fresh flowers to vape juice

I'm going to make my own oils from flowers for 510 cartridges. This will not be a commercial project or anything of the sort.
I'm going to buy terpene profiles (is this the right name?) and mix them with my extracts and load them into 510 thread cartridges.

I had this idea before, like a year ago, but I did not do anything about it then. Now I'm going to learn it by doing, with your help I hope to speed up the process.

I'm still missing a lot of information and almost all the experience. There is and overwhelming amount of info here (on this forum), and it's hard to read, so I started to take notes of my questions. I need a lot of help apparently

So lets compile a detailed process manual with bill of materials and drawings, I'm going to update it every day, taking your comments and the stuff I learned into account and then post it here. I'm going try and document most of the things on the way, and post results. Finally it will be a totally distilled step by step guide from a the bill of materials to vaping the result.

Please correct me if I'm wrong and help me fill the gaps etc.
If someone knows a markdown to this kind of bbcode converter, then tell me.



***

# 0.01 [ Initial version ]


## 1: Drying

Fresh untrimmed plant material will be placed on top of dry ice, in a cool box sealed except a small hole on the top and placed in a large freezer box for \~24 hours. Is that enough?

Alternatively I could connect the cool box to the outside of the house with a small tube, minding good insulation through the door of the freezer and on the inner box lid. The tube would be taped to the bottom of the lid, the other end would be outdoors. This is so easy, but is it worth doing?

[Cool box](https://www.ebay.com/itm/Campingaz-...:Wp0AAOSwcSFbN3JB&LH_BIN=1&LH_ItemCondition=3)

I already have a large freezer box with food in it and I can get food grade dry ice easily. Available in large blocks also, I think that would be best, cause it's evaporates slower.


## 2: Grinding

I could use an electronic coffee grinder set to the finest setting, manual herb grinder or something you will suggest. I read the finer grind is the better, is this absolutely true?
Is it worth it to make the smallest possible particle size grind that I can manage to make?
Can the particle size too small? Should I pack it tightly into the soxhlet "pouch?" later?


## 3: Decarboxylation

After all the reading I'm still confused about the most effective way to do this, time and temperature wise. Also maybe this step would be easier after extraction?

A standard kitchen oven wouldn't be great, I have a stirring hot plate (I can use it as bath for vacuum sealed bags), a volcano vaporizer, pressure cooker with vacuum bags etc.

[Ardent Nova](https://ardentcannabis.com/products/nova-decarboxylator-sleeve-bundle/)
It claims that it won't degrade any THC. Also expensive and does like 28g in 2 hours. Is this thing just a heating element around a metal chamber controlled by an MCU running fuzzy logic and has a thermometer and maybe a barometer attached to it? If it is an easy build, wonder how it scales up. Anyway, I won't buy this thing, I might build something.

How a professional would do this and with what?
There are better solutions with negligible degradation out there, right?


## 4: Extraction

I'm going to use a soxhlet extractor with Graham or Allhin condenser, using hexane as solvent. I'll be adding the solvent from the top of the condenser (10ml solvent per g of plant material). Can I attach a vacuum hose here afterwards? Hexane will boil at \~69C so if the top is simply open, when the extracted stuff siphons down it should decarboxylate by itself cause of the >69C and the long time it take to finish the whole extraction. A point could be made against non-decarbing beforehand if THC is and CBD is more soluble in hexane than THC-A and CBD-A (true?), so the extraction is shorter, also I would be nice to know how much THC and CBD is destroyed by this extraction technique over time, and how do I know it's over beside the solvent flushes clear? Also, should I use a vacuum pump to lower the boiling temp of hexane when extracting? Can I just attach a cold trap to the top of the condenser with a hose and the pump to the cold trap? How much glassware can take? How do I put the thermometer of the hot plate and vacuum sensor into the boiling flask with to necks? An adapter between the flask and the extractor? Do I need to put some chips into the flask?

An alternative way could be QWISO in a paint bucket in a paint shaker machine. Could this work better than the soxhlet's THC yield wise? For me it seems worse but this can be done even really cold, so absolutely no degradation of any kind, safe, cheap and super easy.

Another is CO2 extractor, expensive stuff. Would that produce better yields than the other methods above? Seems like finding the right settings for optimal production will not be easy, but you can start with this, no preparation except grinding. This is not for now I guess.

So here I'll have the extracted "crude" oil.

[Soxhlet extractor 1000ml and Allhin condenser](https://www.ebay.com/itm/1000ml-Gla...772073?hash=item3d0c347f29:g:Y7kAAOSwSdZWc75C)

{Boiling flask}

{stand}

{jack}

{water pump}

{vacuum pump}

{water chiller?}

{etc}


## 5: Distillation

As of now, I think the most effective way that I'm able to learn and afford is short path fractional distillation under vacuum.

