cali-high
Well-Known Member
SUPERCRITICAL FLUID EXTRACTION
The ultimate way of making high quality hash oil with butane.
Solvents can also be used to extract raw herb oil from harvested herb flowers. Raw herb oil contains:
Psychoactive cannabinoids in high percentages
Plant tissue in low percentages
Chlorophyll in low percentages
Trace elements in low percentages (non-psychoactive water soluble matter)
Raw herb oil is best extracted from highly resinous strains like the Afghani herb plant. Strains that have a semi-dry or dry floral trait should not be considered candidates for herb oil extraction because the amount of oil extracted does not necessarily justify the procedure, although the end material is a very high-grade form of hash oil. With these dry strains you may have to perform the extraction process several times before a substantial amount of psychoactive oil is produced. Like any other cannabinoid extraction process, you are better off using a resinous strain to rationalize the end results.
Isopropyl, ethanol and acetone used to be popular solvents for hash oil extraction but the process for each one is time consuming, costly and material-intensive. They often result in smaller amounts of lower grade than you hoped for. There is a much easier and more affordable way to enjoy a purer form of herb oil. The process known as butane extraction produces better results in a much shorter time frame.
Butane extraction is the most popular form of raw hash oil extraction because it is based on an industrial process known as SFE (supercritical fluid extraction) and is very easy to perform. You should only use butane fuels that are recommended for flameless lighters (jet torch will also do). These types of butane are much cleaner and extract raw hash oil better than other butane fuel types that you commonly find at the drugstore or fuel depot. A good tobacconist shop should stock flameless lighter butane.
Butane is a very good solvent for hash oil extraction because it separates herb oils from most other useless plant/bud matter. This type of filtered oil is sometimes nicknamed ^Hash Honey Oil' because the results are like an amber honey. SFE can produce very fine and pure herb oil from resinous strains. It simply separates herb oils from plant tissue, chlorophyll and the other trace elements that we find in most raw hash oils. You can imagine the final weight of the butane extracted oil to be the equivalent of the total weight of anything sticky or oily on the plant separated from the rest of it.
Once you have obtained the butane, you need a pipe that measures 1.5 to 2.0 inches in diameter, is 16 to 24 inch long and is made from either polypropylene (PP) or polyethylene (PE). Basically, the bigger the pipe, the more bud it can hold. Do not use PVC piping because it can be a health hazard. Either PP or PE piping works best and can be found in any good DIY store. Each end of the pipe will need a cap. You should be able to get some PP or PE caps at a home improvement store or someone can make them for you. If you cannot find any suitable caps, you can try using large bottle caps and 'blue tack to hold them in place.
You need a stand to hold this pipe. A lab stand is perfect for the job but anything that will hold the pipe up off the ground is fine. You also need a filter. An extremely fine cloth filter, like a bandage wrap with pores or fine pipe gauze, will work well. Any filter that will allow oil to drop through but leave the plant matter in the pipe is ideal. Coffee filters will not work very well unless they have a large pore size. You also need a clear plastic measuring cup, a clean wooden stick (like a medical tongue depressor) and some nicely manicured bud. You should be able to use 1 oz or more of bud in the above pipe design.
In the diagram below you can see the parts in alignment without the stand. The parts are as follows: 1) Butane canister, 2) Top cap with hole for canister, 3) Tube for holding the bud, 4) Filter, 5) Bottom cap with perforations, 6) Cup to catch the oil and butane.
The whole unit should snap into place as follows.
NOTE: Butane is a fuel and will combust when ignited by anything like a spark. If you do not have a professional SFE unit with the proper ventilation, then use butane SFE extraction carefully, outdoors, away from any buildings and other people. Avoid inhaling butane or the exhaust from butane extraction by wearing a facemask.
PROCEDURE:
1. Drill a hole in the end of the first cap that allows the nozzle of the butane canister to fit neatly into it.
2. Drill six small holes near the center of the second cap.
3. Place the filter in this second cap.
4. Attach the second cap to the pipe.
HOW TO MAKE HASH
5. Fill up the pipe extremely loosely (never cram it in) with finely ground bud.
6. Attach the first, or top, cap to the pipe.
7. Mount your pipe on your stand and place it over your clean measuring cup.
8. Open the butane can and turn it upside down placing the nozzle in the top cap. Fill the pipe up slowly, allowing the butane to draw the oils down through the tube.
