making hash!

[the gnome]

my experience so far making hash isn't worth mentioning.
Ive done an initial run with a 200micron screen w/dry ice and dry rubbed it into a 5 gallon bucket.
I have 88g of blond slightly greenish looking hash.
by the looks of all the trim i have I'll be getting a few at least bows of the 200mic stuff.

trying to figure out what my best options are with it.
few Qs, would water extraction be better way,
I thought the dry ice method was extremely easy to do.

I'll have steel press mold in a few days and plan to use a 100mic screen and take it down finer.
reading on using a mold and press, it says to heat the steel press lates
any other reason to do this other than aiding the hash bond together better under pressure
can i use parchment paper or cellophane to keep the hash from sticking to the steel plates...

 

[tropicannayeah]

The sift looks good...I'd hit that and going by the photo, there's no hint of green!

spend a little time here, work the search engine and do some reading, there's lots of info you are looking for here in ICmag.

If I had lots of trim, I'd dry sift it gently then use a set of Bubblebags to ice water extract the remaining resin heads, this will remove 95+ of the resin heads on the material, when the ice hash is dry, combine the two hashes together and you will end up with the flavor of dry sifted resin and the clean high altitude high from the Bubble hash, but that takes times and sometimes it's best to quickly remove the resin and get rid of the plant material so use tumbler and dry sift the material with it...or use two screens, 80 ~ 100 Mesh and a 110 ~ 125 Mesh (you can use a large size insect window screen to initially screen the material to get a rough sift then run it through the two screens to purify it. Dry ice will give fast results, but you have to be very gentle or lots of contaminant will pass through with the resin heads. There's lots of other methods too, some will produce very pure hash, but take lots of time by gently working a small amount of trim at a time while more aggressive techniques are quick to sift pounds of trim, but the end result will contain a lot more contaminant...it all depends on what your end goal is.

use a magnifying glass to monitor your sifting on both what passes through the screen and what is remaining on the plant material...magnification is the dry sifter's freind

 

[tropicannayeah]

I'll have steel press mold in a few days and plan to use a 100mic screen and take it down finer.
reading on using a mold and press, it says to heat the steel press lates
any other reason to do this other than aiding the hash bond together better under pressure
can i use parchment paper or cellophane to keep the hash from sticking to the steel plates...

mature resin heads mostly range in size from 50 ~ 120 micron, so resifting your dry sift over a 100 micron mesh would result in some resin heads staying above the mesh and some passing through.

As you used a 200 micron mesh to initially dry sift the material, then it would be a good idea to resift the resin over a 160 ~150 micron mesh (100 ~ 125 lines per inch Mesh) this will help separate the resin (and smaller sized contaminant) from the contaminant larger than 150 micron.....after cleaning the 150 micron screen you can resift the resin a little at a time to help remove a little more of the non-active rubbish.

but if the resin is already clumped up then it's probably best to just press it, if that's what you want. if the clumps easily poof into powder then no problem with resifting. You can try pressing without heat, but if that doesn't work (because there's too much plant matter in with the resin) then heat and pressure will work to form pressed hashish.

btw Here's some basic screen size info for those new to screens and hash making.
Screens sizes labelled "micron" will tell you what is the exact distance between each thread, a micron is Metric measurement......while mesh labelled as "Mesh" (usually only in the USA) is a count of how many lines or threads per inch. For example "100 Mesh" screens will have 100 lines per inch and the mesh openings will be approximately 120 micron. 200 Mesh screens (or 200 lines per inch) will have very small openings of only 50 or 60 micron while 200 micron meshes will have very large openings and will be similar to 60 Mesh. Most sifters use a combination of 60 ~ 100 Mesh on top of a 80 - 125 Mesh screen (depending on the starting material and technique used)


Here's a chart comparing Micron and US Mesh ..........

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=215148


also note that micron meshes will tell you the exact opening size of the mesh while US Mesh screen sizes will only give you an approximate idea of the mesh hole size as threads vary in thickness with different meshes, for example a 100 Mesh screen with thick threads will mean it will have smaller mesh openings than a 100 Mesh with finer threads which will mean larger mesh openings. ..but you will find that most for example 100 Mesh screens with made with mono-filament (= each thread is a single strand, not made from weaved multiple strands) synthetic meshes have a similar opening size.

