Automatic trimmers - yes or no?

DaveInCave

DaveInCave

Well-Known Member
I'm planning to start my first grow this summer. I'm aiming very high and I would like to plan ahead.
I will be expecting a yield of 3-4 pounds and I will have no one to help me with trimming.

I can get a Spinpro clone for US$180, and I would like to hear from people who have tried automatic trimmers about their experiences.

Do you keep using them? Why or why not?

It seems to be very aggressive process.
Aren't the trichomes getting damaged?
Is the trim useful for anything afterwards? Hash? Extracts?

Do you trim wet, semi-dry or dry? And how does it fit with proper curing?

Thanks!
 
70's natureboy

70's natureboy

Well-Known Member
If you don't care about the final product and people will buy it anyway then go for it. Hand trimming sucks but it makes for a much better finished product for conneseurs.
 
OldMedUser

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
I picked up a TrimPro Unplugged for half price a few months back and glad I did. Only used it on a half pound grow so far and tho it does beat the buds up some they look good when they are done. Got a 2lb grow at 6 weeks now so it'll get a better workout this time.

I have fairly severe arthritis and my hands start cramping up after about 30 min of snipping with the Fiskars. I'm too damn fussy when hand trimming too so it takes me forever. I sat in the grow room picking off buds and snipping away anything that didn't have sugar on it then breaking up the colas into bite size chunks and when there was a bout a cup of rough trimmed buds tossing them in the trimmer and a few cranks each way and they were done.

These types of trimmers are made for wet bud and when I ran some that had nearly dried out if chewed them up pretty good and about half ended up in the catch pan. The leather fingers it uses to move the buds around tends to fold back and roll over the buds so I'm trying to find a stiff material than will push them rather than bend and roll over them to see if that might work better.

unplugged-big.jpg

:peace:
 
DaveInCave

DaveInCave

Well-Known Member
OldMedUser said:
I picked up a TrimPro Unplugged for half price a few months back and glad I did. Only used it on a half pound grow so far and tho it does beat the buds up some they look good when they are done. Got a 2lb grow at 6 weeks now so it'll get a better workout this time.

I have fairly severe arthritis and my hands start cramping up after about 30 min of snipping with the Fiskars. I'm too damn fussy when hand trimming too so it takes me forever. I sat in the grow room picking off buds and snipping away anything that didn't have sugar on it then breaking up the colas into bite size chunks and when there was a bout a cup of rough trimmed buds tossing them in the trimmer and a few cranks each way and they were done.

These types of trimmers are made for wet bud and when I ran some that had nearly dried out if chewed them up pretty good and about half ended up in the catch pan. The leather fingers it uses to move the buds around tends to fold back and roll over the buds so I'm trying to find a stiff material than will push them rather than bend and roll over them to see if that might work better.

View attachment 3941753

:peace:
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I was actually following your journal and saw you had it, I was hoping you would reply here.
Is the trim that you get useful for anything?
 
DaveInCave

DaveInCave

Well-Known Member
Los Reefersaurus said:
I trim about 3 and a bit pounds dry, in a 6 hour session for coarse trim and 3 for fine trim later, by myself. So what is your time worth?
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I doubt I will be as fast as you, even if I was, 9 hours of hard work per grow....
I'm more inclined to buy it.

The only thing that worries me is the sacrifice of trichomes, but if people say it is negligible I see no reason not to get it.
It will pay itself back in a couple of grows.
 
Los Reefersaurus

Los Reefersaurus

Well-Known Member
DaveInCave said:
I doubt I will be as fast as you, even if I was, 9 hours of hard work per grow....
I'm more inclined to buy it.

The only thing that worries me is the sacrifice of trichomes, but if people say it is negligible I see no reason not to get it.
It will pay itself back in a couple of grows.
Click to expand...
even if you were 3 times slower then me it is still just one really long day and another normal day to do your 4 P.
If you are new to growing, I don't know if you are or not, don't get sucked into the fancy mouse trap, trap.
Grow shops and vendors are always looking at ways to take your money from you with new shiny gear.
In fact I would like to do a head to head with one of these machines , see what a experienced trimmer can do vs someone running this machine
 
DaveInCave

DaveInCave

Well-Known Member
I'm very new to growing, I'm so new in fact that I haven't started yet (in the original message I wrote I'm planning to start this summer).
However, I'm a very experienced consumer: I read, I research, I ask around, I define my needs and my budget clearly.
That's why I'm asking you guys for your opinion and experience.
:)

Considering the cheapest trimmer I found on Ebay is US$120 and has good reviews from Amazon, I think the value it gives
is quite worth it.
In theory I think I can build a good trimmer from an IKEA salad dryer, a jointer blade, and few pieces of plastic, but I don't have time to do it.

My harvest will be around October-November, so a busy time for me as a medical student, so I'm trying to find the balance between cost-efficiency and time efficiency.

I have no doubt in my mind you will win against the machine
:)
 
OldMedUser

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
DaveInCave said:
I was actually following your journal and saw you had it, I was hoping you would reply here.
Is the trim that you get useful for anything?
Click to expand...
Trim seems fine and I get a lot more of it than I used to but that's OK by me. I dry sift to get kief then solvent extract whatever goodie is left over then mix the two to make nice black hash. Or it gets used to make my cocobudder which is my preferred method of consumption.

