Rosin Press: Information Thread

Graytail it would be just fine. And yes the cold would help to gather up the sappy rosin. The key is to get some kind of insulator, like thin wood or non corrugated cardboard so that the heaters you choose won't have to work so hard to heat the plates. You can even remove the plates and keep them in a separate box and to all the world you just have a sweet hydraulic press. I think you will really enjoy it. There is nothing like watching rosin bubble out of your homegrown!
 
I just ordered two cheap adjustable soldering irons from
Amazon and two digital temperature controllers too. Should have them next week.

Now just have to find something for plates. A 3" slice of 6" round aluminum is $66, could use two of those. What are you guys using? Aluminum? Steel? Stainless?
 
DrZiggy said:
the high5 is under $300 complete, no?
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That sounds about right. It was priced higher when it first came out. Shipping cost is high, but it weighs about 30 pounds.

Young Yoda said:
It's 300 and doubles as an enail which is cool. But I hate the idea of leaving tons of rosin in those cakes..
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I would not say that I'm impressed with the yield, but it takes up little space and is easy to move around. I'm very happy with it, but I use it as more of a treat than an everyday thing. I just save the pucks and will use them the next time my wife wants a batch of butter or coconut oil.
 
It's looks like a guy could buy the inexpensive High5 now, and mount everything to a big H-press later ... :hmmm: ...

I've seen some ugly wear on arbor press teeth, too - they're not all that sturdy. :straightface:
 
OttawaGreen said:
Also, does 6" plates seem appropriate for 12 ton? Or is smaller, better? Trying to learn from others mistakes. Going to use a big 12 ton bottle jack so will have plenty of force.
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I use a 12 ton on 6" plates. I went to our local metal yard. They charge by the pound and have a "cut charge" if the piece is bigger than you want. They charged me $3 per pound and the two 6"x6"x3/4" plates weighed 5 lbs. = $15. I had them cut to size since it is a pain for me to cut that much metal. They added $2. So my total for the plates was $17. I back my aluminum plates up with the 1" forged steel arbor plates that came with my press. This is so the press doesn't destroy the aluminum plates. Two 300W heaters = 600W cost another $9. It heats the plates to 220F in just a few minutes while my garage is at 50F. If your area is really cold it might take an extra 1-2 minutes.

I think 6" is perfect for 12-20 tons. You can press smaller amounts of herb if you want more pressure. The plate size doesn't matter much as long as they are big enough for the largest amounts you want to process. All pressure is applied only to the herb separating those plates. If you put a small amount of herb between them, the diameter is small, like 2" = 3.14 sq-in. So I'm putting the full 12 tons on about 3 sq-in. If I press more herb, the diameter increases to about 3.5" = 9.6 sq-in. Now the 12 tons is being applied to a much larger area (about triple).

With the price of PIDs these days, I love the heater/PID combo. You can dial in any temp you want and verify what is going on. PIDs are also very useful for a variety of other tasks: grow room temp control, BBQ smoker, sous-vide cooking, etc. My cautions if looking at PIDs would be two things:
Make sure it handles the temperature range you want. Many are designed for sous-vide and do not work above 100C (212F).
Make sure it can handle the electric load you want it to control. I added a 10 amp SSR to my build do I can run up to 1000W of heat.

To "harvest" the rosin, I'm having good luck with it while still soft and gooey. I place the parchment on a perfectly flat, smooth, clean surface. I scrape the goo up with a utility blade held at a low angle. I found a 12"x12" glazed ceramic floor tile works great as a work surface (or you could use a mirror). If you want to work with the rosin at higher or lower temps, the tile holds heat/cold well. It takes a little practice but I leave virtually nothing behind most times with a simple wiping motion on the blade.
 
Since my wife cut some parchment for me, I went ahead and did a run of GG4. I did eight 5 gram pressings all at 220F. Since the paper was ready, the total time was right at 10 minutes. It will take another 15-20 minutes to gather the rosin. I've been averaging 15+% yield, so the 40 grams of GG4 will give me 6-7 grams of rosin. This is what one of the pressings looks like and how the parchment cleaned up with a utility blade while still warm.

5G @ 220F on 6" plates
5G_Press-1.jpg


I tried to zoom in to show what was left on the paper but sunlight was beginning to fail. This isn't my best work, but it was quick and what is left on the paper is insignificant.
5G_Press-2.jpg
 
Major, might I trouble you for more detail on your press and how exactly you got the plates hooked up with the press and PID? I know you had some elegant solutions to share.

