Disclaimer: I actually don’t know if there’s any real issue here.
Extraction
→ Bucket tek as cold as possible
→ Second run with fresh ethanol for residual cannabinoids
→ No centrifuge for now; arbor press
Winterization
→ 24h -80c, filter using 1 micron paper into vacuum flask
Evaporation
→ Run roto to reclaim most solvents
→ Crank roto heat up to decarb temperatures
→ Get as much decarbed and de-solvented oil out of rotovap as possible using heat gun
→ Alternatively, chill it to temperatures where it could be lifted from the glass
Cart
→ Jam it in a cartridge
→ Vape it
Where is this gonna go wrong? Is the cart gonna taste like ass? Am I gonna be unable to remove it from the roto? Is it gonna have residual ethanol? What am I failing to account for, that other people are doing in a way better way?
This won’t scale up to pounds-a-day shit as my friend and I like to call it, but would it produce a quality vapor? I have a source for dry ice and I’m doing my first extraction this weekend; wish me luck! I’ll post a thread with updates.
Are you getting these carts tested for residual solvent? Depending on your vac pump and parameters roto may still leave .25-.5% residual ethanol in the crude.
Ethanol crude from hemp or mj will probably taste like ass, ethanol doesn’t pull the best smelling/tasting terps and roto decarb will almost certainly cook them and make them taste worse
Emptying your roto flask is gonna suck…ask me how I know…
If the neck of your boiling flask is wide enough to get you arm in i would at least get a little ptfe shim/spreader thing and scrape it while its hot. Works well for me.
Are you getting these carts tested for residual solvent? Depending on your vac pump and parameters roto may still leave .25-.5% residual ethanol in the crude.
Noted, limits in my region are .5% but I will consider adding a vac oven in my process. I definitely will be getting solvent tested.
Ethanol crude from hemp or mj will probably taste like ass, ethanol doesn’t pull the best smelling/tasting terps and roto decarb will almost certainly cook them and make them taste worse
Also noted; there’s a good chance I can’t skip out on steps and I need to just go with a hot plate like StoneD suggests and at least an SPD.
Yeah you’re better off not decarbing in the roto. What size roto do you have though?
I think I probably just have to end up getting a SPD so I can hot plate and do a post decarb distillation unless the oil is in excellent condition post decarb.
Stay away from the arbor press, I’ve used one for the same thing and it pretty much just rings out chlorophyll.
For the rotovap, getting a half moon spatula (and ideally a flask large enough to reach inside) will save you time, effort, and money.
If you’ve got the change to spare, I strongly recommend getting a jacketed glass reactor. Ideal vessel for decarb, and it also solves the problem of cleaning out the rotovap flask as you just pour it into the reactor from the flask while it still has some solvent left over, then you can spray it out with ethanol and dump that in the reactor too. No product loss whatsoever.
I’m on the hemp side but not exactly small time, I’m doing between 1000-1200 lbs/day, went away from rotovaps over a year ago because they just couldn’t keep up with our needs but did a lot of tweaking to squeeze every last bit of performance out that we could while we had them. Now we’ve got a BZB FFE and some 150L decarb vessels that we assembled in house.
I built a vacuum slurp tank to empty 50L rotos, I’m averse to handling glassware that big especially when you’re using an oily thermal fluid to hit those higher temps than you can with water as your bath liquid, doubly so if you’re at altitude. Plus the additional risk of contaminating your product with thermal fluid dripping off the flask.
IMO I’d rather finish in the rotovap, less physical work and you’re more likely to get rid of residual solvents under vacuum at a given temp and duration than at 1 ATM for the same temp and duration.
If you’re going to use an SPD for part of your process you don’t need to “finish” on a hot plate, as you will have to fully decarb/degas/devolatolize in order to ramp temps on your spd boiling flask, otherwise you’ll have crude boiling up out of your flask and going places in your distillation glassware that you don’t want it to end up.
If you are using the press I’d add as layer of t5 (bentonite) and a layer of carbon to pick up any heavy metals, water solubles like sugar and the chlorophyll at least. Running it though a short path also gets a lot better product. But you can get away you putting the oil from the roto in as pen, yes.
platter in mantle works well. I pour it out and let it finish in the platter-in-mantle then pour off onto parchment for eho and into a mini glass condiment bowl for rso (after decarbing in oven for rso) and using a bvv heated cart gun to fill capsules cause raw rso tastes like ass to me
Are you getting all the fats/waxes out with a single -80 precipitation step in your winterization? To check this: take 1 ml of your -80C winterized filtrate and add it to 9 ml of room-temp acetone. Let it sit for 60 min and then inspect it for signs of precipitation. If you see precipitate, your single-step -80C winterization is not working as well as you likely need it to.
On the flip side, 24 hrs at -80C seems agressive to me. You might be crashing out your cannabinoids here. To check this: wash your wax until it is nearly white and/or measure the cannabinoids in your wax. Measuring the cannabinoids in the wax you throw away can be very informative.