I've never been a fast trimmer and as my arthritis gets worse so does my trimming. Some people got it and some people don't. I don't! :)

For me it cuts my trimming time by at least half. More like 75%.

If bag appeal is important to you then hand trimming can't be beat. My trimmer buds look shaggy in comparison to my hand trimmed and the outer trichs get mashed down so they don't have that sparkly look either. They do come out rounded off as it snips anything that sticks out thus the extra high-grade trim in the pan. Nothing gets wasted as I scrape the blades and any goo buildup on the grid before wiping everything down with a piece of linen soaked in pure methyl hydrate to be saved then added to the solvent extracted batch to recover the oil in the linen. Waste not, want not, as dear old dad used to say. Us Scottish sheep shaggers like to get our money's worth out of everything. :D

:peace:
 
DaveInCave

DaveInCave

Well-Known Member
OldMedUser said:
Trim seems fine and I get a lot more of it than I used to but that's OK by me. I dry sift to get kief then solvent extract whatever goodie is left over then mix the two to make nice black hash. Or it gets used to make my cocobudder which is my preferred method of consumption.

I've never been a fast trimmer and as my arthritis gets worse so does my trimming. Some people got it and some people don't. I don't! :)

For me it cuts my trimming time by at least half. More like 75%.

If bag appeal is important to you then hand trimming can't be beat. My trimmer buds look shaggy in comparison to my hand trimmed and the outer trichs get mashed down so they don't have that sparkly look either. They do come out rounded off as it snips anything that sticks out thus the extra high-grade trim in the pan. Nothing gets wasted as I scrape the blades and any goo buildup on the grid before wiping everything down with a piece of linen soaked in pure methyl hydrate to be saved then added to the solvent extracted batch to recover the oil in the linen. Waste not, want not, as dear old dad used to say. Us Scottish sheep shaggers like to get our money's worth out of everything. :D

:peace:
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Thank you, I think based on this information I will give it a try.
Best case scenario it will save me many hours of tedious work.
Worst case, I lost $120, probably less if I resell it.

I will keep following your journal and see what else I can learn.
 
OldMedUser

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
I paid $300 for mine but it was $600 retail so not a bad deal for a slightly used trimmer that's made by a reputable company. I was buying $500 more worth of grow stuff at the same time and the guy knows me well so that probably helped keep the price down. Now I just need a couple more grand to spend and I'll have all the goodies I want to really grow a tonne. :)

Don't know if you've seen this link I've been passing around but lots of good grow stuff there.

I found a great spot to download FREE POT BOOKS. I downloaded a grow bible first and got lots more. Books look great and complete like the real ones I have here. No web site but just a page of links. Just right click on what you want and then "Save Link As" to download so they don't open first as some are 50+ megs. They got lots. Enjoy.
 
70's natureboy

70's natureboy

Well-Known Member
DaveInCave said:
Does the difference justify the extra 24h of work in your opinion?
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It does to me. I handle them so delicate I don't even want one trich to fall off. I couldn't imagine putting them in a machine to thrash around. If the buds don't have much sparkle in the first place then it probably can't hurt them. I see nice golf ball size buds for sale pretty cheap but they don't have much sparkle to them. People still buy it.
 
DaveInCave

DaveInCave

Well-Known Member
70's natureboy said:
It does to me. I handle them so delicate I don't even want one trich to fall off. I couldn't imagine putting them in a machine to thrash around. If the buds don't have much sparkle in the first place then it probably can't hurt them. I see nice golf ball size buds for sale pretty cheap but they don't have much sparkle to them. People still buy it.
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I totally understand the sentiment, even though my priorities are different.
As long as the potency isn't lost I think I'd be happy.
If I was growing to sell commercially bag appeal would be very important to me as well.
 
S

Spends alot

Active Member
Man spend the $300 and buy a trim daddy it the shit. Hand held electric scissors easy to use.i can do a pound in 4 hours.

DY-Scissor-Trimmer-Handheld-Brushless/dp/B01HNELMQ6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1496714394&sr=8-1&keywords=trim+daddy
 
Yodaweed

Yodaweed

Well-Known Member
trim machines beat the crap out of the buds, i hand trim everything , people i know that got expensive trimmers are looking to sell them because they aren't used much
 
BobCajun

BobCajun

Well-Known Member
I read one thing where a guy freeze dries it untrimmed and says the leaves just snap off with fingers, no scissors needed. I guess he then moistened it up to 55-60% rh after that. Kind of a complicated way to get weed trimmed, but if a person had a freeze dryer.
 
OldMedUser

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
BobCajun said:
I read one thing where a guy freeze dries it untrimmed and says the leaves just snap off with fingers, no scissors needed. I guess he then moistened it up to 55-60% rh after that. Kind of a complicated way to get weed trimmed, but if a person had a freeze dryer.
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That sounds like a totally shitty method to trim pot. No decent curing possible doing that.

This damn trimmer of mine is near useless with fresh pot so I either have to change my methods or get rid of it. It would do a great job with buds that are partly dried using the hanging method but fails miserably with fresh bud unless it's already trimmed to near completion.

Anyone want a slightly used Trimpro Unplugged for about 1/3 retail? :)
 
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