Grinding it exposes a lot more plant material to the solvent, be it butter or ISO or naphtha that will contaminate the final product. This is not terribly important when the product is destined for edibles but does add to the nasty taste. If making oil for smoking then it's more of a big deal.
I just made a small batch of CBD oil starting with 75g of bud and sugar trim. I put it in a big glass pitcher the using the handle end of a big wooden mallet mash it down, stir with the end of the handle and keep doing that until it's all no more than pea sized chunks. Then I soak it with ISO a couple of inches over the pot, stir for a minute then pour through a fine strainer into another pitcher so I can get it out quicker. Ad more ISo, quick stir for a few seconds then once more. I'll leave all the liquid to settle out the fines then run it through a coffee filter folded into a cone for the funnel. Regular funnels are smooth inside so I ran 6 or 7 beads up from the hole in the bottom about 3" up all around so the paper isn't plastered up flat against the plastic and there's more surface area for the liquid to get thru the paper.
Pitcher loaded.
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All mashed down.
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All ready to get the ball rolling.
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I could use some practise with a glue gun.
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Cooking it nice and checking it twice. Once the last of the iso was gone I heated her up to 250F and decarbed right there. Get good control of the heat with the hotplate plugged into my variac. Looks to be 15 - 20ml but I forgot to weigh the damn beaker before starting that part so will have to weigh once cleaned out to know exactly how much I got. I used 3 - 500ml bottles of 99% ISO and got 2.5 back. I kept the wet pot in the pitcher and sealed it with some Glad Press'N Seal over the irregularly shaped top so it's airtight. It's just like the parafilm we used in the lab but thinner and prolly a hell of a lot cheaper. I can dump that in the other still and cook out the ISO. That countertop one won't heat up without liquid in it but the other goes on a hotplate and I tell it what to do.
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Tried smoking some of the oil off a cig. Did 3 big hits and don't feel buzzed but a bit cheery and the arthritis pain is noticably less. Picking up a couple big bars of 70% Belgian chocolate at the bargain store tomorrow and making some nice chocolates in the little gummie molds I got. Tested them for volume today too and they are 5ml each and 15 to a flat and have 2 so 30 pieces and 150ml total. I found a place that sells big flats online and can get ones with the Canadian symbols for CBD and THC but $40 or so US so $100+ plus shipping.
Think it's time for a toke I can catch a buzz off of.
Edit: Forgot the final pic. Weight with oil is 91.8g and written on the beaker.
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