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I love oil. It is by far my favorite way to consume THC. So I figured out how to make it, because fuck paying what people charge for what basically amounts to a little bit of trim, a little bit of solvent and a little bit of time. I can do it myself for cheap, and so can you!
This is something that I've adapted and modified and brainstormed and (especially) experimented on for a long time now, and I think I've finally got it down.
For the materials, I'm going to list what I use. I happen to have lab glass, but you can make substitutions where you need to. Just make sure to test any plastics with a bit of your solvent to make sure that they won't dissolve.
SAFETY PRECAUTIONS! DO NOT SKIP THIS PART!
Risk of fire. Do not perform this extraction near open flames or sparks. Do not smoke in the vicinity of this extraction. If a fire starts, cover it with baking soda and cut all heat sources. Use adequate ventilation. If at any time you feel lightheaded or dizzy, seek fresh air immediately. Damaged glass may explode when heated or rapidly cooled. Always wear oven mitts when handling hot glass. Always make sure to use clean solvents. Do not perform this extraction in any place where it may be illegal.
Plant material (you get out what you put in, so use high quality pot) 70mm Buchner funnel Filter paper (fast-draining type) 500 ml vacuum flask 3 x 125 ml Erlenmeyer flasks Pyrex dish Razor blades Acetone (anhydrous preferred but not necessary)
-------------------------------------------
Procedure
Step 1:
Measure out your solvent first. For the first pull, measure out 14 ml of solvent per gram of plant material. For the second and third pulls, measure out 12 ml of solvent per gram, per pull (IE: if you were running 10 grams, you'd have 3 flasks - one with 140 ml, one with 120 ml and another with 120 ml.) The reason you use extra solvent on the first pull is because the plant material will soak up some of the solvent. Put all 3 flasks of clean solvent in the freezer for at least 4 hours. The colder, the better.
Step 2:
Break up your pot very finely, removing all seeds and stems as they will impart a bad taste in your final product. I like to use a coffee grinder. It doesn't have to be powdered, but it should be a good bit finer than what's required to roll a joint.
Step 3:
Set up your Buchner funnel on top of your flask. Place the filter paper in it and put your plant material on top of the filter.
Step 4:
Slowly pour your solvent over the plant material. Remember to use the flask with the most solvent for the first pull. Do not overfill the funnel. Make sure to cover all your plant material, but don't fill to more than 3/4 full. Do multiple runs or buy bigger equipment if necessary.
Wait for your solvent to drain completely, using only gravity, before starting the next pull. Do not press the plant material at any point to remove solvent. A vacuum pump may be useful to get the last bit of solvent out of the last pull, but never use a vacuum on the first or second pulls.
Pour each pull into its' own separate evaporation dish or combine them all. Each pull will vary in potency, taste and yield.
Step 5:
Evaporate using a fan. Once your oil no longer smells of acetone, place in a pre-heated oven at 200F for 30 minutes to remove any residual solvent. Let cool slightly before collection. Collect your oil with a razor while warm but not hot. You should be able to pick the evaporation dish up without any protection, but it should still feel very warm.
(Optional)
Step 6:
Dry the oil, then leave it in the pan - do not scrape it with a razor as in the last step. Fill your evaporation dish 3/4 of the way with distilled water. Heat this in your oven at 250 F for 30-60 minutes. Allow the dish to cool to room temperature, then place it in the fridge for two hours, or until all oil has precipitated. Do not freeze. Discard the water and repeat a total of 3-5 times.
Step 7:
Add a minimal amount of warm solvent (anyhdrous preferred) to the pan and re-dissolve all your oil. Filter if necessary, making sure to wash your filter paper with more warm solvent so as to not lose product.
Step 8: Evaporate with a fan again in the same pan. Scrape up with a razor when completely dry and still warm but not hot.
