The adventures of Dabman & Rosin in the art of the squish

[heady blunts]

nice! that's liek what greyfox is building me. do you have experience with electronics or was it something that any handy person might be able to do?

i have always shied away from fucking with electrical stuff i don't understand well haha.

 

[Lapides]

I built my own enail back when those reddit plans were real hot in the beginning. This is almost exactly the same, only way easier. You just need to know how to follow directions and have a little bit of confidence.

 

[Weird]

Huge thanks to Lappy for getting me on both the DIY Enail and Rosin press tips, and extra special thanks for breaking off that extra set of plates for me

Obligatory enail and press pics

Proof I am highly educated

 

[Hashmasta-Kut]

highly educated or highly careless? nice burn man!

 

[heady blunts]

lollll i've got a half moon on each forearm.

there has to be an easier way to get used to having an enail around!

throw some medicated oil on that lil boo boo it'll be gone in no time

 

[Ganjaganjakush]

Took me about 10 mins I just looked at the pictures in this guide
http://highsimple.com/diy-rosin-heat-press/step-4/ my pid controller was different but it's straight forward if you just follow how ur pid controllers wire configure is setup

 

[Lapides]

My roll of parchment was starting to get short and I remembered that a good friend and customer of mine sells all types of shit to restaurants like take out containers and stuff like that. I hit him up to see if he can get me quality silicon coated parchment for cheap. He said he'd just get it for me for free and to take my pick! I narrowed it down to 27# and 35# white silicon parchment pan liners that are 16"x24". They come in packs of 1000 and he said he'd get me both to test. I've heard the 35# stuff is tough as hell. I'm just looking forward to having FLAT pieces of parchment to work with even if I do have to cut the sheets up. The stuff that comes off the roll can be a bit of a pain to work with especially when it gets toward the end, the shit's always curling up no matter what you do. Not to mention it's fucking FREE!

 

[Lapides]

Morning squish

Morning squish

Waking up and pressing fresh rosin is a lot like getting up and brewing a fresh pot of coffee. It's just what I do now. I really think I have a reason to quit smoking pot finally.
It started raining last night so I put a few ounces of gg4 that were about 4 months old in the garage so they could soak up some humidity. It rained all through the night. Buds had a nice moisture content this morning and here's the first press of the day.

 

[MrBungle]

<<watching and learning

 

[heady blunts]

glad to see you're lovin that squish life lap!

with 20 tons at your disposal you can be doing 1g+ per square inch. what are your plates? 5x5?

20 tons = 40,000 lbs pressure / 25 square inches = 1600 PSI

that's a solid squisher.

next step is fine tuning your prep techniques.

ideally you get that oil off the hot plates ASAP.

if you size the pressing material so it comes to the edge of the plates when squished, the oil will run off the heated area after it escapes the pressing material. the faster you get it off the hot the more pristine your rosin will be.

you coudl probably do an ounce per press with a pre-press mold!

even if you want to press less at a time, properly preparing it helps maintain quality and yield.

i was using "t-sac" brand unbleached paper tea bags for a long time. they are awesome filter material, plus packing my trim in there mindfully allowed me to firm it up and shape it evenly. i folded my parchment around them in such a way that it would force the oil out of two edges, making collection easier. this directional flow technique is also a good way to encourage your oil off the hot plates if you're squishing smaller patties.

you can get super fancy and do these cute "rosinfalls" they are especially crowd pleasing if you're pressing hash and they can just gush like mad. collection is a cinch i could pick the drips up off the paper with my fingers if i wanted. PTFE film works best for this in my experience as the initial pressures can cause blow outs with parchment. i still use parchment for the collection surface, however. i find it more difficult to collect off PTFE.

what really ups the production efficiency is a nifty little pre-press mold. i got the idea from sunfire. here's a video of his:



i got this one made for me:

the patties are pretty.

here's some directional flow using a trim patty in a PTFE sleeve on a parchment collection surface. this was one of the first squishes with my new press. still using manually heated steel bricks here. click for video.



quality and yield shoudl improve dramatically when i get my platens. with the manually heated bricks i have to get them extra hot to carry the heat through the entire press. i have to ubmp that up an extra 10 or 15 degrees to compensate for the the PTFE film. so you can see the darker drips from the first press on this collection sheet. i got temps better for the second squish you'll see rolling down if you watch the vid.

 

[Weird]

I was anxious to get everything set up so I could spent some times experimenting on all the different variables necessary so I can fine tune the process.

I enjoy dabbing rosin more than oil and I am not solvent based biased. Seems like what gets lost in BHO translation does not get lost in rosin translation.

 

[MedGrowerTom]

Nice thread 'Dabman', looks a lot like what I am setting up here. Got the same 20 ton press, I have 3x5" plates on the way here, and the heater elements and tm are still a week ish away yet, but I'm wiring up the pids and all that good stuff now, I got a flat coil too and a new nail so I can at least playing the pid's for a bit till the nice plates are ready. For now for squishing, I have some crappy plates I made that are now bending, but yeah I love the setup man. You going to put your pids and stuff in a project box or something?

 

[Weird]

Eventually I am trying to get a feel for what will work best in the environment which for me requires some field experience

right now I have them tie strapped on and all connections in wire nuts and tape.

I have bought a bunch of new wave stoner tech items and I find the DIY stuff is better overall. Most companies aren't established long enough to keep he promises they make.

A person could put a kid through college on the money it cost to buy ever BEST vape pen that has come and gone.

It might just be my lazy ass rationalizing putting it off as well, BUT I do want a set of plates and controllers that can travel as easily as they can be used and that won't get fucked up in transit.

 

[MedGrowerTom]

BUT I do want a set of plates and controllers that can travel as easily as they can be used and that won't get fucked up in transit.

Right on, the case I want to put mine in has a lil handle on the top lol, I plan to have it sitting on my desk with a couple nail/coils plugged in, and just move it the press and plug the plates in when its squish time. Plus like you said, its portable and be takin' places. Will be nice to have to not have to travel with the flat iron quick grip setup lols...

 

[Lapides]

Yeah heady, the metal guy made me a little 4x4 pressing mold that I've been playing around with. I put 14 grams into it last night and only pressed it down with my body weight. I can easily press 40+ grams into a 1/4 inch puck with it, but I know that 38 grams is too much to press on the 5x6 plates I have.
I really wasn't pleased with the return, I think it's because my material was 4+ months old and really dry. I spritzed up the parchment with water just a little bit during the pre press, but I think the buds need more moisture internally and throughout.

 

[Hashmasta-Kut]

I enjoy dabbing rosin more than oil and I am not solvent based biased. Seems like what gets lost in BHO translation does not get lost in rosin translation.

Most people wont believe this part, which is the main reason i switched!

 

[Avinash.miles]

squish party

im over here watching and learning, thanks for sharing - weird, hb, hmk, lap - everyone

 

[Weird]

Most people wont believe this part, which is the main reason i switched!

I am also finding that the rosin I get for the amount of weed seems to get me higher and for longer than the original flower

so fucking weird

 

[Medium Pimpin']

I'm gonna have to build me a press soon, getting jealous over here!

 

[Hashmasta-Kut]

I am also finding that the rosin I get for the amount of weed seems to get me higher and for longer than the original flower

so fucking weird

nope its not, you are

but ya, there are light volatiles, most likely just terpenes that are pretty much always lost during any kind of purging when you use solvents. I used to have an incredible lemony strain, but purging it was super hard, as the lemon terps would evaporate so easily, the oil could easily become virtually tasteless. Possibly some light modification or non-capture by butane is a consideration.