You want to make sure you do not go too hot or it will burn your cannabis material and destroy all those precious cannabinoids, terpenes , flavonoids etc… Not to mention most likely cause combustion resulting in inhalation of smoke which can be harmful to your lungs.
The golden number I found is 180 degrees Fahrenheit at the max. Anything over that mark will pretty much guarantee burning your plant matter rendering it useless for pressing rosin. You would lose all those cannabinoids and terpenes and potency will drop as well as flavor.
I like to keep my flat iron at about 170 degrees Fahrenheit when I press rosin. This way it will heat up the oil without scorching the plant matter and making me cough with every inhalation of smoke causes by your ineptitude. If you want, you can aim for 165 F as well, just know that if you go over 180 then you are wasting valuable flowers that could be turned into yummy vaporizer cartridges.
Use a Hair Straightener to Press Rosin:
When I press rosin, I like to keep my hair straightener on my lap so it stays nice and hot because you want the heat to be evenly distributed. This way all of your plant material gets squeezed out evenly.
Don’t squeeze too hard! You’ll hear people say this all the time about dabbing nowadays but now you will know why its not good for your flowers either. Your flowers need room to breathe, just enough pressure so that they are compressed together properly but none should escape if pressed correctly.
Heat up the plates for 5 minutes before pressing:
Sometimes I aim for 3 minutes or more because I am impatient but heating up the plates is important.
If you don’t have a hair straightener with temperature control, I would recommend buying one. It’s weird how they can be so inexpensive and yet still get the job done, especially when it comes to making dabs.
I’m not saying this is the most efficient way to make dabs (without an industrial scale that is), but it definitely does work for me! You just need some patience and you’ll be dabbing off your material in no time flat. Happy vaporizing.
Minutes, or less if using a mono-body hair straightener. I’ve used ones from Walmart in the past and they didn’t work very well – they took about 30 seconds per dab instead of 10 seconds, so be careful! You can definitely tell when the temperature gets up to where it needs to be though. I have no idea what temp my Vapir No2’s plates are at but I would think somewhere around 300°F should be fine.
My preferred method is to set the hair straightener on its highest setting and let it heat up for about a minute, then hold it above one of my containers with some freshly ground up rosin cakes or rosin buds. For best results, I recommend packing your rosin container loosely enough so that you can actually see the rosin through the container.
Once you’ve got everything set up, just drop the hot iron onto your material and count slowly to ten – if all goes well you should have some fairly melted pieces of rosin on your dab tool by then! You want to be using either titanium, quartz, or silicon dab tools here since anything else might melt from the heat while waiting for it to solidify too much and become unmanageable.
I recommend storing your rosin in a silicone container, but you can also store it in an air-tight glass jar if that’s all you’ve got! You might want to put down some wax paper or parchment between the jar and lid though since rosin will stick to everything.
Now just grab your dab tool, scrape off the excess rosin, and you’re good to go!
For about $10 at your local Walmart, you can pick up a cheap hair straightener that will do this same procedure fairly well too.
Press the straightener down on the rosin, then pull it up in an arc motion:
This method is used to shatter and preserve rosin.
To do the press and pull:
– Put a small amount of rosin in parchment paper or silicon container [silicone mold]
– Press straightener down on rosin [straightening iron]
– Pull up in an arc motion [upward]
To store: Put in glass jar, put wax paper between jar and lid so rosin doesn’t stick to everything. Store in refrigerator or freezer; reduces chances of transferring smells between stored products. Silicone containers can be stored at room temperature. You want your rosins to solidify too much and become unmanageable. I recommend storing your rosin in a silicone container, but you can also use a piece of parchment paper and your fingertips to pack your rosin down in the jar, with wax paper between it and the lid.
Rosin is better for you than butane because it’s healthier, leaves no residual flavor behind, doesn’t leave any sediment at the bottom of your final product. The taste of butane can be masked by other flavors, but not really removed entirely. Rosin should dimple under pressure if it’s very clean; if it dents very slightly/doesn’t dent at all then there may be contaminants. Don’t use that batch.
– Put a small amount of rosin in parchment paper or silicon container [silicone mold]
– Press straightener down on rosin [straightening iron]
– Gently pull the straightener up in an arc motion to collect rosin.
– Put slightly more pressure on the second pass to ensure no contaminant particles are left behind
– Test at least two batches of your product, if still dirty it’s probably not clean enough now. Repeat steps 2-4 with different ISO/Naphtha until you get a pure white oil that doesn’t dent under moderate pressure.
Be careful not to burn yourself with hot objects:
– Hot rosin is extremely flammable, do not expose it to open flame, only use electric heating elements such as a hot plate or vinyl electrical strip
– Handle with care. Hot rosin will burn through skin instantly and deeply, remove all jewelry immediately before handling rosin heated with a hot surface
– Keep an extinguisher and fire blanket on hand at all times when working with rosin and any other solvent
Good luck! -Ariel (creator of this article)**I don’t want people to think that I’m suggesting what you should do if something bad happens. I’m simply providing some helpful information for those who are willing to try pressing their own BHO. This guide is only meant to inform. Any of the actions taken here are at your own risk, and I am not responsible for any injury or harm that occurs as a result of following this guide.**
-Safety is up to you. Follow all safety precautions and be aware of all potential risks. You alone bear responsibility for your health!
-Please wear an N95 dust mask when filtering through unbleached coffee filters. Even with using gloves, there is a great amount of residual chlorophyll wax in the oil, which can cause respiratory issues when being filtered out by drip filtration.
What you need:
-A hair straightening iron (also called flat irons)
-An unbleached coffee filter paper
-Gloves to prevent getting any of the oil on your fingers, hands, arms, ect..
-Distilled water to mix with ethanol in order to flush out impurities from the oil prior to ingestion
-Rubbing alcohol (isopropyl) used for final purging before use
Be careful not to burn yourself with hot objects! The gloves are not a precaution agains burning yourself with the oil, they are a precaution against contaminating the oil by getting it on your hands.
Stovetop method:
-Add water to a pot
-Turn stove onto medium heat
-Put flat iron into the water once it starts steaming (don’t let it touch the bottom of the pot)
-Once you see some smoke coming out of the flat iron, turn off heat source and remove from water
-Drip filter while still hot (it’s easier to drip filter while its still hot) until around 500mL has dripped through (if more than 500mL comes through at once, your filter may be clogged; change filters if this happens again for any reason).