Hi everyone. I’m new to this site and excited to have found it. One question i cant seem to get a solid answer on is how to control stability. I use a 70/30 mix. I use a pre chiller coil in isopropyl alcohol and dry ice. My material is bone dry. (I have a drying room where I store everything) i do a dynamic wash(no soaking). My yields are quit low, about 5-8%. I bring my honey pot to a -10 or so vac befor. I don’t poor my oil out. I scrape it out of the platter with a spoon. My oil won’t ever nucliat when I run this way, even if I whip it on purpose. After running in the oven for a few days with a few flips (temps anywhere from 83 to 97f) my extract looks and smells amazing. Only problem is that it is always soft. It’s almost like a sap. If I keep it in the frig it’ll act like shatter till it worms up, then it gets soft again. I feel like it’s the monoterps keeping it this way. But I can’t seem to get them out in the oven. I haven’t met an extractor yet who can tell me what I’m doing wrong. How do I make it like glass at room temperature? Any advice would be very appreciated. Thank you all so much.
In my experience it has a lot to do with the exact material your running. not depending on strain, but the specific crystals from that garden’s batch. crystals’ maturity/immaturity, drying process from the garden, and of course storage afterward. There can be so many variables. From the extraction side of things I definitely think that we can do everything to a tee, but still come out with different results from different material. You say you’re using a 70/30 mix, I’m assuming n-butane/propane? Propane definitely promotes much terpier concentrates, making it not shatter as often, but on the contrary I’ve extracted some amazing straight glass shatter using a propane blend. Are you muffining the slabs after scraping?
Yes I let the oil cool a little bit then put in the oven and hit the vac right away. It initially muffins up quit a bit and stretches out nicely. My 70/30 is n-butane/propane. I tried running 100% n-butane recently to see if it made a difference. It seemed to help in just the smallest way. Also I think it came out just a touch darker. I thought I’d try and leave some solvent in the honey pot and try poorin it out one time to see if that makes a difference. Not sure why it would, but a few extractors say it’s what I’m doing wrong:thinking: I definitely notice some strains are snappier then others. I feel like I’m shooting for an inferior product. But if it’s what the customer wants then … 
your extract might not be at the same temp as ur oven’s readout so if its set to 90 f the extract might only be 80 f so be sure to measure the temp directly when following temp/time guide
Ok I’ll check that out. I usually just adjust temp based on how the oil is reacting. I’ve gone as high till it starts to sugar up, and I’ve tried as low till it barely melts. I feel like most of what I make looks just like what the guys I fallow on Instagram are making. But I get complaints or loose sales all the time to it not being hard enough 
How old is your material when your running it? How are you storing your material after you dry it? My oil only gets that dark if its a sativa that went way over 90 days or old material stored inproperly. Even my sativas are lighter.
I get a sappier consistancy using propane. Ive ran 70/30 and now im running either 100%nbutane or 40/30/30 Nbutane/isobutane/propane depending on the sample i run…Typically i only run my propane mix if i need to lighten the extract or if im going for live resin. Otherwise i like to use straight nbutane cause of its stability.
that slab looks fine to me…id smoke that.
Yeah this is the one I ran with n-butane. So far everything Iv ran is from last falls harvest. I have a drying room I store all my material in. I have an A/C and dehumidifier running 24/7 on full blast as to keep the temps low and the air as dry as possible.
I dont grow anymore but i have all my trim suppliers literally vacuum seal the material right after drying. And it goes right into the freezer until used. They even deliver it on dry ice like an organ. LOL. The sappiness is probably due to the age of the material and the thc degrading to what i think is cbn. The experts will chime in im sure and correct this, but im sure the age is whats contributing to the sappiness.
Ah ok. That would make sense. Great idea about vac and freeze. I will definitely have to do that next year. I’m thinking of turning my drying room into a walk in freezer 
!
Ya I definitely agree with killa, material stored correctly and frozen from point of being cured or trimmed really makes a world of difference on stability and over all quality. I run a lot of not completely fresh outdoor material from nor cal and we get nice colors and taste, but the stability is much softer.
Terps/ waxes will cause resin to remain pliable.
I have had sheets of 'to be" shatter form snap and pull. If you winterize it it should harden up.
Although it will be at the cost of the terp profile. I always explain that to clients. Let them make that choice, it could save you some work/time.
Yeah I’ll be getting a Roto vap and filter kit soon. I’ll have a lot to learn when that shows up.
Hello fellow extractors. I’m new to the feed and stumbled upon this article. Wondering if you should maybe raise the temp on your vaccum oven a bit to burn off any residual solvent that could be causing it to stay a little more soft. Also it could be a great problem where the flower your using is so rich in terpines that it won’t harden. Up. I’m only a year in extraction and I’m loving it! Always lookin my to learn and help!
Try raising your oven temp to 115f for a batch, keeping the same SOP otherwise.
When you say “83 to 97f” are you trying to adjust / ramp temp or do you pick temp based on material?
i adjust temp based on what the oil is doing. i start low and keep rising till bubbles pop. I’ve tried going higher in temp and leaving it longer in the oven. usually it’ll start to sugar up after a while. I recently ran some material that had no smell to it. my finished product was like glass. i’m coming to the conclusion its a terp problem. I cant figure out what some of these buyers are talking about when they say it needs to be like glass and smell good at the same time. are extractors just spraying terpenes on shatter? another thing i think i do different is i bring my honey pot to a vac before i pull my oil out. is there a difference in pouring tane soup vs scooping out half purged oil? are more terps boiled off when poored out?
What kind of oven and pump are you using? Tell me about your shelves and configuration.
I have the bhogart bho24. my vac pump is just one of those cheep ones from harbor frieght. shelves are all heated. one PID controles all shelve temps. I’m happy with the set up. vac pulls almost all the way to 30. all shelves are consistent and heat equally.
Although my knowledge is too limited to comment on the pour/scrape dilemma (I pour out of preference when making shatter), all of my stable shatter does not have a small until it is smoked.
I believe shatter shouldn’t have terps evaporating like that at room temp. Buyer’s tend to ask for a lot of things that aren’t possible and that’s usually because they are business men/women and not marijuana experts. But neither am I so take this all lightly.
I would bump up the temp and give that a try. At east 10 or 15° over your current SOP