How to make Absolute Shatter using a Thermos

[Pisces]

First off, Big thanks to Graywolf & Jump for all the help, tips, and encouragement over the years.
With it, I have been able to make shatter Safely, with the same consistency for over two years now.

And so i'd like to share my experiences here.

secondly, I encourage safety…and so everything concerning butane is done outside in an open area where there is no electrical outlets, fans, or otherwise until it is safe to bring it indoors. Period!

Absolute Shatter~ Let's get to it!

1) First thing you're gonna need to do is Buy yourself a New(ish) Stainless Steal Thermos.
((Note; The thermos I'm using here in this demonstration is 473ml or 16oz)))

2) Once you've found one, remove the inner plastic liner from inside of the "Stainless Steel Cup Cap", so that absolutely No plastic can possibly leach into your oil upon spraying.
((Note; I had to use a pair of pliers to remove the inner plastic piece….now, once removed, throw it away as you will no longer be needing it.))

3) OK, so once the plastic liner is removed from the Stainless Steel Cup Cap, simply drill three holes into it.
((Note; the center is for spraying and the other two are for passive ventilation so no pressure builds up into the thermos while spraying.))

4) Next, Be sure to cut off the "tip" of the Butane Tip before placing it into the cap.
((Note; This is so the butane fills the thermos up at a much faster rate and before it has the chance to warm up….the idea is to fill up the thermos as quickly as possible before any has a chance to evaporate))

(Note; I drilled the center hole to be the exact same size as the fattest butane tip that I had and used plumbers tape to keep it snug while spraying.)
The other two holes can be slightly smaller but not to small…you don't want to build pressure in the thermos.

 

[Pisces]

5) Break apart herb, grind up, and place into the thermos…. (no more then 3/4 way full)
Note: for this presentation, we will be grinding up 1oz of 3 month old White nugs

6) Once the ground up herbs are in the thermos, screw on the PLastic Stopper and place the thermos along with two cans of Butane into the freezer until it reaches a Fahrenheit of 0*… my freezer gets this done in approx. 4 hours but I have left it in there for up to 12 hours.

 

[Pisces]

7) Once butane reaches 0*f …..or after the "Four Hours", take the Butane & Thermos OUTSIDE

8) Now, unscrew the Plastic Stopper and put it aside.

9) Grab the Stainless Steel cap that has the three holes and slide that on top of the thermos in it's place until it fits nice & snugly.

10) Now grab a hand towel, and wrap the can of butane that you took out of the freezer as it will be too cold to handle.
((Note: The towel also catches any moisture or condensation that'll be leaking from the can trying to find it's way into the thermos.))

11) Next, shake butane, then begin spraying through the tip of the cap until the herb is completely submerged and is literally swimming in a pool of butane.
((Note; it usually requires about a full 300ml can of butane to completely submerge 1oz. Of herb.))

12) Once herb is submerged, Keep the Cap ON, and just simply place the towel you used to wrap the cold can of butane with over it to keep from evaporating.

13) Leave covered with the towel for a total of 30 minutes.

 

[Pisces]

14) When the herb is almost done soaking after the 30 minutes, I start getting the rest of my "Tools" in order….

15) First, I grab my Stainless Steel Pot with handles and fill it 3/4 full of hot water and place that outside onto of a hand towel to keep warm.

16) Next, I place my Pyrex dish right on top of the SS pot of hot water.
((Note; My pyrex dish also has handles which keeps it from sinking into the pot))

17) Now, I take an Un-Bleached Coffee Filter and place it inside of my Stainless Steel Cone shaped Strainer.

18) Once everything is in order, Carefully Pour the butane from the thermos into the coffee filter, through the strainer, and into a warm Pyrex dish sitting in the pot of water
((Note; No Skillet is Necessary or even required at this time and could actually be dangerous…So NO electricity!))

19) After the butane is poured from the thermos, I then place the SS Cap back on it, grab my second can of butane and Re-Fill the thermos AGAIN with butane for a Second soaking.
((Note; This time i allow the herbs to soak for a total of 1.5 hours ****One hour and thirty minutes

**** SET A TIMER YOU STONER!!!!

 

[Pisces]

19) Ok, so after a few minutes and once all the Bigger Bubbles stop popping and are no longer vicious, it is then Safe to bring the pyrex & Pot inside for the rest of the Purging Process.

20) For this step, all you will need is a skillet or something to keep the oil warm and in a constant vicious state.

((Note; When I turn my Skillet on to 165*F, it will bring the water in the pot to about 135* F ---> which in turn, will bring the pyrex dish that sits on top to a comfortable 115*F ... Which IMVHO is a Perfect temp for purging.))

21) After about an hour or so of bath purging, the oil will no longer be active & moving.

((Note; I place a ceramic plate over the pyrex dish to keep the oil in a constantly warm state))

 

[Pisces]

22) After about an hour of purging, go ahead and just continue to keep the pyrex & pot on the skillet to keep it warm for the next process.

