I've been playing with making hash for about 1 1/2 years. See my Album for pics of the equiptment and more hash. I've tried several ways and so far this is the best method I've used. I've taken some crappy weed and made really good hash. My goal is to find the most efficient way to extract the goodness from the plant and have something that easy to smoke in a bowl or put into a joint if you like. And if anyone is interested here's a Social Group that you might like:
https://www.rollitup.org/groups/hash-factory.html. I also do an alcohol extraction with some of the scrap to get more out of it. I almost double my yield with the alcohol. And I'm always open to suggestions if you see anything that might be improved. In fact I would like to hear how you do it also. I don't get bubble hash with my system yet since I don't have a small enough screen (micron size). But I do get it good enough to roll up in your hands with no heat. You don't need to make "bubble hash" to have some really killer hash. Mine is more like traditional hash. I like to start with 2oz of bud for these size buckets. I use two gallon buckets. I cut the bottom plus a little more off 2 of them and sand the cut edge a little to get sharp edges smooth. I wet the weed a little first. I found this out one time by accident and does seem to help get a cleaner hash without a smaller size screen. I don't get so much fine power in it like when I put it in the blender when it is dry or if you grind it by hand. So after it's wet I put some of it in the blender with a little ice and on high for maybe 5 to 10 seconds. Just until it looks chopped up good. Just need to keep an eye on how much water you use so you don't over fill the bucket. Then it goes into the bucket set up (that's the cut off bucket with the screen inside a whole one) that has enough water and ice to cover the screen about 1 inch or so. The rest of the water comes from the blender and more ice. I start with a piece of polyester material I got at Walmart for $1.98 a yard. I checked it against the known silkscreen size that I have and it's about 240 micron. I strap in the beater and run it for 20 min on high. let that settle for 30 min. and strain what is still floating on the top. Give it a easy stir and pull out the bucket with the screen. The material that is on that screen goes it the trash. I give the water left in the bucket a good stir and dump it into another bucket set up that is dry and has a 12xx silkscreen (107 micron) in it. Then pull that inner bucket with the silkscreen out and save the material that is on the silkscreen. I press it dry as I can and use it for the alcohol extraction. I do use a sprayer to try to wash all the material to the center. Now with the water I have left I let it settle for 30 min and siphon off down to a mark that tells me that what is left will fit in my glass baking dish. Put it into the baking dish and let settle for 30 min again. I tilt the pan a little to get the water a little deeper one one side and siphon again. As much as I can without sucking up the resin. You can see it settling through the glass. Now with very little water left I put a piece of plexiglass with a small fan to help it dry faster. I don't like using heat to speed the drying, seems to come out better with the cool dry. While that is drying I take the scrap from the silkscreen that is still a little damp and do the alcohol extraction. I do the "Green Dragon" type of thing using only about 1 oz grain alcohol. I try to use as little as I can to get the job done. I filter the mix with a very small screen maybe 25 microns or so. You can just take some weed and do it but I have found a couple tricks that really help. More on that later maybe. The alcohol method will bubble and melt but can still be smoked with a screen as long as you don't draw to hard. A very clean smoke, not harsh if you do it right. It is a pretty cheap and easy way to get some really good hash. You can do this with any size bucket you want. I have not been able to find the middle sizes of polyester, something in the 75-125 range at any fabric places yet. It's all to big or to small. I do take my pocket microscope and a sample of the 107 micron with me to compare. I just tell them I need to find a certain size for a filter for my son's school project. I can get better pics of the setup, like how the buckets were cut or whatever If anybody wants to see more. And of course if anyone has any ideas on how to improve I would be glad to hear from you. This is a good place to get most any size screen that you might want. They have some small bags also But I have not really looked at them yet. I do have a 150 micron that I got from them that I got to do dry screening method but to me that is just to much work for what you get. I like to be able to turn on the timer and sit back and do some sampling while I wait for things to finish. That's my main reason for the timer. I can't trust myself to keep track of time after I have been smoking some. I would not say this is fast but I can start in the morning and be hand rolling by 7 or 8 pm. Also I don't feel like proof reading any more (ya, I've been sampling as I write this) so if something does not make sense just let me know. From what you guy's bring up about beating up the bags this really does not do that. And the only screen that even gets near the beaters is the $1.98 a yard from Walmart. So your screens will last a long time. The ones at that site are very good quality and you should be able to get 2 out of 1 yard. I'm thinking 55 gallon drums, what do you think??
http://www.aquaticeco.com/subcategories/1476/Nylon-Screening. You could always start with this and the big screen and then use your bags to do the finish filtering. That has to be the best price I've seen for bags.
