RSO advice needed.

I have a few questions regarding the making of RSO.
Is it necessary to dry buds before making RSO or can fresh buds be used?
Given that I don’t intend to smoke any of this, is there an optimum time to soak the buds in solvent?
I’ve read that soaking buds too long increases the amount of chlorophyll absorbed into the solvent. Does this really matter as I won’t be smoking it and therefore taste is irrelevant to me.
Does leaving the bud soak longer have any benefit like increasing the strength/potency of the oil?
Does the bud need to be decarbed before making RSO? I intend to use a rice cooker to remove the solvent so will this process decarb the bud?
Thanks.

this is how i made rso 7 plus years ago, i make solventless decarboxylated cannabis flower extract now and about to start making ice water bubble hash i'll squash into resin and then decarbe.

start with normal cured flowers. if ur gonna be taking extract long term like me, get an ardent nova and use thatto decarb, if not break up the flowers to 1/4" size in a pyrex casserole dish and cover tightly with aluminum foil.
stick it in a pre heated oven at 240 for 45 minutes.
pull it out and let it cool before removing the foil.
freeze everything. freeze ur 190 everclear, decarbed flower, strainers, pyrex pitchers, etc.
this is the qwet method basically from skunkpharm, btw.
i'd use a fifth for two oz of flowers.
pour the everclear over the buds for a couple of minutes and no, u don't want alot of chlorophyll unless ur using it topical.
the ice cold everclear will break the trichs off pretty quick.
then strain off the everclear using coffee filters in strainers.
i do all of this in the freezer, takes a while to get it strained enough. the coffee filters will pick up the green also.
to reclaim ur everclear, i eventually bought an ebay countertop water distiller to steam offthe everclear.
for beginners, i recommend a nuwave induction hot plate and do it outside, or near a window and don't breathe the fumes.
after ur broth gets to about half a cup, then put it in a smaller cup on a mr coffee coffee mug warmer and when the bubbles stop, even when u stir ith a toothpick, it's done. suck it up into a syringe and put in the frig for storage.

good luck with whatever health problem u have.
start with tiny doses and keep a consistent time and size of dose and slowly increase.
after 7 plus years i'm completely acclimated to 1200-1600mg daily. either 3 or 4 doses of 400mg.

Buds should be as dry as possible.

Use 99% isopropyl alcohol..2 gallons will do a pound.

Put your alcohol and weed in the freezer for a few hours, separate containers at this point.

Place some frozen bud in a pot or bucket and pour ice cold alcohol to cover bud completely.

Agitate for 4 min with a heavy spoon or something you can mash things up with. I use a hammer handle.

Strain.. I pour through a colander to catch the big stuff then through a ‘nut bag’ to get some fines.

I have a vacuum filter and a funnel. Place a filter paper in the funnel and suck the stuff through.

Now to the rice cooker on high.

cook it down on ‘cook’ until the rice cooker switches to ‘warm’ on its own. If bubbles remain, let cool a bit and run rice cooker on ‘cook’ until it switches to warm again.

move oil while it’s hot to a stainless steel measuring cup.

place cup of oil in 240f oven for 2 hours. This decarbs and cooks off any impurities.

suck it up in a syringe.

Hi CK,
Thanks for the prompt reply. What's your opinion of decarbing in a pressure cooker instead of an oven?

Thanks fskitch. Can bud be decarbed before alcohol soak?

jwik said:

Thanks fskitch. Can bud be decarbed before alcohol soak?

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Absolutely.

Thanks for the advice. I don't have a vacuum filter but I'm guessing it speeds up the process somewhat.

One thing I didn't mention that is important is cook off the alcohol outside with a box fan blowing the fumes away from you and don't light up around the area. Pretty sure you can find Rick Simpsons Video on youtube.

Highly recommend vacuum filter system. Saves a lot of time. Gravity through a coffee filter can be time consuming.

Cool ISO with dry ice. Break buds up but don't grind them. Soak for at most 10 minutes. Better to perform multiple short washes than long.
I filter though a funnel stuffed with a ball of polyfill. Works well at getting coarse materials out but allows for very fast liquid flow. Then jars sit for a day and are allowed to settle and top sediment free layer sucked off with syringe.

ISO is evaporated with lots of air flow and exhaust. Had a fire many years ago so now I'm much more careful and don't use heat. Looking back, a toaster oven full of alcohol was a bad idea. Eventually I get a nice hard film on pyrex dish. Pyrex only btw. The film is redissolved in everclear and put into a syringe with ball of cotton at the bottom compressed with a second plunger rubber that that has the center cut out. The second plunger rubber seals and holds the cotton ball in place so there is no leakage around the side. The syringe is chilled in freezer and/or with dry ice to precipitate wax. Then it is squirted into a pyrex dish and evaporated. This step filters and removes waxes.

The plate is evaped and ethanol is added again as necessary to insure all the iso is removed. Large surface areas allow for easier purging of solvent, vacuum is preferred if.

