Archive

Here is an interesting article by Doug Cody at Cannabis Home Sciences on his extraction solvent research.   In it he goes into depth showing why […]

Remember the Cannabis Alchemy book in the 70’s by D Gold and The Complete Cannabis in 2000?  He just published a new one called “Buds […]

Hi ya’ll! We’re baaaack!  Well mostly…………… Some of ya’ll say my posts on other forums explaining why all the Graywolfslair links in the various forums […]

Chapter 1 ended with the test sled ready for trials and I reported my successes using aluminum beads in leu of water for sous vide […]

Wowza, shazam!  What an intensely flavorful extract!! I extracted concentrate from spent wild blackberry pulp, after squeezing the berries for juice, that both Grayfox and […]

Test 3A:  My first experiment concentrating using vacuum was serendipitously Jalapeno syrup for use in Jalapeno lemonade and was inspired by Grayfox returning to the lair […]

Here is a aluminum bead sous vide based on the Starbuck recipe: 4 eggs 4 tablespoons cottage cheese 1/4 cup Monterey Jack Cheese shredded 1/4 […]

Well, that was sure good and with benefits!  I was looking at recipes to try in my aluminum bead bath and Grayfox mentioned that Crème […]

My first trials using the new test sled was with the aluminum bead bed and relied on my previous experience using the Sous Vide Art […]

Gently used Biotage Flash 150 System for Flash Chromatography, original price of $100,000+. Also includes Knauer 2.1S UV detector a $5000+ value and custom rack for ease of […]

Hi guys, I have the following liquidation units for sale. #1) A never-used industrial-scale packaging solution that includes the following turnkey setups: – A Dried […]

One of Graywolf’s Lair new columns is about my visits to local cannabis equipment manufacturers, and I started with Subzero Scientific, handily located in Gresham, […]

Sometimes good thangs come in twos and this was one of those occasions, cause shortly after publishing my results from testing Extract Crafts EtOH Pro, […]

While I participated in beta testing Extract Crafts Turbo vacuum still back in 2016, alas I missed that opportunity when they were beta testing their […]

Thermolyne Cinarec 2 and CAT MCS-66 stirring hotplates Truth is shorter than fiction!  As a measure of how we voted with our feet after we […]

Here is an evaluation of the Heidolph Instruments Hei-VAP Precision Ml G3 rotary evaporator that was loaned to us by Heidolph Instruments and tested by […]

 Before the Titanium Nail, Hash Master Kut designed a system called the HMK Ti Curve Skillet.  Besides its utilitarian aspects, Hash Master Kut and his […]

For perspective, let’s start with a trip down memory lane for ya’ll brothers and sisters who became aware of the cannabis scene before the early […]

It’s good to be us when people send us peachy keen equipment to test, and we were recently smiled on by Extract Craft, who submitted […]

by Mary Babitz, Founder – Cascade Sciences In my years of working with engineers, the most interesting remains the Aerospace Contamination Engineer.  Working with them […]

By Andrea Ashley, Cascade Sciences  Let’s start with the ugly – oil baths. Oil baths are used for reactions that require heating/reflux temperatures up to 200°C. […]

ABM Equipment of Vancouver, WA has developed a new system which dries up to 10,000 lbs. of cannabis per hour with minimal loss of cannabinoids. This […]

Now that more brothers and sisters are using closed loop LPG and EtOH extraction systems at subzero temperatures, questions regularly arise as to how much […]

There is a lot of discussion about which recovery pump is best suited for our application and my first thought is to ask which one […]

While I first shared the Terpenator design on 2-7-2011 on both SPR and IC Mag, and subsequently the fully automated Mk II, it was really […]

In answering process questions via email or at other forums, one cropped up that I thought I might share.  That was how do you process […]

A discussion of extraction column design would not be complete without first discussing subzero extraction.  As the LPG cannabis extraction process has evolved, we’ve learned […]

I recently got a call querying the details of how we automated the extraction process on the WolfWurx Mk VA2’s, but the story actually predates […]

Besides the highly individualized hand jive style of extraction using a screen, the question arises as to how much support we might expect from music, […]

There are a couple divergent lines of thinking with regard to BHO extraction.  In Plan A, we chill the LPG low enough to minimize plant […]

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 […]

Sooooooo, why not passive SCFE CO2 extraction!  The sabriousness of CO2 certainly makes it attractive, and C02 becomes supercritical at only about 31C/87.8F at 1073 […]

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 […]