevap long enough

so i put it on a hot plate with a stir bar put it between 100-120c for couple hours then mixed a small batch with some terpenes and filled my carts

success still little runny but its pretty thick.

so im getting ready for my 2nd run!

i need some advice

  1. how long i should keep my rotovap on and if i should try different temperatures for better results?

  2. how will i know its ready?

  3. how can i get my extract lighter without distillation (tried celite 545 and clay)

  4. this thing on my rotoevap i figured it was to break the vacuum but i feel it pulling air even when its closed what could i use to stop this leak? is it a issue?

feel free to give me any tips you think can improve my results!

thanks!

Just a few notes I have for ya.
co2 is always a much darker product in my experience.
I would use something with a higher proof than 94%. This can leave water in your product and make it more difficult to boil out in your roto at reasonable tempatures.
and I may be wrong but I believe you should be activating your oil before you load into a vape cart. The tiny 4 watt coils have a hard time converting the thc like a lighter can - activating will also remove your residual alcohol taste. (I activate all my carts).
I cant help you with carbon scrubbing but when you winterize I do not believe hitting -70 is a magic number. you just want to cause the oils and fats to crash out from one another.
finally be careful with dry ice and mason jars. if you get a jar thats inferior itll pop as soon as you pull it out of the cold. Id use borosilicate.

hopefully that helps a little but honestly I just want the ability to PM =)

oh and to answer question 4. that valve is to load your roto. put a hose on it and pull a vac then dip the hose into your winterized ethanol and slowly open the value and it sucks it up. when you arent using it just plug it with a small glass plug. (it probably is leaking slighly)(but it also probably doesnt matter that much)

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activate? can you elaborate ?

i decarb my raw material before i extract. so i believe its fully activated? i could be wrong?

what about the time and temp for my rotoevap? and how do i know its good to come out

When the bubbles stop in the roto. Then run it another 10-20 mins to be safe. I slow down rotation after I see it slowing down and see how calm the crude is. No more bubbles your in pretty good shape. At least that’s what has worked for me

It really depends on how much etoh is in your mixture. I’d say a 10-1 should take but 30 mins then another 15-20 to finish it.

Also I think you decarbing prior to extration could be darkening your product. I don’t work with Co2 but since you already are getting the etoh out of the mixture with the roto another 20 mins in the roto and you would of already decarbed it anyway. Just my 2 cents would be worth a try.!
This is what I’m achieving with ethanol…

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iv been thinking that too but the machine i have states i have to decarb before i run the extraction to get out all the moisture and i guess activate the oil? no idea

this is what I’m working with

Yeah I don’t mess with Co2… but I have heard about that. Wonder if there’s a trick to bypass that. Just another smoker/DYI guy myself also

i honestly wished i didn’t jump the gun and go the c02 route would of much been better off going tho

There’s benefits and disadvantages for each extraction
Just figuring out the trade! You’ll find the sweet spot and get some good product. When I first extracTed I was mad disappointed with my results but with Everytime I’ve got better color and product! Keep trying, and mix things up where you can!

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what parameters are you working with on your rotoevap?

I use a 2L, use a big ass water aspirator to pull as much vacuum as I can and also use the water too chill the condenser.(I use regular ice to chill it maybe a dry ice chunk here and there :wink:) Like I said I start seeing condensation at around 40°c give or take. My gauge reads alittle less then -.1 mpa on a shitty gauge if that helps

I’ll usually run like 46°c just to increase evaporation.

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hello
so decarbing your material before hand is recommended because thc has a higher solubility in supercritical co2 compared to thc-a. since your extractor doesnt get to very high pressures, i would probably agree with them that you wanna decarb first. normally i would suggest otherwise, but 1600 psi aint shit lol.

