Grandpa Likes To Squeeze Stuff: Solventless Extracts, Rosin, Pressed Here!

Hi all. Can someone give me a rundown on the screen micron size for dewaxing concentrates? I have a med buchner filter funnel but I think it's too coarse. May as well point me to a good source also.
I use Amazon. I’ve used 25 micron bags for bubble hash and rosins. Depending on the consistency I even doubled-up some.

For flower I use 160 micron.
 
I'm at a loss, but I'm not doing something right.

Problem: shit for returns

The worst case of this was 15g of good, full melt bubble hash. Got maybe 1g back from that. Should have had 10g+ from that.

I've been getting about 10% back on cured flower.

My goal is live rosin, coming from bubble hash (obviously cutting a bud and pressing, or using fresh trim makes for way too watery of a substance.)


I have a 10-ton Driptech by Dabpress:

10-dabpress-driptech-png.2181386



Of course I added the pump and pressure gauge to the above.

Plates are 3x5.


I have several pre-press molds. A good, heavy one from dabtech (cylinder style, 30mm?), and two other knockoff ones. One that's rectangle, and wide, and the other is like 1.5in square or whatever.


Been using the dabpress cylinder one.

120 micron bag for flower, 37 micron for hash.

"bottletech" approach (as in cylinder smash like a can)


temp: 200 for flower, 160 for hash


going by the amount of pressure recommended on the dabpress site, then using their formula for the 30mm pre-press size, it says that to hit their recommended pressure at the plates it needs to be XXXX on the pump gauge. It was something like 1500 on the gauge or whatever, and gauge goes up to 10,000.



I've tried it a bit higher on the gauge, and for longer, but seems it didn't do much other than make the rosin a lot darker (from using more time and exposing to heat longer.)



I don't really care about blowing out a bag. I won't lie, I'm not going to bother cleaning all that mess out. lol



There's got to be some little something holding me back though. I mean c'mon... less than a 10% return on some excellent, full melt bubble hash? yeah, something is way off.

I've read and read and read. Watched video after video after video. No idea what in the world is causing such a poor return, but hopefully someone has an idea that I haven't tried. I'm at a loss, that's for sure. To the point I'm ready to put it on craigslist and look into one of those "Source Pro" vacuum alcohol extractor rigs. :rolleyes:
 
@multiVortex I’m not sure what the problem is. I wish I could help more. Here’s my stoned thoughts from what you wrote:

1. Are both plates heating correctly?
2. I’m not knocking your weed, but that’s usually the culprit when it comes to poor return on bud, but the return on bubble is what makes me think the plates aren’t heating correctly or just not enough pressure (I can’t imagine that’s the problem).

That’s all I got at the moment.
 
Had family come an destroy my whole garden broke some lights an took the rest all except 1 150 w QB light an my lil mars ps1000 but its kinda fuked up but i managed to clip the cord dwn an rewire the wires so half of it atleast turns on now lmao. But yea they took about 2 pounds alil over of all my highbrix buds i had curing plus ripped up all my 14 of my other hb plants tht i still had growing am whatever gear they didnt take they destroyed so i only managed to find a few photo clones they missed in my cl ol ner bucket in the bathroom but a dam tree fell directly on top of all 3 i ahd going outside so now idk if ill b anle 2 clone the clippings if they will make it yet or not i hope so but we will see. Then i found a few auto beans i had put offto the side but thts only jus a few beans which i los 2 cause my dogs ate the fukn plant as it was growing an 2 didnt germ so i got the 4 going now is all thts left so gotta get all new gear an pretty much start from scratch again. But ill get there jus guna take sum time.
Freakin sacrilege defiling your grow space like that. I am blazing one in sympathy for you bro
 
Freakin sacrilege defiling your grow space like that. I am blazing one in sympathy for you bro

Yea i was pissed. Ut im starting to get things back on track now jus gotta order some auto beans now till i get my new tent order in then ill be back in full swing. But for now autos will have 2 get me threw lol
 
@multiVortex I’m not sure what the problem is. I wish I could help more. Here’s my stoned thoughts from what you wrote:

1. Are both plates heating correctly?
2. I’m not knocking your weed, but that’s usually the culprit when it comes to poor return on bud, but the return on bubble is what makes me think the plates aren’t heating correctly or just not enough pressure (I can’t imagine that’s the problem).

