Hey there, I am back here after having tried a lot of techniques… to no avail.
I have a centrifuge, a pressure cooker purger, a hotplate…
I am trying to make the thca crystals crystalise and crash from a rosin press. The problem is i only have access to bad flower and old cured ones.
Is there a fool proof way of using the tools at my disposal to make the thca crash ?
i have tried the fuge, cold curing, hot curing, stirring… nothing works. the rosin stays runny/sappy.
Any tips ?
Does it have to be solventless and do you have any analytics on the biomass you are trying to process?
Yeah. Toss in solvent lol
I would like tonstay solventless
I have no idea the proportions as i do not grow my own…
Might have to get over that and switch to water based extraction.
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Have you been making flower rosin or hash rosin?
What temps have you been using.
Tell us How you have tried. Not just WHAT.
Because all of those things can be done wrong.
Starting from “bad flower” probably counts as wrong, but you haven’t even defined what you mean by that…
(Tell us what is “bad” about your input…are you using hemp?!?)
Do you mean “potency”?
If you have no thca, you won’t get thca to crystallize. If your flower is old and decarbed, you don’t have any/much thca.
If your flower was extracted and then sprayed with D8 or some other synthetic, yep you guessed it; you won’t crystallize thca
So knowing your input it key…
So i’ve done this before. I’ll show you the results.
It will LOOK like it can form - hell, you may even have little formations happen, but when it comes down to it you won’t crystalize, usually if you even get that far but don’t have the correct amount of THCA - POOF. All goes to bubbles.
This is from about 3 years ago - i’ve since gotten it to where I can get regular crystallization without much issue but you may have a similar arc as I’ve experienced. THCA is your friend if you want any sort of formations happening
Also filtration is your best friend. The more crap you get out of your rosin mix the better. I can say the principal difference between the two sets of pics you see if the top ones are with less filtration, dry material, etc - bottoms are way more filtration, nicer material made out of bubble hash, etc.
Cyclopath is bang on, as always. You essentially need at least 60% THCA in your extract, otherwise forget about any diamond formation. The older your biomass, the lower the THCA content in your extract. Fluidity of that extract is important as well; if it’s too thick, there will not be enough molecular motion for the THCA atoms to find each other in solution. Fluidity comes from either high terp extract, or solvent.
If you’re using old biomass, you essentially NEED potency data. You could be working with 1:1 THCA:THC in your extract, which will never crystallize. Get a potency test done on your rosin before wasting any more resources! Or use fresh frozen or recently dried bud and try again.
Nice work. Was the color that dark when you started? Or is that your heat cycling?
(Edit: you added more pictures!!)
What temps & how long did that take?!?
@Juliette needs way less defined crystals than those in the first set, assuming the goal is thca isolate (to decarb, for carts?!)
Eg that last jar would probably spin out beautifully…
As I don’t have a large rosin collection, I’m unclear how often rosin “sugars up”…I’ve certainly had examples of every other extract sugar on me.
Maybe @moronnabis can point @Juliette down the correct rabbit hole
Yeah that first set of pics (dark ones) were all flower or sift rosin with less filtration than I use now. All pics except one with the fully defined crystal were done without any thermal cycling whatsoever
That was the fun stuff. Different one in the first pic of the nice pretty diamond though.
Also thank you very much, bro! @cyclopath 
I would say, I really have no idea what “Juliette” considers “”rosin””. The description of her starting material seems opposite to “fire in, fire out” first principle. In this case shit in shit out. Is it dry sift and press of year old material? Or does she try to rehydrate. What ever she is calling pressed rosin, can you smoke it…and or can you smoke what is left behind. And the temp of the platen is certainly most important…if there is no water and terp in biomass material there is very little to drive the mass transport excepting decarbing to THC and causing liquid phase THC to flow…
And a lower temps you can certainly leave the THCA behind. We need a lot more data to think about it.
What makes you think there is any THCA in the rosin to crystallize? Juliete, vapers could care less whether that mixture has sugar or crystals. Do you really think crystallization is going to give you a value added product?
@cyclopath , As far as water process, it is not really a “savior” for trim, or lousy weed. Same principle as above, if it is not fire you are still wasting time. If your biomass has not been carefully dried to maximize your acid component…how can one extract something that is not there?
Speaking of “fire”: Really good bud and bubble hash and fresh rosin are not really that different in terms of potency.
I have seen fresh strawberry banana BUD drop a grown man in his tracks.
It is really the “mixture” present that when subjected to vape pipe temperatures that maximizes the THC content of the aerosol produced and inhaled. This is what counts…the whole thing about diamonds is front end marketing non sense. Fad no less. The “fire” is as much about non-cannabinoid, chemical-enhancement of cannabinol-aerosol formation and mechanics as it is THC or THCA content of the material. The vape pipe construction and design is designed to produce an aerosol. The aerosol formation mechanics are controlled by mixture composition in combination with heat transfer and flow mechanics of the vape pipe. Magic out.
