Recovering Solvent When Making Oil

[FeloniousPunk]

No, I don't use solvents. I did a lot of research into it before deciding to press rosin instead. Here's one of the sources I used (chlorophill removal is at about the 10 min 29 second mark):

LoL!

It was the use of the still in the video that led me to the chlorophyll tidbit.

Here are before and after pics.

FP.

 

[FeloniousPunk]

Good questions.

So far I know that:

• the cannabinoid content varies from plant to plant of a strain, and even from bud to bud on the same plant.
• rosin, oil, diamonds, and sauce need to be tested for their cannabinoid content, which should be homogeneous
• once tested, rosin, oil, diamonds and can be mixed and matched to achieve the desired bulk concentration
• the bulk product can be divided into doses, accurate within a few percentage points

What I don't know:

• whether rosin, oil, diamonds, and sauce can be tested at home as extracted.
• whether mechanical separation (pressing) separates only the THC or the other cannabinoids are also extracted when pressing rosin through a 25 micron filter bag

I hope to be able to answer these question by next year. I need a cannabis test kit to determine this, and have to save up for one. Until then, I'll make a few test capsules to determine whether or not I got it right.

Hey Old Salt,

I'm looking at this dosing thing in a more general way, more of a reference than scientific fact. I'd love to know the exact profile, but until there is an affordable home tester...

We currently are making oil with a vegetable oil of some sort. We just multiply the mg per g multiplied by grams of flower divided by the number of capsules made. This gives us an idea of strength relative to what we've made before. We use the seed company numbers (or wherever we can find it), i.e. 15% THC. So 10 grams of flower equals 1500mg of THC, divided by 100 capsules equals 15 mg THC per capsule. I believe the oil extraction method only gets 65-75% of the THC out, so 10 or so mg THC each cap is probably more realistic.

Over the winter I'm going to gamble 10g and see what happens when I mix it with glycerin, or something else. Glycerin might be to thick to put into capsules. We will see.

Keep me posted,

FP.

 

[Old Salt]

Heating the glycerine will lower its viscosity.

 

[SweetSue]

Over the winter I'm going to gamble 10g and see what happens when I mix it with glycerin, or something else. Glycerin might be to thick to put into capsules. We will see.

Keep me posted,

FP.

Glycerin only extracts with 40-50% efficiency, so backing it up with a second addition of plant material can increase your cannabinoid load. I don’t find glycerin tinctures satisfying enough euphorically to make it worth my while.

It was a tasty tincture made with DDA though. Delicious, just not very potent.

I use the Megahome distiller to reclaim my alcohol, and I have no concerns about its sealing stability. Cajun used the one I sent him extensively and told me it held up better than the MB2 for making oils.

When you finish the quick washes you measure the volume, figure out how much of that volume would be alcohol, based on your alcohol water content.

Determine how much of your wash would be 80% of the alcohol you anticipate you have in that wash. Measure out that amount of liquid in the carafe and mark with a piece of tape. Dry out the carafe and distill.

When you evaporate you won’t burn the oil. When you hit the tape take the remaining wash out of the distiller and continue on using whatever method you’re most comfortable with.

It makes more sense to me to decarb first. I never had any difference in viscosity by doing so. My CCO is always sticky as hell and must be handles with care to keep it off everything. Lol!

Old Salt..... aim in awe.

 

[FeloniousPunk]

As an example, orange juice contains methanol in minute amounts that are measured in parts per million. We accept the risks, and live with the consequences of our choices.

Oh I'm so sorry for this, I just can't help myself...

...is that why they call it Minute Maid?

Sorry,

FP.

 

[FeloniousPunk]

Hi All,

This is from last week.

Over the weekend I made oil for capsules. I made RSO with an unknown quantity of leftovers and odd bits. Some of the material was suspect in that it was old, not stored properly and dry. Not what you'd roll up to impress your friends. Oh, and I ran some of the ethanol through leftover plant material from making capsules with sunflower oil. A hodgepodge of materials.

Being my first run with my new portable still, and hot plate with stirring stick, I almost burned the oil. I stopped it and was able to add more ethanol to save it. I then put it on the hot plate and evaporated the ethanol off. When it got down to just the oil, I added 100ml of sunflower oil. I put it on the hot plate and stirred it for a while. I then decarbed it in the oven and left it on the counter overnight.

When I went to put the oil in capsules the next morning, I discovered that there was a hard coating in and around the bottom of the beaker. It looked and felt like cooked sugar. Hard like a candy apple. It had swirley patterns, not a solid colour. I should have taken a picture. I added isopropyl alcohol to clean it out (I should have used ethanol). After sitting in there for a couple hours most of it had melted into the alcohol.

I am thinking that the sunflower oil was saturated, and as it sat, the cannabinoids separated. As I write this it occurs to me that I should have added new sunflower oil to see if it would have absorbed the material.

Has anyone else seen this?

I will try to repeat this when I cook up the trim and popcorn buds from this last grow.

FP.

 

[Old Salt]

The sunflower oil, and RSO separated. Lecithin would have prevented this. It's used as an emulsifier, and to maintain a homogeneous mixture. Warming the mix would probably have melted the coating and let you mix it up again before filling the capsules.

 

[gr865]

@Old Salt

Well I had a learning experience yesterday.
I attempted to make some hard candies using life savors, made it before but this time I wanted to use Lecithin as I heard it would help keep them from getting brittley hard.
Well the only time I used Lecithin was making gummies so I did what I did then and added Flax seed oil and lecithin to warm FECO/CCO shake the mix well to combine and after the lifesavers have cooled to below 250 I added the mix.
It never set up, sort of crumbs and once in the the mouth it is grainy not hard or even gummy.
It works, but will be hard to dose.