That’s all I got at the moment.


Thank you GT, I appreciate it.

I grabbed the handy dandy temp gun, and the plates are good. I've spot checked 160F, 180F, 200F, and 220F.

I've checked that the plates were aligned correctly.


The only thing I can think of is more pressure. I mean give it the business and put a little oomph into it. Get it up to 6k or better where it takes a lot to get it higher.


I’ve also considered giving it a quick press with the plates to even further compact it, then adding more.


I’m testing with some “extra” flower from a really good haul, and doing about 3g-4g per run to stretch it out. But it’s cured flower, and returns seem to be smaller (I still have a few things to try from a suggestion earlier, but I’ll leave it at that) as expected.


It’s the hash that has me perplexed. Full melt should have been significantly higher, yet it wasn’t. Hoping I can keep testing on the flower so I don’t waste the hash.
 
I just started pressing a few weeks ago for the first time, and have been getting mixed results. The last press I did (190F) I went REALLY slow, then once I had about 500 lbs pressure I backed it off and repositioned the bag a little. Then I did my full press (mine is 7 ton) and waited about twice as long as I normally do. Finally pulled over 1g out of 7g cured (leafy) flower. I love doing presses, it means less trimming and more dabbing! This thread a few months ago got me excited about pressing for the first time.
Not sure why I felt like I needed to chime in here, it’s none of my business, but man I felt that pain when I read it.
 
Thanks. I've been there too. However, I was fortunate in many ways in terms of johnny law. I got lucky, and it wasn't from them not having enough opportunities. It runs in my family. Grandpa was bad, then got on the wagon for close to 30 years. Grandma died and that was that. Drank himself to death in just under 10 years. My brother wasn't as fortunate as I. He did have a dwi about 8 years ago, then lucked out. Right up to the point he passed out for a sec, missed the curve in the road, and put his car into the corner of someones fence. Called a wrecker, gave his insurance info to the owner, and then the cops showed up (tow company called them.) They do their thing, he gets the bracelets. It cost him all he had saved up to his name ($5500), but his lawyer got him off on a technicality. The officer hadn't calibrated the machine, and his training on doing so had lapsed. So charges dropped. That scared him straight, and he's been good for just over 2 years now.

I was getting bad, but functional. Spending over a decade in Uncle Sam's Canoe Club didn't help. A few years after I got out, I was watching all this happen around me, and something just clicked. I'm not sure what, why, or how, but it was like magic and gone.


Anyway, you're right. Enough of it. Back to getting squishy with it.


My first plan of attack with flower is to try running nekkid again, with more pressure. Maybe up the temps just a hair to 200, but I really like the lighter colored rosin. Not that you can tell once it's in edibles, but whatever. Good in, good out.

What baffles me is the hash. I have 4 or 5 dozen, 1g temple balls. I'm tempted to take 5 of those and see what happens. Not sure if I'll be able to do it tonight or tomorrow. But I'd like to see what happens.
 
Well, be careful back there or @Mr. Krip will have you turned into a citrus junkie. :rofl:

He got me good the other day. Now I’ll be in for it with a lemon, a lime, and an orange tree for my deck. :rofl:
Actually, I'm not personally a big fan of citrus. I like to grow more exotic/collectible type tropicals like Dragonfruit, Persimmons, Pomegranate, Passion Fruit, Loquat, Sapodilla, etc. I like the stuff you really don't find in the supermarkets! ;) But, you asked for a recommendation on citrus, so that's what I gave you, Brother! :D
 
Actually, I'm not personally a big fan of citrus. I like to grow more exotic/collectible type tropicals like Dragonfruit, Persimmons, Pomegranate, Passion Fruit, Loquat, Sapodilla, etc. I like the stuff you really don't find in the supermarkets! ;) But, you asked for a recommendation on citrus, so that's what I gave you, Brother! :D

True enough. You did mention that.