Butane Filter
9. Remove the butane canister when its weight stops decreasing (meaning it is empty) and move a safe distance away.
10. Wait fifteen to twenty minutes before approaching the apparatus even if the top cap has given up any viable signs of fume release. The butane should have evaporated away, leaving an oil/butane mixture in the cup.
11. Open the top cap to allow all fumes to escape. Butane will still be active in the cup and bud in the pipe so leave these two alone for another twenty minutes. The remaining oil in the cup is raw hash oil with some butane.
12. Any remaining butane can be evaporated by placing the cup into a dish of hot water.
13. You now have made raw hash oil. It should be ready to smoke in a few hours.
Tips for butane extraction
I have heard of numerous SFE accidents caused with butane. All of them happened the same way. Most SFE butane extraction accidents occur when the pipe is full of bud and butane is dripping down into the cup below. Any flame, spark or ignition will cause that butane to become unstable. Almost all of the accidents I have heard about occurred because a flame or spark ignited the butane. In most cases it was a smoker who caused this. Do not smoke when you are performing SFE with butane, period. If you can do that then butane extraction is actually one of safest methods of hash oil extraction available to the home grower.
During the SFE process the butane must be left alone to drain down into the plastic cup along with the raw hash oils that it collects on the way down. Vapor and fumes will come out through the top of the cap and the cup.
After about fifteen minutes, most of the butane will have passed through. There may be some remaining butane/oil extract near the filter and end cap but forcing this through (by blowing, tapping or pushing) into the tube may add unwanted matter to your extract. A brief shake is all that is needed to help the remainder into the cup. Use the wooden stick to wipe away any oil/butane mixture from the base of the filter. This butane/oil extract in the pipe and cup is still part of the SFE process and the butane will continue to evaporate.
Butane has a low boiling point (even evaporates at room temperature) and if you need to boil off any excess butane in the cup simply place the cup into a bowl of hot water (not boiling!) and watch the butane evaporate. This is why butane extraction is best done outdoors. Butane will eventually evaporate into the atmosphere instead of into your home where it can become a fire hazard. You should eventually be left with an amber-colored substance in the cup. This is your high-grade hash oil!
The butane should be completely evaporated by heating the cup of raw hash oil/butane in hot water. Your high-grade hash oil is sticky to touch and best smoked in small quantities because of its quality. Oil is best enjoyed by placing a small glob of oil on some foil and heating the foil lightly from beneath, causing the oil to boil and vaporize. This vapor should be then consumed using a Pyrex straw (plastic straws burn and inhaling burning plastic is not good). As a note: herb oil is an excellent format for medicinal use because it is very pure. By vaporizing herb oil, the user can enjoy a pure form of herb without carbon monoxide.
Here are some other tips for butane extraction:
After you remove the hash oil from the cup you can use some isopropyl (90 percent minimum content) to collect any residual oil that may by still in the cup. Add a small amount of isopropyl to your cup and swirl it around. Heat the cup at a very low heat (less than 200 degrees to avoid THC evaporation) to evaporate the isopropyl, leaving the remaining hash oil collected from the rim of the cup.
You can perform a second extraction using the same procedure with the used bud to remove any excess oil that is still left in the bud. The bud should be mostly devoid of any cannabinoid compounds and should be disposed of.
A slow release of butane into the pipe allows sufficient time for the SFE to take place, improving the quality of the process and the final amount. Try not to force all your butane in too quickly.
The butane you use must be as pure as possible. Bottled butane is usually mixed with chemicals so that when it leaks you smell it. These chemicals can interfere with the butane/herb SFE process.
Use a bud grinder to make sure that your bud is powered down as much as possible. The finer the mix the better the extraction results.
You should be able to get between 5 and 10 grams of hash oil for every 1 oz of good quality resinous bud that you use.
all the credit goes to KP. just wanted to post this method out of the many others she listed. i like this one the best
The ultimate way of making high quality hash oil with butane.
