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**Green75** · 02-25-2018, 03:41 PM

No experience as of yet.. But I just ordered a nug smasher mini of the website.. Got the biggest package deal for the mini.. I am super excited about it..comes in mail Wednesday or Thursday.. right now the machine alone is on sale for $440... Check it out

**DoctorJohnson** · 02-25-2018, 05:16 PM

Originally posted by Wizard View Post

Thinking about a press instead of BHO or RSO. .
Anybody have experience with using a Rosin Press? ?

I'm thinking about pressing too and have looked at what's out there. It looks to me like there's nothing out there yet that's any good that isn't expensive. Since there's a lot of interest, I'm sure so enterprising Chinese manufacturer will probably soon have a small bud smasher that's a big step up from a hair straightener but still under $100. After all, it's just a heater and a squisher; unless you want to press an ounce at a time. there's no reason that that should cost hundreds of dollars.

**gbauto** · 02-25-2018, 10:19 PM

I built a rig using a 12T HF press with a pair of 3x5 plates. I already had a pair of temp control modules I used for tire warmers for my track bike.
I press flower in a 90 micron bag @ 188 degF and it produces really nice rosin-extremely potent so be prepared. With the press, plates, heaters and controller you will have about $350 in it.

**RFheavy** · 02-26-2018, 01:37 AM

I ordered one and it's coming by freight. Could be two months more before I see it which kind of works out because my curing should be done by then. I'll let you know how it goes if you are still interested.

**DoctorJohnson** · 03-06-2018, 12:37 AM

Just to give this a try, I ordered a Kipozi Professional hair straightener for about $37 on Amazon because it has a good reputation and LED readout for the temp from 170 up to 400 or so.
I also ordered some Raw brand silicone-coated parchment 5-inch squares.

My principal guidance: Pure Pressure's Top 5 Flower Rosin Tips & Tricks
First test: 170 F, 60 seconds
For the first test, I I decided to try some dried out bunk weed some guy grew on his farm that that was left over at a party a couple of years ago. Hey, there was a seed in there! Old skool bag weed for sure. (In rosin-squeezing videos, I see people rolling sticky weed into a ball. This stuff won't do that--it's more like green sawdust.)
Pure Pressure's first rule is GOOD QUALITY AND FRESH, but this is the opposite: poor quality and dried out (been sitting in a non-ziplock sandwhich bag for a couple of years).

Process: I folded about a little less than pinky-finger's worth into the parchment (I like the Raw the parchment squares--looks like quality) and squished it so hard my feet came off the floor for 60 seconds.

Result: FAIL Dried out bunk weed smashed about 1/16" thick and stuck glued together with what little rosin/trichomes were in there. So it melted what little of the sticky-icky there was, but there was so little of it that it couldn't do anything more than just glue the bunk weed into a green tortilla. But garbage in, garbage out, right?

Second test: 210 F, 3 minutes
Since the first low temp/short squish was a failure, I decided to go for higher temp for a longer time on the same green tortilla. And this time I actually stood on the hair straightener, 180 lbs over 2 square inches so 90 PSI.
Result: FAIL No change; still just a green tortilla.

Lessons learned:
1. The Kipozi Professional is a nice unit with digital temp control and stands up to being stood on. I would say that it's a good investment if you want to try using a hair straightener).
2. The RAW silicone parchment squares look like a good investment too. I will be able to re-use the sheet I tried. No tearing or breaking, and very non-stick. Expensive, though.
3. The first rule of the guys at Pure Pressure is "Quality is King, Followed By Freshness," and this would seem to bear that out: Heat plus pressure do not transform crap weed into good weed. Soaking bunk weed in alcohol will extract what little rosin is there, but pressing it just liquefies it so it glues the grass together. (Though maybe super high pressure would have made a difference?)

Next steps:
1. Try squeezing some better quality weed.
2. Try squeezing some keif.
3. Finally, take apart the hair straighter and install the metal plates in my bench vice to get a lot more pressure.

How about you? Had any luck pressing rosin, especially with sub-$400 homebrew kind of rigs? I really don' think you should have to invest hundreds of dollars to buy a press that won't fit in the closet just to be able to squeeze weed for personal use, but we shall see...

**MadMike** · 03-06-2018, 01:35 AM

I have a pair of 3-2-1 machinist blocks that i thought about heating in my oven to the desired temp and then using them as the press with c-clamps for pressure. Pretty poor-mans attempt but I don't see why it wouldn't work reasonably well. Have'n't tried it yet of course.

But I expect I could get some decent pressure on it and the blocks should hold the heat pretty well.

**Green75** · 03-06-2018, 01:41 AM

I have received my nug smasher mini and absolutely love it.. I'm getting 28% and higher return.. Absolutely amazing Rosin.. There are videos of it on my instagram..

