Grandpa Gets Oily! Everclear Extracts For Shatter Or Oil!

It's going to be a year unless I come into an unexpected windfall before I can play. High proof alcohol is not available in my neck of the woods.

I've been reading about it. It seems very few are using a still. Brewhaus makes pot stills that can be used to recover the alcohol, and reflux columns to make high-grade alcohol. The kettles are not ideal for extracts, so I was thinking of a stainless steel pressure cooker. Add a tri-clamp ferule to the lid, and away you go. For heat, a temperature controlled induction cooktop should be ideal.

Recovering 90 - 95% of the alcohol should increase the safety factor, and lower costs significantly.
 
Old Salt said:
Recovering 90 - 95% of the alcohol should increase the safety factor, and lower costs significantly.
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It's cheaper to buy Extracohol than Everclear but it's still pretty damned expensive. Figure about $9 a pint after shipping and hazmat fees. I'd like to recover every drop even if it means I have to suck the spent flowers dry. OK, maybe not to that extreme. :)
 
Derbybud said:
Now if you could pack that in some epoxy it would really kick in the thermal transfer
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The way it's designed precludes that option. The dry ice chamber has to be able to come out of the system. The tubing will be plumbed into the main body of the chamber and the dry ice chamber has to slip down into the coils.
 
Derbybud said:
Can you at least tape it up against the chamber? Looks like light in between the coils and the chamber
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No, but I wish I could! The coil becomes a stationary fixture inside the recovery chamber that the dry ice chamber slides into. There is physically no way to assemble the unit with the coils in any way attached to the dry ice chamber. It has to be an interference fit. My first attempt had the coil wound too tight and I couldn't even get the dry ice chamber into position due to binding. Regardless, the coils are touching or in close proximity and I'm hopeful for an improvement in solvent capture.
My mods are in red. I reversed the inlet and outlet to provide for a gravity feed. The condensate has to run through ten feet of copper tubing in close proximity to the dry ice chamber, greatly increasing the likelihood of the alcohol condensing rather than being sucked out the pump. I kinda knew this was a crap design from the manufacturer but the price was right and I'd anticipated this mod when I ordered it. Even Ma and Pa Kettle knew that the key to efficient condensation of the distillate is contact time with a cold surface to scrub off the latent heat.
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  • Media owner Rider509
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So confusing. Can you not just pull vac from a recovery chamber and let it passively collect via temp diff like we butaners do.
 
TheMadDabber said:
So confusing. Can you not just pull vac from a recovery chamber and let it passively collect via temp diff like we butaners do.
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Maybe I'm missing something, Dabbers, but I didn't know butaners recovered the butane. I thought butane was a total loss system unless you had some very expensive capture and compression equipment.
 
Rider509 said:
Maybe I'm missing something, Dabbers, but I didn't know butaners recovered the butane. I thought butane was a total loss system unless you had some very expensive capture and compression equipment.
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I mean define very expensive..... I don't have one (yet I'm going to build on the unit I have now) but they aren't terribly pricey. About a grand out the door for a great one. But I mean commercially you could easily drop 50k on all the fun bells and whistles.( also because it's a 10 to 20 pound rig)

But no closed loop is more achievable than most would think. Easier on the wallet if you can piece it together over time.
 
SquattingBear said:
Hey @Grandpa Tokin, do you use fresh frozen trim or dried cured bud/trim for your shatter? Sorry if you specified earlier :bongrip::passitleft:
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Both. Normally, I will freeze trim and any buddage that’s fluff or undies that didn’t get enough light. I normally run the frozen stuff in the alcohol to extract. Dried and cured buds get smoked or pressed into rosin.
 
Rider509 said:
Dabbers, I'd love to see photos, or even a simple drawing of your butane rig. Might send me off in a new direction!
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Looks like we all need to meet up at your lab and start brainstorming. You got me thinking of all kinds of stuff, but my brainpower is limited...I smoke weed... :ganjamon:
 
I just discovered that OXARC, a locally owned industrial and medical gas supplier with 21 locations (i.e., "big business", suits and ties and that kind of thing) actively markets reagent-grade gases to the cannabis extraction segment of the cannabis market. Mind blown. I guess we're not in Kansas circa 1975 anymore, Toto. It's high time for the feds to reverse their stance and embrace the current reality.
 
Rider509 said:
I just discovered that OXARC, a locally owned industrial and medical gas supplier with 21 locations (i.e., "big business", suits and ties and that kind of thing) actively markets reagent-grade gases to the cannabis extraction segment of the cannabis market. Mind blown. I guess we're not in Kansas circa 1975 anymore, Toto. It's high time for the feds to reverse their stance and embrace the current reality.
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Agreed! I still firmly believe it will happen, eventually.
 
Grandpa Tokin said:
I’ve been doing a fair amount of reading on this subject. Nowhere can I find if it can be evaporated or reduced enough to fix your particular issue. Sorry man, it looks like you’re going to need to start over. If you find a way please share it here so others may find help too.
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So I tried the double boiler step at the end of your process with my mixture. Reduced it by ~12ml leaving ~13ml (shows you how diluted it was). definitely improved it. it is now a more even greenish tint (remember that i heated WITH the plant material so i got a bit of chlorophyll) and a bit less diluted. get a very mild effect mostly in the body after several pulls. considering doing another heating pass to evaporate more. conclusion: what i have is salvageable to a degree, but i will DEFINITELY be following your QWET steps next time
 
iflywitheagles said:
So I tried the double boiler step at the end of your process with my mixture. Reduced it by ~12ml leaving ~13ml (shows you how diluted it was). definitely improved it. it is now a more even greenish tint (remember that i heated WITH the plant material so i got a bit of chlorophyll) and a bit less diluted. get a very mild effect mostly in the body after several pulls. considering doing another heating pass to evaporate more. conclusion: what i have is salvageable to a degree, but i will DEFINITELY be following your QWET steps next time
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At least you gave it a shot. I hope it works out better next time. If I can help, just let me know.
 
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