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

Solventless Extracts (Rosin) Pressed Here!

Hello everyone, and welcome to Grandpa’s squeeze box. I’ve been receiving quite a few emails lately asking me about my extracts; specifically, about solventless, so I thought I would share exactly what I do again so everyone can see. This little tutorial is all about making solventless extracts some like to call Rosin. Basically, we’re simply going to apply heat and pressure together to extract the goodness inside those trichomes. Everybody ready? Jump on board...it’s going to be a smashing good time!

Before we get started let me explain what equipment I’m using. Every piece of equipment and each component can be purchased on Amazon. I made my device from a 20-ton press, aluminum blocks, a proportional–integral–derivative controller (PID controller), ceramic heaters, a thermocouple etc. I’m not going to go into detail here about building a diy press. This can all be accomplished with a hair straightener and a clamp too...that’s how I started. Let me also throw in this caveat...this is not a press I would use for commercial applications. This is entirely for personal medicinal use and enjoyment.

To build the press I basically drilled two holes in the top aluminum block and one hole in the bottom block. Two of the holes are not tapped and are used to slide the ceramic heaters into the center of each block. The other hole is tapped in the top block to house a thermocouple so the PID can read temperature. The PID is wired to the heaters, thermocouple, and power cord and I housed them all in a small black box. I had to tap a few more holes in the top block so I had a way of attaching to the press. Because I already had the press the other components cost me about $80-$100. There are YouTube videos on how to build and wire one if you are as inclined as I was:






Enough of that nonsense! You want to see some squeezes...

First off, I should mention that the proceeding is extremely addictive. You may find yourself having fun while you do this...just sayin.

Okay, step one is growing good weed to smash. If you’re having troubles growing enough dank to smoke then you probably don’t want to smash it. I normally have an abundance...yes, yes I do! :ganjamon:

Today we’re using about 10 grams of Grandpa’s GG (in two 5 gram bags). It’s pretty good stuff and is just coated in trichome goodness. I breakup the bud into manageable pieces so they can be stuffed into some 90 micron bags:






I then did a cold pre-press on the two pouches. I use a smaller 6-ton press to do that. I’m using this RAW parchment paper and it really works nicely:




I place the flattened pouch into the parchment and center it in between the two warm blocks. The first run I used 230 F (all readings from my PID. May not be accurate). The second run I lowered the temp to 225 F. I felt like the first one was almost reaching too hot because of the smell...not bad, just hot. If that makes sense. You can see a difference in the Ooze color IMO.



I press until I feel contact with the material and wait 30 seconds. After that I give a full press. I don’t have any gauge to tell me exactly how much pressure is being applied, but I can testify that it is a shit-ton. I smash the hell out of it...duh! I know, not very scientific, but I don’t really care. I get what I get...and it’s oh so good.






Well kiddies, here’s what it looks like coming straight out of the press:



Yummy! All I do is simply gather up the goodness and flatten it out. It’s dabbable immediately and I always sample a little after completed.










I hope you enjoyed watching Grandpa squeeze something. I know I enjoyed it immensely. Solvent-less extracts can be fun for the entire family. Be safe!


Edit: I don’t squeeze a second time any longer, but it can certainly be accomplished. I save the smashed pouches for a later alcohol extraction.
 
Awesome tutorial and thank you very much.
Does the 230f and 225f heat decarb the cannabis? Or do you decarb before the press. I guess you don’t need to decarb for dabs, but I would use the extract for edibles.
It is a nice process and I love it.
 
Awesome tutorial and thank you very much.
Does the 230f and 225f heat decarb the cannabis? Or do you decarb before the press. I guess you don’t need to decarb for dabs, but I would use the extract for edibles.
It is a nice process and I love it.

No, smashing doesn’t decarb; not enough time. As you stated, I don’t decarb unless I’m making oil for edibles. In that case, I take the squeezed rosin (or oil) and throw that in the oven at 250F for about 15 minutes or until it stops bubbling. Once it’s stopped bubbling you know it’s decarbed.

I have tried decarbing the raw plant material and then squeezing, but it didn’t work well. I find squeezing cured bud and then decarbing the oil afterwards to be best for me.

I show how to decarb the oil in my other tutorial on page 3 (hope that helps):

Grandpa Gets Oily! Everclear Extracts For Shatter Or Oil!
 
Edit: I don’t squeeze a second time any longer, but it can certainly be accomplished. I save the smashed pouches for a later alcohol extraction.

Do you use alcohol extraction on just the bag, or do you toss the squishies in too?
 
@Grandpa Tokin I know your bags say guaranteed and reusable. Have you found this to be true? Do you get unlimited uses?

I think that would be cool..... but everything wears out I guess.

Awesome....I just found this..... pffff....MOTM (can't be too great if I missed this)
 
Do you use alcohol extraction on just the bag, or do you toss the squishies in too?

Yes. I put the whole thing, just like it is, in the alcohol. Usually, I save up about 15 or so and then run the alcohol.

@Grandpa Tokin I know your bags say guaranteed and reusable. Have you found this to be true? Do you get unlimited uses?

I think that would be cool..... but everything wears out I guess.

Awesome....I just found this..... pffff....MOTM (can't be too great if I missed this)

I’ll be honest, I have not reused them for squeezing. After the alcohol run I’ve been throwing them away. I’m sure they could be used, but not worth the effort for me. I just buy new ones.
 
I'll be sure to post in here if and when I get the rig. Bottle tech is basically stuffing the nylon sack vertically and it squishes like a soda can. Its supposed to help increase efficiency. I'll have to try it a couple ways and see what works best.

What? Now why didn’t I think of that? Oh heck yeah, I’m trying that tomorrow @Rich Farmer ! I’ll post pictures.
 
Okay! Thanks to @Rich Farmer for giving me a heads-up on the “Bottle Tech” yesterday. Naturally, I had to try it to see if there’s much of a difference.

I tried to make it as even as possible. I measured out as close to 5 grams as possible for each. Once again, I’m using my very own GG4...it’s good weed!



The “bottle tech” bag ended up with 5.04 grams and the “flat tech” (I just made that up) got 5.08 grams:



I did a pre-press on both bags:


I then smashed both bags the way I normally do, with my PID set to 225F (again, not sure how accurate Both of them had nice Ooze colors, but even with my calibrated eye, I could not tell a difference in product weight just by looking at it.









My first observations were...the bottle tech bag had a blowout. I’m very scientific like that...
However, not too much in the way of contaminants so all is good.

Then, it was simply a matter of gathering each and weighing them out:








Conclusions: Even with the blowout, the bottle tech achieved the higher yield. I’ll take a 1.66 gram return on 5.04 grams (33%) all day long. The “flat tech” isn’t bad, but if I can “squeeze” a tiny bit more then why not...right?
 
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