BHO with Vacuum oil/wax tutorial

yeah thats a nice little batch ya got going on there.

also, that first batch. it looks just like some of mine.... you just needed more time, another day or 2 in the chamber and it would have dried that right out. I can tell its half dried already.

your first one looks almost like this:




early stage:


mid stage (after 3 days): http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/13/4ah.png/

end, after a week:



some transitions:

and heres some more stages... I can see yours in the middle there. almost done:










all of my techniques are the same, yet the oil comes out as a dark/black wax every time!! I dont get it... I think its 50% on the buds freshness, 50% on the buds genetics.

Starts off light ends up dark....I believe that's referred to as oxidation

how come no one else experiences it so bad then?

how come not all of my oils do it, even though I do basically the exact same thing every time?

how come oxidization on our nails is the nail turning lighter/white.. not darkening?

I'll answer the last ?? VP. Oxidation happens differently to different molecules. Iron oxide is orange(rust), copper oxide is green(many times), I don't use Ti nails, but I would have to guess that TI oxide is white, like aluminum oxide usually is. On my quartz nail, I slowly get a dark build up over a few weeks. Then I get my nail real hot, and scrape it off.

hmm, interesting.

my TI nail also gets a black dark build up... but I just consider that BHO ash or burnt contaminants that happen to be in the BHO.

but on the sides where the torch hits, it turns it white and grey. im sure you know.

interesting answer either way, thanks for the info!

When something is burned it gets reduced.. eventually your left with black carbon...this is different than an oxide forming.. when a UV/light absorbing compound oxidizes or degrades (different but basically same effect) it darkens. Its purpose is to absorb light and protect the plant. So it goes dark eventually black unlike tcs wonderful examples ...when I said oxidation I meant both. Good wax will lighten in color if nucleated properly . Thca has a half life of 13 days(under these conditions), how long it takes you to get it to wax and the amount of heat used will drastically effect your product......but vac honestly all the pics you've put up are pretty dark compared to others, I think its your specific process.....I'm sure y'all are tired of me saying this but lower your heat some...but not remove, you do need to keep it right above its melting point, as lighter terps evap the melting point raises and I slowly in very small increments raise the temp to compensate..but I always have wax within a day or 2 so I think your sucking on it too long at too high of a temp....but that's just me.(and Im no wax pro)


When wood is heated anaerobically, it turns black as the water is driven off, leaving charcoal, or carbon, behind. When charcoal burns in air, the carbon combines with oxygen, producing the gas, carbon dioxide. But if you have ever used a charcoal grill, you may have noticed that charcoal turns white as it burns. This white ash is what remains of the non-flammable minerals which were present in the wood to begin with. You don't really notice them until the carbon has burned away. These ashes have a composition which varies according to the kind of wood and the soil in which it grew, and it is this variable composition which marks ash as a mixture rather than a pure substance.
Hope that helps with the color of ash confusion

Also you can now laugh in peoples face when they say their ash didn't burn white cause it wasn't flushed properly lol....that white is either potash or sodium carbonate..if it only burns black it simply still has moisture in it

Man sometimes I surprise even myself..I should write a book for stoners, I'm slangin gold over here folks

Since I'm bored and on the subject, that anaerobic burning is what causes butane lighters to produce soot or that black stuff if you put the flame under something, propane burns wonderfully clean but as you add carbon it needs more oxygen, as you go up it won't burn properly unless you add an oxidizer.. this is also why BIC lighters are only about 500 degrees instead of 3500 or whatever butane likes to burn at..

vacpurge said:

yeah thats a nice little batch ya got going on there.

also, that first batch. it looks just like some of mine.... you just needed more time, another day or 2 in the chamber and it would have dried that right out. I can tell its half dried already.

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Ya I agree with you VP. I was just getting so frustrated with it since i screwed with it for so many days. I think like 6 days or something. The old product I started with didn't give me a good oil that would wax up well at all I think. And I wanted to get started on the next batch badly

Here's the progress with the new batch: Wow it is staying yellow/golden color throughout the process so far! I think it absolutely has to do with our starting product; being how good and fresh it is. And I started with it vac purging with no heat, then when the muffin settled down and didn't want to move any more I very, very slowly crept the temperature up. I left in in on full vac last night when I went to bed at only 93F. When I got up this morning it crept up to only 97F with very slow bubble movement. So I just raised the temp again a tiny bit. I'm aiming for about 5 degree raises in temps each time until I get to around 110F unless I notice that's too much for it.

This is what it looked like this morning when I got up. The oil is 93F. It has been purging very slowly now for around 8 hrs since the muffin stopped moving and the temp needed to be raised.