That's pretty much it. It's extremely simple and extremely effective. Yield ranges from about 15-25% depending on the pot used. This was designed for concentrating good, organic pot. I do not suggest using any plant material that hasn't been properly flushed, as this will concentrate the bad along with the good, creating bad flavors, reduced potency and potential future health problems. So no brick weed. It'll work just fine, but you have been warned. I recommend that you smoke this from a proper concentrate pipe. My favorite is the nail/dome setup, but there are others out there. Failing that, hot knives have never failed any hash enthusiast.
Note: I do not feel that vacuum purging is necessary with this method, as long as proper water washes/drying methods are used. Acetone is miscible with water (unlike butane) and therefore should theoretically be effectively removed with water washes and sufficient drying.
----------This is, like everything I may write, a work in progress. It will change slightly as I get more experience and learn more.----------
-------------------- I don't know but I been told it's hard to run with the weight of gold
The other hand, I heard it said it's just as hard with the weight of lead
Questions and comments are very much appreciated, lol. Seems like not too many people are interested in oil.
-------------------- I don't know but I been told it's hard to run with the weight of gold
The other hand, I heard it said it's just as hard with the weight of lead
I'd say quite the contrary, oil has gotten extremely popular over the years. I used to never see anything for smoking concentrates at pipe shops, now every single one I go to has 1/2 a case just dedicated to smoking concentrates. Problem is, to make oil consistently you need a lot of material. If you're not growing making oil is unbelievably cost prohibitive.
When it comes to the hash world, IMO, oil is fucking king lol. I'll take properly done oil over water or dry rubbed hash any day. If you are growing it's ridiculously easy to make and requires much less work then a batch of water extracted stuff.
Quote: coda said: I'd say quite the contrary, oil has gotten extremely popular over the years. I used to never see anything for smoking concentrates at pipe shops, now every single one I go to has 1/2 a case just dedicated to smoking concentrates.
Haha, I agree. I was just making a comment since nobody had posted anything.
Quote: Problem is, to make oil consistently you need a lot of material. If you're not growing making oil is unbelievably cost prohibitive.
IME, smoking oil (with a proper piece) makes your weed go farther than just smoking the plant matter. Even if you're only buying an eighth at a time, you can still run it and get the same percentage back as if you ran a lb. Yeah, it's much more expensive than the all-DIY method, but it's a hell of a lot cheaper than basically paying someone else to do the work, usually with materials that are more expensive, and you know exactly what went in it.
Quote: When it comes to the hash world, IMO, oil is fucking king lol. I'll take properly done oil over water or dry rubbed hash any day. If you are growing it's ridiculously easy to make and requires much less work then a batch of water extracted stuff.
I've never grown (might start soon - got any required reading for me?) but I've made oil for years now. It's definitely the best IMO.
Quote: Nice write up
Thanks!
-------------------- I don't know but I been told it's hard to run with the weight of gold
The other hand, I heard it said it's just as hard with the weight of lead
Lol all I can do is point you in the direction of the forums and suggest you pick up Greg Greens and Ed Rosenthals grow bibles. They'll contain everything you need to know about growing your own. Shit is ridiculously easy and once you realize how foolish it is to buy your smoke, you'll never go back. I just harvested 3/4 lb two weeks ago for what amounted to 50-100$ in electricity, 30$ of nutes, and like 3$ worth of soil. Retails for about 3k in my area, but I don't sell it. Once you start taking a look at the numbers it's pretty hard to justify what you spend on weed per month when you could probably get close to 20x that for the same money.
Plus when you grow you get a bunch of free hash making material (trim and small buds) and you don't have to use your pretty buds if you do t want to. I do though, I use at least one of my prime colas for hash oil, nothing compares to it, so blonde it's almost white and a BB sized amount has the potential to knock you out. One if my friends had to go lie down for a few hours after not heeding my warning of way too much.
Hmmm I think I'll whip up a couple grams tonight, getting tired of smoking boring buds.
Haha, awesome. I've lived in a house where weed was grown (and grown well, I might add) but I'm still a little spotty on a few details.
The cost is the main reason I wanna grow. I'm not worried about yield as much as quality. I wanna keep my plant count low and keep my head stash large, lol. I know the lights, ballasts, carbon filters and little random shit will cost me a good bit, but in the end, I'm sure it'll be worth it.
