Was the concentrate an ethanol extraction?
Yes ethanol extraction
I’m gonna have to say you didn’t get cold enough and picked up some waxes or which I don’t think looking at the pictures is there are trace amounts of ethanol in the extract but that shatter looks pretty well purged.
It’s weird cause this isn’t the first thread I’ve seen like this from an ethanol full spectrum extract.
I may try purging a little hotter and a little longer. It’s like sticky runny Taffy right now.
hotter and longer may simply decarb it and lower the viscosity. which might even work for you.
I’ve taken purged EtOH “shatter” and decarbed it in a pressure vessel to achieve vape pen consistency on a couple of occasions (bomb decarboxylation). BHO too.
Most I’ve done was a couple of hundred grams at time. I recommend a small tri-clamp based pressure vessel with gauge and PRV. a Diamond miner would work
I’ve not done it often enough to have solid times, temps, or pressures yet.
Using PG now at 2:1 my juice was great for the last 3 weeks but now im getting separation. would an ineffective -25F winterization be the cause of my oil separating out of the PG?
I’ve never used pg as a dilutant. I haven’t made cartridges in over a year because I kept having problems but when I did make them I used peg or mct as a dilutant.
Anytime in the past 5yrs of me making carts, anytime i ever used bho, ethanol extract, rosin, even winterizing, i always got separation when using peg400.
Now i only use distillate, terps, and mtc. Absolutely zero seperation.
Also from my findings, peg400 turns into foremaldeheyde when vaped ar high temps
Could you go into detail about the problems you had thanks
Yeah I’ve read about the same thing using Peg
Ive found peg400 and VG seperate after a few hrs using any extract. Imo, its the lipids and waxes in the bho and rosin. Never in over 1500 carts, have i ever had a cart seperate using distillate , terps, and mct oil.
Oh man where to start. Lets just state im not the one for advice in this subject. There are members here that are much better versed on this subject. The reason i stopped making cartridges is reputation. If there is a product i cant really stand behind… I really dont want to promote it.
Now back to my problems. When i started making cartridges i was only using slabs that would sugar out on me. Back then…this was super undesirable…NOW, its called live or cured resin. LOL. so i would take a 90/10 cut of Live Resin: PEG400. This was in the old school plastic 510 cartridges. I heated up to 145F and stirred. NEVER once did i have a seperation issue. Carts were the bomb People Loved them BUT then people started seeing the glass and metal 510 cartridges. They wanted the same…
This is kinda where the problems all began. So i did the same mix. And i didnt have issues until about 1/2-1/3 of the cartridge left. Then i would get dark oil from the reclaim coming back threw the holes…still never did it seperate nor really had a problem other than appearance. People wanted carts that didnt have this problem. I really didnt have an answer at the time. So i kinda just put it on the back burner and told people if they wanted to smoke on the go…“get a vaporizer that burned raw concentrates”.
I gave up…People kept bothering me to make vape pen cartridges. Especially people i was toll processing for. So i tried again…now with shittier oil with even more impurtites despite dewaxing and inline winterization inside my extractor. I realized the material i was processing was loading with pesticides and foliar feedings that i think were having reactions to the glass and metal cartridges i was using. I had the green cartridges like you posted. I didnt know if it were the cartridges or the oil. I really had spent too much time and money trying to perfect it. Im not the person that likes to stake his name and reputation on a product that is b grade at best.
Now im taking a different approach…Im distiling my own oil…Im only gonna use proven suppliers for top quality cartridges and see if i can get this finally.
BUT like i said. There are some ultra smart people here that white label for other companies…that really do this shit for big $$$. Im the home producer that if lucky produces a lb of oil a month. There are people on this forum that are gonna look at that last sentence and laugh…“a lb a month…i throw away more than that in waste” LOL i got it! I know where im at in the todium pole
Sorry if this isnt the answer your looking for…I have made thousands of cartridges and knows how it feels to fail in this category though. I feel your pain.
The plan is to get a working recipe for winterized qwet/etoh extract. My carts stayed in solution for about 3 weeks and are just now starting to separate possibly due to the cold weather. I’m almost there knocking on the door of full spectrum vape juice it just needs a slight push or tweak in the recipe. Thanks for that info. I might try adding a touch of peg200-300-400 mix at like 5-10. % to see if it stabalizes
Its not the cold weather, trust me. I make over 200 monthly, BY hand! My hands only from start to finish on every aspect (clone to harvest, minus the spd runs, thats outsourced for now).,hand mixed on dbl boiler, and filled by hand.!
This is what I will be using: No PG, VG, PEG, MCT, Coconut oil, or any other non-terpene ingredients, it’s a flavorless, odorless blend of organic terpenes.
Its called the Viscosity Extract Liquifeier by True Terpenes, I’m guessing it would help with the separation too. Here’s the link:
https://buy-terpenes.com/products/viscosity/viscosity-extract-liquifier/
A few months back I had the ingredients of viscosity squalene being the main ingredient
I would second the comment that it looks like you pulled some waxes and lipids as well as distilling if you are adamant about ensuring no waxes or lipids.
Instead of using heat as a brute force approach to removing the residue etoh, I would highly suggest using vacuum to your advantage.
Why bother with the PG, PEG, or MCT for that matter. Terpene only cutting agents are becoming the norm, work well, taste great, and likely are safest out of all methods. I understand it can be cost prohibitive to use good terpenes.
I see separation of every PG, VG, PEG vape product after time that I’ve come into contact with. Which is quite a few as many believe the SpeedMixer tech can help their chemistries, so we try it out these mixes. The only carts I see crash out with terpenes are too high of a CBD%. Otherwise I see terpenes becoming the standard as a cutting agent.
One point I didnt see covered that definitely stems from my perspective, how are you mixing your cutting agents back in, handwhisk, hot stir bar, ultrasound, etc? This can definitely make a difference between a solution vs. a suspension that crashes. I say solution in the context of particle size distribution of your juice, you want a solution vs. a suspension.