The oil has now gone up to 101F surface temperature reading of the oil with laser temp gun. But I have an observation at this point that may have a more drastic impact on our oils than we think; but I may be overly concerned. My observation is that at this point where I raised the temp of the griddle to 188F in order to get my oil temp to increase by 5-10F up to 101F I noticed that the inside bottom part of my chamber was noticeably much warmer to the touch and the stoneware bottom where it sits on the bottom of the griddle is very noticeably warmer to the touch. So I am thinking that the actual bottom of my oil where it is on the parchment and is touching the stoneware may be quite a bit warmer than the surface of the oil that we are measuring the temp on. Sooooo im wondering if this may also have a negative darkening affect on our oils other than the fact that our starting product must be fresh.
In order to help combat this bottom of the oil getting too warm too quick I put another ramekin in the chamber under the one I have my oil in. To make it more like an oven affect of heat distribution in the chamber rather than a frying pan effect on it. Your guys thoughts on this theory?

you mean you are trying to heat your oil via convection, rather than via conduction? thats nice because it heats the top of the oil too (I use a hair dryer sometimes before putting it in the chamber so that the top is also soft... helps to bubble)

I am not too sure how much heat has to do with color anymore. I had barely used any heat and by the time my stuff waxed, it was brown.
from this:




to this:

Eeesh.....classic cookie/brownie...its a sin to watch it degrade in front of your eyes...to me at least
Just smoke it once its purged..I don't like nighty night dabs

vacpurge said:

you mean you are trying to heat your oil via convection, rather than via conduction? thats nice because it heats the top of the oil too (I use a hair dryer sometimes before putting it in the chamber so that the top is also soft... helps to bubble)

I am not too sure how much heat has to do with color anymore. I had barely used any heat and by the time my stuff waxed, it was brown.

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Ya VP I think your right I think it is mostly has to do with the age and quality of the product we start with but I have a feeling it must a little bit have to do with heat. Not sure but I will do some experimenting with a little bit of oil to test my theory.

While you guys are here I have a question for you: With that last pic I posted would you guys at that stage suggest anything else to do other than just let it purge away? Would you guys fold it at that point? It looks to me like it wants to be shatter near that point. When I raised the temp up to just over 100F it scares me cause it looks like it wants to get much more viscous and stay oily. Thoughts on this?

Guzias1 said:

its a safe approach i take to making new material.. one of my most memorable favorite runs was a blue dream run.. many grams came out, very quickly.. full melt.. of course it was really really dank trim..

i think if you can get it to wax fast, and properly purge it, go for it! but i def like to take a light approach to all new material.. ii hate turning my shit into goo!

sometimes when i get a lot of work, i just do 1 tube test run, to see how far i can push the heat...

im really hoping to get on a one of the local growers good side with this.. but around here, this competition is tough!

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where is around here being the competition is tuff

Raoul Duke1 said:

where is around here being the competition is tuff

Click to expand...

canada yaaaaa


andd, i would re fold it BC. make sure to do it while its warm/ semi room temp, get it back into a ball, put back in your chamber, first let it melt down to what ever temp you were at last, then continue at 29.2HG, lock off your vac.. if it starts to expand to much while initially vacuuming, drop the muffin before it gets too big, then re vac, repeat till you can lock at 29.2 safely..

you could let the vac go full vac to make it quicker, but i think playing with final purges around 29HG give you a more honey comb effect.

not sur how long it gonna take to finish.. but if lets say in 10 hrs or so, it looks like this again, repeat the process i just mentioned:


your pics bring back memories ! keep it up...

Guzias1 said:

canada yaaaaa


andd, i would re fold it BC. make sure to do it while its warm/ semi room temp, get it back into a ball, put back in your chamber, first let it melt down to what ever temp you were at last, then continue at 29.2HG, lock off your vac.. if it starts to expand to much while initially vacuuming, drop the muffin before it gets too big, then re vac, repeat till you can lock at 29.2 safely..

you could let the vac go full vac to make it quicker, but i think playing with final purges around 29HG give you a more honey comb effect.

not sur how long it gonna take to finish.. but if lets say in 10 hrs or so, it looks like this again, repeat the process i just mentioned:

your pics bring back memories ! keep it up...

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Awesome! Thanks Guzias1! I was waiting hours not folding it cause I wasn't sure. I folded quite a bit when the muffin was rising, falling, etc..but when the oil got flatter and the bubble movement slowed way down I wasn't sure.

I've been freaked out to raise the temps to quick. It's been in the vac for around 18 hrs and I think it's starting to finish up but I think it would have finished even quicker if I would have gotten to the temp I'm at now (oil is 115-120) and have folded it a couple more times.

I think it's firming up quite a bit right now. If it is firming up should I NOT fold it any more and just let the rest of the moist oil left on the surface harden up?

Thanks I'll put some more pics up of the progress in a bit.

Success! A totally dry blonde cookie!!!!!! I'm going to let it come to room temp then will take some pics and post up tomorrow. Thanks you guys for all your help!

135F was the final temp that dried it out completely. It was still oily and bubbling when I put the fights on tonight. Forgot about it during the fights and went and checked on it after and voila a nice solid cookie waiting for me It probably helped that I stopped molesting it for a couple of hours.

It's funny how you can have the oil just a few degrees lower and it will just sit there for hours without doing much or changing form. Turn the heat up just a tiny bit and all of a sudden everything changes.

Twitch says lucky 130. It's pretty funny how often I've finished at 130. But then again I've finished at 100f, many of times as well. Where da pics?l

Raise the temp always seems to be the answer for comb...and yes BC if would have happend ALOT faster if u just went to 120/130 right off the bat, more flavor too with less time in vac, I think I said that earlier