Looking for Guidance on making Rosin with my press, and turning that into Vape Oil

Hi all, I've gotten my first indoor harvest in 20 years. Now I have all the shake and popcorn buds and want to get vape oil from it.

Apart from some Youtube vids of which I have already seen most, I am looking for the best tutorial/s on how to make this into Rosin that gets turned into Vape oil

I should mention, I've already bought a 4 Ton Press and Terpines. I think I have most all the required materials except for a syringe filter (if needed, I do have a 120micron bag filter to hold use during pressing).

Please can anyone point me in the right direction to tutorials about this?

Be careful with lot of the tutorials that are out there....many are pushing some type of additives to deal with the viscosity. I have tried just adding fruit terpenes after decarbing with some success....basically it worked i guess. I used 1/2 g CCell ceramic glass carts.

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It’s basically a money sink. I went down that rabbit hole, but gave it up. You end up needing more terps than the directions say, because it’s basically made for bho. Rosin has fats and particulate in it that’s almost impossible to filter all the way out. The carts never taste good for very long. Hopefully you figure out a better way, good luck.

myvoy said:

Be careful with lot of the tutorials that are out there....many are pushing some type of additives to deal with the viscosity. I have tried just adding fruit terpenes after decarbing with some success....basically it worked i guess. I used 1/2 g CCell ceramic glass carts.

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Thanks. Can you please elaborate more? "Basically it worked I guess" doesnt sound very confident. How did you approach the decarb? What worked or didnt work in the end please?

Frankly Dankly said:

It’s basically a money sink. I went down that rabbit hole, but gave it up. You end up needing more terps than the directions say, because it’s basically made for bho. Rosin has fats and particulate in it that’s almost impossible to filter all the way out. The carts never taste good for very long. Hopefully you figure out a better way, good luck.

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Which directions are you talking about mate? You mean the terpenes are made for BHO? What ratios of rosin to terps did you try? Did you try to make a purer output by using low heat, high filtration and low pressure? Anything that DID work?

If all hasn't worked, perhaps the next best solution is to make vape oil out of rosin-from-bubble-hash? But that would be plan B....

The terpenes work best with bho, with rosin I had to use more to the point it wasn’t as smooth as a normal cartridge. I’ve tried using the tightest press bags I could get shit to squish through, but only one cart worked right till the end.

Tight bags like what 50 micron could squish? You try syringe filter? Did you try to decarb slowly? I would really like to figure this out...

Frankly Dankly said:

The terpenes work best with bho, with rosin I had to use more to the point it wasn’t as smooth as a normal cartridge. I’ve tried using the tightest press bags I could get shit to squish through, but only one cart worked right till the end.

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You would need to clean out the gunk from the rosin by winterizing with alcohol, putting it in the freezer at lowest temp for at least 2 days. To make the rosin I would first make kief, an easy high yield method being to shake it in a bubble bag with chunks of dry ice, as explained here. If you get one of those tabletop distillers you can put the winterized extract/alcohol mixture directly in there and reclaim the alcohol. A silicone spatula works well for getting the extract out after it's cooked down. You can squeegee it right out while it's hot and liquid.

BobCajun said:

You would need to clean out the gunk from the rosin by winterizing with alcohol, putting it in the freezer at lowest temp for at least 2 days. To make the rosin I would first make kief, an easy high yield method being to shake it in a bubble bag with chunks of dry ice, as explained here. If you get one of those tabletop distillers you can put the winterized extract/alcohol mixture directly in there and reclaim the alcohol. A silicone spatula works well for getting the extract out after it's cooked down. You can squeegee it right out while it's hot and liquid.

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Are you suggesting to winterize (such as by using the tabletop distiller) rosin from flower or from bubblehash/kief? I ask because I would hope that if winterizing, it is not necesary to start with such a pure sample (kief instead of flower).