I've actually been thinking about (once I do start growing) just trimming the big fan leaves, drying it, taking out the stems, curing and then running it all into oil, leaves, bud and all. I figure if nothing else, I can trade for weed if I get tired of it, lol.
-------------------- I don't know but I been told it's hard to run with the weight of gold
The other hand, I heard it said it's just as hard with the weight of lead
Ok, I'll will just be using grow shop pricing here. I'm sure you can find much better deals if you search online, but shop prices tend to be a decent baseline at the least. I personally would suggest going with a 600 watt light for a personal grow as they are the most efficient for smaller grows. I'm also assuming here you will be going with a hand watered system here (no hydro), if you want to go hydro there is a few additional costs with that.
600 w ballast - 250-300$
600 w lamp - 60-120$
depending on brand, ultra sun is great and run 60$ per lamp
Grow tent - 200-300$
you can build your own if you want for 1/2 the price
Nutrients - 60 - ????$
here is where a lot of grey area comes in, you can buy a lot of nutrients and spend a lot of money, or you can buy basics and spend very little. Totally up to you on this one
Fans - 100+$
again, depending on size and number of fans you can spend a lot or a little here. Rule of thumb is to buy a fan with a CFM rating which will exchange your air 2x per minute
Air cooled reflector - 100-200$
cool tubes are cheap and effective but provide poor reflection, larger reflectors are more expensive and bulky but will distribute light more efficiently.
Carbon Filter - 100-300$
Digital Timers - 20-40$
I suggest buying digital timers with a battery backup. They're more reliable IMO, easier to set up, can handle multiple programmings (and in some instances even handle DST changes), and if your power drops they will keep the time just perfectly. I can't tell you how many times having a battery back up on my timer saved my butt during storm season.
depending on size and brand (can DIY if you want for 1/2 price)
Genetics - free - ?$
Yah, again, what you decide to spend on genetics is up to you. You can pull a seed from some 'mersh, hit up a med club for a clone or two, have a friend give a cutting or two, buy packs of seeds etc. If buying seeds 80-120$ is pretty common for a pack of seeds.
I usually tell people that want to get into growing and want to do it right that around a 1200-2000$ upfront investment is what they'll need. Yes, you CAN grow for a lot less if you're willing to use sub optimal equipment or take part in some DIY projects. If you want to keep mother plants you will need a separate closet and at the very least some fluro lighting to keep them happy. It's not necessary to keep moms, but it shortens your growing cycle by at least a month if not longer. It seems like a lot of cash, and it is, but comparatively once you get a harvest or two under your belt you've effectively paid off all equipment costs. Once the major equipment is purchased, you're done, unless you want to upgrade! At that point all you need to re-supply are nutrients, lamps, and growing medium (and if you're really into recycling you can reuse your growing medium most times). I re-up my nutes and lamps every two harvests as well as buy a new brick of coco. My electric costs for my entire grow room (veg and flowering cabs) is 30-40$ per month. So I spend around 480$ on electricity, and 400$ on nutrients, growing medium, and lamps per year. Less than 1000$ for 6 harvests, even at 10 oz's per harvest which has been my lowest lately, that's 60 oz's per year. IF I retailed (again, I DON'T sell) each of those oz's at the going rate in my town (400$/oz) I'd gross 24K$ (hell, even if you kept 1/2 of that for you, that's still 12K$ gross). I'll let you do the math on that one, but in the end, it makes that 1200-2000$ startup cost and 900$ operational cost look pretty miniscule, no? If it's going to be impossible to save up the money, just buy a piece at a time when you can. Start with the bigger pieces, and eventually you'll be able to get the rest in one go and start up. At the very least you could invest in a fluro setup, get some genetics, and get some plants in veg. You can keep them in veg perpetually and just have them waiting for when you can afford your flowering setup. Then, when you have it, all the hard work is done and all you need to do is pop your girls in the flowering room, flip the lights, and get to pulling in massive quantities of herb.
