Celt’s Cavern Of Chaos

Morning mate, ya I haven't done much updating lately :oops: so here's a rundown of what's been happening here in the Cavern.

Anybody here ever watch old Laural & Hardy movies, or the Three Stooges? That's been my grow room renovation :rofl:

After the previous issues, and building the Mountain Man pump, which BTW was never intended to actually run my system, just something to kill time and allow me to determine how much flow I wanted ;) I actually ordered a 1600gph pump that had inline capability.

After setting up the new pump, flooding my grow room multiple times, taking many showers of solution both septic and what it is supposed to be when well aerated, I could never get the return flow to the external tank working properly. This system needs to be fool proof and low maintenance so that if I take a position that keeps me away for days/weeks, it will run itself.

The jetting system for aeration, although it works well aerating the solution, has a tendency to plug up, something a little forethought could have prevented, oops. I've also decided that although the cutoff 45gal drum made for a good reservoir in the tent, it tends to create a lot of overspray that winds up on my floor.

All these little things add up enough to annoy the hell outta me and rather than keep beating my head against the wall, I went back to the drawing board and redesigned the entire system. New buckets with a different return setup, new plumbing for both feed and return, and I new larger reservoir with a lid.

Given that off-the-shelf plumbing parts just aren't designed for the purposes I need, some things have had to be custom made which is time consuming. Especially when transitioning between PVC, ABS and PP, hard pipe & flex hose.

The return plumbing was the hair-pulling part, but other than testing, its nearly complete, leaving the setup of a new reservoir and jetting system. The reservoir is easy, the jetting system is in my head but I have yet to build a mockup and test it. That may be started today, but more likely tomorrow, trip to town today to resupply for the next 2 weeks is likely to ruin half my day :rofl:
 
‘Danny Boy, the pipes the pipes are calling...’

Sing this while you work. Famous Celtic song about plumbing.

‘....from basement down where septic microbes flow.’
 
Did someone also hit you in the head with a 2x6 they were carrying over their shoulder when they turned around? I can picture something like that!

Good decision to start from scratch after all the shit-showers. :welldone:
 
Few pictures to keep you guys entertained (drooling maybe ;)) while the Cavern is under renovations

Some side projects that became priority when I realized I was out of gummies and low on oI and a quick rundown of my oil making process, prior to cooking it.

I found early on that if I bust up my cured bud, I get better returns on my oil and it doesn’t change the amount of chlorophyll picked up. The problem wits this though, is that he bud is resinous enough it quickly gums up my 3” buster and I refuse to use a coffee grinder, they lose too much resin. With having to stop and clean the grinder often, it was taking me about a couple ours or more to bust an ounce :(

As I am busting the bud, I dump it into a 150 micron filter and collect the dry sift. Along came the super buster to speed things up and save my wrists

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With this, 200g busted in 20 minutes :rofl:

After busting everything up I had in that bag, I had 254g of bud to wash and 17g of beautiful dry sift

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this went into a dark jar to be pressed. I have no parchment paper and the store was out when I got groceries Saturday.

All the bud went into a 1 gallon jar and then into the freezer for a few hours. Once frozen, ~ 3/4 gallon of -18C ISO was added and the entire thing shook for a couple minutes and then put back in the freezer over night. The next day the wash was filter through a 150 micron screen into a 2nd jar and put back in the freezer. The bud was also saved to and froze for a second wash to see if it is worth bothering, I never have in the past.

After spending a night in the freezer, the wash was filtered a second time through a 25 micron screen to remove a lot of the waxes.

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You can see the difference after just filtering but this is put back in the freezer for winterizing a second time :) Cooking will likely be tomorrow but normally, I leave washes winterized about a week before cooking.

Back to the dry sift, I am working at pressing some now using tin foil, until I know I can get it free of the foil, I am not pressing it all :rofl:

Here is a picture of it before I started, stuff was already starting the process under its own weight. I had to use a knife to cut a chunk out :)

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Good day all,

The Cavern has been quiet with little going on. House renos and bud processing has took priority over Cavern renos.

So here is an update on the hash and oil from my last post. I got 22g of thick clear oil and 17g of pressed hash. Do NOT use aluminum foil for pressing, it’s a prick to get separated lol

The hash before I removed the stubborn stuff still on the foil
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Aside from house renovations, I have also started on this for hash and oil production
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Two days later, this is what I have accomplished so far

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about 3 gallons busted so far and

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3/4 oz (78g) of dry sift
 
What method are you using to get the keif? Two days seems like a long time. I mean, I know you’re not saying it actually took you two full days but I can sift that much out in 20 minutes or so through a bubble bag.


Edit. I guess I could have written this more tactfully @The Celt. Tone is lost in posts I know you know what you’re doing! :D
 
I have been busting the bud and sifting through a SS 150micron screen. Just dry out of the bag, no dry ice and not trying to turn it all into hash, the busted bud will be turned into oil as well. That dry sift came from 2+ lbs of bud. I get about 7% return of very clean dry sift and another 8% return of very thick clean oil from washing the busted bud.

I haven’t tried a second wash yet to see if I can get more oil. I only want the best anyway lol

If I was using a bag and dry ice, I’d likely hit 18-20% return on the hash but would likely have some green matter in it.

This is the screen

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doing it in my kitchen, so just room temps, and bust up about an oz at a time, sift it and then dump the “green” in a bucket to be froze and washed later.

Note: I tape a piece of parchment paper to the bottom to catch the sift and empty it when I have 15-20g.

Not sure how the picture colours appear on here but in person the sift looks like pale brown sugar, zero green tinge to it.
 
No dry ice here either I just dry the bud, crumble it up and shake it through a bubble bag. Same process really but maybe easier to do large amounts. I sometimes freeze the bud first when I have room in the freezer. Mostly this just makes it easier to crumble up without getting my hands sticky.

Alcohol must be a lot more plentiful or cheaper where you are. I can barely get my hands on a couple 500 ml bottles once every month or two. $10 each and I have to order it by phone ahead of time and meet them outside the pharmacy wearing a moonsuit.
 
No I haven’t. I can’t think of a reason they would sell it there but from what you say -there must be some. I will check. Thanks.
 
Evening Shed,

I had a look at both the dry sift and the pressed hash under a cheap digital microscope. I can see no green, just the entire trichomes (head and stalk), so aside from the Cannabinoids and terpenes, it would just be the plant waxes that form the trichomes.

It looks much different, under the microscope, than ice water hash. The ice water seems to be more just the trichome heads.

I also found it takes more work to press it. After heating and pressing the ice water hash, it kneaded and rolled into a ball very easily and became very gooey and soft. A ball of it would start to flatten under its own weight.

The dry sift, after heating and pressing, was sticky but somewhat hard. You could fold it, press it, tear pieces of like brick hash. It required a LOT of kneading to make it soft and mouldable.

I would like to say it cures like temple ball hash, the ice water would, but that first ball is not going to last long enough :rofl: but the next round will get to cure :)
 
:thanks:
 
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