My preference is to decarb oil that I can see so I know exactly how decarb has progressed. This is basically done by putting a tray of oil in the oven at 170-250 depending on needs. First you will see remaining ethanol leave, then you will see tiny bubbles being generated by the decarb process. When the tiny bubbles stop, decarb is 100%. I don't always do 100% for various reasons.

Finished oil should be hard, able to be scraped with a razor and formed.

RSO will no doubt work even if it's green and nasty but if you have a nice gold oil it tastes better and you can use it for other things also.

if ur heart is set on rso, go for it, but my last method of decarbing whole flowers in a decarboxylator and squashing out food ready extract, is the easiest method for harvest to syringe.
plus solventless.

cancerkiller said:

if ur heart is set on rso, go for it, but my last method of decarbing whole flowers in a decarboxylator and squashing out food ready extract, is the easiest method for harvest to syringe.
plus solventless.

Click to expand...

I like the idea. Can you link your equip? And lay out your method? Is it some sort of nug squasher?
I used to consume about a gram of RSO/day. I’m down to 200mg/day for cancer maintenance. Tolerance builds up quick.

fskitch said:

Buds should be as dry as possible.

Use 99% isopropyl alcohol..2 gallons will do a pound.

Put your alcohol and weed in the freezer for a few hours, separate containers at this point.

Place some frozen bud in a pot or bucket and pour ice cold alcohol to cover bud completely.

Agitate for 4 min with a heavy spoon or something you can mash things up with. I use a hammer handle.

Strain.. I pour through a colander to catch the big stuff then through a ‘nut bag’ to get some fines.

I have a vacuum filter and a funnel. Place a filter paper in the funnel and suck the stuff through.

Now to the rice cooker on high.

cook it down on ‘cook’ until the rice cooker switches to ‘warm’ on its own. If bubbles remain, let cool a bit and run rice cooker on ‘cook’ until it switches to warm again.

move oil while it’s hot to a stainless steel measuring cup.

place cup of oil in 240f oven for 2 hours. This decarbs and cooks off any impurities.

suck it up in a syringe.
View attachment 4983006View attachment 4983007

Click to expand...

Whats the beaker called? and how much does the pump on average go for?

cancerkiller said:

if ur heart is set on rso, go for it, but my last method of decarbing whole flowers in a decarboxylator and squashing out food ready extract, is the easiest method for harvest to syringe.
plus solventless.

Click to expand...

If I'm pressing my flower at 220 degrees, shouldn't that decarb the rosin coming out to be food ready? I have a buddy that presses his then runs it in an oven to decarb it for eating or drinking. Just doesn't make sense to me of why you have to get it so hot twice?

bez420 said:

If I'm pressing my flower at 220 degrees, shouldn't that decarb the rosin coming out to be food ready? I have a buddy that presses his then runs it in an oven to decarb it for eating or drinking. Just doesn't make sense to me of why you have to get it so hot twice?

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When I heated up hot pressed rosin, it still fizzed from CO2 release, so it wasn't fully decarboxylated.

If you look at the decarboxylation curve for THC, you will note that decarboxylation is not instantaneous at temperature.

Nugbender said:

Whats the beaker called? and how much does the pump on average go for?

Click to expand...

Thats a Erlenmeyer vacuum flask with a Buchner vacuum filter funnel, using a #1 Lab filter.

jwik said:

I have a few questions regarding the making of RSO.
Is it necessary to dry buds before making RSO or can fresh buds be used?
Given that I don’t intend to smoke any of this, is there an optimum time to soak the buds in solvent?
I’ve read that soaking buds too long increases the amount of chlorophyll absorbed into the solvent. Does this really matter as I won’t be smoking it and therefore taste is irrelevant to me.
Does leaving the bud soak longer have any benefit like increasing the strength/potency of the oil?
Does the bud need to be decarbed before making RSO? I intend to use a rice cooker to remove the solvent so will this process decarb the bud?
Thanks.

Click to expand...

What is your end use?

Nugbender said:

Whats the beaker called? and how much does the pump on average go for?

Click to expand...

Beaker? Vacuum beaker on amazon. Funnel is a buchner funnel.
I think I paid about a hundred for the vacuum pump on amazon.

Fadedawg said:

Thats a Erlenmeyer vacuum flask with a Buchner vacuum filter funnel, using a #1 Lab filter.

Click to expand...

Regular coffee filters for me.

fskitch said:

Beaker? Vacuum beaker on amazon. Funnel is a buchner funnel.
I think I paid about a hundred for the vacuum pump on amazon.

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Gotcha, a little much for me right now. I'll add it to the shopping list when I have more funds, how long do you purge for and how do you get everything out afterwards? with the opening being so narrow?

Nugbender said:

Gotcha, a little much for me right now. I'll add it to the shopping list when I have more funds, how long do you purge for and how do you get everything out afterwards? with the opening being so narrow?

Click to expand...

You can pull -28.5" Hg vacuum using a faucet aspirator pump to save money on the pump part.