94% etoh isnt great to work with, but will absolutely work - for one or two runs, before it sucks up enough water and terps into it to lose its ability to desolve things. you can buy a proof meter for cheap on amazon and check it yourself - i would stop using it when it dips below 180 proof.

winterize 24 hours plus - get that ratio to 10:1 as well. a big factor in winterization is appropriate media volume so those wax molecules can move freely.
also, two winterizations is a good idea. youll be surprised at how much more you can crash out.

before you hit the roto, warm up your dewaxed etoil and add some activated carbon (NOT ACID ACTIVATED, MAKE SURE ITS STEAM ACTIVATED OR YOU WILL ISOMERIZE TO D8) stir in a pinch, a pinch is all you need for each beaker, stir for 10 min. then you have to refilter, and i highly reccomend atleast 1micron filter paper, a media bed is not a bad idea either on top of that. this will make your oil much lighter. final color, probably amber, but it wont be nearly as dark.

now you are ready for the roto. buy a vacuum gauge. theyre cheap enough. past that… 50c is a good temperature for the bath. on your condenser - as cold as possible. i imagine youd like to avoid the hotplate at the end post rotovap, but it is a good practice as those last ppm of ethanol can be a bit pesky in cannabis oil. unless we know your vac is pulling deep, id send it to the hotplate. boil it up to ~110C and youre done.

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https://www.amazon.com/Alcohol-Hydrometer-Tester-Tralle-Traceable/dp/B001X2GN5A/ref=sr_1_14?crid=1DXCZA34IMBBO&keywords=hydrometer&qid=1569881045&s=industrial&sprefix=hyd%2Cindustrial%2C142&sr=1-14

hydrometer

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thanks man i have to get bigger jars the ones i have can’t hold a full ML so i had to do 1:8
i have a bulls eye vacuum gauge. whats a good vac to keep in my roto ? i figured it didn’t need a deep vac

https://www.amazon.com/Filtration-Bundle-Activated-Charcoal-545-100/dp/B07Q2DM1ZY/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?keywords=activated+charcoal+elite+545&qid=1569887026&s=gateway&sr=8-1-fkmr0

this is the charcoal I’m using is this what your talking about?

i put about 5% of charcoal to weight of oil 100gs which is 5 grams of charcoal and i mixed it in very well at around 70-80c. filtered onto a celite bed with filter paper and its still dark but someone else told me with co2 oil i can’t get much lighter unless i distill

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i think bvv is good. their website should say somewhere, and 5g is a good amount. vac depth - as low as it will pull - you could strip at ambient temperatures if your pump rips. at 50c, just pull vac until the solution begins to boil in the flask. keep an eye on the condenser, get it sweating good. the solution may bump (overboil) if you pull too hard though.

on color - yeah you wont get gold unless you put it through a still - or another purification method. your color isnt bad at all either!

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thanks! i have a chinese spd and a pretty good vac (not the one in the picture) i think its a edwards 14 cfm i haven’t used it as yet. its a 1L. i read that the minimum i should run is 500grams. my little extractor is strugglin to get so much it would probably take me almost 2 months to get that!

thats a recommendation but not a hard rule. with the right system you could distill 10 grams through a 1L still. best of luck on it and feel free to ask away.

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Hey we run a mrx. I personally don’t run it so couldn’t give ya any tips on it but when it comes to decarb. We wouldn’t do it unless the client asked us to. Decarb biomass will come out darker. Dehydrated biomass will come lighter. With the ethanol we did 12:1 Homogenized. Filtered 20 micron -1 micron. Personally i like 15:1. The rotovapor you have to learn how to mix it in an uneven pattern while it’s rotating. This Is key to get all the ethanol out.

So a reply to your answer on question 4 can you explain please. I just plug mine up but it’s hard to control vac since I’m using water Aspirator for chiller and vac. Please help mine runny too

I’m not sure how to explain it much better. I use that port for loading my roto. (and breaking the vac as I think someone mentioned)
I load it by connecting a vacuum tube hose to it and then I pull a vacuum on my roto.
I will then dip my hose into my solution of ethanol and hash and slowly open the valve.
It will suck the solution up and shoot it into your boiling flask.

If it’s getting clogged then either you aren’t fully dissolving your hash in the ethanol or you are using way to little ethanol. I use 10g ethanol for every 1g of hash.

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