Day: January 10, 2023

The optimum material from which to build an extractor system has to address chemical compatibility, strength of materials, and compliance to food service and pharmaceutical […]

Dry sieve is a process by which the trichomes are broken off and sifted through a screen, allowing separation of the resin bearing trichomes from […]

I got my idea for the Grinning Reaper design, based on the short-lived Resin Reaper that briefly appeared in the market place, and Roger, a […]

Tumbling is a good way to process large amounts of material on the sidelines, while you occupy yourself with other chores or frolicking in play.  […]

Easy to get spoiled by an electric nail!  I know I sure have starting with the one mockup Growgeek and I assembled, which led Son […]

Induction heating has been around for a while and is used extensively to melt metal in foundries.  The advantage is the rapid heat up and […]

 One of my associates with a compromised immune system asked me to help her find an easier way to dip her plants for Spider Mites, […]

For those of ya’ll with higher volume or whom need your Terpenators to stay on like pumping out concentrate, here is a design I did […]

Not only does a vacuum chamber or vacuum oven speed things up, but there are some things that you need one to accomplish.  For those […]

For ya’ll brothers and sisters looking to process larger quantities at a time, we recommend that you consider the Subzero Ethanol process, by which either […]

For those of ya’ll coveting a vacuum oven on a limited budget, here is how we upgraded a used NAPCO 5851 vacuum drying oven to […]

Haskel now offers their EXT-420 plumbed so that you can run it in either single or double stage, depending on where volume or pressure are […]

 Here’s a real slick DIY seed separator shared with us by our UK brothers at Real Seeds: http://www.realseeds.co.uk/seedcleaner.html

For ya’ll that have been wondering what the different sanitary clamps are rated at, here is a handy chart.  They are for you convenience only […]

Still with 60″ packed Reflux column in operation In previous articles 10.19 190 Proof Ethanol from Scratch, and article 15.8 Ethanol Fractionating Still, I discus […]

Ethanol is hygroscopic, so picks up water in the extraction process, and there are limits to how concentrated a pot still can keep keep the […]

The simple pot still comes to us from simple roots buried in antiquity, but consists of a vessel that you can boil liquid in, and […]

Some of the professional engineering services certifying cannabis extraction equipment require that the collection pot have a certification placard attached and we’ve approached that a […]

Here is an article by Siskiyou Sam about a DYI rotary evaporator that he designed and built, and which he originally gave us permission to […]

Rotary evaporators are a keen thing to have if you’re running much alcohol, but alas the good ones are handsomely priced and finished material is not […]

We used a couple different heat exchanger designs at WolfWurx, depending on application.  One was the Tri Coil HEX, which we built ourselves using a […]

 The other HEX design that we use is the counter flow design, which in our case is a 20′ 1/2″X .049 wall 304SS tube inside […]

Here is a sweet little heat exchanger for recovering ethanol.  I made it out of a stainless salad bowl, a bulk head fitting, and a […]

During the time frame that I introduced the Mk III, I introduced the Lil Terp Passive extractor, which was based on the Mk III design, but […]

Success has many fathers, while failure is often a bastard child, so stories abound about how closed loop BHO extraction got started.  Truth is also […]

Legalization of medical cannabis has enabled brothers and sisters with limited funds to legally grow their own cannabis meds without the specter of arrest, but […]

I ran across this article by Ichiban Crafter and Troy Ivan gave me permission to share it.  More like it at Check out their site […]

by Lumir Ondre Hanus, Stefan Martin Meyer, Eduardo Munoz, Orazio Taglialatela-Scafati and Giovanni Appendino Hee, hee, hee, here is a PDF link to an excellent […]

Anthocyanins are water soluble plant pigments known as polyphenols, a subgroup of flavonoids.  They have a positive charge, which enables them to absorb light, and thus have colors, […]

Here is an interesting open access paper on identifying cannabis strains by terpene profile by Doctor Justin Fischedick (Fis ched ik), 2020 EISohly awards winner […]

Plant waxes are the protective cover between the plant cells and their environment, by which they regulate their water loss, and protect themselves from the […]

 A reader recently brought CAT Scientific’s Debunking the Myth of THC-CBN Conversion Intensity study at https://www.catscientific.com/decarboxylating-cannabis/ to my attention, and asked my read, as it appeared to […]

The following are some notes from the 212 page report by Hélène Perrotin-Brunel in the Netherlands, ISBN 978-90-8570-730-1, Copyright © 2011, Their copyright forbids copying, […]

