Hey guys I’m new to this site but I’ve done my research on a ton of other sites so I am pretty familiar with the process. I have a problem with finalizing how to make my carts and which ratios to use.
Currently, I’m using a magnetic hot plate to decarb and stir the shatter. My hot plate doesn’t say the degrees on it so I’m putting a meat thermometer in the jar to tell me what the temperature is at as it’s decarbing. From the video I watched, the shatter is supposed to be decarbed at 145 C for 30-45 minutes. Then I’m supposed to put the hot beaker with the shatter inside on the scale (doesn’t heat continuously change the weight on the scale?), zero it, and add a certain amount of terpenes and mix. After I mix I pull it out with my syringe and fill the carts. Once filled, flip the carts upside down for an hour.
Now I have a couple of questions about the process that I can’t find a clear answer for on any forum. I’m trying to work with samples to figure out the right ratios but my first three samples didn’t work out too well. These are the ratios I used for my first three samples.
1st batch: For 0.9 g shatter, 10% MCT oil (0.09 mL), 1% terpenes (0.01 mL) + added 7 drops of MTC
2nd batch: For 0.9 g shatter, 8.88% MCT oil (0.08 mL), 2.22% terpenes (0.02 mL) + added 6 drops of MTC
3rd batch: For 0.9 g shatter, 7.77% MCT oil (0.07 mL), 3.33% terpenes (0.03 mL) The added drops are because my hands weren’t steady enough to easily do one drop at a time and more dropped by accident I also estimated that 1 drop from the syringe = 0.01 mL
I did 0.9g of shatter to account for the terps and MCT that would result in a 1g cartridge. If I shouldn’t do this please correct me. The 3rd batch came out the best but the flavor of the shatter was overpowering the terpene flavor by a large margin. I don’t know if this was because of the % of MCT oil, the % of terpenes or because I didn’t cover the beaker when it was decarbing.
These were my biggest problems when making the first 3 samples:
I couldn’t weigh out 0.03 g of terpenes (3.33%) to put into the 0.9 g of decarbed shatter because the scale for some reason would register 0.09 g as the lowest. I was using the syringe to pull out the terpene from the bottle.
When I would put the hot beaker on top of the scale it was impossible to zero because the heat kept changing the weight. This made it impossible to weigh out the terpenes by dropping 0.03 g in there instead. How should I do this?
The 3rd batch leaked through the mouth hole and burnt one of my friends. I don’t know whether to attribute this to me overfilling the cart, the terpene % or the MCT oil %
I was cooking all three batches on the hot plate at the same time so I couldn’t cover any of them up. I noticed that the shatter in my 3rd batch did the best because I put it in a shot glass that had a small surface area so it wasn’t spread thin. The other two however were in the beakers with a thin glass layer and those burnt a lot quicker and stuck to the beakers. I believe I lost a lot of shatter due to evaporation too. My 1st and 2nd batch came out to around 0.5 g each whereas my 3rd batch came out to the full 1g I wanted. Would the evaporation stop if I covered the beaker with a a bigger beaker over top?
What’s the ideal temperature to decarb the shatter on the hot plate if 145C is wrong?
Is it possible to put the stir bar inside the shatter as it’s decarbing? I know this won’t work with a 1 g sample since it’s too small but would it work when I’m doing something like 20 grams? I don’t want the stir bar to have a bunch of shatter stick to it thus resulting in a loss of a shatter that I can’t extract.
I want to thank anybody that provides helpful advice in advance as I’ve been trying to figure this process out for the past 3 months.
Hehe you an I probably are very similar in the method of which we process this stuff. I use open air purging the bulk, hotplate for decarb with no temps - tried a meat thermo but decided to visually determine the decarb. I’ve watched it happen so many times I am familiar with the color changes and smell.
Use a damn syringe lol. Even then measuring small percentages is hard.
Use a Syringe not go by weight that’s just too much of a headache
It was either too watery, too hot and watery or the cart sucked. What carts are you using?
Decarb in a non stick surface or cup. The glass will eat too much good stuff and it will never come off. Uhh trust me, I have tried.
For carts and fresh shatter I go low, low LOW! Lower temp, longer process, watch those bubbles form. You don’t want to go too much or else it will taste like ass.
You can, but it won’t aid you in any way. In fact it’s going to get annoying because I’ve found even after the decarb is finished if you introduce a cold material into it, it’ll bubble again and confuse you.
Imo, if you’re already comfortable using cuts, why not use an organic flavorless diluent and some cannabis derived terpenes instead? I have made batch after batch of home carts. From flower, Butaned and winterized. I go from start to finish minus the grow.
You can take a non-decarbed winterized shatter, throw in a tiny amount of diluent (no need for recommended because it’s winterized ime), and keep it as THCa. Shatter has a lovely yellow color and a particular flavor profile that would suck if overly decarbed.
Or you can go the other route. Extract, Winterize, Decarb, Canna Terpenes and throw it in a cart built for thick stuff. Word of warning, the carts are awesome, but even then if your shatter is just rock solid it ain’t gonna werk!
Unsure of international capabilities of the site, but you’d owe me a favor (and I think. @qma too) if i have to post the link. It’s just going to be the link from the brand on the box
Ah last time I tried to buy they had no international shipping no one got back to me bla bla… I wanted them but I bought from QMA instead. This caught my eye because it said it had compression capabilities and heat transfer throughout - that will work even for the thickest of the thick.
