Our child has a traumatic brain injury and we started her on cannabis 4 years ago for depression, anxiety, and really bad insomnia, her symptoms parallel autism in a lot of ways.
We started outdoor grow year 2 and 3, with magical butter and not the source turbo. that worked fine until this year when we stepped up to a 4x4 indoor grow and have grown our yields by a large amount for us. So now the time has come for stepping up the extraction process.
We’re new to this so there will be a steep learning curve but with our household we cant dedicate a ton of time and with the source turbo now we dont even get 10 grams of rso after an 8hr batch.
Looking for recommendations of the next step up, was thinking about a 5L rotovap, a chiller from lanphan, and ebay welch diaphram pump. However we are open for suggestions.
We will likely do a warm ethanol wash as were not concerned with the lipids and waxes as we straight capsule everything. Although we do a QWET now, just looking to make processing time less manual labor intensive.
Ive been reading a ton but it seems most information is for much higher volumes, we will likley only be processing 2-5 lbs a year at most. interested in the 5l so it has fast batch times, runs on 110v, and gives some room to grow.
Thanks for reading my rambling, and I appreciate any input.
I’d say you have the right idea. I’m not sure if/when your decarb step is, but you won’t get 100% of the ethanol off with a rotovap and might still need to heat it to push that off. If you decarb the oil after the rotovap that will push the ethanol off in the process.
Edit: If you use a water aspirated vacuum pump for it you might find it to be safer/easier.
At 2-5 lbs a year, you could still use your Source Turbo for recovering your ethanol, and do your extraction in a couple french presses. A 5 liter roto seems kinda overkill, but would be nice if you ever decide to expand production.
I got a couple double walled stainless french presses off of Amazon, 1.5 liter each. I can fit about 100 grams in each, give or take depending on consistency of the material. Let it soak, then dump it through the buchner. From there, you could use the Source Turbo to recover your alcohol, then take it out to decarb.
If you have the space and funds to get a roto, I say go for it! I’m rocking an old school still for recovery, and it sucks, but it gets the job done. A roto would be very handy indeed.
Solvent recovery exists because solvent is expensive. But if you are not going through a lot of solvent in the first place, recovering it is not worth the cost of the equipment.
I’m not dissing on Extractcraft, but DO NOT spend the money they want for the EtOH Pro! You can get a roto cheaper, and process more with it. I was actually a member of their group on FB for over a year, and they kicked me from the group and blocked me for recommending a used roto to someone that could NOT afford to buy their “Pro”. Fuck them…
Ok, so what else is the point of solvent recovery other than to recover solvents? Is it because you are processing where letting it evaporate is a hazard?
just get a rosin press! way better meds than rso imo. just press rosin then decarb until it stops bubbling and enjoy. i would suggest growing cbg hemp, cbd hemp, and a thc strain. make rosin from all three then combine in a mason jar and decarb. i could also send you a cbd:cbg tincture if you want to see if it works first. good luck
With the right adapter or combo of adapters one should fit just about anywhere. I am getting quite the collection of adapters between a vac aspirator, ro system, garden hose adapter, etc.
Still have to be mindful of what kind of gasses are being vac’d. Wouldn’t want to fill the kitchen sink with butane gas or the like. Should be fine for ethanol.
Aspirators will pull decent vac as long as there is enough water flow. If there isn’t enough flow, the vac will be weak or non existent. My kitchen sink only flows about a gallon a minute, and an aspirator is useless on it. Works if attached to the outside hose faucet, which flows much better.
Oh thanks so much for that BigM - I couldn’t find the answer to that and was too scared to shout out for it. Ethanol would be the main thing I purge but truth be told I do make a lazy BHO. Thanks again!
I don’t want to cause too much fear by the last post. It should be just fine for purging small amounts bho that already has most of the butane evaporated. If it isn’t bubbling off at atmosphere and room temp, there really isn’t a lot left in it.
One shouldn’t assume an aspirator would be safe to pull a vac on a cls or solvent tank that has solvent in it. Any time it is used where a gas like butane or propane would be vacuumed out, you have to assume that it will fill your sink, floor drain, or tank that your aspirator will be running in.
Back to purging your bho, an aspirator will be better than no vac, but a pump will pull harder, making your purge faster and more complete.
Oh no fear at all - I understood what you meant. Product only enters Vac stage when the majority of the solvent is gone. Blasting no more than an ounce, recovering no more than 4 grams winterized. Personal use and ego… plus it’s illegal here.
ASpirator will be enough imo. I had a shitty hand pump that would do 26.5hg. I’d go low and slow until no more reactions. Result - more boring shatter. But at least I was confident most of the butane was gone but I digress. The aspirator should pull a stronger vac lol.
@TheKid420, have you considered extracting some of your flower into an oil like coconut or olive oil? It could be put in a capsule, used as a tincture, or eaten in food. The fats should help absorbtion too. Might be a way to cut down on the amount of ethanol extracting you’ll be doing, while extracting other potentially beneficial things, and having alternative delivery methods.
They make adapters. I have setups for pond pumps/5 gal bucket to rotovap, garden hose attachment (faucet) to rotovap), and chiller to rotovap. Your more than welcome to the faucet and pond setup. Or I can take pics of the parts needed to get you going.
I used a 5 gallon bucket of ice water to recover 5l of ethanol yesterday. Cold trap was dry when I was done. Did have to add a little extra ice to the bucket before I was done. That was on a 10l rotovap. Don’t let people tell you a chiller is mandatory for small rotovaps, it isn’t. Put that money towards a vacuum regulator.
