I swallowed my pride and went back to the drawing board. I packed another bag and was sure to break up the material a bit more before stuffing the bag. (All of my material is the size of a large gumball .) I think that was part of my problem the last time.

Here is a pic of my second attempt. I only had enough time to pack and pre press. I’ll press it in about an hour or so. Minus the bag the material weighs about 4.7g.






I’ll cut off the remainder of the bag and leave about a half an inch to fold over.

@fatbikerI have a small suggestion of pressing smaller amounts in smaller bags. That way you can get a feel for your press without losing so much product.

I’m only pressing between 3-5g. I’m trying to keep the input to a minimal as I stumble along the learning curve.

Econo has it. Bag must be full with NO voids.

Otherwise your rosin gets trapped in the bag.

If not squishing enough flower to fill the square bag, consider a 30mm round prepress and bottle tech.

@EconMan

Unfortunately, the second attempt with a well packed bag didn’t yield much better results. I slowly pressed the plates together over the course of a minute. I thought I allowed for the material to completely warm up. I applied force and left for almost two minutes with a small ramp up near the end.

Here are the results....



The consistency of it is similar to sticky salt. I would consider about 65-75% of the end results will be junk and almost unusable. With it being so crystal like it is difficult to collect and ends up going to waste. What a bummer.



I may go for a third and final attempt. My thoughts are to crank up the temp to like 205F and see if that makes for a more “wax” like substance rather than the crystals I’m currently getting. However, at the same temp I used today I achieved great results last week eve with the blowout. Maybe I’m using too much pressure? I can’t think so because I’m not even cranking it down that hard.

A low temp press at 180°f could go five minutes.

When you ramp up temp you lose a lot of the good flavorful terpenes.

Start with real low pressure and slowly ramp it up at the end.

Do not be afraid to use high pressure at the end once your material is melted by the heat.

Dont throw out product just put it all together and let it sit.

On your last picture, I am somewhat concerned about the left edge of the bag. I can tell you properly inverted it, but the wide "strip" on the left side by where your thumb is.... try and work your bud onto only ONE side of that seem (I like the seam on the bottom plate with the flower in between it and the other side of the pressed bag, but that is just my OCD).... to the point it almost doesn't seem to have a seam..... this is pretty important... not as important as getting rid of those air pockets, but seams always trap oil and it just sits there and burns :vomit:
Minimize all seams.

If not squishing enough flower to fill the square bag, consider a 30mm round prepress and bottle tech. — Baron23

I have not used that specific tech but the vid you posted (this thread I believe?) has me determined to learn it. Makes complete and total theoretical sense to me. Thanks for posting it. Rather than "bottle" tech, it is more like "Coin" tech. lol. Because to me it seems you make a coin, and then wrap it in mesh. Cheaper too because one does not need to buy mesh with sewn seams, but rather in a tubular roll -- no seems required. Then just fold each end like a package. I just ordered a roll to try it with. Will report back.

Regardless, in all production systems, there is some economic point at which the fixed cost of an input exceeds the sum of its marginal benefit. If forced to poop out a number, I would say 2 grams in the context of this discussion. For anything less than 2g's, using mesh bags isn't even something I ponder.

I can tell with 90'ish percent certainty, you went in a little hot.... you got shatter rosin. That can only happen one way I've experienced -- too hot.

Now that said. I know you are disappointed in the final result. I get that. But let me challenge you just slightly. I would buy that from you right now. It looks really good and I bet dabs well. :love:

COLLECTION! -- something else I wished I would have put more research into than "what press to get" that eclipsed everything, was what to do with the loaded parchment after I got something? The headaches of extraction/pressing pale in comparison to what can hit you in Collection.

I bought two ceramic 1'x1' smooth white tiles at home depot that I keep in the freezer. Sometimes, I'll get Rosin that melts easily, and it needs to cool down considerably before collection. If it is REALLY oily, as some strains just are, I'll freeze it with the collection tools overnight.

However, the problem with shattery rosin is the opposite. It cools down too easily. When I get this, next batch / same strain, I turn down the heat a bit. I take the parchment directly to from the hot plates onto the frozen home depot tiles, to stop any residual heat. Then I remove the puck.
If it gets immediately shattery, then I take the parchment off the frozen tile and onto my relatively warmer desktop, and It gets immediately "stickier" with rosin not shatterfying all over the "scraping" place... It is not unusual during collection for me to move from frozen tile to room-temp desktop back and forth several times.

@EconMan

Maybe I’ll drop even further below 180F and see if that yields a better result. I agree that I think I need to maintain the shatter at a higher temp for efficient and effective collection. I was also a bit concerned about the seam of the bag. I will do a better job next time trying to pack “in” the seam better. How low have you dropped the temp to for situations like this? What would you recommend?