Solvents can also be used to extract raw herb oil from harvested herb flowers. Raw herb oil contains:
Psychoactive cannabinoids in high percentages
Plant tissue in low percentages
Chlorophyll in low percentages
Trace elements in low percentages (non-psychoactive water soluble matter)
Raw herb oil is best extracted from highly resinous strains like the Afghani herb plant. Strains that have a semi-dry or dry floral trait should not be considered candidates for herb oil extraction because the amount of oil extracted does not necessarily justify the procedure, although the end material is a very high-grade form of hash oil. With these dry strains you may have to perform the extraction process several times before a substantial amount of psychoactive oil is produced. Like any other cannabinoid extraction process, you are better off using a resinous strain to rationalize the end results.
Isopropyl, ethanol and acetone used to be popular solvents for hash oil extraction but the process for each one is time consuming, costly and material-intensive. They often result in smaller amounts of lower grade than you hoped for. There is a much easier and more affordable way to enjoy a purer form of herb oil. The process known as butane extraction produces better results in a much shorter time frame.
Butane extraction is the most popular form of raw hash oil extraction because it is based on an industrial process known as SFE (supercritical fluid extraction) and is very easy to perform. You should only use butane fuels that are recommended for flameless lighters (jet torch will also do). These types of butane are much cleaner and extract raw hash oil better than other butane fuel types that you commonly find at the drugstore or fuel depot. A good tobacconist shop should stock flameless lighter butane.
Butane is a very good solvent for hash oil extraction because it separates herb oils from most other useless plant/bud matter. This type of filtered oil is sometimes nicknamed ^Hash Honey Oil' because the results are like an amber honey. SFE can produce very fine and pure herb oil from resinous strains. It simply separates herb oils from plant tissue, chlorophyll and the other trace elements that we find in most raw hash oils. You can imagine the final weight of the butane extracted oil to be the equivalent of the total weight of anything sticky or oily on the plant separated from the rest of it.
Once you have obtained the butane, you need a pipe that measures 1.5 to 2.0 inches in diameter, is 16 to 24 inch long and is made from either polypropylene (PP) or polyethylene (PE). Basically, the bigger the pipe, the more bud it can hold. Do not use PVC piping because it can be a health hazard. Either PP or PE piping works best and can be found in any good DIY store. Each end of the pipe will need a cap. You should be able to get some PP or PE caps at a home improvement store or someone can make them for you. If you cannot find any suitable caps, you can try using large bottle caps and 'blue tack to hold them in place.
You need a stand to hold this pipe. A lab stand is perfect for the job but anything that will hold the pipe up off the ground is fine. You also need a filter. An extremely fine cloth filter, like a bandage wrap with pores or fine pipe gauze, will work well. Any filter that will allow oil to drop through but leave the plant matter in the pipe is ideal. Coffee filters will not work very well unless they have a large pore size. You also need a clear plastic measuring cup, a clean wooden stick (like a medical tongue depressor) and some nicely manicured bud. You should be able to use 1 oz or more of bud in the above pipe design.
In the diagram below you can see the parts in alignment without the stand. The parts are as follows: 1) Butane canister, 2) Top cap with hole for canister, 3) Tube for holding the bud, 4) Filter, 5) Bottom cap with perforations, 6) Cup to catch the oil and butane.
The whole unit should snap into place as follows.
NOTE: Butane is a fuel and will combust when ignited by anything like a spark. If you do not have a professional SFE unit with the proper ventilation, then use butane SFE extraction carefully, outdoors, away from any buildings and other people. Avoid inhaling butane or the exhaust from butane extraction by wearing a facemask.
PROCEDURE:
1. Drill a hole in the end of the first cap that allows the nozzle of the butane canister to fit neatly into it.
2. Drill six small holes near the center of the second cap.
3. Place the filter in this second cap.
4. Attach the second cap to the pipe.
HOW TO MAKE HASH
5. Fill up the pipe extremely loosely (never cram it in) with finely ground bud.
6. Attach the first, or top, cap to the pipe.
7. Mount your pipe on your stand and place it over your clean measuring cup.
8. Open the butane can and turn it upside down placing the nozzle in the top cap. Fill the pipe up slowly, allowing the butane to draw the oils down through the tube.
