THC oil extraction via butane "pipe bomb"

[Dope Amine]

Hey fellas, I did my shopping at Home Depot.  They had everything one would need including butane refillers in the same section where they keep propane for torches.  I know that there are very few of us here that have experience with this method, but I must say that it has taken hardly any trouble to get all of the neccesary chems and if it works right, then it'll surely beat evaporating solvents and such.  Anywayz, I just wanted to make sure I have everything down exactly correct b4 I go out to an open field and do this:  I have 2 ft of steel pipe 1 inch in diameter. I have filled it with leaf and crappy bud from my last harvest.  It is capped with pvc caps after using some teflon tape for a good seal.  The entrance cap has one hole 7/64 inch in diameter.  The exit cap has 3 holes of the same size.  Does 2 ft of 1 in diameter sound like a good shape for this?  It's more skinny than I'd like considering how much plant matter I have, but I figured it would be better for directing the flow of oil.  Secondly, will the fact that there is a greater area for exit of fluid/gas compared to enterance cause problems with keeping the butane in liquid form?  ThanX

[Methyl Man]

Okay here's the scoop. A catholic priest who lives on my street, Father Boyfondler, has done this method many times. He says your pipe is a bit long and skinny, yes, but it shouldn't matter. The main thing is that the butane moves down through it and out the bottom. Don't pack the herb in there, just keep tapping it and let it settle. Give yourself a couple inches of headroom at the top so the gas can enter. Make sure your butane is NOT of the odorized variety (the can should say "odorant added" if it is). If it is, the product will have a stinky sulfur taste and odor. I know, because I watched the good father make this mistake his first time and use butane from the camping supply store. He still worries about what he may have been smoking along with the THC there before he figured out his mistake. The only source for NON-odorized butane I know of is those cans used for cigarette lighter refill. They are usually yellow and blue and say "Clipper" on them for the brand name.

Regarding your question about the hole size etc.: no, it's no problem because the butane liquifies in there and moves down the pipe as a liquid. It exits as a liquid too, but quickly starts boiling at ambient temp since it is so volatile. Father Boyfondler likes to place the receiving beaker in a saucepan of hot water to speed up this evaporation.

Good luck my son...

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O+O+O+O+O+O+O+O+O+O+O+O
"There's a methyl to my madness"

[CHEMMAN]

I have witnessed the butane method.I am curious how one would go putting green stock in a vessel,and pumping steam thru to steam distill the oil.May bee trying this soon.

[Dope Amine]

Thanx Methyl Man.  One question though, what do you think would be the ideal diameter and length?  The reason I used 1 inch diameter and 2 ft. length instead of say, 2 inch diameter and 1 ft. length is because I figured that with a smaller diameter more fluid will run through a given area of the pipe.

[LaBTop]

Think iso-butane. LT/

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WISDOMwillWIN

[Dope Amine]

Wait r u trying to say I am supposed to use iso-butane, not regular butane?
 
 Well, I just got back from the field were I had attempted to do the extraction.  It didn't work.  The first foot of metal pipe frosted over, but not the second foot.  This is where I feel my problem is.  I pumped in 120 g of BUTANE, but the bottom half never got cold enough to keep the butane liquid.  Damn, it is going to take a long fucking time to procesess all my herb if I have to do it in batches that fit in a 1 in. diameter by 1 ft. pipe.  Methyl man, you said that maybe I should use a wider pipe.  Do you think my problem is what I think it is, because if it were so, then I would think widening the pipe would cause the same problem as having it be too long?

[Methyl Man]

Mr. Amine:

About isobutane, perhaps LT knows that it works even better. I don't know. But butane works fine, believe me. Plus (assuming you're in the US), I don't think you can get OTC isobutane with no additives very easily at all.

Now, relax... your results there sound like you just didn't have enough butane. Did you notice it back-spewing as a gas out of the entrance hole at all? Possibly, you packed the weed too tight in there and the problem is that the butane was not able to move freely enough through the pipe and you lost it out the top hole. Whatever the problem was, it was something simple and I can assure you the method works well and is very easy. Look at the simple physics involved and figure out what the hangup is.

I think the pipe that the padre uses (PVC, yuck) is about 1.5 ft long with 3-inch diameter. If that's not exactly it, it's damn close. And that works great for him, but he has to use two 300mL cans of butane to really extract well the large load of leaf in there. What size (in mL) was the can of butane you used?

[Methyl Man]

By the way, it's really not the cold temp that's keeping the butane liquid---it's the confinement. Think about a cigarette lighter... it doesn't have to be cold to work. It's the fact that the butane can't get out quickly that keeps it liquid. Similarly, when you have it confined in the pipe, it's seeking the bottom holes but has to get by the weed first (forgot to tell you it's a good idea to plug the top hole with your finger after injecting the butane and while waiting for it to exit out the bottom), thereby effecting the extraction.

Try again, you'll nail it.