I put the bag back in the press at 205F for a secon press. I could hear it sizzle so obviously a bit too hot. However, the results collected in seconds and was a much ore desirable consistency.

I took the parchment from the first press and hit it with the hair dryer for a brief moment to “soften” the shatter up a bit. I was able to collect it much more efficiently and didn’t have it flying all over the place. I repeated this a few times until I collected 95% of it.

Here is what it looks like



@Dr green thumb

I’ve seriously considered trying a “tube” shaped pre press and then using the BT style. My only concern was finding a mold and bag that went well together to avoid excess bag trapping like rosin. (Hmm...that problem seem familiar lol)

your product is what is called sugar. It is very tasty and has a low melting point. Let it set a few days and you will be very happy.

Here is what it looks like — fatbiker

:love: :love: Like I said. I'll dab that with you anytime :)

And congrats. You took shattery rosin and turned it into sugary rosin. :cool:

This is your first few squishes.... looks better than anything I did! lol :)

Also, this sort of "sugary" like rosin can improve with a couple days of aging..... although I would lack the patience. Looks too good. :yum:

@EconMan

I’ve decided to go for the trifecta today. I packed this one so the seam is a bit more “filled”. I also left it “fat” in the middle so when I prepress it extends to the edges nicely. (Fingers crossed)





Total material is about 3.5g. I’ll press sometime this afternoon. When I do I’ll report back with the results.

I sure wish a few of you lived near me so I coul share this stuff. I’m going to be a zombie or asleep if I keep up at this rate. I try to sample a bit each time I fire up the press. The FlowerPot is going the whole time I’m “at work”.

I pack my bags so tight I HAVE to do slow steps or I'll blow them out with just 2T. No seems, no empty space. I can bring it up to about 10T before I get a blowout if I go slow enough.

Also it's your material making it shattery. Is it old flower? You can try to ramp up the heat and press it at 220f to make sure it melts more. Just don't press as long.

My material is only about two months old. However, a week back I left it sit for eight hours with no lid. I always store in a cvault with 62% Bovida . I’m going to try at lower temp next time. If that doesn’t work I’ll ramp up to 205F+ and see what happens.

I have this next bag packed very tight. No seems or gaps. I’ll use the prepress mood again to ensure it’s packed tight.

That looks much better. A good pack I think. The goal is to get the flower pressed onto the seems, corners, and edges of the containment bag. My prediction is it will press great, given partial results from earlier.

I'm in Georgia..... it would be fun to have a "Squishing Convention" sometime.... I've met some folks from the board in person, and that is always (usually) fun. :cool:

I pack my bags so tight I HAVE to do slow steps or I'll blow them out with just 2T. — Gman

Pretty much I finger press it over the mesh. Then pre-press it in the prepress. Stand and wiggle on it for 30 seconds or so... Then hot-press it.
So yeah, regardless of tech style, we want the mesh taught. I'm a little more risk averse on blowouts as the Gman, but he is not wrong; and there is an argument psychologically that because he KNOWS he's removed most of his margin for error, it gives him more patience and discipline as he lives on thin ice?

Even among blowouts there are "not so bad" and "catastrophic". I've had blowouts relatively easy to fix (remove tainted rosin) and near impossible to fix. One sort of "blew" in a odd radial fashion spraying shake all over the pretty oil. I just used it for "sandwiches"

Question. Never used the brand before.
Anything I should know?
I’ve always used Pure Pressure but this is all I have.




Amazon sent the wrong brand and the wrong size. I can use these though. They are 1.5x4 and already seen inside out. They *seem* good.
Will let you know. :)

these are highly rated and they have a zero blow out guarentee.

Ok good to know. Let the squishing begin.

I got 25 empty bags and a bag of weed


Would be a good blues song :love:

The first and only brand of bags I bought are from The Press Club. I have to buy some other brand so I can compare them to something. I bought the 2x4 120 Micron. With my pre press mold I just bought from them they included three 2x4 160 micron bags.

If it's going shatter brains when it's only 2 months old then it's most likely the cultivar itself. You may want to incease it's humidity a lot the night before, even spray the lid of the jar every few hours and let it soak it all up. Then when you press it'll normally be a little more soupy but for you it'll make snap and pull. All of my wax looks saucy because I'm going higher than 62% humidity :)

Ya I'm sure I'm pushing my limits, and I do get blowouts because different cultivars have different density. I just know how "hard" I can max it out before a blowout based on how much i put in, how much I pack the bags and the material itself. It's a moving target for sure. Any blowout I do get is minimal and easy to collect around.