Yeah in fact you could actually just extract the material with alcohol but since you already bought a press I thought you might want to get some use out of it. And yeah you could press the material as is, just it would be a lot of volume to deal with. Most big producers make kief first to get the volume way down.

I should mention that I haven't actually used a table top distiller, just saw videos of them and thought they might be good for reclaiming alcohol. Apparently it only comes out about 60% alcohol but maybe putting it through a few times would concentrate it more. You can actually extract with 60% anyway, if you wanted to. Extracts being too thick is usually from too much wax and other gunk. When you get that out the oil will flow like molasses. It has to be decarbed too or it will be thick because of the THCA, which is a solid.

Okay so for me the best solution might be to press the flower -> winterize rosin -> add terpines to make the oil. That sound about right?
I saw this How To about winterizing rosin recently:
If not necessary to use the the rosin press, would you say that using alcohol is the best/easiest/most efficient way to go about making vape oil? If so can you kindly point me to any recommened tutorial about that topic, if you know? Many thanks

Not much to the alcohol extraction really. Some people do it frozen but last time I tried it room temp and it came out okay but did need the winterizing, quite a bit of wax dropped out. Doesn't matter much if you intend to winterize anyway, the freezer method is extra trouble for not that much benefit. If you want to really leach the material you should leave it soaking for 2 days, otherwise you can just make a drip extractor from some kind of large bottle, if it's a big extraction, like a water dispenser bottle, something that tapers to a hole like a funnel when you cut the bottom off. I just use a gallon water jug for doing pound at a time, gotta really stuff it in there though to get that much in. By jug I don't mean the kind with a handle built in, just the plain jugs, they sometimes have a plastic loop around the neck as a handle of sorts.

You just position the jug upside down over a round container, I guess with a water dispenser bottle you could probably use a 5 gallon bucket. With that set up you just slowly pour in the alcohol until it starts coming out and then you let it drip for some time. When the drips get slow you add another portion, and do that a few times, about 5 times usually does it. After the last portion you let it drip out for several hours or overnight, it takes quite a while for all dripping to stop. You don't need to grind it up or anything, because the resin is on the outside, though if you wanted to soak it and get everything out then grinding might help, or at least some hand crushing.

It's pretty much the same routine as butane extraction, but less dangerous and you don't need a special column, just an empty poly bottle of some kind. I put the cap on the bottle, with a hole drilled in it about 1/8th inch diameter. I don't bother filtering because no particles even come out but if you're going to winterize then you'll be filtering it anyway. BTW I leave the filter over the container inside the freezer, with plastic over it so it won't dry out, not out on a counter or something. You want the alcohol to stay cold until it's filtered. Also wet the filter with alcohol first so it won't absorb as much of the extract alcohol like a wick.
You can find other tutorials but the drip bottle method is what I've found to be practical and effective.

One more thing I should add, smoking extract in a vape pen is probably just not a good idea. It's not even a good idea for smoking nicotine. Smoking glycols is definitely bad for the lungs, and so is smoking terpenes. Terps are actually quite hazardous to lungs, if you read the MSDS for them. And the devices just aren't suited to smoking things that leave a residue, it would have to be like pure THC to vape clean. If you're bent on making cannabis vape carts then I guess you'll do it regardless, just gotta advise against it personally.

I decarbed slowly using a hot plate stirrer. I added 10% of fruit terpenes to first. It was fairly thick but I was able to get it into carts while still warm. The taste was ok and I was able to vape most...prewarming the carts helped if your vape has the setting.

The second, I screwed up by adding too much terpenes...I accidently added more than 40% by being too lazy to find my pipette. The taste was harsh and nasty. Next, I will try doing with kief and adding 20% terpenes.

myvoy said:

I decarbed slowly using a hot plate stirrer. I added 10% of fruit terpenes to first. It was fairly thick but I was able to get it into carts while still warm. The taste was ok and I was able to vape most...prewarming the carts helped if your vape has the setting.

