What has happened? Tried for wax, honeycomb. .

What's up everyone?

I am very new to concentrates and experimenting with strains at the moment and am yet to see a nice batch. This recent batch, I am having trouble with and could use some help if I may. I started by using a method posted on the forum by turning my blasted material into a wax muffin and repeatedly vac'ed and de-vac'ed until there was not much reaction. I then followed the next step in putting my vac to 5-10hg over 130 degrees on my nuwave 2 to melt down the muffin. From here is where in my opinion it turns bad or wrong at least. It took 6-7 hours and it had only flattened out but remained a solid yellow waxy texture that could be touched but did seem to melt somewhat. I figured it was messed up based on the amount of time it was taking. I then went back to vac and de-vacing it bringing it to 29hg and releasing under the same heat of 130 degrees. It then turned to, what looked like purging shatter as it bubbled continuously so I left it overnight over the same heat but under 29hg for a few hours then back to 5-10hg from there until now which has left me with what seems like a purged oil look with something waxy or harder forming in middle (pictures). This is a 200g run of material so I do not want to waste it by pitching it if I can still salvage anything. Again, I want to get a wax preferably honeycomb. If anyone could tell me not only what I did wrong but also what I need to do to g r t honeycomb I will forever be grateful. Please bare with me as I am trying to learn so maybe one day I can teach others how to make great medicine. Thanks you guys, take care.

It appears to be starting to wax up in middle. Put back in vac at let oil get to 120 and let it go longer. It should finish waxing up. Patience grasshopper

Thanks for the reply, just trying to get this down. We all start from somewhere. I hope you're right and I will try it out. Just seems like it takes far too long compared to what I read. Patience is a must with this, thanks for reminding me haha. Cheers.

lio lacidem said:

It appears to be starting to wax up in middle. Put back in vac at let oil get to 120 and let it go longer. It should finish waxing up. Patience grasshopper

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Also, do you mean oil temp or the actual griddle needs to be 120? Mt current vac temp at 110 for the griddle results in about a 88-95 degree chamber temp

I usually let oil temp go 120 for wax. Some strains wax up quicker then others some take forever.

lio lacidem said:

I usually let oil temp go 120 for wax. Some strains wax up quicker then others some take forever.

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Updated Pic what do you think? If it does continue the right path, do I leave it at same settings to get that dry honeycomb or whatever or do I alter the 120 oil temp/29.5hg. Again, thank you. Glad somebody is helping me out.

looks good waxing up

Yup looking good. Just keep it there til it all waxes.

Usually once its nice and waxed up I turn of heat ans keep in vac til it comes to room temp again.

The random sized and larger bubbles suggest you still have water and butane left in the material, so more purging is necessary.

^ Agreed, looks like water. I cant get away from it in the summer in open column.

Okay, should I continue at full vac and 120 oil temp to purge? I hear some people flip it mid purge and was thinking I'd do the same guessing it helps what's underneath purge easier from the oil.

you should play with flip. you should play around a lot. you'll learn that each strain is unique. each purge unique.

at a certain point, you should be able to play/touch oil at room temp. trial n error. you just gotta try, flip. you may not be a fan of it. but at least you'll find out.

also. what fade said :]

^ that is exactly what you should do

I decided to flip it and I am going to keep it at full vac 115-120 oil temp. The original side combed up nice with only a couple edges holding a shatter like form but they too seem to be making moves. I see extremely small bubbles (if that) popping and reaction seems low. Someone mentioned I need to purge again? So do I need to increase heat or continue this path?

Thanks to everyone for the replies you've helped a ton already and I know this will take time and experience to be where we all want to be and have a better understanding.

That is looking really nice. What fadedawg was saying was you had to purge more (longer) which. You did. Flip and continue looking very nice

So how did the final product turn out?

Maine HomeGrown said:

Okay, should I continue at full vac and 120 oil temp to purge? I hear some people flip it mid purge and was thinking I'd do the same guessing it helps what's underneath purge easier from the oil.

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If you are up to 120F, I would flip and stay there for a while longer under -29.5" vacuum.

If you keep the oven pressure at -29.5" by running your pump at full capacity and bleeding in enough dry nitrogen to keep the pressure from dropping below that, you can speed things up.

The nitrogen atoms act like snooker balls dislodging butane and water molecules that are in stagnant layers stuck to walls and help clear the enriched boundary layer that lies above the puddle surface, and inhibits molecules below it from breaking the surface tension.

Flipping is a good thang! Our experiments with a Mass Spec residual gas analyzer on our vacuum oven exhaust, suggests that immediately after flipping, that initial burst of solvent leaving, which then tames down, is exiting at a faster rate relative to the monoterpenes, during that burst, so key to terpene retention.

It also speed up the purge to flip more often.

Okay, so I pulled it out about 20 minutes ago, I may have over done it but guess better to do that than not long enough. I did a 200g (a bit less) Of small flowers off of my Desert Diesel from Humboldt and the final weight of this honeycomb was 18.7gs. I am fairly happy although I had to be an annoyance to some in asking what to do (I apologize haha) but hey this was my first run so I'll take it. I'll try to take a couple decent pics and you guys can tell me what you think. Flame test following this post. SMELLS AMAZING.

Huge thank you to you all on this one giving me some insight and useful tips. Greatly appreciated.

Green crack, lemon Thai kush, Bubba kush, Amherst sour diesel and a mixed batch coming soon. Crossing my fingers as I know from all of you that each run is different.

Looks great! Glad to help