Tutorial A long-promised thread and photos...

[moose eater]

About 23 years ago, plus or minus, I asked a union tin-bender to make a tumbler wheel for my hash, telling him it was for separating gold fines.

Miners tend to use some of the same screen/mesh, and I had access back then to #100 stainless steel. Mind you, I see many persons referencing their screen as 120 micron or 100 microns, but what I was told when I ordered this stuff was that the refer4nce to #100 had to do with a square inch of the material being 100 holes by 100 holes, and that if I wanted even more superior hash, to use a #120; not by the union tin-bender, but by other hashish lovers.

when the odd hole appears in the screen, I've dabbed it on both sides with some sort of clear super glue.

I've also made a habit of trying to routinely clean the tumbler wheel with a 99.9% iso alcohol bath, to open up the screen a bit.

The box was over-built, and heavier than it needed to be, a trademark or relatively consistent tendency on my part.

Once the box was built, I painted it with an epoxy paint that was for kitchen appliances, etc., but which also adhered to wood.

Reinforcement plates were added to the inside of the box, on the opposite side of the back 'wall' of the box from the Dayton 115-volt ac, 25-rpm reduction gear drive motor. And a switch box that would cover the motor, the wiring, and the 2-pole light switch was mounted to the back exterior of the box, also relying on the 'anchor plate' inside the box, so the bolts and nuts wouldn't get sucked into the wood.

So... Without further ado, here's the infamous home-designed, custom-built tumbler from which I have smoked pretty darned good hashish for nearly a quarter-century.

The wheel:

 

[moose eater]

Note the 4 wingnuts holding the knurled and piano-hinged door closed, but there's a bolt or rod connecter threaded onto the center stud, which will help to support the tumbler while in motion. I learned the hard (and expensive) way that the drive-spindle on the motors I use is not meant to take a lot of side pressure.

If possible, get the Dayton motor (or similar) that can function from all angles and has greater resistance to the initial operating of the motor. The cheaper ones are over $60, and the better ones are over $100, or close to that. The $5 press bushing and bearing set-up I did in the sliding door on the thing saves a LOT of money over the years. I think the last motor I replaced on this was close to 12 or 15 years ago, and it only now needs a new motor.

 

[moose eater]

The mounting cylinder welded onto the back of the tumbler wheel is the modified squirrel cage fan base from an early 1960's Ford F-100 pick-up truck. A fine specimen for recycling, and the exact right size for the spindle on that reduction gear drive motor.

The box was meant to have a sealed lid on it, with hinges on the back and trunk latches on the front and sides, as well as handles, but hey... it was making hash, right?? Good-fucking-enough. So, whoever inherits this when I die, can pick up where I left off nearly 2 decades ago, and finish the thing.

The door on the front slides downward into place, by cutting a vertical 'track' of sorts in the leading interior edge of the 2 sides and the horizontal cut into the leading interior edge of the base, then taking 1/8-inch minus furniture paneling/backer and laminating it to a piece of 1/4" (ACX finish-grade) plywood, trimming the top edge to flush, but allowing the furniture panel to extend beyond the plywood enough to run in the journals created with the saw blade.

(*That last paragraph likely contributed to the creation of the old adage, "A picture's worth 1,000 words").

 

[moose eater]

The sheet in the bottom of the tumbler box is an 11" x 17" no-stick cookie/baking sheet. It's held up pretty darned well for many years, but it's approaching time to be replaced.

The Satori #2 and #5 both had notably more red glands than the White Lotus #4 and the Goji OG #8.

Whereas I once separated all the glands, based on source strain, I've become more lethargic and lazier, and now I tend to mix all the glands together when pressing, unless there's some outstanding reason to not do so.

 

[moose eater]

The 'lid' currently on the box in the pic above is an old square-ish remnant of some wet-rated greenboard sheetrock. I've wiped it off and used it to contain the inside of the box, keeping it out of any breezes, for the same time I've operated this tumbler. On the white side it has written in nearly 2-decade old pencil, "Touch This and DIE!!" Probably why it's still in use, and why I can still find the thing when I need it... or maybe I'm just lucky..

 

[moose eater]

The tools that remain stored in the padded box when it's not in use are simple; a 12-inch x 1/8" hex key for turning the set screw on the back of the wheel when mounting or dismounting the wheel.

The rod-connector and a spare bolt and brass sleeve bushing for the thing, and some soft-bristle toothbrushes to aid in GENTLY cleaning the inside of the wheel while it's in the 99% iso alcohol bath. Oh, and the 99% iso, too. (*For cleaning only, as this is sieved hash).

You'll also want some unscented, unflavored oven roasting bags, size large, so you can cut smaller slips from the larger bags to make the pouches that the glands will be pressed in. For this, you'll also want some scotch tape.

 

[moose eater]

The form or mold I use for the hash was made by a machinist by request the same number of years ago as I built the tumbler. The upper plate is roughly 1-3/8" thick and about 1-5/8 inches square, with rounded corners.

The machinist used square tube steel to make the outer part of the form, and the bottom plate is about 5/16" thick, by the same dimensions as the top plate.

I place the mold into the oven at 170 degrees f. (the lowest temp our oven goes down to), and let the mold, or mold and glands (with the glands made into packets with the oven bag material), heat for about 10 to 15 minutes, then down to the press, made from 4" ship channel, 1" grade-8 all-thread, 1" lock washers, 1" fender washers, 1" grade-8 bridge nuts, and my 8-ton press.