Sapodilla? Really? Wow. That one gets me. Not my style for a plant, but much love for those who do. I do like tropical stuff. Tough to really do very well here though. Something about freezes in the winter that for some reason, they just don't like. :rofl:
 
True enough. You did mention that.

Sapodilla? Really? Wow. That one gets me. Not my style for a plant, but much love for those who do. I do like tropical stuff. Tough to really do very well here though. Something about freezes in the winter that for some reason, they just don't like. :rofl:
There are some varieties of figs that do very well up north and can even tolerate freezes. Most people have never had a fresh fig since they don't ship well, but they're incredible and much better than Newtons! :rofl:
 
There are some varieties of figs that do very well up north and can even tolerate freezes. Most people have never had a fresh fig since they don't ship well, but they're incredible and much better than Newtons! :rofl:


I’ve ran across figs, but not tried them. Only listened to those who did. Fresh dates are good too. No durian for me though. :laugh:

I tend to do your run of the mill stuff outdoors. Tomatoes, peppers, corn, watermelon, cantaloupe, elderberry, strawberry, blackberry, gooseberry, etc. All stuff you can get, but so much better fresh off.

I do herbs too. Various mints, basils, some chives, cilantro (a citrusy pheno), cherry toms, and sage.

This year is just the second list. Recharged the dirt and letting it cook this year. I do have a couple toms on the deck in buckets though.
 
I'm going to give it a shot! Dinner was late, so no real time to do it before lights out. I could use my green lights, but they really are more to keep from banging my head than doing anything intricate.

Tomorrow I'll warm it up though. It seems the first step is more pressure, as much as I can give it. (Slowly, of course.)


Something I've noticed though, with having a gauge, is that say you pump it up to 2000. It sits there a second, but then can drop a good bit pretty quick. I guess that's from the puck compressing and flattening out, but something I probably wouldn't have thought about without having a gauge. So thankfully I have that part right and can see it to keep pressure on.
 
I don’t have a gauge on mine, but it’s 20 tons of smash. Like you said, I go very slowly too. Here’s how I do it:
1. Measure out weed for pre-pressing (normally I make 2 x 5 gram pucks). I do this while the plates are warming up.
2. Pre-press the pucks (I use a cylinder type).
3. Put the pucks in bags and get them ready to smash.
4. Put parchment between the plates and then put the pucks in.
5. I start very slowly and apply pressure until the plates are securely holding the pucks and I can see they are not going anywhere.
6. I leave the pucks firmly pressed between the plates and start my timer. I let them sit and heat up for 1 minute. Maybe applying slightly more pressure to keep the pressure constant, but not really smashing.
7. After the minute of warm up I start applying constant pressure very slowly until I see the goo. It depends on the weed a great deal, but normally I squeeze slowly and constantly for 3 minutes after the 1 minute warm up.

I hope that helps a little.
 
Thanks @Grandpa Tokin, I really appreciate that. It’s pretty close to what I’m doing. There is a minor diff or two.

Up to now, I would weigh out material, fill bag, pre-press, take up slack, cut bag, fold, and into the parchment boat. This area might be one tweak, but with hash, maybe not?


I have been pre-warming, pretty close to what you do. No real pressure, just enough to keep it where it’s at. (Like 1 more pump after the plates make contact.) Been waiting 1-2 minutes, using the timer on the phone.

I’m getting ready to go down and warm things up to play around with it. I’ve got excess to play with, so that is ok. Several different strains, so maybe.

The flower part didn’t bother me as much as the hash though. I definitely missed the mark on that one. And bad. Beyond bad, even.

If I can see improvement on the flower, bagless testing aside, I’ll sacrifice 5 or 6 grams worth of temple balls to try it out.
 
I don't have a press.. was looking for ideas on what else to do without really buying anything else
Hiya. Talking about solventless extracts back there (before solvents were extracted) I wanted to say - infused oil can be really useful. Capsules or edibles.
I give them a supercharge by running spent rosin pucks in infusions (3oz to half a cup of EVOO :rofl: ).
How does everyone else use their spent pucks?
Solvents suck.
 
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