Well tbh I have no idea how much I should evaporate so none of it really matters until I kinda figure that out lol and since I can’t really tell if the crystals gain a few more grams just by looking at it, gonna be tough for sure
1 Like
Let off 10-15 at a time and if you notice growth, wait until you can’t tell anymore for a day or so, then let some more out, etc etc.
8 Likes
Thank you dude. Just gotta always reiterate how amazing this community can be. I had no idea what I was doing and this was a first try. Got lucky and got amazing help from you and others here and have some giant stones to show for it.
Will post a final pic/weight soon as I finish em off 
11 Likes
Tare weight is absolutely useful.
Just not necessary for monitoring NEW evaporation.
Id also argue that the easier way of figuring the rest of it out does not require the tare.
By easier I mean pour off the liquid to a new jar. The retrieve the boulders at the bottom of the jar, wash (warm water? Cold pentane), weigh.
From there we know the weight of the input THCA that is still in the “liquid”. From there, the weight of pentane currently (in the “liquid”).
Which, given a known starting (pentane) weight, gives us how much pentane he’s lost.
With both an hypothetical “THCA” number and a pentane number, getting back to ~ 1:1 again should also be simple math.
Didn’t mean nothing by it, and agree you can get there without removing the bolder from the jar with the original tare.
I also concede that said bolder might not actually want to leave that jar…so calling that the easier route might not be correct.
There’s also the “but decarb”, and “impurities in input”. Those exist either way. We could take guesses at both
11 Likes
So should I heat this up a little? I tried long burps and it doesn’t seem to lose much weight. My mother liquor is still looking saturated and it’s still very sticky so I’m guessing more to crash out.
Can I take out the largest stone or will that slow the process?
Wait so I pull the stones out and literally rinse them under warm water? If that’s not the case forgive my ignorance
I wouldn’t take out shit that’s more spots for the thca molecules to pile up on
If the solution is still sticky u bet there’s thca in there
3 Likes
Shit I’m dumb I took one out to look at it… can I put it back in lol
22g… Almost the same size as a parchment square lol
12 Likes
Fuck someone just told me the rest might sugar out if I put this stone back in
Of course you can out it back in.
2 Likes
It won’t cause the rest to crash out into sugar? Will just keep growing diamonds? I’m assuming there’s just about 100g crashed out of the 235g I put in
2 Likes
It can do that, but you can counteract it from happening by heating the mother liquor and adding a little bit more solvent.
The reason why sugaring happens is because microscopic crystals have formed all over in the solution. So the THCa that’s still in solution migrates to whatever nucleation point is closest. Which means faster crystallization from the solution, but as small crystals not diamonds.
So the idea behind adding more solvent is to make sure that any suspended crystals are dissolved back into the mother liquor because if they aren’t, they’ll just act as nucleation points. When they’re dissolved back into solution and the solution isn’t concentrated enough to start crystalizing on its own, then you can drop that stone in there and its surface will be the first point that THCa will migrate to once the saturation of the solution is back to a point where THCa will want to drop out.
22 Likes
What he said.
Also, it’s called Oswalt Ripening.
21 Likes
So ok I’ve managed to evaporate some pentane and it looks like there are smaller crystals forming at the bottom now. I’m kinda wondering if agitation plays a roll in the size of the stones. Def still more to crash out. That necessarily wouldn’t make sense though right because agitation was what helped to dissolve in the first place so I would think it would help dissolve the microscopic crystals into migrating to the larger like you said?
I feel like this is obvious, but the temperature of my room not being controlled at all and fluctuating and temps being so low (probably gets into high 50s to high 60s in here) has to have played a role? Heat = pressure and pressure plays a role. So now I get to go back and experiment with temperatures or can someone just tell me if that’s a waste of time ahead of time
One thing I will say is it’s amazing and annoying this started working because I have a lot of other work to get to and this is the coolest thing I’ve played with in the lab in forever so now I’ve got even more work to do 
4 Likes
This second batch, they have grown to this size in a day or two?
1 Like
Agitation will only serve to create nucleation points, and is probably the reason you were told not to add the stone back by your buddy.
4 Likes
you wanna heat up slightly until the smaller crystals dissolve and then drop temp slowly to allow those smaller crystals to deposit themselves on the bigger crystal.
as dred said above its called Ostwald ripening. Read more about that and this process will make a lot more sense.
Smaller crystals have more energy, larger crystals have less, those high energy crystals will be the first to dissolve and will start looking for their new home, the larger more stable crystal.
Some slight agitation throughout the process will also help those smaller crystals find the bigger crystals in solution.
15 Likes
I wish haha. Those stones I left in. I only pulled one of the large ones because I just wanted to see what it looked like what it weighed because I’m impatient
1 Like
Btw can anyone clarify, do people really use warm water to wash the stones? I can’t just purge in the oven? I’m also assuming with larger stones like this, they would have to be broken down to fully purge anyway?
Besides who tf is out there buying 20g stones lol