So.. Trying to blow the doors off of Crystallization

Hash and Stuff Crystallization
1

So, I’ve had a spot of hit and miss crash out procedures, some runs sugar, others start a meaningful crash out, some just turn to sauce. Im all over the place trying to control my controllables.

But, as I do, I want to start a discussion on the various procedures, and possibly get idea’s flowing, and have an open forum on this (No D*** waving), specifically for the purpose of group learning, because I agree there is a learning curve, and catching people up isn’t exactly the thing most want to do. So here’s hoping that we can get a good educational discussion going.

I recently ran across an interesting piece on crystallization, from MIT, and I would be curious to see what this community may come up with, there are techniques I have seen implemented, others I have not. So let’s disseminate information together!

https://web.mit.edu/x-ray/cystallize.html

This is for community learning, to share ideas. As I am one person, I can’t investigate all of this, so I figured a team of other experimenters may be the key to getting a dialed in SOP from this document, that we can all utilize.

Looking forward to the discussion gents. Cheers!

14 Likes
2

My standard procedure is as follows.

Run a standard run, I run a chilled injection coil, and CRC on a 900g material column.

200g T-5
200g Silica gel
25g T-41

Only difference is I run a slightly lower temperature in my honeypot, I usually leave a bit of solvent, around 1 lb just to make the pour more convenient.

(Quickness of pour matters) especially if you aren’t in a humidity controlled room, residual water vapor in the air will mix with your oil and cause sugaring it appears, as exposure to the ambient air was a little bit longer on my jars that sugared (I have noticed), although just one variable in the “what is all this?!?” of variables.

Temperature regulation is everything. Finding that sweet spot and maintaining concentration of your mother liquor in its optimal zone, and not boiling off too quickly, or too slowly. Name of the game is concentration gradients here, and that sweet spot is everything.

I have also heard lots of discussion on pressure in the jar, which is another way to regulate the boil off of solvent on your mother liquor.

I’m still in debate between one large jar, with homogenized runs, vs. Small jar each run, haven’t settled into my camp yet.

I am using of all things an incubator to control temp and crash things out, waiting to see results, and will post as I gather more (trembles a little) dAtA.

Also, if what I provided is lacking in info, will gladly re-iterate.

8 Likes
3

I have noticed that crystallization is massively strain dependent. 50lbs run back to back with the exact same parameters in the same shift will yield different results. Product consistency is essential for me, so recrystallization is required 100% of the time. Get your thca to crash, clean the diamonds and recrystallize in your solvent of choice with the same techniques of utilizing pressure to control solvent release. Stainless vessels are much easier to control than a jar. When you recrystallize, do not strive for depth. For larger facets, you want your crystallization to complete no thicker than 1/4”. If you want bigger stones, repeat the process with large seeds.

As for keeping strains separate, the market demands variety. I have already made the mistake of either running 100’s of lbs of the same strain or combining strains to make one homogenous sauce. It is a struggle to get top dollar on bulk amounts of the same sauce. You will get muscled down or sit on it for way too long.

7 Likes
4

trying to blow doors off huh? Crc makes it quiet easy. if it’s got thca I can get it to crash I dont care the strain

13 Likes
5

Agreed. However, I have read that terps can take a role in how things crash out, and that would have would vary per strain.

Age and how/where it was stored seem to be the biggest factors for me.

4 Likes
6

I do need to come out of my weenie tendencies and start playing with new solvents, but I’m also stubborn about wanting to get a firm grasp on hydrocarbon first, good info!

I have noticed I can get a crash out almost every run, consistency is the problem I seek, but I’m honing my capacity to control what variables I can.

Tired of placing a run, and just hoping it goes that direction, I want to know that its going to react the way I’m hoping, which may be a hopeful fools standpoint.

2 Likes
7

you are right, as soon as I started with CRC, nucleation has become more reasonable.

4 Likes
8

You can use butane as your recrystallization solvent if you are comfortable with it. You can also perform this process inside of your collector if you aren’t using it for a couple weeks.

3 Likes
9

Crashing thca is easy, but are you producing large defined diamonds every single time?

I’m not doubting it’s possible, I am just not skilled enough to have that consistency. I crash 100% of the time without crc, but lack diamond consistency. Sometimes it is 1/16” and sometimes they are 1/4” on initial crystallization. I can’t seem to identify the exact variable, aside from different terpenes that causes this inconsistency. The strains are in the same room and come down the exact same way together, and the runs occur consecutively over a 12 hour shift.

2 Likes
10

This is just off the top of my head but I think the inconsistencies come from 2 things

1: strains are different. Different ratios of terpenes. Terpenes are solvents.

2: the jars are holding pressure inconsistently. I’ve seen much more even results from reactors or miners.

7 Likes
11

I can do it without but w crc you just about can’t go wrong

1 Like
12

Unreasonable nucleators ? emphasized text, hate em

1 Like
13

The name of the game folks is control the controllables, get the variables dialed in, yes, there are inconsistencies, but you can hedge your bets, experimenting, and above all, a process, thats why I posted that document.

I’m still sorting out whether stable temperatures are the way to go, going from cool to hot, hot to cool, ranging from 70-85°F, my contents look wonderful, but im seeing variations from pull to pull, same strain… problems… That tells me there’s other variables than strains, but the truth is, every, single, reaction you run, with the same material, can have variance. So operational variances are a real thing too.

My #1 thing right now is killing my air humidity, f***in nucleators, actin’ unreasonable, because I’m negligent, and obstinate.

3 Likes
14

And agreed, CRC is ridiculous, what it does for your material is outrageous, and totally changes the dynamics, and really makes the craft a nuanced thing.

3 Likes
15

Lets see some picrures of said vairiances. :eyes:

6 Likes
16

Cyclic crystal morphology is the best way to go about it.

6 Likes
17

Can you drop your sop here, maybe a link to your site…

We want huge boulders

3 Likes
18

It’s varies. The trick is to use a chiller/heater and burping mechanism or by hand. You go down in temp let is crash, then go up in temp and let the fluids separate a bit then burp off the vapor pressure. Then drop the temp and hold again. The solute density and non purity is what determines the crash rate and temp swing. Also if you want boulders then remove your terps and chroma the solute and bring it back to a crashing state.

20 Likes
19

My word fellas love this conversation already, great description of some intriguing dynamics.

I had pondered that. You have two options, pressure and temp, that’s it for control of solute/solvent motion. The link I provided has some really neat basic descriptions of ways you can play with that flow of the solution moving. There’s a method to all of this, and lots of differing opinions, ways, crystallization of purified substances from solution is not new, but this is the perfect forum and place to have these discussions. Because in a lot of ways it’s trail blazin’.

All these extra steps just in this short conversation has created a great dialog, I usually seed shortly after pull from the pot, I do my best to get the lid on the jar, and finger tight, then it goes into an incubator that is air heated from the bottom, i range it from 75-85, and I’m waiting to see how this method works. I also have some things I just need to implement. New layout and setup, so lots of dialing in.

Will be back with more data when I can. I love the spirit of discussion here. I appreciate any and all time taken, will share what I come across and play with.

5 Likes
20

imagejpeg_0
imagejpeg_01024×768 157 KB

All three different reactions, various strains. That sugar solution is a land race extract that has such a curious odor, you can certainly tell im still dialing in the CRC on this scale of a system.

4 Likes