Hey guys,
Been reading Future4200 for a while now and honestly there is more useful information buried here than what we are getting from most machine suppliers, so figured it was time to actually ask.
We run a CBD shop in Europe. Until now we have mostly been buying finished products from suppliers, mainly CBD flower and resin/hash which is then infused with different cannabinoids/noids.
We want to change that.
The idea is to set up our own small lab and start from the raw materials instead of buying the finished end product. We are not looking at some huge extraction facility, more like a proper small production setup where we can make batches of a few kilos, get the process right and scale from there.
For the resin/hash side, originally we were thinking about buying normal CBD resin bars and reworking them.
After reading quite a few threads here I’m starting to think this is the wrong way around and we should probably start from decent kief/dry sift and build the product ourselves with distillate, isolate etc.
Correct me if I’m wrong here.
We have already done some basic tests and the obvious problem is once you start adding a decent amount of distillate the resin gets softer and softer and eventually too sticky/oily.
So now we’re trying to understand how this is actually done properly at production scale.
From our research so far I’m looking at a small 5L jacketed double sigma / Z blade kneader.
Something with variable speed, decent torque, temperature control, heating AND cooling through the jacket, possibly vacuum, and tilting discharge.
Basically mix/knead warm, get everything homogeneous and then be able to cool the mass in a controlled way before discharge/pressing instead of ending up with a bucket of hot sticky material.
I’ve also seen people here mention dough/pizza mixers being used for kief + distillate which made me think we’re probably at least looking in the right direction with the sigma kneader.
We are also considering using CBD isolate for part of the cannabinoid content instead of trying to get everything into the product through distillate. In theory this should let us raise the potency without adding ridiculous amounts of oil and hopefully keep a better consistency.
Again, would love to hear from somebody actually doing this rather than us guessing.
The flower side is where I’m even less sure.
We have been speaking with a European manufacturer that makes a fairly serious vacuum infusion machine for plant material.
It’s a closed-loop system, around 2.5-4kg per batch, where the flower is processed under controlled vacuum/pressure with adjustable temperature and processing time. The idea is that the liquid actually penetrates the plant structure rather than just sitting on the outside.
Machine looks very well made and they claim very uniform infusion while keeping the process at relatively low temperature.
We seriously considered buying it.
But it’s also around 24k EUR before some of the optional equipment, so before spending that kind of money I would really like to know if vacuum infusion is actually the best way to do cannabinoid infused CBD flower or if we’re overcomplicating it.
Especially because I’ve also been reading the threads here about much simpler setups using a slow tumbler/coating pan and heated distillate spray.
That setup would basically be:
flower slowly tumbling
+
heated distillate
+
controlled spray
+
slow progressive application
Which seems almost too simple compared to the vacuum machine, but maybe simple is better.
I’ve also seen the discussions about freezing distillate, pulverizing it / making a cold premix and distributing it through flower. That sounds interesting especially for ground flower or preroll material, although I’m not sure I would want to do that to nice whole buds.
So basically this is where we are now.
For resin:
kief/dry sift
+
distillate
+
possibly isolate
+
jacketed sigma kneader
+
controlled cooling
+
mold / press
For flower we don’t know yet:
vacuum infusion machine
vs
coating pan/tumbler + heated spray system
vs something completely different that we haven’t found yet.
If you were building a small cannabinoid infusion/formulation lab today and wanted to process a few kg per batch, what machines would you actually buy?
I’m especially interested in hearing from people who have already made the expensive mistakes.
What mixer actually works well for hash/resin?
Sigma/Z blade or planetary?
Is vacuum useful on the resin side or unnecessary?
What size mixer makes sense for 2-5kg batches?
How are you heating and then cooling the batch?
For flower, is vacuum infusion genuinely better than spraying/tumbling?
What spray guns/pumps/nozzles actually survive hot distillate without becoming a constant pain in the ass?
Coating pan or tumbler?
And if anyone has a machine stack they’re already happy with, I’d really like to see it.
Same for threads here that I may have missed, suppliers worth speaking to, or members doing this type of production commercially.
Not looking for anybody’s secret recipe. Mainly trying to avoid buying 30k worth of stainless steel and finding out six months later that we bought the wrong machines.
Thanks guys.