Water hydrates can bring the “fire”…needs a lot more research and field experience …I’m just suggesting that
There may be some “there there”…every now and then we need some Heresy.
Wow ! Thank you all for your interest. I didn’t expect this return.
To clarify… the ONLY thing i cant control is the source material. I cannot grow and i don’t know if what i am getting is old or not, when it has been dried or not. the thca/thc ratio.
My main objective was to have some foolproof procedure to press the flower i get and filter out the thc crystals. That way, i can remove all the pesticides, d8, chemicals and dirty stuff.
With the thca crystals i can then re-add commercial, distilated, solventless cbd in different proportions.
The purpouse of this procedure is three folds:
1)purify the starting product because i dont trust the source and i would be keeping the thc crystals from it only.
2)have a product that does not clog the carts because they are convenient and dont smell which opens up the possibilities of experiences.
3)to be able to play with the cbd/thc proportions. By measuring exactly the thc i put into the carts i can finetune the effect. 80% thc for pain removal and trippy nights. And 10 to 20% thc boost the potential of the cbd. That helps with tobacco withdrawal. The purpouse also is to retain a functionning psychological aspect. Between 10 and 20% thc is the sweet spot. It removes anxiety, adds a serotonin effect and removes the crave for tobacco and alcohol without putting you in a non social state. Daytime cart.
I dint even know if the project is doable. I have tried pressing hash (it came out horrible, sappy, even winterizing did not work. I think a lot of chemicals have been added to it)
The closer i got was pressing chottle tek for 90degres C for 30 seconds. I rehydrated at 62% before pressing. Heat up on contact for 10 seconds. The rosin came out almost yellow and it was sappy. I tried cold curing and hot curing and didnt get enough crystal formation to be able to pass it through the fuge. When i tried, the whole thing melted thru the filter after 9 hours.
I even thought about readding cheap botanical terpenes to force the thc crystals formation. I even sourced 5 micron sheets and maybe this will help with filtering out the plant material.
My purpouse was to mix perfect solventless cbd with perfect pure thc crystals.
Edit 1 : the rosin i recuperate is dabbable and the effects are on par with what i would feel smoking real buds. There is leftover reclaim that didn’t vape even on highest setting so i know its not full melt.
Edit 2: do you think i could add a solvent to help with crystals, then fuge it to remove all traces of it ?
Edit 3: i am trying to maximize the entourage effect. This will not be a commercial endavour.
Interesting concept:???
“”Perfect solventless cbd””. Define
“”Perfect pure thc crystals”” Define
This in non-commercial …just for your own pleasure?
Because someone will supply you with “the ONLY thing i cant control is the source material. I cannot grow and i don’t know if what i am getting is old or not, when it has been dried or not. the thca/thc ratio.”
Dream on…you are wasting everyone’s including your own time. It would be better to believe that Santa or the Easter bunnie will bring you some.
Sorry…to say.
Do you have any pictures of the biomass you are trying to process and what contaminants are you afraid of?
What kind of hash did you try to press? Something you made yourself or something commercially available? If commercial, is this hash moroccan/bought in europe?
I think your best bet will be to extract with a non-polar solvent like heptane, as cold as you can, and do some CRC/adsorbant filtration.
The pefect cbd would be the one i would buy that came out of solventless extraction such as the ones provided by highkind in the uk.
The perfect thc would be the crystals i would have gotten out of the flower products i buy thus removing all the contaminants.
It can’t be done… then i respect your opinion. I think i will pause the while thing until i can source better material.
I will try to research heptane and crc absorbption then. See what i can find.
Yes this was moroccan hash… the moment your press it, you know its dirty.
Best
So you’re pressing flower?!?
Make hash THEN press.
Or you’re not going to get your rosin clean enough.
What makes you believe they are producing CBD isolate in a solventless manner?!?
I’m not going to claim it’s impossible, but I find it highly improbable…and they don’t seem to think they carry any solventless products
Anything is possible to make a quality product.
What type of inputs are you using for your solventless product or looking to use, also if able to there is a thread that can help, there is quite a lot of reading & photos to it & “fun banter” but you can find some gems in the rosin threads
Remember prep is everything!
Moroccan hashs average potency is around 20% or so, the rest is god knows what.
As cyclopath stated, make bubblehash from your material and press that if you haven’t done so already.
Do you have any pictures of the material you are trying to work with?
In theory you could first make rosin with your press, agitate it to produce a budder texture and then press it again.
Thank you all for your help.
I will be posting pictures soon.
The problem with bubblehash is that it needs a freeze drier and they are expensive and nowhere to place in a small environement.
@cyclopath
The filter is kinda messed up i guess but they state that their products are full cannabis plant extracts using a distillation to keep the terpenes profile. Isn’t distillation solventless ?