**alltatup** · 03-06-2018, 03:50 AM

I have a Tarik Rosin Press, it works quite well for small quantities, $60 on ebay.

**DoctorJohnson** · 03-06-2018, 11:56 PM

Day 2 and two more experiments with my Kipozi Professional hair straightener for about $37 on Amazon
My principal guidance: Pure Pressure's Top 5 Flower Rosin Tips & Tricks

Tonight:

1. Squishing some pot from the free doobie the medical dispensary gave me three years ago.
This too is pretty dry and doesn't look very good quality:
220 F for 15 seconds and then one minute basically just flattened and decarboxylated it--it's one step beyond the brown-green of properly de-carbed weed. No rosin. No joy.

2. Squishing some Super Lemon Haze Keif
Again 220 F for 15 seconds and 45 seconds. Result: I had high hopes for this, but all it did was get flattened and kind of melted, a little bit like a melted M&M or something? No rosin. No joy.

I'm getting the feeling that what you need is some super sticky-icky bud that's already so rosiny that all you have to do is melt it and squish it out.

I also read in a discussion that weed that is slightly damp is good. In one video, the woman doing the squishing was even wetting the bud in a cup of water. I suspect that what's happening there is that the moisture is a) preventing bone-dry vegetable matter from just soaking up all the rosin and b) maybe providing a little steaming action?

Clearly this is bit of an art, but none of this seems surprising.

On one forum I read a guy say, "Why squish the bud when you can just vape the bud? He might have a point...

Please share your thoughts and experiences...

PS: My White Widow finally showed pistils tonight!

**Sonnyhad** · 03-07-2018, 09:54 PM

I use a 12 ton diy rig at 185 for at least 90 seconds. Try that with your old stuff even up to 3 minutes if that's what it takes.

**DoctorJohnson** · 03-07-2018, 10:03 PM

Originally posted by Sonnyhad View Post

I use a 12 ton diy rig at 185 for at least 90 seconds. Try that with your old stuff even up to 3 minutes if that's what it takes.

A 12 ton rig--yeah, that would do it!

**DoctorJohnson** · 03-07-2018, 10:08 PM

> Thanks for reporting your results........just saved me $37 at Amazon
Oh, I haven't given up by any means. I have a feeling that some good, sticky homegrown might work pretty well. I mean, I've seen it done on YouTube, so...
> > ps...Do you think it has anything to do with the amount, or lack of, pressure applied to do the squeezing?
I think lack of pressure, inexperience, and crummy weed are a lethal combination.

When my White Widow finishes up in a couple of months, I hope to have some better material to try. That and taking it apart (pretty easy from what I've seen) and rigging it with a vice should really help. I'll report if/when I get around to that...

**DoctorJohnson** · 03-08-2018, 11:42 PM

I read this at the f*ckcombustion forum: "I'm using a ceramic 2 inch hair straightener, 320 degrees. About .25g size buds between parchment paper, press as hard as I can for 2 seconds."
I have been using 220 F because that's what the guys at Pure Pressure recommended, but they are pressing with a commercial rig, so I thought maybe more heat might make up for not much pressure, but still no joy. The more I fuss with this though, the more convinced I'm becoming that you've gotta have *sticky bud* to start with. After all, you're just heating a squeezing. If there isn't a lotta sticky there to start with, it's not fair to expect it to just materialize.

I've got some buds in the freezer from last summer's outdoor grow that were not very frosty at all, but maybe they're a step up from this bunk I've been experimenting with? Let me know if you find these kitchen chemistry style lab notes of any interest...

15 minutes later: The frozen garden bud smelled kind of nice when I ground it up, kinda like oregano, but I had forgotten how low quality it was compared to the same seeds grown under 60,000 lux. It, too, didn't have any rosin to speak of going in and just kind of flattened when squeezed.

I refuse to drive up the pot store (legal state--neener) to buy test buds when I'll have a quarter of a pound in 8 weeks (also legal--never thought I'd see the day...) to say nothing of having extracts already ready to go... maybe I need to just turn off the curling iron and turn on the vape unit.

**DoctorJohnson** · 03-11-2018, 09:51 PM

Success! Platinum Animal Cookies, 21% cannabinoids, at 300 F for about six seconds gives a very nice rosin that smells like Pine-Sol when you vape it and reduces my typing speed from 70 WPM to 7. :P

Also, I removed the heating plates from the hair straightener and mounted them in my bench vice, sow no I get get a high pressure squeeze with no hassle at all!

But the take home message is "Ya gotta have quality nugs."

<edit> I reduced the temp to 270 and then 240 and it still worked fine, though I think need to increase the squeeze time some.

To my surprise, I much prefer parchment squares to the fancy PTFE slick sheet Teflon, which seems to soften in the heat, and doesn't give up its rosin as easily.

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