Homemade oil for my vape pen

Heisenberg said:

Thanks to the info in this thread I've made a small jar of beautiful golden brown raw.

My first batch was dirty and slightly green. I re-examined my winterization process and realized it was just the cheap Walmart coffee filters. I bought some premium cone filters and they work beautifully. So newbies may want to be aware of that.

I appreciate the guidance from everyone. The trouble I'm having now is that when I mix it with liquidizer (licks) it's too runny. Actually it's fine (like nicotine e juice consistency) and It smokes and tastes just fine, but the blackmarket carts I see on the street are so thick they are virtually immobile. I doubt they are using str8 concentrate because I can hit the things 10 times and be totally sober, so what do you guys suppose they are using?

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Go go n chill said:

Ear wax

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Heisenberg said:

Ok thanks. I'll look into it....

Anyway I found several terpene based products intended for thickening or "stretching" your oil. From what I can tell it's meant to give you (sorta) more concentrate to work with before you dilute. The couple I looked into suggested 1 gram concentrate to half gram solution, in which you'll then have 1.5 grams of "oil" to make into ejuice. Not quite what I was looking for and at the prices I see it would be more economical to just make more oil. heh.

Question: If I do a full spectrum warm ethanol extraction can I expect winterization to cleanup the excess green? I know you can add carbon or other media to the solution to polish it, but I'm not sure if this is done in addition to winterizing or instead.[/QUOTE
No I don’t think the ethanol will help

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Go go n chill said:

Nobody has come by this thread in three days that’s got to be a record

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1. I start with resin from a press. I use 220F for ~2 mins and 160um filter bags. Easily get around 25% return. Color of end product directly relates to strain I am pressing. My mother's milk ends up a nice light shade while a hashplant ends up with a much darker shade. I find color doesn't matter too much as far as quality goes.
2. I dissolve the dabs in ethanol and set in the freezer for a few days, usually around 50mL ethanol to 14g of dabs (starting 2oz bud).
3. After winterization separates all the junk, I strain the solution through a coffee filter. (I really enjoy the smell and texture of the remaining waxes left in the filter. Maybe I'll find a use for that too. Moisturizer maybe?).
4. I re-freeze the filtered solution.
5. I then polish the solution a final time using a 0.22um syringe filter.
6. The result is then purged on a coffee warmer with flat-bottom beaker and PC fan to lift the vapors. I really like the fan on top of the beaker because it also creates a swirling movement in the oil. My coffee warmer gets up to about 200F, so the max temp of the oil hovers right around 170F (alcohol boiling temp). Starting with 50mL will usually take about 2-3 hours to purge everything out. Extra attention is definitely needed toward the end. I find my nose to be the best tell if there is any alcohol left. Take a deep huff of warm oil and you will surely know if any alcohol is in there. I like to agitate the solution a lot in this stage. I mostly just shake it up and swirl a lot. Keep whiffing the bubbles until there is absolutely no scent of alcohol. Sometimes I'll even taste a little to make sure.
7. Once it's all purged I mix in just a few drops of terpenes for flavor, but depending on strain sometimes not.
8. I let the mixture cool to room temp before filling any carts. By this point the oil is extremely thick. I have thought about using dillutents or 'thickeners' to get more mileage, but I prefer having these really potent carts that use minimal additives. People really like them. It took me many tries before I found a reputable source for legit CCELL carts. Most of the eBay knock-offs would clog and leak pretty quick, almost gave up. But the real deals work like a charm, phew! My favorite are the glass TH2 series.

Schmarmpit said:

Soooo sooo lonely in here.....

I just wanted to thank everyone here for their help and knowledge to get me going on these. I now have a superb product that I can't seem to make enough of. Funny, because I don't really enjoy the end product nearly as much as just the straight resin dabs, but nobody wants to buy resin and everyone and their mom wants a damn cart. Oh well, whatever!

Here is my process that has been working great for many runs now. Feel free to pick it apart or offer any suggestions as you see fit.