You don't have to go overboard with pressure when using an 8-ton press to make hash; a little bit of pressure in this press goes a long way).

I leave the press with pressure on the mold for a few minutes, letting the remaining residual heat travel more evenly through the glands.

Edit: By the time the mold reaches the press, it's likely to have dropped in temperature to about 140 to 150 Fahrenheit.

 

[moose eater]

Once released from the oven roasting bag-made slip, the hash is still fairly pliable, and I fold it 2 times, to make it about a quarter the size it came out as, but 4 times as thick, or about 3/8" to 7/16" thick, approximately, once folded and hand-pressed to congeal upon cooling.

I haven't placed the produce from tonight onto the gunpowder scale, but I'd guess this small amount of tumble returned somewhere near 7 to 9 grams of some pretty decent hash, despite the run the sugar trim came from not being the best run I've had. (15.8 grains equals one gram, per old coca days math and memory...

Now take a wild stab in the dark what I'm going to go and do next.

 

[moose eater]

 

[moose eater]

When all is said and done (and in my world, there's guaranteeably a LOT more said than done), I've taken some heavy-duty, cardboard backed packing foam, and cut it to fit across the bottom of the tray, and up the sides.

The wheel is wrapped up fairly tight in 3 separate unscented kitchen trash bags, each tied or sealed separately, and then the box is placed inside 3 separate 55-gallon trash bags, each tied separately, and the thing is placed back atop a massive shelf until the next time duty calls out for it.

Contaminants in a fine-screened tumbler wheel only add to frustration. Clean-up after the fact makes for a better outcome next time around.

Questions? Details I neglected to include? (*Rare for me, as I usually tend to include unnecessary details times 1,000, but hey, I'm getting old, and my once pin-point-sharp memory is slipping, so IF there's something I should have included, by all means, let me know, and I'll try to answer any inquiries).

 

[moose eater]

I realized after the above posts that this thread SHOULD have gone under the specific sub-forum, 'Hashish', (and if anyone desires to move it there, please feel free to do me the favor and correct my error). Apologies for not noticing that earlier.

I also neglected to mention that the 'return' from the tumbler has changed over the years, and especially changed based on strain being processed as well as whether or not the thing's been cleaned lately in the alcohol bath, but my average return over the years, using only sugar trim, has been 5% to 13%, or 100 grams of sugar trim rendering between 5 to 13 grams of hash as net.

Last, and this sits a bit better where I unfortunately placed this thread, once the trim has been tumbled and the hash processed, it's fine to do an extraction from the already-spun trim with the solvent of your preference. "Waste not, want not."

 

[tobedetermined]

Excellent thread moose! I love the drywall lid . . .

 

[moose eater]

Couple of afterthoughts.

If you scroll up to the picture of the tumbler wheel where it's open, either empty or with trim in it, and strain your eyes a bit, you may be able to see at least one of the cross-members inside the tumbler wheel. The cross-members were bent with abrupt but short 90-degree tabs at each end, and spot welded internally to either side (front and back) of the wheel. Not only does this reinforce the wheel, but it also provides sort of a 'step' similar to the old water wheels at mills, and during the slow rotation of the wheel when in use, these struts or cross-members lift the trim up to toss it internally with each rotation.

The wheel is typically turned on for about 40 to 45 minutes per load, and if a person wants to high-grade the creme-de-la-creme from the glands, stop the wheel about 20-25 minutes into the load, and collect those glands, as they will be superior to the remainder that falls between then and the end of the cycle. Similar in analogy to shaking an apple tree, the ripest most plump fruit falls most readily and first.

I sampled a small fragment from the 2 pieces I made this go-'round, and both of them melted to a degree, congealing into a lump, and smoking fairly smoothly, though they both provided that taste of fuel-like terps that is often associated with freshly pressed or processed hash. it passes with time, just as the resins spreading more evenly in the hash over time is a fairly natural occurrence or progression.

Completely unrelated to the thread and this post, take 1 jigger of good reposado or silver/blanco tequila, 2-3 ounces of pomegranate juice, a couple ice cubes, 4-6 ounces of mango seltzer, and some lime juice. NOT too shabby. not at all.

 

[unregistered190]

That’s awesome Moose, thanks for taking the time and sharing!

 

[moose eater]

Excellent thread moose! I love the drywall lid . . .

Glad you liked it. The lid history reflects a tendency of mine to go on to other necessary tasks, or even nothing at all, once a project has reached some sort of functionality. One day I'll finish it, or leave it to the person who inherits it, as stated before.

Mainly just keeping drafts out of the chamber where glands are falling.

 

[moose eater]

That’s awesome Moose, thanks for taking the time and sharing!

Thanks, and you're welcome.

 

[moose eater]

Another late thought of structural (and maybe informational) importance. The seams in the #100 mesh surrounding the edge of the wheel were sealed with JB Weld (I suspect their original formula). At this point in time, I've used JB weld to repair everything from my old canoe trailer's fender fuck-up, to ice fishing rods, and even constructed a hash tumbler with the stuff. Maybe one day I'll send in a testimonial from a 'satisfied customer.' Think they'll print it?

 

[Gry]

Neat as can be, and absolutely first rate.

 

[Northern Man]

Awesome! Nice fabrication.