Either that or I’m going back to Diluents because fuck this seriously.
I use a syringe but the lowest I can even get it to is 0.2mL which is about 10 times more than what I’d need for a 1g sample. That’s why I had to work with the assumption that each drop is 0.01 mL. The reason I tried going with weight was because I couldn’t get a syringe to dispense the right amount/
I’ve been using these carts for a while and never had a leak but my friend was making these using shatter and terpenes + liquify from massterpenes.com
We never had a problem with leakage, sometimes clogging but never leakage so the I’m assuming the solution was primarily the problem.
What is an example of a non stick surface? Every experiment I’ve seen they use these pyrex beakers which is why I chose them. The shot glass did work a lot better however.
How low were you talking about for temp? And how long?
Also any recommendations in terms of Terpene % and MCT %?
Any thoughts on my method of using 0.9 g of extract and attributing the 0.1g towards the terp/MCT?
I’ve also been thinking of just trying to make a sample with 0.9 g of shatter and 0.1g/mL of terpenes with no cut to see if that will work. Is this a bad idea?
Cannabis derived terpenes are really expensive and I might move towards it in the future but for now I’m still trying to have a decent profit margin and work from there.
Well I dare say you need a smaller syringe and smaller gauge. I could only imagine that if that were the case, measuring it out on a scale and then deciding which droplet to separate would be a headache haha.
Mass Terpenes - that stuff is botanical terpenes and I suspect cut with Phytol. I am hunting for a Diluent that is fully organic as well but I doubt I will find one that is 100% organic and clean as a flavorless diluent. The benefit though means I get to keep it all as THCa. Decarbing I have found is a different beast.
Example would be a dab matt. Another would be a Silicon blasting dish (never blast directly onto silicon). I’ll dump a winterized solution when the ratio is even onto a dab matt and spread it out thin. Shitty purging tek but it works in lieu of vac chamber - I’m waiting on a pump atm.
This is where you and I differ. I have no temp controls. I set a low heat just enough to melt. I wait. I set it higher and wait patiently for bubbles to form. I keep an eye on that so it doesn’t froth over. But in terms of exact temps I could not tell you. I am doing a lot of this by feel and by eye. Which is probably why my carts don’t turn out well but my shatter is excellent.
Cannabis Derived Terpenes only if you really want to do it the hard way. No MCT needed in a properly decarbed and terpene infused product, or so they say. My shits too thick. It moves but thick…
10% Canna Terpenes is too high. You will taste it so much it will make you sick. Keep in mind some terpenes are left in your shatter they’re not ALL gone.
If you’re re-selling… now that I read that, the post makes sense… sorry buddy you can’t just cut with crap and call it a day. If you don’t care about your quality, then fine. I care about my quality. I won’t even GIVE carts away as a gift if I am not 100% happy with it and it’s all clean.
Well I did a sample with 10% terpenes (0.1 mL) and 0.9 g of shatter. Even then I could still taste the shatter too much and not as much of the terpene. I decarbed the shatter then put in the terpenes and mixed it with the syringe then filled the cart. I capped the cart ASAP and flipped it upside down for 12-15 hours. The liquid didn’t move down towards the mouthpiece in that time period but it did smoke well. I have a strong feeling when it’s 1/3 of the cart left it’ll clog up. I’m waiting to see how that sample goes but I fear that I do somehow need to incorporate MCT oil to slightly thin it out.
I was making them for myself for a while then my friends just liked it and asked me to sell it to them lol. They don’t care for cannabis-derived terpenes as long as it tastes good and gets them a nice high. I personally do try and provide the best quality which is why I’m even on this forum but the huge price difference currently doesn’t make sense for me so I’ll move to that in the future when I have the process down.
I’m gonna look into finding a smaller syringe I’m just really confused as to why the cart I made with 10% terpenes still has an overpowering weed taste and smell.
Glad you found my post! I’ve been reading through tons of your posts and replies for the past week to learn things. Implemented capping my carts immediately after fill after reading your post.
Do you ship to Canada? I like your terp profiles but will you be putting up a larger selection soon?
Also, what does “steam stilled” mean?
I’m sure you’re offering these prices in USD as well so with my calculations the cannabis-derived terpenes are 6x the price of the non-cannabis-derived terpenes I currently get. I’ll likely look into them again when I am 100% confident in my cart making abilities.
I do like your extensive research into getting the best carts for sale at a low price so eventually, I’ll buy from you.
Would you possibly have advice for my ratio problem? I’m confused as to why my carts still taste like shatter after I mixed in 10% terpenes. I would like to use a very small % of cut to make it flow a bit better as well. The one thing I can think of is that after it was decarbed, I mixed the terpenes in and stirred a bunch but did not re-introduce it to any heat. I was afraid I’d burn off the terpenes I added. Should I reheat it and stir again after the terpenes have been added?
Shatter tastes like whatever it smells like. Like a strong concentrate, I guess? I don’t want to specify it to the lipids as I’m not knowledgeable enough to know what lipids smell like. However, shatter has a very strong smell and taste. Even stronger when it’s heated/decarbed. The carts I made have that strong, distinct taste and smell instead of the terps taking over.