Also, I've come across some aluminum press plates online specifically for this, that are ready to hook up to PID or come with one. And I notice the top one is designed to fit right onto the ram. Is this a problem since the block is aluminum?
 
Young Yoda said:
Major, might I trouble you for more detail on your press and how exactly you got the plates hooked up with the press and PID? I know you had some elegant solutions to share.

Also, I've come across some aluminum press plates online specifically for this, that are ready to hook up to PID or come with one. And I notice the top one is designed to fit right onto the ram. Is this a problem since the block is aluminum?
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Yoda-

The two links below show the plates, press and PID. I improved the clamp mounting the top plate to my press. You can see the clamps in the two links. I also use a larger piece of pipe to make 5g pucks to press and have reduced the temp's to 220F. The only tricky part of making the plates would be drilling the aluminum if you don't have the proper tools. I cut threads in the plates to mount them to the steel backing plates (not necessary but very convenient). I think a hydraulic press WOULD beat up the top plate pretty quick if mounted directly to the ram on the press.

In addition to the three holes shown in the top of the plates, I drilled three other holes in them - two in one and a single in the other. Each plate got one of the heater cartridges, and one of the plates also got a threaded hole to accept the temperature probe of the PID. The temperature is read by the probe which is plugged into the front of the PID (in yellow). The heaters are just wired together in parallel and then to a standard 115V electrical plug, which plugs into the back of the PID. When the PID senses the temperature is too low, it turns on the heaters. The PID quickly "learns" how long it need to turn on/off the heaters to maintain the desired temperature. The temperature set point and amount of allowed temperature variation is set with buttons on the front.

DIY post #1
DIY post #2

I hope this answers your questions. If not, ask away. :cheesygrinsmiley:
 
Major PITA said:
We have lift off! :thumb:

I got the heaters wired up and installed in my plates.
Heaters.jpg

Ready_to_Press.jpg


For my initial test I used 2.25 grams of year-old Pit Bull bud. Without the stem, I'm guessing it NETed right at 2 grams, maybe a little less.

I made a "Puck-O-rator" TM from a piece of 3/4" pipe. Put the bud in the pipe. Put the pipe in my 100 year old vice for stability and hit it good with a 4# hammer. Puck-O-rator v2.0 is in R&D. :cheesygrinsmiley: I want a larger piece of pipe so I end up with about a 1" puck, but this is what I could put my hands on this afternoon.
Puckerator-1.jpg

Puckerator-2.jpg


This is a well pucked bud. :rofl:
Puckerator-3.jpg


I set the PID to 130C = 266F. A little on the hot side, but I'll dial in the temp that works best for me.
PID_130C.jpg


This is the result. The razor blade looks rusty but it has never been used for anything except cannabis. The "rust" is caked on kief and resin. The yield was 0.44 grams for roughly 22%, depending on the exact weight of the bud minus stem.
Dab12.jpg
Dab22.jpg


Total cost, if you buy everything new is about $160. That includes the plates, PID, heaters, 12 ton press and misc' hardware.
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Intrigued! I like your setup at $160 fer sure. Have you dabbled (haha!) with different temps yet?

What would the porus substance be called that the rosin get squished through, medium? Ima call it that. Is there a general favorite "medium" among the rosin group? Has there been any disaster's of rosin being completely stuck and hard to scrape off?

Edit : Apparently I was back a some and just saw the lower temp. All caught up (not really). :cough:
 
Gaffle said:
Intrigued! I like your setup at $160 fer sure. Have you dabbled (haha!) with different temps yet?

What would the porus substance be called that the rosin get squished through, medium? Ima call it that. Is there a general favorite "medium" among the rosin group? Has there been any disaster's of rosin being completely stuck and hard to scrape off?

Edit : Apparently I was back a some and just saw the lower temp. All caught up (not really). :cough:
Click to expand...

I may be doing it differently than others, but I use parchment to catch the rosin and nothing porous to filter rosin or squish the bud through. I make the pucks before pressing and they help contain the leaf, but I do get tiny bits of debris in the rosin. It doesn't bother me. I scrape the rosin off the parchment at room temperature w/o any problems. After pressing, I remove the wafer of leaf immediately then let the rosin cool for a couple of minutes (usually while I'm pressing more). Once in a while I tear the parchment, but that's no big deal. It just means I can't reuse that piece of paper. I think the most important thing is to work CLEAN. Any crud on your work surface causes problems for collecting the rosin. I also find it easier to transfer the rosin while at room temp. When cool, it gets to be like stiff grease and won't flow or come off any tool easily. When warm or room temp, it is like honey and can be scraped, dripped, etc. and will settle into your container quickly.