1. I start with resin from a press. I use 220F for ~2 mins and 160um filter bags. Easily get around 25% return. Color of end product directly relates to strain I am pressing. My mother's milk ends up a nice light shade while a hashplant ends up with a much darker shade. I find color doesn't matter too much as far as quality goes.
2. I dissolve the dabs in ethanol and set in the freezer for a few days, usually around 50mL ethanol to 14g of dabs (starting 2oz bud).
3. After winterization separates all the junk, I strain the solution through a coffee filter. (I really enjoy the smell and texture of the remaining waxes left in the filter. Maybe I'll find a use for that too. Moisturizer maybe?).
4. I re-freeze the filtered solution.
5. I then polish the solution a final time using a 0.22um syringe filter.
6. The result is then purged on a coffee warmer with flat-bottom beaker and PC fan to lift the vapors. I really like the fan on top of the beaker because it also creates a swirling movement in the oil. My coffee warmer gets up to about 200F, so the max temp of the oil hovers right around 170F (alcohol boiling temp). Starting with 50mL will usually take about 2-3 hours to purge everything out. Extra attention is definitely needed toward the end. I find my nose to be the best tell if there is any alcohol left. Take a deep huff of warm oil and you will surely know if any alcohol is in there. I like to agitate the solution a lot in this stage. I mostly just shake it up and swirl a lot. Keep whiffing the bubbles until there is absolutely no scent of alcohol. Sometimes I'll even taste a little to make sure.
7. Once it's all purged I mix in just a few drops of terpenes for flavor, but depending on strain sometimes not.
8. I let the mixture cool to room temp before filling any carts. By this point the oil is extremely thick. I have thought about using dillutents or 'thickeners' to get more mileage, but I prefer having these really potent carts that use minimal additives. People really like them. It took me many tries before I found a reputable source for legit CCELL carts. Most of the eBay knock-offs would clog and leak pretty quick, almost gave up. But the real deals work like a charm, phew! My favorite are the glass TH2 series.

I always wonder if I should be vacuum purging, but the carts smoke great and are not harsh at all using the above method. I'm not so sure a vac purge would end up with a much better product. I'd love to hear how others purge who don't have fancy equipment. I could air purge but that seems like more of a hassle to me, though I bet more terpenes would be preserved using low temp.

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Heisenberg said:

Thank you very much for outlining your process. I'm curious if you know what your cost per finished cart is and if you don't mind telling us how much do they sell for? Which terpenes do you prefer? How long before ppl go through one and come back for another?

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Schmarmpit said:

0.5ml carts go for $50, which is actually cheap in these eastern US parts. I'm not enough of a business man to tell you my cost/profit ratio. An abundance of starting material is no issue though, so maybe ~$3 cost in each cart, cost of ethanol (goes real slow when only mixing resin), a few filters here and there, etc. But I've wasted sooo much bud figuring it all out in the beginning. Good thing the stuff grows on trees!

They are potent carts, most people don't come back for several weeks. I don't even bother with the 1ml carts. I make those for myself but I can easily chug through one in a week. I just prefer the resin and little wax pens for many reasons.

I like the terpene blends that Floraplex has out. Skittlez is awesome, and I'm really digging Grape Ape right now. I only use around 1 drop per ml of oil, so that lasts forever. But I like the flavor to be subtle, like LaCroix: a hint of hint of lime. I've never tried natural plant terpenes, just the manufactured stuff. At so low concentration I'm not too worried about it. And then there's oil I make with extra smelly resins, like Lemon G and Sinmints. The terps somehow make it through the process much better than most, and I don't even add anything to those.
View attachment 4327359

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Heisenberg said:

Thanks for such a thorough answer. I too only use ethanol for winterizing resin, although mine comes from bubble bags. I haven't actually produced anything but testers yet. $50 per half gram cart is unheard of around here. Midwest non-legal state. However the area is flooded with black market carts that go for 30-40/1ml. They have a decent taste, great color and thick oil, but they don't get anyone high. Strangely enough ppl don't seem to care. They like the flavors. But I've noticed everyone who has one also wants a bag of dry herb in their pocket for when they actually want to get stoned.

