Tips and Tools

Troubleshooting Tips and Tools

Introduction

This is an active page receiving hacks and tweaks for fixing stuff..

Early Decarbing 

Tip: If decarbing up front before extraction, use Oven Bags when decarbing using the kitchen oven. if you live in a “No Skunk Zone”, then Oven bags will help contain the smell. Vent the bags outdoors after the jars cool down. This works well but isn’t perfect. Some odors typically leak.

Wash

Tip: Best using 99% alcohol as 95% Ethanol and 91% Isopropyl have water molecules that will interfere with the extraction. Lower alcohol proofs/pcts have additional water content that forms a barrier blocking the alcohol's dissolving action. You can use as low as 120 Proof alcohol but must double the high agiation wash times.

Distill

Tip: After the distilling ends, let it cool for 10 minutes to vaporize any remaining alcohol. After 10 minutes, place the boiler in a tub of ice water to accelerate cooling down. For other devices, add ice water to cool down to 50f.  The resins go stiff at 50f and can be moved around with a fork.

Tip: Use cold and heat to manipulate the oil. Ice cold temps solidify the oil, heat allows it to run. Heating the oil with hot water allows it to release any retained water. Water and oil don’t mix so separation is easy.

Tip: Use a damp paper towel to absorb water droplets. After dumping the rinse water, dab away any water droplets with a damp paper towel. Wet a paper towel, wring it dry. Water makes it polar so the oils don’t stick. Polarity working in our favor. A damp paper towel absorbs water, not oil.

Winterize

Tip: Rapid Winterization works well when there is a 5:1 to 10:1 ratio of alcohol to oil. Use only enough ethanol to dissolve the oils, enough to move from being syrupy to watery. Too little alcohol and the winterized solution becomes very thick sludge. Easy fix, add another 30ml/1 oz of ethanol and stir the sludge. 

Reduce

Tip: Avoid additional water in the ethanol when dissolving the oils after distillation. The only water introduced here should be the water content in the ethanol. Let the boiler dry out and any other tools before dissolving the oils in ethanol. This little amount of water will boil off during the reduction.  

Emulsion Recovery and Salt Remediation.

2025 Spring Update - Salt is being discontinued from this process now that the major emulsion problem has been solved.

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