[Dope Amine]

Thanks Man.  Yea I figured I should plug the top hole when I was doing it.  My butane cans are closer to 50 ml although I'm not sure cuz it's all desribed in weight and I'm not about to go look that shit up.  The name on the can is Bernz-O-matic.  Where the fuck do ya find 300 ml cans of butane?  My physics problem is that since there are 3 holes for the exit and thus 3 times the area of the entering hole, this would make it a problem with maintaining the needed pressure.  Maybe packing the weed very tight, but barely not too tight is the optimal setup.  And what about pluging the exit holes while filling?  Oh well, I'm going to go try 1 ft with two of those cans right now.

[Methyl Man]

Oh man, 50 mL isn't anywhere near enough. You need the shit to come dribbling out hard out of there when it finally gets to the bottom. You need to basically *soak* the material inside for the extraction, that's the idea.

And BTW, actual pressure isn't part of this. You're not trying to contain pressure. The confinement of the pipe is enough to keep it from gassing out. Here's something important I should have added: you need to put in enough butane so that you have barely finished injecting it, or maybe are still injecting it, when it starts coming out of the bottom. That's why you need a big can or two of butane. Father Boyfondler gets his from liquor stores and cigarette shops.

If you can only get ~50 mL cans, have 10 of them ready and do 'em all in rapid succession! The butane coming out the bottom into your receiving container (glass beaker!) should be a pale, piss-yellow like color.

[Dope Amine]

I am missing something cuz the butane has never dripped out.  It sure as hell gasses out though.  I went out to the field and I couldn't separate the two 1 ft. lengths of pipe cuz they were screwed together too tight.  So, I tried two cans with 2 ft. and it didn't work.  I got the pipes separated and I'm gonna steal 5 of those cans tomorrow and do it on a 1 ft. piece.  Thanks for all the interest.  I'm not giving up.

[Sumerian]

A straight non-polar solvent extraction will give you a better yield of oil and much cheaper I might add. Have tried both,butane is novel in approach and its selectivity is apparent,but requires multiple extractions to get all the oil. Refluxing material in non-polar solvent,filter,evap. will give you much higher yields. Starting material that is steeped in a large excess of hot water first (de-carboxylation) ~30min, then dried and used will help yields also.

[LaBTop]

NO ! Did you ever try? LT/

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WISDOMwillWIN

[Dope Amine]

Methyl Man, you are my homie!  Thanx so much for the encouragement.  I just came back from doing a tightly packed (with leaf) 1 ft by 1 in (diameter) tube using three of the bottles described before.  It was great!  I tried to keep the bottom plugged with my finger figuring that this would keep the pressure higher and thus more liquid butane.  All of the sudden my finger couldn't hold anymore and the bottom exploded with beutiful gold oil into my pyrex dish!  By halfway through the third can the butane started to come out clear and I knew that the job was done  .  This method is the shit because you get the purest in a matter of minutes.  Everyone should extract THC and maybe even salvorin A this way.  Fuck evaporating off solvents!

[Dope Amine]

Oh one last thing, butane does naturally smell doesn't it?  I didn't see a warning on the can, but I could smell somethin'.  But it wasn't a super strong odor.

[Methyl Man]

Yeah I think butane has a natural odor that is pretty weak, and hard to describe. The main thing is that once it's evap'd off you shouldn't smell any kind of stinky sulfur-like odor, or taste/smell it in the smoked product.

So that's great, you got the hang of it now. I suggest getting a much wider pipe, like 3", to make loading and emptying the thing a lot easier.

One thing that's important that hasn't really been said about all this is that people really should stop smoking pot plant matter, as it's so harmful to the lungs. Once you start smoking the oil only for a while, you'll see how much damage you were doing with the burning plant just to get the oil coating the outside (aka resin).

HASH OIL FOREVER!!

[Dope Amine]

Agreed Methyl Man.  That is the only thing that ever really bothers me about my THC ingestion.  I sometimes get really stoned, and then I feel guilty about my lungs. 

-DA

[LaBTop]

Here, another one:
freejon
unregistered posted 11-06-1998 08:15 AM
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This is my original post and idea.
Please pass it on.
there will be no interference from frozen material, you cannot pack the pipe hard enough. I did this as a first with grass(pot) for the oil then for dmt it works like a charm.
Nothing will impead you if you do as posted..
It is the BEAST extraction method in the world. You can use carbon dioxide gas as well.
Please do not assume that anything will go wrong with the way posted, those who have not tried it will winder all day what can go wrong the rest of us will be too high to care..................freejon(=Gyrogearloose) LT/

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WISDOMwillWIN

[Dope Amine]

I agree, this method is the shit!  I am going to do it with salvia divinorium leaves and then maybe some phalaris grass after I finish converting all my fluffy bud and leaf into a GOLDEN OIL. I want to isomerize all of my oil and then turn atleast part of it into its acetate.  If anyone has any experience or know how with the acetate part (using acetic anhydride) their comments would be appreciated.  My one problem with the method is that I feel a bit guilty having stolen about 20 butane refillers (60 mL) and I still have not found a good source for a larger size.  Today, I called all of the camping supply places around and they only had isobutane or a butane/propane mix.  I think I'd prefer n-butane over isobutane as n-butane's bp is -.45 deg. C, while iso is -11.7 deg. C (less gas wasted).

[Dope Amine]

LT, would you care to disagree about isobutane?