BTW, I have pressed from 180F to 225F. I like about 220F. I want to try pressing more at 210 - 215. :thumb:
 
Major PITA said:
I may be doing it differently than others, but I use parchment to catch the rosin and nothing porous to filter rosin or squish the bud through. I make the pucks before pressing and they help contain the leaf, but I do get tiny bits of debris in the rosin. It doesn't bother me. I scrape the rosin off the parchment at room temperature w/o any problems. After pressing, I remove the wafer of leaf immediately then let the rosin cool for a couple of minutes (usually while I'm pressing more). Once in a while I tear the parchment, but that's no big deal. It just means I can't reuse that piece of paper. I think the most important thing is to work CLEAN. Any crud on your work surface causes problems for collecting the rosin. I also find it easier to transfer the rosin while at room temp. When cool, it gets to be like stiff grease and won't flow or come off any tool easily. When warm or room temp, it is like honey and can be scraped, dripped, etc. and will settle into your container quickly.

BTW, I have pressed from 180F to 225F. I like about 220F. I want to try pressing more at 210 - 215. :thumb:
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major couple thing:

i think u will be happy with slightly lower temps

scraping: you can use a dab tool or thing to gather the product off the paper, once you get a little bit on the tip, u just keep rolling it and dabbing it and it picks everything up. Those little streaks left add up! I use a ti dabber and as I roll the tip around the paper the conical end turns into a sort of dunce cap of rosin.

Wish I had ur diy skills, I really like your clamp to attach to the press.
 
What temp do you like BK??? :high-five:
Is your rosin room temp or cooler when you collect it?
Honestly, this process is so fast, I'm not sure I'll switch. If I gethered up all the rosin I've left on all the parchment pieces I've used so far, I'm sure it would be less than a couple of tenths of a gram. For me, that's not worth spending much extra time or effort on. I just gave away a bunch of bud and still have pounds down in the garden I'll never harvest. My goal is to turn one pound of bud into about 2.5 oz. of rosin as quickly as possible.
 
Major PITA said:
Yoda-

The two links below show the plates, press and PID. I improved the clamp mounting the top plate to my press. You can see the clamps in the two links. I also use a larger piece of pipe to make 5g pucks to press and have reduced the temp's to 220F. The only tricky part of making the plates would be drilling the aluminum if you don't have the proper tools. I cut threads in the plates to mount them to the steel backing plates (not necessary but very convenient). I think a hydraulic press WOULD beat up the top plate pretty quick if mounted directly to the ram on the press.

In addition to the three holes shown in the top of the plates, I drilled three other holes in them - two in one and a single in the other. Each plate got one of the heater cartridges, and one of the plates also got a threaded hole to accept the temperature probe of the PID. The temperature is read by the probe which is plugged into the front of the PID (in yellow). The heaters are just wired together in parallel and then to a standard 115V electrical plug, which plugs into the back of the PID. When the PID senses the temperature is too low, it turns on the heaters. The PID quickly "learns" how long it need to turn on/off the heaters to maintain the desired temperature. The temperature set point and amount of allowed temperature variation is set with buttons on the front.

DIY post #1
DIY post #2

I hope this answers your questions. If not, ask away. :cheesygrinsmiley:
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I do have a few more questions!

Don't you get conduction to the steel plates or the rest of the press when the heaters are on?
What exactly is that top piece you have mounted onto the ram called? (buying everything new here)

Also, I would call myself electrically challenged so the wiring and PID/heating thing and probes is all a complicated subject for me to understand. I did see your directives on buying a PID but they probably aren't enough for me..:scratchinghead::biglaugh: Can you help me figure out what I'm looking for?

Along that vein, what exactly is the plug that connects to the cartridge heaters? You mean a 115V plug like a 3pronged wall outlet plug? that you spliced to the heaters?

The high5 cartridge heaters seem to have a round recessed plug which I was expecting to plug right into the PID.. Am I wrong?

Maybe you could drop more photos of the electronics for me?

Thanks big time for the help! I did see your other posts, I've been following your work! Well done, and thanks for sharing! :Namaste:
 
@Yoda-

Let me put together some info and get some more pictures. I'm in the middle of pressing and trimming so it will take me a bit, but I'll post details later on. In your picture, those are the type of heaters I use and the white box is a 25A SSR. The black box looks like the back of a PID unit but I can't tell for sure. Every PID is a little different in the wiring.

I'll be back...
 
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