The second, I screwed up by adding too much terpenes...I accidently added more than 40% by being too lazy to find my pipette. The taste was harsh and nasty. Next, I will try doing with kief and adding 20% terpenes.

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Thanks for sharing your experience. Those hot plate stirrers are pretty cool. I found one online for less than 60$ with temperature setting readout. Thinking of buying it.

@myvoy How slow did you decarb? Because I heard one report of someone who decarbed slow and low for 48 hours and he was able to use ZERO solvents/terps.

I hear of terps in the range from 1:20 to 1:1!

BobCajun said:

One more thing I should add, smoking extract in a vape pen is probably just not a good idea. It's not even a good idea for smoking nicotine. Smoking glycols is definitely bad for the lungs, and so is smoking terpenes. Terps are actually quite hazardous to lungs, if you read the MSDS for them. And the devices just aren't suited to smoking things that leave a residue, it would have to be like pure THC to vape clean. If you're bent on making cannabis vape carts then I guess you'll do it regardless, just gotta advise against it personally.

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What do you recommend then, for people who like to vape oil? Solventless vape oil without terps might be hard to do but I've seen some reports of people doing it...

I too would like to figure this out. I have been doing loads of research myself. Fresh rosin makes THE tastiest, best oil I have read, if done right.

But from what I am reading, bubble hash or kief is a better product to make oil from than buds. And after decarbing it can go right into a cart I read...Have not tried it yet. Some people are mixing it with distillate oil 50 / 50 to improve the flavor of the distillate, and make it more stable, I have read.

I really don't want to have to add terpenes or anything. A high quality cart like CCell will vape very thick oil.

It can be done...I'm sitting here with a cart of thick distillate oil right now that has nothing added and it vapes perfect in a CCell, and tastes good! I unfortunately didn't make kit...a talented individual did though. It wasn't made commercially, and it's super thick, and has zero additives. Has to be heated to load into carts!!

Have you seen this one? It sounds like maybe you have....


Just getting a press set up now so I'll be joining you in this venture in the weeks to come...But yeah, try some bubble hash or kief squeezed through a 37 micron bag for your base....then decarb, and hopefully, load into a cart.

My thought is distillate is a better product for popcorn bud and trim, but IDK. That's another venture I plan on trying soon, and in correlation.

Good luck

Welcome @manfredo nice to hear your on the same path. Please do keep in touch on any progress you make. I've got a 4ton press and 510 carts. I havent tried any tek yet tho.

There are some ideas copied below, which I copied from a DM convo I had with that vLogger you linked to (HowToWeed):


Reply:


Of course the above are very general guidelines and ideas without all the details. Example, I wonder what heat is considered low heat for conditioning the rosin for 48 hrs. I try to get expert advice but lets see, likely need to experiment with small amounts and see what works.

" likely need to experiment with small amounts and see what works."

Agreed!! Hopefully by next weekend I'll be pressing!!

So will you try to use Bubble hash for your first run or flower as in above examples or what?

Overgrowtho said:

So will you try to use Bubble hash for your first run or flower as in above examples or what?

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I'm really not sure yet but it's going to be about 3 weeks before my next batch of bubble, so I'll probably experiment with some flower first, but perhaps in a finer micron bag...Like maybe some higher grade flower through a 75 or 90 micron bag. I might be able to come up with enough kief now for a squeeze too.

This is all very new to me so I have much to learn!! I have gotten very good at making full melt bubble though, and I'd love to do a squeeze of that in a 37 micron bag, and use that for my base of cart oil. That's my current plan anyways, which will probably change no less than 5 times, lol.

I just did my first QWET experiment about a month ago, with mixed results. I did a dry ice wash of bud that came back nice and golden color, and the end product wasn't bad, considering I just cooked off the Everclear in an oil bath. It wasn't the best tasting but very strong.

I just hate buying carts flavored with only God knows what in them, but they are so damned convenient it's become my favorite way to ingest!