If my extracted solution has hexane what I could take as first fraction? I'm missing something here.

Is it possible to separate for example THC-V as a fraction with this sort of setup? As I understand it won't be a problem because of the higher boiling point.

As I imagine now I could run the same setup as on the image below:

[I can get a parts list here if I go for this kind of setup](https://www.alibaba.com/product-det...pm=a2700.7724857.normalList.84.3f9d6046anYeDv)

I would think the ideal placement for the pressure sensor is in the boiling flask near the thermometer for accurate readings, but all the images I have seen so far has it on the top of the pump.

If there is a pump malfunction and the vacuum drops pressure buildup will blow my glassware, some safety valve?

If the pump pulls too much my glassware could implode. Is this a possibility? Is there is a safety valve I should get for this reason?


## 6: Storage

How long can you keep this in a freezer without spoiling, I'm going to store them separate, not mixed. I can drill a hole onto a mason jar top plate and put a fitting and a manual valve in, so I could use my vacuum pump to store stuff. I might need a stronger steel top plate.

[Something like these jars](https://www.freshpreserving.com/bal...s-with-lids-and-bands-12-count-1033896VM.html)

[I also found this later, it would be only really low vacuum](https://www.ebay.com/itm/4-Pack-Wid...041142&hash=item23ad70905b:g:yNYAAOSwZtNb0zqn)


## 7: Mixing and filling cartridges

Clean empty cartridges.

With the stirring hot plate, I warm up the diluent for the oil in a beaker and add calculated amount of THC, CBD, and terpene profile, mix it well, and fill cartridges with a syringe. What is the optimal temperature?

Close them and test for leaks.

[example diluent](https://xtralaboratories.com/the-catalyst/)
[example terpene profile](https://xtralaboratories.com/gg-4-full-spectrum/)
I don't know if I should buy these from here. Best diluent? Experience anyone?

[510 cartridge candidate](https://www.cheapestvapesupplies.co...dge-0-5ml-as-low-as-2-69?variant=207991504915)
These can be cleaned and reused as long as the glass is intact right?


## 8: Vaping

Use a 510 thread vape pen to inhale.

[vape pen candidate 1](https://www.kandypens.com/black-350-mah-battery-w-usb-charger.html)
[vape pen candidate 2](https://www.cheapestvapesupplies.co...00mah-as-low-as-2-69-each?variant=46499846163)

How would these to differ except aesthetics and battery life? I mean the experience of vaporizing the same oil in these pens would be different somehow? How important precise temperature is? More than enough should work, or the taste changes?

Also what kind of coils are preferred and why?


***

If you think about all the possible contaminants, can any of them be in the resulting concentrate if I'm doing it right? And how do I test for them without HPLC? (this question is for a lot later)


So it is just the init version and I have like 6 hours of reading in it so far. I'm awaiting your constructive posts.

Have a question I will be right up front about, given the nature of the subject,
and that this thread was birthed from one which dealt with an absence
of integrity.

You state this "[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]will not be a commercial project or anything of the sort", but
[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]when you start looking into pens, it is obvious your primary concern is cost.
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First, thanks for the answer.

Actually I don't want to be too personal, but I'll share some stuff.

I'm at country that turned into a dictatorial oligarchy in the last 10 years, feels terrible on so many different levels. I'm in a really lucky position, not much people in it here, I'm not an oligarch or connected to one and I'm not poor or in prison at the same time: I'm not rich enough for them to ruin and take my business, and not politically active to ruin me or to try to recruit me. I purchase my weed from the local black market which has worse and worse weed available in the last ten years for more and more money, and sometimes untrimmed, uncured, ditch shit contaminated with who know what. No real alternatives: it's really illegal... so super inelastic...

The average people make terrible wages and it does feel really bad sometimes knowing it. The bad thing is I could live almost anywhere and I did live in multiple countries before (I did some of my studies in the US for example), but my mother is sick and I don't want to leave.

I was thinking of smuggling weed from the Netherlands or anything but I'm not brave/stupid enough. So what I'm going to do sucks cause it will cost a lot, but I have no other ideas, I'm going to make oil from bad quality weed, I never feel happy from the weed I smoke here anymore. When I'm in Amsterdam I always realize that weed should be that, not this shit here.

I think if I make a business from making cartridges in a country that is going to give me like 8 years in prison for selling... at least if its a large quantity, I probably wouldn't sell pens too... I'm just curious that these pens do something different? Why would I pay more for the same functionality was my logic, I have never tried a vape pen before, its illegal in the Netherlands as any concentrate except hash.