Incidentally, I have some zkittles and grape ape terps coming from floraplex as we speak. Good to hear that you like them. I feel better about my purchase. Would you mind telling me the steps you use to mix the terps? Do you add heat?

Beautiful looking cart btw.

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Schmarmpit said:

I just mix in a few drops of the terps while the oil is still warm and easily mixable. Not while it's still on the heat, but after it has cooled down a bit. I think you will enjoy them, just don't over do it. I accidentally spilled a sampler bottle of Grape Ape in my kitchen as I was making a batch. I'll tell you, I had to work like mad to get that stink out of my house. Smelled like a god-damned monkey house for days! Finally found a crevice that I had not cleaned and the smell was finally gone. Hahah, I was hated for that mess.

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Go go n chill said:

John McCain Rick Simpson oil
Talk about Stinkin

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Go go n chill said:

I was trying to say try to make Rick Simpson oil

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Schmarmpit said:

Soooo sooo lonely in here.....

I just wanted to thank everyone here for their help and knowledge to get me going on these. I now have a superb product that I can't seem to make enough of. Funny, because I don't really enjoy the end product nearly as much as just the straight resin dabs, but nobody wants to buy resin and everyone and their mom wants a damn cart. Oh well, whatever!

Here is my process that has been working great for many runs now. Feel free to pick it apart or offer any suggestions as you see fit.

1. I start with resin from a press. I use 220F for ~2 mins and 160um filter bags. Easily get around 25% return. Color of end product directly relates to strain I am pressing. My mother's milk ends up a nice light shade while a hashplant ends up with a much darker shade. I find color doesn't matter too much as far as quality goes.
2. I dissolve the dabs in ethanol and set in the freezer for a few days, usually around 50mL ethanol to 14g of dabs (starting 2oz bud).
3. After winterization separates all the junk, I strain the solution through a coffee filter. (I really enjoy the smell and texture of the remaining waxes left in the filter. Maybe I'll find a use for that too. Moisturizer maybe?).
4. I re-freeze the filtered solution.
5. I then polish the solution a final time using a 0.22um syringe filter.
6. The result is then purged on a coffee warmer with flat-bottom beaker and PC fan to lift the vapors. I really like the fan on top of the beaker because it also creates a swirling movement in the oil. My coffee warmer gets up to about 200F, so the max temp of the oil hovers right around 170F (alcohol boiling temp). Starting with 50mL will usually take about 2-3 hours to purge everything out. Extra attention is definitely needed toward the end. I find my nose to be the best tell if there is any alcohol left. Take a deep huff of warm oil and you will surely know if any alcohol is in there. I like to agitate the solution a lot in this stage. I mostly just shake it up and swirl a lot. Keep whiffing the bubbles until there is absolutely no scent of alcohol. Sometimes I'll even taste a little to make sure.
7. Once it's all purged I mix in just a few drops of terpenes for flavor, but depending on strain sometimes not.
8. I let the mixture cool to room temp before filling any carts. By this point the oil is extremely thick. I have thought about using dillutents or 'thickeners' to get more mileage, but I prefer having these really potent carts that use minimal additives. People really like them. It took me many tries before I found a reputable source for legit CCELL carts. Most of the eBay knock-offs would clog and leak pretty quick, almost gave up. But the real deals work like a charm, phew! My favorite are the glass TH2 series.

I always wonder if I should be vacuum purging, but the carts smoke great and are not harsh at all using the above method. I'm not so sure a vac purge would end up with a much better product. I'd love to hear how others purge who don't have fancy equipment. I could air purge but that seems like more of a hassle to me, though I bet more terpenes would be preserved using low temp.

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Sunbiz1 said:

Am about to order the non-stick rice cooker for this.
I've done BSO, and dry ice kief extractions with success, so am hoping to make productive use of some potent but seeded bud.

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