Hit up our forums here man, plenty of places to guide you in how to get setup and running!
Quote: coda said: Ok, I'll will just be using grow shop pricing here. I'm sure you can find much better deals if you search online, but shop prices tend to be a decent baseline at the least. I personally would suggest going with a 600 watt light for a personal grow as they are the most efficient for smaller grows.
Yeah, I was thinking about 600 watts. I wanna do about a half-dozen plants or so (adjusted eventually to suit my smoking), plus a mom. I'll definitely be ordering online, as there aren't any real grow shops here.
Quote: I'm also assuming here you will be going with a hand watered system here (no hydro), if you want to go hydro there is a few additional costs with that.
Definitely not hydro. At least not a DWC. If anything, I'd do coir, but for now I plan on doing just organic soil, just because it's more forgiving. Is Fox Farm still highly reccomended? I remember seeing a few things about how they'd fallen off, not sure if that still holds true.
Quote: 600 w ballast - 250-300$
600 w lamp - 60-120$
depending on brand, ultra sun is great and run 60$ per lamp
Grow tent - 200-300$
you can build your own if you want for 1/2 the price
Will definitely be building my own. I was thinking of modifying a dresser for the mom and just running that on CFLs. Would there be a downfall to CFL over MH in this situation? I figure they'd work about the same, maybe the stems wouldn't be quite as thick with CFL. I'm gonna buy some kind of cabinet for flowering.
Quote: Nutrients - 60 - ????$
here is where a lot of grey area comes in, you can buy a lot of nutrients and spend a lot of money, or you can buy basics and spend very little. Totally up to you on this one
I'm gonna start cheap for sure. I'll invest more as soon as I have the basics.
-------------------- I don't know but I been told it's hard to run with the weight of gold
The other hand, I heard it said it's just as hard with the weight of lead
again, depending on size and number of fans you can spend a lot or a little here. Rule of thumb is to buy a fan with a CFM rating which will exchange your air 2x per minute
$100, really? Wow, I was thinking that a normal box fan would work. Or I could get a squirrel cage blower and rig that up. I'm thinking something like a laminar flowhood without the filter.
Quote: Air cooled reflector - 100-200$
cool tubes are cheap and effective but provide poor reflection, larger reflectors are more expensive and bulky but will distribute light more efficiently.
Yeah, I know not to skimp on the reflector.
Quote: Carbon Filter - 100-300$
Can't you DIY a good filter for cheap? It's not like they're complicated. I'm all about DIY if it can be quality.
-------------------- I don't know but I been told it's hard to run with the weight of gold
The other hand, I heard it said it's just as hard with the weight of lead
I suggest buying digital timers with a battery backup. They're more reliable IMO, easier to set up, can handle multiple programmings (and in some instances even handle DST changes), and if your power drops they will keep the time just perfectly. I can't tell you how many times having a battery back up on my timer saved my butt during storm season.
Was definitely planning on some kind of backup power. Good to know it can be cheap.
Quote: Genetics - free - ?$
Yah, again, what you decide to spend on genetics is up to you. You can pull a seed from some 'mersh, hit up a med club for a clone or two, have a friend give a cutting or two, buy packs of seeds etc. If buying seeds 80-120$ is pretty common for a pack of seeds.
I got high friends in places, so the genetics are covered. I have probably 15 strains to choose from, all for free, and from people who have grown them for a while and know them well.