So this is not commercial at all.

Thank you for the response.
Using cannabis of an unknown
source for extraction sounds
rough.

hello zanog, You can grow about half kg every 9 weeks in the same space as a short path kit with cooler, pump, glassware and cold trap, and it is easier to explain to the judge as self-consumption than 5kg of glassware xD
Better decarb after extraction, not before and winterizing your extraction helps a lot so that it does not clog the cartridge and a better taste. Better use ethanol (QWET), mammals have a great tolerance to it, not other solvents

Although I think I have decent skills of deception, comes down to what I can hide effectively, I try to evaluate, this is where I'm at:

(fun fact: until 2002 weed effectively was decriminalized here, the legal limit for possession was 10g or 100g of pure THC content I don't remember which but you could have it on your person anywhere!!!, selling was illegal at any quantity but police didn't even know shit about shit back then. Only like .1% of the people know weed even existed, now this country is in EU/Schengen zone(which saves us from becoming like "russia" so far and proves that we were democratic when we were accepted. Before the 90s we were controlled by the soviet union), who likes sociology those people are now super interested I'm sure, the changes from the early 90s to here was more rapid then I anywhere else I seen, emphasis on I, I'm sure there was worse. Another interesting thing: Russia and the Ukraine has decriminalized growing up to 20 plants(i think) for personal use, the only fucking thing I'm envious of, the reason was political actually).

Legally I can only grow hemp (thc content <.2% THC by weight), and I have the right to distill CBD from legal hemp even from tons if I'd like, this country is a large exporter of hemp, so any indoor weed must be illegal for anyone who would ever laid eyes on it (cause we have fields of it here, why would anyone spend money to grow it indoors). And police won't give a rat's ass about your rights, so actually they can get a search warrant after the search and lie about it, they do it every day, this here is just a hair away of a police state, the EU don't really like it anymore but has no real jurisdiction and German car manufacturers (3 of them) invested tons of money here by building factories (cause of intentionally lowest corporate tax in the schengen zone, this is really cool, but we have the highest VAT!, my government is like this, imagine!), so sensitive problem, throwing us out of schengen(not the eu) would be really expensive to the EU and the automotive sector.

I'm able to hide oils, I can't hide a small indoor farm right now(and wouldn't be small, read on), it has to be there for a long time and I have to have the time to take care of it. I can manage to use equipment for a week with THC, a lot less risk with good precautions. I would need a fairly large farm to grow that much in that time frame. I'm willing to spend that extra money.

I smoke a lot... Nowadays I smoke 20g in 3 days, in part because the weed is weak but also I'm trying to cut back!, in dutch coffee shops usually if I sit down in a non-tourist kind of place when I roll my first joint people giving the me weird looks, cause the whole g I put in my first joint, but they can't really ID the situation: I don't look like someone who would go in there, know how to roll a joint or even smoked one before, but I roll it like someone who does it all day, some people say things like: that's a lot, this isn't tobacco, you are gonna be really sick and stuff, usually I answer with a smile like this: Oh, I didn't know that, but I'm sure as hell I won't roll another one. And light it up... In the US several guys told me that I should try to smoke with Snoop Dogg or Bill Maher, maybe they can smoke more than I do. I said: Hell yes, I want to smoke with Bill Maher!, then they told me they don't know him personally so bummer , for the record no offense Snoop, I'd smoke with you too.

In a couple of months I'll be smoking for 20 years, I'm trying to do concentrates also because I would save me a lot of time when consuming them and probably a lot healthier and it would be covert in public(e-cigs are pretty widespread).

My job require a lot of things that people would think can't be done while smoking (to clarify I would not work after a large good quality gorilla glue joint but I could smoke several others afterwards , but this weed is shit here) and I have significantly higher than average "track record". Under regimes like these here, you learn to hide things well, if you have a totally legal business you still have to bribe low level officials for example, (this country is not that bad as Russia at least not yet, but I think these conditions make Russian criminals so proficient in certain types of crimes). If you live in a country like this then the most dangerous are other "normal" citizens, even your friends can send you to jail unintentionally, they just talk to the wrong person once, consumption is no huge deal(gossip wise) having plants are.
I can bribe my way through low level stuff but like a small farm can get me blackmailed and nothing good can come from that on the long run, that is why I conclude my best way would be getting shit and make clean concentrates. I want to process 1kg (I don't how how much it will yield from this here) to last a while and then do another when I'm running out, and finally I would love to learn this, I like to learn new stuff and I'll make the time for it and I'm pretty precise and thorough.