 

[Catatafish]

Damn Gnome, you got some chunks there!

 

[the gnome]

thanks for the info tropicannayeah,
I have been reading even before i posted.
there's sooo many ways and process's it seems Its kinda overwhelming.

my 1st few runs i was a bit aggressive with the dry ice sieving process and saw
green so i back off and use a much easier *touch*

i was hoping i could use the 100mic screen but I'll get the others and make a quality product.
I get the 200 and 100mic screen that fit a 5gall pail for under $5.
they also have a 55gal sized screen for $7.
you can cut the screen out
they seem way over prices at other places i looked for what I'm doing.
If i can do with out the bubble bag/water extraction I'd rather go that route.

one thing I'd like to do with a portion of my dry sift is make some shatter/amber.
i found a process using etoh, can you blast drysift with butane?
I'm sure you can but thinking it may be too dense,
and I'll have to mix in some trim with it?


hey cat!
if you like that pile you should have seen what was in the 5gall bucket the other nite after 4lbs of trim..
btw the hash in the pic is from trim from last april,
been in deep freeze and even still w/200mic screening its pretty potent!

 

[Catatafish]

Nice, i got sick of using the bags years ago due to the return and the amount of work.

Guess i'll keep saving it up and try a different method than the standard ice water bubble.

 

[tropicannayeah]

Nice, i got sick of using the bags years ago due to the return and the amount of work.

Bubblebagging does take some work, but the results are very pure compared to most dry sifting methods that remove almost all of the resin on the plant material.

If you find that your Bubblebag hash yields are low then you are either not fully removing all the resin on the plant material (try using more ice, stirring longer &/or do a second run), magnification will let you know if you are.... or you have removed all the resin and you can't do better than that (maybe try harvesting later?),,the thing is with BUbble Bags is that the resulting hash is very pure, most dry sifted hash is 25% ~ 75% contaminant (broken up leaves, resin head stalks and other non-active crap) so it always appears that dry sifting gives a bigger yield but the actual amount of resin from either method is probably about the same (with all things being relatively equal).

If I had lots of trim I'd dry sift it with a tumbler or over large screens, then resift it with finer meshes....personally I prefer to smoke unpressed dry sift, I think it burns more evenly.but I do sometimes press a little bit in my palm with strong grinding thumb pressure for a few seconds, if it doesn't form into Play-Do within 5 or 10 seconds then there's too much contaminant in with the resin.

 

[the gnome]

Nice, i got sick of using the bags years ago due to the return and the amount of work.

Bubblebagging does take some work, but the results are very pure compared to most dry sifting methods that remove almost all of the resin on the plant material.

If you find that your Bubblebag hash yields are low then you are either not fully removing all the resin on the plant material (try using more ice, stirring longer &/or do a second run), magnification will let you know if you are.... or you have removed all the resin and you can't do better than that (maybe try harvesting later?),,the thing is with BUbble Bags is that the resulting hash is very pure, most dry sifted hash is 25% ~ 75% contaminant (broken up leaves, resin head stalks and other non-active crap) so it always appears that dry sifting gives a bigger yield but the actual amount of resin from either method is probably about the same (with all things being relatively equal).

If I had lots of trim I'd dry sift it with a tumbler or over large screens, then resift it with finer meshes....personally I prefer to smoke unpressed dry sift, I think it burns more evenly.but I do sometimes press a little bit in my palm with strong grinding thumb pressure for a few seconds, if it doesn't form into Play-Do within 5 or 10 seconds then there's too much contaminant in with the resin.

my sift sticks easily, so it must not be too bad.
I think the bubble bags are quite a bit of work also,
at this point in time i just have too many things to do.
now i was looking at the automatic bubble machines but some of them sound iffy, bags tearing are probs i hear most.

thinking on it, now that i have my sift i could wash that thru a set of bags and it would be a LOT easier, right?

 

[Catatafish]

I have the portable washer and that is what i used to use. Still a pain

 

[tropicannayeah]

It would be great to buy a machine that fully automated the Bubblebag process...maybe Panasonic is working on a prototype right now?

now i was looking at the automatic bubble machines but some of them sound iffy, bags tearing are probs i hear most.

