I would hire @cyclopath on thanksgiving just to get high.
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Would be an honor. the problem is, I’ll notice some piece of machinery misbehaving and insist on dissecting it. Especially if you threw money at it.
And then make it work better using nothing more than an old bike innertube and pieces of a crock pot or old blender left in a trash pile on the side of the road.
How do I know this? I’ve seen him do it.
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Id pay to see that for thanks given!
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Yeah, that one was fun.
All I needed was a power cord.
Why I was so convinced it was out there I’m not sure. Took me 20-30min to locate it iirc. The fact that it was in a haystack sized sized pile of wood chips made sense once I found it.
looking for “needle in haystack”. Sees “haystack”. Spends 30 min looking elsewhere for needle. Doh!!.
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Does not actually matter what your boiler temp is set to, the boiling point of your solvent is the temperature the boiler will get to until your solvent is gone (or mostly gone).
You can boil water over an open flame in a paper cup,…
the market for ethanol based dabbables is “niche” to nonexistent. Ethanol based vapes are generally made from distillate with terpenes captured elsewhere.
As noted above, your current process does not have a cannabinoid distillation step (so will not have “distillate” as an end point). see: I make terrible distillate....why? for an in-depth exploration of running a “short path” distillation rig for cannabinoids (vape pens).
your exact goals and business plan will determine the right way of approaching this, see your DM’s if you’d like to pursue further.
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Totally! But we are already 30k in the hole on this particular contractor’s work ( this is his work product ), and the best rate we were offered was 5k up front to process the lot.
It’s hard to stomach. The market value on the flowers here in CA is probably 10k ish. If processed at 10% would be about 10lb of concentrates with a market value of, what, perhaps $10k to $15k for the lot?. At least there’s some demand for quality terpy concentrates.
But then, knock off $5k from that, and your looking at 5k to 10k of value on the return. Am I right?
If I have to, buying all the gear at great prices second hand, putting in the work, and then reselling the gear at great prices would thus save about 5k but require
- ( a ) accepting the possibility of messing it up
- ( b ) a lot of elbow grease
- ( c ) a profound acumen for learning ( I have that )
- ( d ) cash up front ( the startup I work for has that )
Am I missing something? If you know someone that will process this for a less substantial fee of course I would go for it, or even accept a trade.
Also, let’s say someone offered to process it on a 50% split, I am still looking at similar numbers, $5k to $7.5k after the fact. Does not add up.
Am I right? Would love feedback.
Ouch.
Super helpful. Whats the max temp I should be tolerant of?
I understand the pressure cooker model, in your opinion, will simply not work for this. Is that right?
For other reasons as well besides its failure to control the temperature, but also for
- failure to pull a vacuum ( it’s pushing pressure not pulling )
- failure to reclaim all the alcohol ( this actually appears to be a current issue, unclaimed alcohol vapors are cost leaks and not great to inhale. )
Is that right?
I saw at least 1 youtube video about a guy with exactly this setup scaling large, he had the equiv of pressure cookers, need to find it.
Anyways, your recommendation on the 1k rototap is solid and I appreciate it. That will likely be within budget, especially if I can talk them down 25%
If you are distilling your cannabinoids, then recovering your solvent at atmospheric pressure allows you to run your condenser using air or warm water (often combined).
Using pressure vessels for this doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, kegs make great/cheap stills (documented in one of the threads I pointed you at), but a Rotovap is much less fuss than a diy vacuum still.
Who offers rental equipment? Have not seen this option around.
This is a solid idea, and I’m orienting toward this.
Fixed, thank you for the feedback. yes, F.
Ok this is super helpful.
So I follow the linked articles guide, set up a metal container, then some buckets for removing the flowers, then get the eth and material to -70 w dry ice, extract while mixing w a paint mixer for 90s, and pull most of the material in that short time, is that right?
Following his article, making a 2nd pass to get another boost to yeilds ( 50% of what i got in the first pass likely compared to the first pass )
Is that what you mean by done correctly?
Good to know. So can I put to rest my concerns about it getting too hot through the current distillation approach? With the InstaPot hitting 260F at minimum setting, and then as you said, the material heating well past that in all likelihood?
And if thats not a concern, what exactly is the point of failure of the current system in your perspective? Why wont it work?
I mean, if I fail to chill the alcohol vapors enough to reclaim the alcohol, that would be a reasonable explanation of course.
See It washes the cannabis and then it washes the cannabis some more
for approximation on “done right” (imo) for EtOH extraction.
Works with other solvents too. ethanol has its advantages, but there are definitely more than a couple of ways to skin this cat.
If this 100lb is one and done for y’all, you are looking at an awful lot of work for essentially zero payback. You need to buy it solved or just walk away from it. If the learning experience will serve you, because you actually have to do it again? It might be worth your while digging in and figuring it out.
Unless you’re planning on distillation of your cannabinoids, getting to market viable concentrates with ethanol will simply not work in the SF Bay Area, or anywhere on the west coast imo. that’s a whole other set of tools and learning.
Hash rosin on the other hand…especially if you already have half the gear
Except that quality and yield are very input dependent
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It cannot hit 260F with ethanol in there. If it tries, by being pressurized, the pressure will exceed its design rating and release (which may well be the issue you’re having).
if you haven’t already looked into: Bucket Tek (Cold Ethanol Extraction on a Budget)
then Reflux Still For Small-Scale ETOH Reproofing
Show me…
And go see Purging ethanol with hot plate
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That was the point where my kitchen countertop extraction experience ended. I tried decarbing after extraction instead of before, and it turned to mud. Lacking spd, decarbing the flower first is a much better idea.
OP could just make bubble hash for next to zero additional cost, cut losses/lick wounds and move on. A fundamental principle of investing is to not keep throwing good money into a bad investment.
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Have you considered turning it into something similar to moroccan hash?
You could get 3 of these
and do a few runs but even if you were to buy 10 of them you’d still be hitting a thousand dollars. It’s gonna run you money for pure etoh that’s not heptane denatured as well. 200 proof is usually cheaper than 190 but 190 is what you want.
Ballpark range:
You’re hitting another 600-1000 for solvent
Your rotovap is gonna cost you from 800-2.3k
Your vacuum purging device is gonna cost you 800-1.2k
You’re better off getting some one else to run it for you and cutting your losses trying it yourself if it’s only one load of that 100lbs.