Vacuum procedures for shatter

Hash and Stuff Pre/Post-Processing
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Hey gang.

Long time extract enthusiasts and new to the forums here. I won’t waste your time with too much but I’m a lab tech in the industry, have been a member of grow forums and was very blessed to stumble upon this GOLD MINE.

So heres my question…

How do you all operate your ovens???

I’ve found that things are done differently than I would do them.

My SOP would be…

let the shatter slab sit in oven 30 mins to an hour to acclimate to higher temps.

Vacuum the oven as much as possible without the muffin hitting adjacent surfaces.

Allow time for the muffin to bubble and collapse.

Vacuum all the way. Like as low as you can pull.

Whenever the slab off gasses I’d just pull it back down to as near perfect vacuum as possible.

Flip it after a couple day and repeat the above.

…

I get that temperature plays a large role in purge times. In my opinion you would purge hard and long at cooler temps, and less long at higher temperatures.

My buddies “tek” (I’ll openly admit I’m not a fan of the term lol) includes a 24 to 48 hour purge at high temps (110f ish)

I’ve also heard for terp retention using 5 to 7 day purges at 80 and 70 degrees f respectively.

Again these all assume a (mostly) full vac.

So if the oven is only vacuumed down to say -26 to -28 Hg, what is and isnt happening?
(Let’s assume a middle ground temp of 95f)

Are terps purging but not butane?

Is butane purging without terpenes?

Are both purging at equal rates but not as effectively as they could be at full vac?

To me it doesnt seem to be as important as to what is being purged but how effectively?

So I guess my question is…

Is there ANY advantage to less than a full vacuum at any stage in the shatter purge other than to control the initial muffin?

And am I correct in assuming the extra time it takes a slab to finish under an incomplete vaccum subjects the shatter to terp degradation and darkening of the material from added time under high heat???

Thank you in advance for any and all input!

-Dabs

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If u vac to say 28 29 after your first flip and let it sit for about 30min u will see new bubbles form from within the slab…the advantage of that is that you can pull the trapped butane closer to the surface before hitting a deeper vac. Heat has trouble reaching the slab at a full vac… 25-29 range allows for the heat to work better. It travels through the metal trays but even then that’s not as efficient. I noticed hitting full vacs right away after a flip traps the residual butane in the slab. Vac in increments of 1 after hitting 25 every 30 min. Only hit full vac when you’re leaving it overnight.

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why wait for it to come up to temp? that 30min to an hour people wait i can get it to full vac in less time by cycling the vac a few times and it causes no issues with getting perfect shatter.

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It honestly closer to 30. The thought is your letting the slab reach higher temps before you pull vac. Higher temps cause a more viscous material that should off gas more effectively (compared to a room temperature slab being vacuumed).
It’s something I read on hemp hacker recently but something I have always done as it just made sense in my head.
But again that’s added time on heat. And really what I want to find is a good method that minimizes exposure to heat to retain terpenes and preserve coloration. I’m just not sure if there is any SOP that proves more heat and shorter vac is superior to low heat long vac, or the other way around.

Do you mind sharing how you vac? So you pull down bit by bit or pull then burp?

And @Waxplug1 do you mind sharing how often you prefer to flip? And I think I see how your process works and makes enough sense (heat doesnt conduct well in a vacuum). But the end goal is to still slowly pull to a full vac over the course of a few hours right?

How many flips do you do on average and how many days in the oven would you estimate?

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I’ll pull as large of a muffin as I can and let it sit a few minutes. if it doesn’t start to collapse and allow me to pull further vac i’ll drop the vac until it collapses and repeat the process. a few times of that and i can inch it to the mid 20’s. I keep repeating until I can get to full vac. usually around 90-100 degrees to start and I drop it to 80 when I hit full vac. If i had more to do there I’d maybe just set a hour timer but usually getting the oven to full vac is the last step before I’m done for the night.

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I flip once in the morning and again at night…in the morning I flip and pull to 25 then go up by 1 every 30 min…at night i pull a full vac and leave overnight…temps at 95…the more slabs in the oven the longer it takes to purge

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I wish I had the equipment to do a timelapse video…i could explain it so much better that way…u gotta look at the slab also and see how its reacting to fine tune your purging process

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I tried this last night and I noticed my slabs start to “honeycomb” which I think is a good thing since before this strain was not.

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