Bubblebags are super durable, I've had mine for years and they still look new (but I don't use them that often) I don't know about the other brands, some are said to be good, some not so.....to tear a genuine Bubblebag would be like pulling the door off a car, you could do if you tried hard enough, but if you follow instructions, it's highly unlikely....I haven't used a washing machine or Bubbleman's Bubble Now (mini washing machine), I've only hand stirred with a stick but I haven't heard of any of the all mesh, zippered "work" bags (that are half filled with trim and go inside the machine with ice and water) that have ripped or torn

 

[tropicannayeah]

thinking on it, now that i have my sift i could wash that thru a set of bags and it would be a LOT easier, right?

I've never Bubblebagged dry sift before, try doing a search here, maybe there's a thread on this already......perhaps try a small amount first and tell us how it went. I'd imagine it best to freeze the sift first, use lots of ice and enough water. The latest thing the experts do is freeze the hash that you collect in the Bubblebags and then use a microplane (similar to a grater with really fine holes) to break it down the frozen bubble hash into tiny pieces over sheets of parchment paper and allow to dry.

check out Bubbleman's World on you tube, he's got lots of videos there about using Bubblebags.

 

[the gnome]

not sure if it was an original bubble bag or not, i call em all bubble bags
but yeah, Ive seen the cheaper bag and know you usually get what you pay for

 

[Lester Moore]

I have done the hand stir method. what a pain! I recently bought the small washing machine, way easier, but I still feel like I am getting far less yield than what I see others getting? maybe I am not starting with enough material....I am new at this so any input on the h2o/ice extraction would be great. I did a 3 minute run extracted. then a 10minute run. I used about 2 oz. popcorn and trim. seems I could have doubled that amount. my main keeper catch was 90mic and 70 mic...

 

[tropicannayeah]

but I still feel like I am getting far less yield than what I see others getting?

there's only X amount of resin on the starting material. With all things being relatively equal, most hash making methods remove most of the resin, the only difference is the amount of contaminant.

A 3 then a 10 minute run should remove a high percentage of the trichomes on the starting material, maybe try runs of 5 then 15 minutes next time.

Use a magnifying glass or loupe, 16X ~ 30X to check out the plant material (after processing) up close to see if you have removed all the resin. If you yield only 5 grams of Bubble hash and the starting material has hardly any trichomes then you have maximized your potential yield...you can only yield what's there.

 

[the gnome]

curious lester, what did you yield?

 

[Lester Moore]

2 grams. I think it was my starting material.
thanks tropicanna, I am going to try the 5 min and 10 min run next time. also look at it magnified before and after. give me an idea about my efficiency.

 

[the gnome]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]I never made bubble before but 1 gram per ounce of popcorn and trim does seem lioke more would have been had.
but as said earlierwhat tour working with has a direct to what you'll yield
how much of the stuff above 80 did you get?

sorry for all the Qs but I'm new and trying to absorb all I can.
[/FONT]

 

[Lester Moore]

I never made bubble but 1 gram per ounce of popcorn and trim does seem like more would have been had.
but as said earlier what tour working with has a direct effect to what you'll yield
how much of the stuff above 80 did you get?

sorry for all the Qs but I'm new and trying absorb all i can.

I only kept the 90, 70 and 45. I am still new at this but I have read that above 90 there are a lot of contaminants. it was trim and popcorn from my outdoor which was a little beat up hence the low yield, I think. my process: placed the popcorn and trim in the workbag with about 1 lbs of ice. then dropped it in h2o and ice in the machine. I scooped up the results and placed it on the small screen that came with the set. put that in the freezer for about 5-10 minutes. it then came off in solid chunks. left it to dry on a glass dish. I am beginning to realize that the strain used is the most important aspect of this whole thing. I am starting snow leopard/AOG and S.A.G.E on 12/12 - think this may improve my yield and quality.
not getting a lot of bubble out of my last run. just kinda burns up to an ash...needless to say. I am disappointed.

 

[Lester Moore]

strange Gnome, you have many years experience but never made bubble?

 

[Lester Moore]

silence....hmm well Genome, that gun packed with blanks?