Looking for rosin advice

Hey guys! I just received my Christmas gift to myself today, a set of Dabpress 3x5 caged plates. I have already had to contact Dabpress because the controller will not adjust the temperature for the top plate. It came preset at 190*F and was reading about 178*F when checked with my thermometer and will not go up or down, but I was excited to give it a try anyway. Over the weekend, I did get in touch with Dabpress to find out if it would cause any issues pressing in my barn which is not heated and in Northern Michigan, right around the freezing point inside the barn. They said it would only affect the amount of time it takes to heat the plates up, but should be no issue. So, how did it go? Not all that good. I did 2 presses at 190*F, well the bottom plate was 190, the top plate like I said was 178. Both presses were about 3.5g giving a rather small pressing footprint, measuring about 1.5 inches in diameter, around 36mm, once packed tight. First press was in a 160 micron bag pressed at about 1 ton over the course of 3 minutes. It gave the best result of the 2 presses but wasn't very much. The 2nd press was without a bag, just sandwiched between the parchment paper, but squeezed together to remove as much air as I could by hand. This one was pressed at around 3/4 ton over the course of 3 1/2 minutes. I did not weigh each press, only combined. Total yield ended up being 190mg coming out to 2.7%. That is absolutely terrible and not worth pressing this strain, Sour Kush, in my opinion. I keep my flower in quart sized jars with an Integra 62% pack in each jar, although it did seem a little on the dry side. This wasn't the freshest flower, but I did cut the plant down in September. It has a great terpene profile, lots of limonene, and although it isn't the strongest stuff in the world, it does what I need it to do when I vape it. If I had to guess, it's around 15% THC. Not great, but not bad.

Now, what can I do to have something that gives me a reasonable return? This was my very first press, so I expected a poor return. Obviously, I could start off with better, fresher flower with better humidity, Maybe more pressure? I have a 10 ton press so that's easily done. Better ambient temps? Better plate temperature? If Dabpress doesn't fix the controller issue, I am fairly handy with electronics.

Looking for any and all advice that can be given.

Thanks,
ATM

Pic of your press 1st off

I'm not a fan of the bags unless I do the bottle tech press method with bags

I find older flower pressed closer to 5min yields a better volume


My plates I run at 200f which is really 190 since they are about 10f off what the dabpress digital readout shows

Biggest advice is play with it, higher temps, lower temps

Also some flower sucks for pressing, some us amazing, so keep that in mind

I'll put up pics in the morning.

If you get the puck close to the edge where u can see the oooozing

Once it stops, stop pressing, if it's still oooozing or bubbling give it more time

So here is my setup, along with the results of my first 2 presses.View attachment DSC_0423.JPGView attachment DSC_0424.JPG

Here are the results. Rather minimal return for 7g

any pics of your bag and starting material?

doublejj said:

any pics of your bag and starting material?

Click to expand...

I did not take any pics of the starting material and bag at the time I did the press but here is a representation of what I used. These 2 buds were from the same jar. The bag itself was a Dabpress brand 160U bag that was cut off at the top only, about an inch from the packed bud. Before packing the bag I did remove the stem.

You should get a decent return with that. try it again but use more pressure. I squish rosin at 180deg and use 20tons of pressure for 2 min in my Harbor Freight press with low temp plates.

Much better this time around. Pressed 3.5g at 198°F over the course of 4 minutes which is when it stopped flowing with a total pressure of 3 tons. Total return this time, 0.34g. Almost 10%.

did a little nug run from our 2020 Wedding Cake. The trim crew left me a couple bags of smalls so I fired up the ol Harbor freight 20ton press. Filled a couple of 120mic bags and set the temp at 200.....

you should be pressing at more like 6-8 tons. also some material will not yield well in this process, so its all trial and error.