By far all the reading and searching leads to BHO being the easiest and the fastest oil extraction there is.
A few questions that i am having a hard time finding the answers to are:
Does the Butane dissolve fats and lipids in the flowers, if yes? How do we remove them?? Is winterization necessary or can coffee filters do the trick?
When you have the extract, how do you decarb it to make edibles? Vacuum pot would do both?
Does frozen bud help during extraction? Of course i i believe an open run would require more re-runs because we cannot control the soaking time in an open blast system, so would frozen bud help?
Yes, they will dissolve into the butane. Colder temperatures such as a dewaxing column will keep waxes and lipids from being dissolved at colder temperatures.
Winterization is not needed when extracted properly. Coffee filters help, but do not solve the problem. Time of soak, cold temperatures, and and quality of material are are a factor.
There are several ways to decarb you the wax, time and low heat around 240°F. Vacuum pot I’m unfamiliar with, but if the above temps are controllable, it would work.
Freezing the butane, and the material will help, but you will still get undesirables in this form of extraction. They do make dewaxing columns for a little bit more that can be used in the open blast form. It’s a small step from completely open blasting.
I’m still working on trying this part. From what I can understand you use a “wax liquidizer” to dissolve it into a usable form. I haven’t gotten into making carts yet.
95 % plus ethanol ( is it necessary to use food grade? I understand all solvents must be purged )
Can i use Isopropyl alcohol? For the winterization
Vacuum pot for purging or hot plate stirrer to purge the extract? I am confused as to what to buy here, the vacuum pot can only be used for purging mainly but the magnetic stirrer can be used for loads of other stuff as-well but is it an effective purging machine?
Then of course comes the consumption stage, where i can make edibles or maybe vape juices. Either would require MCT ( the carrier oil for eating ), terpenes for vape juice viscosity.
Again boss the above is just knowledge i gathered from the internet, so i’m not speaking from my own experience. In-fact i’m as green as they come.
I cannot link that here, but I would check
shop BVV. Com they’re out of Illinois and have parts available for anything you’ll need.
They have vacuum chambers, you’ll need to purge the butane out for 48 hours under a full vacuum. Heating pad not necessary but helpful. BVV will have that also. Don’t need a huge one, but depends on how much upgrading you intend to do.
Take a word of advice among any grower here, it doesn’t matter how much you grow, you’ll never keep up sometimes. Haha. An extractor eats ounces, and I assure you once you get some knowledge and experience, you’ll be blasting most of your crop, because it’s fun.
Yes, it’s worth it. An old school extractor dude, said that I should get one no matter what. I haven’t regretted it.
You could either. Butane doesn’t exist in liquid form at atmospheric pressures, so it does naturally purge, but some always gets trapped. I always recommend to purge after extraction.
This will depend on your budget. If you don’t mind buying lots of butane every run, and then you figure the cost of operation. You may do fewer runs than I do, so your cost would be a lot lower.
However, as you figure in more runs, your cost for butane will go up, and closed loop will bring the cost down because the butane is reused. Bringing the cost of each run down. Some gets lost, but not all of it like open loop.
The downside of purchasing a closed loop over open blasting is cost, there’s a larger upfront cost, open systems are cheaper but come at the cost of butane later. It’s really up you to decide which way has the best value.
Sorry for chewing your ears (in this case your eyes) off, hehe:
Still unanswered in my brain
Is rubbing alcohol a viable solvent? ( People say use food grade for obvious reasons, but when purging is it really necessary? )
What filter sizes do you use when blasting with Butane, and then what filter do you use when winterizing and then filtering. Right now im looking at 25 micron filter bags, 45 micron Filter bags, 90 micron filter bags. (all nylon food grade, rosin bags).
I would recommend food safe alcohol. BVV has food safe alcohol by the gallon, or by the 500 gallon if you need a lot.
I believe it’s 150 micron screen to filter between the column and collector. Seems to work well, the soak time is more important for what gets picked up than the filter.
For winterization I would ask @Myfriendis410 how he does it, he’s using a source turbo. Winterization isn’t necessary when using a dewaxing column.
If doing topical tinctures, Isopropyl is fine. If smoking or edibles it is definitely NOT okay. You could easily poison yourself. Denatured won’t work either as it’s got an additive to make it inedible. Anything lower than 190 proof won’t evaporate due to the percentage of water present.
I do my washes for dabs in dry ice with a very short wash of ten minutes. Plant material is removed from the solvent as quickly as possible and I normally run immediately without returning to the freezer for winterizing. Winterizing is to help remove unwanted waxes and lipids.
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