Isolation of D9-THC-a from hemp and analytical aspects concerning the determination of D9-THC in cannabis products,   by Dussy, Hamberg, Luginbiihl, Schwerzmann, and Briellmann,  from Institute […]

Steam has been used for a couple hundred years to harvest the mono and sesquiterpenes, but by the time we reach the diterpenes, the boiling […]

Overview: Separating THCA and terpene fraction via evaporation crystallization  Author Berkovitz with DIY Diamond Miner Example of Erich’s end product Steps: Pour Off: After running […]

Diamond mining refers to the practice of precipitating THC-a or CBD crystals out of a concentrated solution and starts with a subzero LPG extraction, typically […]

Figure 1; My dirty old Chinese Short Path. This is a basic introduction to short path distillation of cannabinoids. We will be going over preparation […]

Figure 1 Opaline Silica might just be the best thing since sliced bread. It is a granular absorbent containing hydrated silica (Amorphous Opaline Silica) and […]

Check out this study and paper done by C Brunch and published 2015 in Chemistry: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/b29b/a8094c8edd6d2dc58c33a983b55a77d8e626.pdf

Your tax dollar at work!  Here is an in depth article about adsorbent clays courtesy of US Geological Survey (USGS.gov).   https://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/0928c/report.pdf

My name is Erich Berkovitz. I’ve been processing cannabis for about 10 years. I’ve been living in Oregon and an OMMP patient since 2013. For […]

One of the cannabis marketplace’s current blossoming love affairs is with color remediation chromatography (CRC).  Actually, somewhat of a misnomer, in that chromatography simply separates […]

When packed into a column and solutions are passed through them, various media changes the rates that the different constituents in the solution reach the […]

Another thank you to Dr. Justin Fischedick for the pile-o-papers and studies, in support of my quest to solve the CBN riddle, and the study […]

Disclaimer:  The techniques described here require at least High School chemistry lab training and experience in chemistry lab techniques, as well as adequate ventilation and […]

Disclaimer:  The techniques described here require at least High School chemistry lab training and experience in chemistry lab techniques, as well as adequate ventilation and […]

Polishing Extract: We’ve discussed how to make pristine museum quality bragging rights concentrates, but what do you do after the fact, when what’cha got is […]

Winterizing is the term for redissolving a non polar extraction in a polar solvent and then lowering the temperature low and long enough for the […]

As produced by the cannabis plant, the cannabinoids are produced in carboxylic acid form, which means that there is a carboxyl group (COOH) attached.  Note […]

Hee, hee, hee, snicker, snark, snort!  Check out this 150F Closed Wash Decarb paper by Ichiban Crafter!

One of the issues with extracting with ethanol and then using the alcohol mixture as a tincture, is that as extracted, THC-a does not readily […]

10.1.1 Decarboxylation of Tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCA) to active THC by Iffland, Carus, Grotenhermen, at nova-Institute GmbH http://eiha.org/media/2014/08/16-10-25-Decarboxylation-of-THCA-to-active-THC.pdf Download this paper and further documents at: www.eiha.org  This […]

 As produced by the cannabis plant, the cannabinoids are produced in carboxylic acid form, which means that there is a carboxyl group (COOH) attached.  Note […]

14.1     ASME Tanks  14.1.1  Marks Brothers 503-663-0211 marks-brothers.com               14.2     Books and links 14.2.1  Marijuana Chemistry, Michael Starks 14.2.2  Marijuana Gold-Trash to stash, Ed Rosenthal 14.2.3  Dr Atomic’s Marijuana […]

With legalization comes regulation, and a current one is that the extraction equipment and the operating system that it is installed in, must meet ASME, […]

A certified and permitted extraction installation in OR, WA, CO, NV, and MD requires not only certified equipment, but an extraction booth that meets IBC, […]

Watch this space

Watch this space

Some of us whose lungs are approaching their expiration date and who now rely on vaping or dabbing, are left wanting when traveling, so covet […]

 Royal Jelly certainly has smoothness and potency sorted out, but how about us’ns brothers and sisters that crave more monoterpene flavors?    For ya’ll I have […]

  I mixed some of Pharmer Joe’s center fraction Clear distillate and his THC-a crystals to make a delightful mix that we decided to call […]

I originally developed the Cannapop lollypops for Granny, a patient with jaw damage that left her with limited movement and constant pain.  The lollypop allowed […]

Here’s a tale from the hoary days of yore, but one that still has brothers and sisters swearing by the product.   In the olden days, […]

Most of us’ns first experience with cannabis was smoking it, but once its medical properties began to be better documented and medical cannabis came of […]

