So I made a thing to decarb with

[TwistedStill]

So sometimes I have an idea, and actually have the time and resources to bring it to fruition.

I make my own personal carts, and some for medical folks. I want to be able to decarb with heat, while maintaining my terpenes…if possible.

I’ve made a pressure vessel, with a teflon liner to do the job. 3" triclamp, 2.650 ID, for a little added wall thickness. The teflon liner will eliminate transfer loss, and will make dealing with the decarbed oil a little easier. One PRV for good measure. Two 1/4" valves, one for vacuum and one for nitrogen. My intention is to put oil in the teflon cup, assemble the little rig. Vacuum out atmosphere. Fill with nitrogen. Vacuum and purge with nitrogen again…maybe…for good measure. my intent is to remove all oxygen. I will pressurize the vessel with nitrogen, maybe to 30 or 40 psi.

At this point, there should be minimal oxygen in there, and some added pressure to keep terpenes from turning to vapor with the heat applied. Is vapor pressure the proper term there?

So now, with my desired conditions within the vessel, I will put it in an oven to decarb at 240 degrees Fahrenheit…or there abouts.

I was going to add a compound gauge, but they cannot live in a 240 degree Fahrenheit environment. I left the center location on the lid open to have the option of adding another port, which would be piped outside the oven to the compound gauge to monitor pressure. I imagine, with a little forethought and application of basic logic, I wouldn’t exceed 100psi in there after adding my nitrogen pressure. My thought is to leave at least 60-70% of the teflon cup volume empty for head space.

I know @cyclopath has done some decarbing under pressure as has @FicklePickle. My hope is to play with it a bit to see if I can yield anything of value SOP wise, but I move slowly.

I just want the tastiest hydrocarbon extract in my carts…since they are for me…

If you see a flaw, aside from the brass 1/4" pipe nipples, or offer critique on design or process…please blast away. I’m just a machinist who likes cannabis…

[SkyKast]

This looks awesome! Would love to be able to work metal like that. Following this topic to see how your tests go, I have wondered how well this would work for a while since finding this thread, which you mentioned:

Decarb under pressure to retain terps?

Has anyone done any work on decarbing their extracts under pressure to retain terpenes? I’ve tried it on a small scale with some success, and it looks like it might be time to try it on a larger scale. If my new still recovers in anything close to the time frame the manufacturer suggests it will (100gal in 2hrs at 35C!), then I’ll have to add a decarb step for my tinctures. Doing so at pressure to keep the terps might even give me a viable pen juice (I’m running decarbed EHO in the pen I’m us…

People seemed to have mixed results but I do think there is merit to the idea, especially since this company sells a machine for that purpose:

https://www.harvestdirectenterprises.com/

Hope it works!

[Intergalactic]

Let’s see those welds!!!

[TwistedStill]

No welds homie. Machined from solid stock.

[Intergalactic]

Wait you milled a tri clamp connection?

[TwistedStill]

I turned it on a lathe, milled the features in the cap.

[Intergalactic]

Absolutely! Are you familiar with welding stainless?

[TwistedStill]

I am. Tig stainless. But I’m not an educated welder. I made the huge fucking L shaped countertop there in the pic…had a 50 some inch flat seam from inside corner to outside corner. It was a fucking nightmare.

[Intergalactic]

Want a nightmare of a project…

[TwistedStill]

Lol my life often resembles someone else’s nightmare. What do you have going on lol?

[Intergalactic]

Dming

[Roguelab]

YES
Like the design by the way
I always wanted to try such a project
I would do it like this
Take bho (butane) ad 5% butane
Place in your pressure rig
Vent oxigen out by evaporating some butane
Then place in oven for 30 min at 90C
By starting with internal pressure
All bp are lowerd from the start
Butane at 100C

[Curious_Roberto]

Let us know how it goes for sure! I’m curious to how much psi builds up. I pieced together a little pot as well and was thinking of something similar.

It sounds lazy, but I’m over dabs, I’ve never been one to care about the rituals, I just wanna get high and go, and still have a tasty extract.

[TwistedStill]

I do like to dab, but I’m always on the go. I always have a cart or two with me. My ritual is with flower and a swisher perfecto.

I dont think the PSI will get to crazy. I’m sure there is math to figure out the volume of co2 to be produced based on oil potency and weight…but I’m not too concerned.

@Roguelab so your adding a little butane for the purpose of removing the oxygen and creating the desired pressure?

I am hoping to give it a try this weekend. I intend to decarb in the new rig, while also decarbing a sample on a magnet stir hot plate. I can then get the original BHO tested for terps, as well as each decarbed sample, to have something quantifiable as far as results go. Honestly, it may not yield much and I may have just made the most expensive sightglass-less diamond miner in existence…but materials and time were free, so fuck it…

[Curious_Roberto]

@TwistedStill

My ritual is with flower and a swisher perfecto.

My boss loves to hop in his car and roll up a swisher on a cd tray, brings him back he says hahaha

[tweedledew]

Maybe make it with the sintered disk at the bottom? You could use that decarb aid (MgO I think?) I think you might face some terpene degredation at 100c. You could run the whole thing at 60-70c, then just pressurized and squirt through a nozzle past the filter at the bottom when you’re done. Have the decarb aid held up at the filter.

It’s more elaborate, but you might get better preservation

[Soxhlet]

nice work on the lid!

[TwistedStill]

Thank you sir. It was a fun little project to sneak in at work under the radar.

[downtheterphole]

hydrostatic test it

[TwistedStill]

I was going to hook it up to my collection or something with a pressure gauge for a leak down test. I could very easily fill with water for a hydrostatic test. When hydrostatic testing, do leaks usually show up pretty quickly in these applications? I’ve only done hydrostatic tests on big gate valves that I had to lap the seats on. It had an acceptable leak rate, so we actually had to collect the leaked water and measure its volume to see if the ml/hr rate was acceptable.

@downtheterphole you preach hydrostatic testing…tell my why? Are leaks just more visible and measurable? I’m not throwing shade, I’m looking for your input specifically.