Actually I will gladly pay money for someone to bring concentrates here, but I don't know anyone like that, and in my position it would be crazy to try to find someone here, and if anyone gets caught it would be on my conscience.

So I need to decide on equipment first, but I'm still not there yet...


I wrote this in parts between my errands, I hope it makes sense and not hat off track. I feel the need to read again but... this gonna post like this.

Also thanks for this:

unnamedmike said:

Better decarb after extraction, not before and winterizing your extraction helps a lot so that it does not clog the cartridge and a better taste. Better use ethanol (QWET), mammals have a great tolerance to it, not other solvents

Click to expand...

You mean I need to extract by ethanol and winterize that, and that is a consumable tinkture by a vape pen?



How efficient this extraction is?



What are the contaminants I can still have? Heavy metals? Pesticide?



I like it if it is safe and effective, the equipment cost would decrease at least 20fold.



I used to drink alcohol but not really anymore, would that effect me? Would a breathalyzer show it?



If I'll conclude this is a good option 'll do it.



Thank You for taking the time to read my posts and write an answer!

I wanted to write 200 fold.

zanog said:

Also thanks for this:
You mean I need to extract by ethanol and winterize that, and that is a consumable tinkture by a vape pen?


thats not a tinture, is a extraction, winterized cannabis oil, you can mix the oil with odorless terpenes to make vape liquid, or distillate to vape


How efficient this extraction is?
What are the contaminants I can still have? Heavy metals? Pesticide?



im using pop corn buds and good trim from my own and im reaching a 10:1 weed oil. Sorry i dont now about pesticide or heavy metals, better start from clean weed



I used to drink alcohol but not really anymore, would that effect me? Would a breathalyzer show it?


no ethanol residues after decarb the oil.

Thank You for taking the time to read my posts and write an answer!

Click to expand...

You are welcome this thread can help you https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?threadid=200660

You cannot buy terpene profiles...

Yes people will sell you Sour Diesel terps but you can't buy Sour Diesel terps.


What good is a vape pen that makes you woozy and tightens up your breathing? Anything added to Cannabis yields this effect.

America has failed the tide pod challenge with this shit, proving 90% of people walking around are sub human.. who else would add shit to Cannabis??

Why anyone would seek to add Glade Plug-ins to their weed... Subhumans. It makes real humans vomit.

Thanks for your answer.

Drewsif said:

You cannot buy terpene profiles...

Yes people will sell you Sour Diesel terps but you can't buy Sour Diesel terps.

Click to expand...

What do you mean by this? I know available for purchase terpenes are made of other plants, mostly economic reasons (they already producing those in large scale in china and india) and combine them to profiles what is a simpler composition then the real but creates similar effect.

Drewsif said:

What good is a vape pen that makes you woozy and tightens up your breathing? Anything added to Cannabis yields this effect.

Click to expand...

I really want to know what makes the good vape pen, I haven't try one yet.

Drewsif said:

America has failed the tide pod challenge with this shit, proving 90% of people walking around are sub human.. who else would add shit to Cannabis??

Click to expand...

I though that terpenes makes the weed good (combined with THC), if the composition is right, also I tried a lot of weed that had the about same THC and CBD percentage and it produces totally different high.
I don't want to buy terpenes for aroma therapy If I visit a legal place and I can get oceans 12 haze, that makes me motivated and energetic, this has to be some combination of terpenes. And there is an easier proof: Get shit weed like I can, not bad weed genetically, but somehow shit and uncured, poorly made etc, still has like 5-8% I guess, you can smoke 5g and still no real high effect or stoned effect but you still high (lack of a better word), 1 good Original Glue joint only half a gram will make you smile! Will have less THC in that joint than in the 5g weed does and still. Also girl scout cookies makes me super depressed usually and I feel like I just lost my high from before and then I get like 90% sad and 10% panicky, I guess this is something with me. But terpenes matter. There is some proprietary medical cannabis, don't remember the name but exist for a long time, I smoked it once and it just made me kind of calm and sad, terrible experience. How would you explain this otherwise?

Drewsif said:

Why anyone would seek to add Glade Plug-ins to their weed... Subhumans. It makes real humans vomit.

Click to expand...

This sub human stuff... so relatively speaking like superhumans to humans? Read Nietzsche: Twilight of the Idols, not that long 200p, and tell me what do you think. After that you can be condescending to "sub humans" in my thread, you know, know something before you insult 90% of your countries population, even thou many of them voted for Trump and still would. No offense.

unnamedmike said:

You are welcome this thread can help you https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?threadid=200660

Click to expand...

Thanks