Quote: I usually tell people that want to get into growing and want to do it right that around a 1200-2000$ upfront investment is what they'll need. Yes, you CAN grow for a lot less if you're willing to use sub optimal equipment or take part in some DIY projects. If you want to keep mother plants you will need a separate closet and at the very least some fluro lighting to keep them happy. It's not necessary to keep moms, but it shortens your growing cycle by at least a month if not longer. It seems like a lot of cash, and it is, but comparatively once you get a harvest or two under your belt you've effectively paid off all equipment costs. Once the major equipment is purchased, you're done, unless you want to upgrade! At that point all you need to re-supply are nutrients, lamps, and growing medium (and if you're really into recycling you can reuse your growing medium most times). I re-up my nutes and lamps every two harvests as well as buy a new brick of coco. My electric costs for my entire grow room (veg and flowering cabs) is 30-40$ per month. So I spend around 480$ on electricity, and 400$ on nutrients, growing medium, and lamps per year. Less than 1000$ for 6 harvests, even at 10 oz's per harvest which has been my lowest lately, that's 60 oz's per year. IF I retailed (again, I DON'T sell) each of those oz's at the going rate in my town (400$/oz) I'd gross 24K$ (hell, even if you kept 1/2 of that for you, that's still 12K$ gross). I'll let you do the math on that one, but in the end, it makes that 1200-2000$ startup cost and 900$ operational cost look pretty miniscule, no?
I grow mushrooms, so I understand the difference in cost between hard goods (an investment) and substrate (a necessary evil.) I smoke a fuckload, so I'm sure growing my own would be profitable. I really don't want to sell. I've done that before, it's a hassle. I just don't wanna have to pay $50-60 an eighth or $350 for an oz, which I can easily smoke in a little over a week, if I don't share, but I always do.
Quote: If it's going to be impossible to save up the money, just buy a piece at a time when you can. Start with the bigger pieces, and eventually you'll be able to get the rest in one go and start up. At the very least you could invest in a fluro setup, get some genetics, and get some plants in veg.
That's exactly what I was thinking, buying little bits here and there. It'll probably be a bit safer than having a whole grow kit sent to my (or a drop) address at once anyway. And yeah, I'm getting basically a "veg kit" first, then I'll worry about flowering. I'm gonna be starting from clippings anyway, so it's gonna take a minute before I'm ready for flowering.
-------------------- I don't know but I been told it's hard to run with the weight of gold
The other hand, I heard it said it's just as hard with the weight of lead
Quote: You can keep them in veg perpetually and just have them waiting for when you can afford your flowering setup. Then, when you have it, all the hard work is done and all you need to do is pop your girls in the flowering room, flip the lights, and get to pulling in massive quantities of herb.
Hit up our forums here man, plenty of places to guide you in how to get setup and running!
Thanks. I've been poking around a bit, but honestly at this point, I think I know enough to get started. I'm a bit spotty on what exact nutrient mix to use, PPM of the soil, etc, but I think that can be picked up with experience. I definitely know enough right now to ge something up and running.
Also - fuck this max of 4 nested quotes rule. If there's not a damn good reason, you guys should change that. Sometimes I have complicated questions/answers.
-------------------- I don't know but I been told it's hard to run with the weight of gold
The other hand, I heard it said it's just as hard with the weight of lead
Edit - Actually, back on topic, please. This is straying pretty far, and I wanna help people make quality oil. Nobody has faith in acetone.
-------------------- I don't know but I been told it's hard to run with the weight of gold
The other hand, I heard it said it's just as hard with the weight of lead
Also - fuck this max of 4 nested quotes rule. If there's not a damn good reason, you guys should change that. Sometimes I have complicated questions/answers.
Make a post in the webtsite feed back forum
-------------------- Dude she isn't as young as she use to be.
they have the rule in place because some people abused the shit out of it and the quote pyramids really caused a lot of headaches. Probably not going to see that one change any time soon lol
36 - yah, just real quick, you CAN substitute for a lot of things you were asking for. Like I said, if you're willing to DIY then a lot of this stuff can be made for almost 1/2 the price if not cheaper.
In respect to your request though, if you want to discuss this further or have more questions you should head on up the cultivation forum if you haven't already.
in time I am going to have to try that for sure!!!! thanks for the tek
-------------------- "If only one party supports a bill, it's probably not a very good bill. If both parties support it, you can be sure that however good it seems on the surface, under the covers it's worse than you could possibly imagine" - Me myself and I 08-02-12
When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty - Jefferson
The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first. - Jefferson
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