Butane Filter
9. Remove the butane canister when its weight stops decreasing (meaning it is empty) and move a safe distance away.
10. Wait fifteen to twenty minutes before approaching the apparatus even if the top cap has given up any viable signs of fume release. The butane should have evaporated away, leaving an oil/butane mixture in the cup.
11. Open the top cap to allow all fumes to escape. Butane will still be active in the cup and bud in the pipe so leave these two alone for another twenty minutes. The remaining oil in the cup is raw hash oil with some butane.
12. Any remaining butane can be evaporated by placing the cup into a dish of hot water.
13. You now have made raw hash oil. It should be ready to smoke in a few hours.
Tips for butane extraction
I have heard of numerous SFE accidents caused with butane. All of them happened the same way. Most SFE butane extraction accidents occur when the pipe is full of bud and butane is dripping down into the cup below. Any flame, spark or ignition will cause that butane to become unstable. Almost all of the accidents I have heard about occurred because a flame or spark ignited the butane. In most cases it was a smoker who caused this. Do not smoke when you are performing SFE with butane, period. If you can do that then butane extraction is actually one of safest methods of hash oil extraction available to the home grower.
During the SFE process the butane must be left alone to drain down into the plastic cup along with the raw hash oils that it collects on the way down. Vapor and fumes will come out through the top of the cap and the cup.
After about fifteen minutes, most of the butane will have passed through. There may be some remaining butane/oil extract near the filter and end cap but forcing this through (by blowing, tapping or pushing) into the tube may add unwanted matter to your extract. A brief shake is all that is needed to help the remainder into the cup. Use the wooden stick to wipe away any oil/butane mixture from the base of the filter. This butane/oil extract in the pipe and cup is still part of the SFE process and the butane will continue to evaporate.
Butane has a low boiling point (even evaporates at room temperature) and if you need to boil off any excess butane in the cup simply place the cup into a bowl of hot water (not boiling!) and watch the butane evaporate. This is why butane extraction is best done outdoors. Butane will eventually evaporate into the atmosphere instead of into your home where it can become a fire hazard. You should eventually be left with an amber-colored substance in the cup. This is your high-grade hash oil!
The butane should be completely evaporated by heating the cup of raw hash oil/butane in hot water. Your high-grade hash oil is sticky to touch and best smoked in small quantities because of its quality. Oil is best enjoyed by placing a small glob of oil on some foil and heating the foil lightly from beneath, causing the oil to boil and vaporize. This vapor should be then consumed using a Pyrex straw (plastic straws burn and inhaling burning plastic is not good). As a note: herb oil is an excellent format for medicinal use because it is very pure. By vaporizing herb oil, the user can enjoy a pure form of herb without carbon monoxide.
Here are some other tips for butane extraction:
After you remove the hash oil from the cup you can use some isopropyl (90 percent minimum content) to collect any residual oil that may by still in the cup. Add a small amount of isopropyl to your cup and swirl it around. Heat the cup at a very low heat (less than 200 degrees to avoid THC evaporation) to evaporate the isopropyl, leaving the remaining hash oil collected from the rim of the cup.
You can perform a second extraction using the same procedure with the used bud to remove any excess oil that is still left in the bud. The bud should be mostly devoid of any cannabinoid compounds and should be disposed of.
A slow release of butane into the pipe allows sufficient time for the SFE to take place, improving the quality of the process and the final amount. Try not to force all your butane in too quickly.
The butane you use must be as pure as possible. Bottled butane is usually mixed with chemicals so that when it leaks you smell it. These chemicals can interfere with the butane/herb SFE process.
Use a bud grinder to make sure that your bud is powered down as much as possible. The finer the mix the better the extraction results.
You should be able to get between 5 and 10 grams of hash oil for every 1 oz of good quality resinous bud that you use.
all the credit goes to KP. just wanted to post this method out of the many others she listed. i like this one the best
