Debating buying a CAT x1000 homogenizer. I don’t produce much, only enough for family and select friends. I make carts in 100 ml batch’s, hard candied and chocolates in small batches. I understand how they work, I just need to justify spending the $$$
Would i be able to use the x1000 for chocolates and hard candies? That make the cost a little bit easier to swallow.
I don’t have any testing, but i know my mixing is inconsistent. I do the best i can with basic stirring, but hotspot’s happen with my edibles. I haven’t noticed with carts, but that doesn’t mean I’m not having issues, maybe i just don’t know what to look for.
If your really serious about your hobby or products. Buy a homogenizer! There really isn’t a way to uniformly mix medicine in with other products properly.
$1000 is a small price to pay for proper medicine distribution. The cat 1000x is only $570 euro direct too. Which is like $525 plus shipping. There website has an English version.
I mean, if one uses proper emulsifying agents in a system with all of the proper HLB values and a correct order of addition of components, one can create some very stable O/W emulsions with just mixing.
Having said that, if the goal is to do the best you can, and optimize, you’re going to be better off with a homogenizer than with traditional mixing. I’m thinking of buying one myself just because they make things so much more efficient.
I am in your same position. I know a homogenizer is the best solution for mixing terps with distillate for carts. But the issue I’m having, which is similar to yours is related to batch size. People have said, that 100mL or really anything less than ~500mL, the x1000 is too strong/big. It seems like for small batches you will at least need a narrow and tall vessel to mix in like a tall form beaker or heavy duty test tube type vessel so that the rotor/sator portion is fully submerged.
I have achieved stable emulsions using a vitamix with a lid you can vac before mixing. I think these sheer homogenizers (cat, kinematic etc) are stoopit, overpriced garbage. I got one and sent it back. I personally think the vitamix does as good or better job for completely homogenizing edibles. no data to back it up, just my watchful eye and thrifty checkbook… IF I observed the sheer homogenizer worked better, I’d own one.
That said, making water soluble emulsions is not the easy. There are many, many factors that produce the end result. One of those factors is mixing. Here’s water soluble crude homogenized with a Vitamix. Yea. Crude
@qma OP asked about dual use, edibles and carts. But more to the point: mixing terps and distillate to squirt in carts is 3.7 shit-tons easier (linked to source) than making crude water soluble.
Would i be able to use the x1000 for chocolates and hard candies? That make the cost a little bit easier to swallow.
I later learned I was an idiot when I sold the “failure” double batch to the edible girl for $80. She literally added it to bloomed gelatin and it looked normal. I just didnt know what it was supposed to look like or act like.
She came back and showed me a sampling. They were normal gummies, no grainyness like I thought
You can use it for anything that can remain at olive oil consistency. Hard candies are the easiest, but you will want to use a much larger homogenizer than a tiny cat for this purpose. You need either a 1750 and their largest shaft or an actual purpose built homogenizer because edible people have to mix bucket sized amounts of high/exotic viscosity material
we make live resin carts, whats a good homogenizer for 200-300 ml batches? After it mixes are you putting it on a heated stir plate to than make carts?
How hot are you heating the mixture prior to introducing the homogenizer?