Aside from intravenous injections, the portals into the human body are oral, respiratory, transdermal, and rectal.  For some applications like nausea and colon/rectal cancer, it […]

Lu lu lu lu lu lu lu lu lu!!!!!!!!!!  Now that’s pain relief from a Topical! This amazingly effective pain relieving topical is just too, […]

Our Holy Anointing Oil oral/topical was formulated by Carla, aka Eloquentsolution, and was based on a recipe for Holy Anointing Oil give to Moses by the Lord […]

9.4.14.4 The Cotton Candy Extraction Technique We bumped into the Cotton Candy extraction technique by accident, while shaking out the original Mk III Terpenator.  We […]

Sweet Mary not only has trichomes on her very special succulent parts, she has trichomes on both her fan leaves and her stems.  Even her roots […]

 Heating a concentrate to its melting point in a vacuum oven or chamber, so as to reduce surface tension enough for bubbles to escape, and […]

Success has many fathers, but failure is most often a bastard child.  Lawrd knows who first conceived it, but who was the first to publish […]

Unloading columns can be tedious and we experimented with various methods ranging from an auger and battery operated electric drill, but loved this one the […]

As the temperature of LPG drops, so does its pressure.  The Engineering Tool Box offers a handy reference showing the pressure of different mixes at […]

During the time frame that I introduced the Mk III, I introduced the Lil Terp Passive extractor, which was based on the Mk III design, but […]

Jump117 shared an extraction technique with us on IC Mag forum, that used a stainless thermos to keep the LPG liquid longer, so as to […]

BHO is the acronym for Butane Honey Oil, which is cannabis essential oils extracted using LPG as a solvent.  That LPG typically contains n or […]

Flying in the face of the often espoused proffered opinion that any residual butane in your concentrate is “poison”, the Food and Drug Administration has […]

Here is a rating of lighter fuel brands best to worst with regard to Mystery Oil content, as compiled by Skyhighler and offered at https://www.icmag.com/ic/showpost.php?p=6099306&postcount=28  Best […]

Closed loop systems like the Terpenator also have the ability to vacuum distill the LPG used in the process, so as to reduce the PPM […]

The target constituents in cannabis that we covet, are aromatic hydrocarbons soluble in the simple Alkanes n-Butane and n-Propane, as well as their isomers Isobutane […]

Before we discuss extraction techniques, lets discuss safety and social responsibility.  Butane and Propane are both high flammable and typically under pressure  in their containers, […]

Simple Alkane MSDS Sheets & Properties: The simple Alkanes most often involved in cannabis extraction are n-Propane, n-Butane, Isobutane, n-Pentane, n-Hexane. and n-Heptane. Their MSDS […]

Quick Wash Isopropyl (QWISO) is similar to a QWET extraction using Ethanol, but uses cheaper un liquor taxed, 99% purity Isopropanol, found in places like […]

Ethanol extraction is one of our favorite methods, especially when run size gets beyond practical size limits for LPG extraction, and high monoterpene retention isn’t […]

Ethanol is one of the oldest solvents used to extract cannabis concentrates and due to its heavily taxed cost and hit and miss availability around […]

Giant Tea Ball Extraction A fast low tech way to extract a large amount of mixed trim fast, with a low equipment investment.  Check out […]

9.4.7.2 Subzero Extraction For ya’ll brothers and sisters looking to process larger quantities at a time, we recommend that you consider the Subzero Ethanol process, […]

Quick Wash Ethanol is an extraction process by which we freeze the material and chill the Ethanol before extracting, so that we limit the pickup […]

Vegetable glycerin (glycerol) extraction is an easy effective way to extract cannabis concentrates, and within the capability of most folks to perform.  It can be […]

Sweet Mary’s terpenes, terpenoids, and cannabinoids dissolve readily in fats and oils, allowing us to use them (fats and oils) for both extraction, or simply […]

 So how about the new kid on the block Rosin!  No solvents or license required. My best suggestion is to try it and decide for […]

Hold

Some of ya’ll are looking for a way to further refine heavily carded kif, and one way that works for small personal quantities, is electrostatic […]

Kif comes from the Arabic kayf, meaning pleasure.  While hand rubbed charas is ostensibly the oldest method of harvesting Kif, sieving does date back to […]

Hand rubbed Charas is thought to be the oldest form of cannabis concentrate, predating sieving by centuries, if not eons.  It is made by rubbing the […]

By Pete Tewes, Aka GrowGeek IoT Integration Engineer Pt3 Technical, LLC. ***Full disclosure***  While I do happily work for a controls manufacture and have my […]