~Winterization Process~

23) Now, go and purchase a bottle of Everclear (Ethanol) and slowly begin to pour it into the pyrex and over the oil just until the oil is completely submerged.

24) Now take a Stainless Steel butter knife and slowly begin to stir the oil sitting in the Ethanol until the oil is completely mixed and diluted into the Ethanol.
It should be a golden Amber color liquid now.

25) Carefully pour this liquid solution into a small glass jar and tightly place a lid on it.

26) Place the jar with the Ethanol/Oil solution into the freezer for a total of 48 hours so that the waxes, lipids, other crap that gets pulled from the plant matter will separate from the oil

27) After 48 hours, take the small jar full of solution and once again pour through an Un-Bleached coffee filter and SS Strainer onto the warm pyrex and continue the Water Bath Purging Process all over again just like you did last time…

Nothing different……

The pics below are of what is left behind in the filter after the winterization

 

[Pisces]

28) Ok, so after the Ethanol/Oil solution has been sitting a while in the warm pyrex and most of the alcohol, water & moisture has evaporated, and the oil has become much more thicker and isn't as runny, I'll take a couple razor blades and scrape the oil from the pyrex and place it onto a square piece of Parchment Paper.
((Note; when scraping, I just leave the pyrex dish sitting on top of the pot of warm water. This keeps the oil warm and easy to scrape))

29)) After the oil is all scraped up, I then pour some ISO into the pyrex and clean it out really well with clean paper towels.

30) Once clean, place the pyrex dish back into the warm pot of water and then place the oil thats on the parchment into the pyrex dish to "purge" for a couple of more hours...depending mainly on the amount of oil being purged.

31) I then place a plate on top of the pyrex to allow the oil to warm from the top as well as the bottom so it can become a vicious state and purge thoroughly…

 

[OLDproLg]

MORE MORE!!!

Very cool so far.....easy to follow,
Looks like it works!

BLG

 

[Pisces]

32) Now I set my oven to 200*F and place some ceramic tiles in there to warm up...

33) While the tiles are warming up, I plug in my Vac Pump and wipe down my Desiccator with ISO. Especially the O ring so I can get a nice seal while in suck mode.

34) I place three Stainless Steel O'Rings from glass Ball Jars on the bottom of the Desiccator so that the tiles dont heat up the plastic while in suck mode and possibly cause an implosion.

35) Once tiles are warm ... 115*F,...... I place four of them into the desiccator at a time so it stays warm longer and then place the parchment with the oil on top of the tiles.

36) I'll use Quarters on the edges of the parchment to hold it down and keep it flat so that the oil stays warm

37) My Gauge reads -28.2 which is a full vac @ 2300 ft elevation.

38) My Digital Thermometer never reads above 120*f when reading the temps of the Absolute.

 

[TSTEW313]

This is a great article man you almost made It look to easy!

 

[Pisces]

39) After a few Muffins and rise and falls, this is what we're left with……

 

[Pisces]

Thanks guys…. It really is that easy!

Note; I no longer use Vector Butane anymore because it isn't as clean as a few other brands including Special Blue x7 which I am falling in love with more and more every time I use it.

It is Super clean and leaves no aftertaste behind like Vector products do.

 

[TSTEW313]

Man that looks A1 great job!!!

 

[Capulator]

What was the yield on an ounce of nug?

Super cool tutorial man you made it so clean and easy to follow. I'm gonna go ahead and sticky this.

 

[Pisces]

Thanks Cap…. appreciate the kind words.

There's a LOT to consider when making oil this way.

When removing all the Un-wanted crap by winterizing, you are also removing some of the weight.

The fats, waxes, and lipids are all present in all BHO …even perfectly purged Shatter that you can see through can be winterized and pulled of its impurities.

Those who are in the business aspect of Oil wouldn't want to do this, or wouldn't benefit from this because they lose $$$ in total weight value.

But for those of us who make & vape this for personal and medical reasons, well, we are benefitting in a Huge way.

Ok, so on that note…. as you know, weight varies from pheno to pheno.
Frostier plants produce more oil.

That round, I got 6.2 grams of oil from 28.2grams of White herb. (these weren't top buds but rather lowers)

After winterization, I got back 5.3 grams of Absolute.

So nearly a gram of Crap was pulled….

Now here's the thing, if I had used a tube to blast through….there would be even More crap because of the way it's produced.
With all the pressure that builds up in the tube it eventually pushes out all the crap into the oil.

With this method, there is no pressure so most of the crap stays on the plant matter.

Hence, cleaner oil

 

[Sativied]

Hey I've been using the same method for a while, except I don't have a vacuum oven so mine doesn't turn out that great.

 

[Chronic Monster]

one of the best tutorials I have ever read! thanks so much for sharing

 

[pugliese63]

Thanks guys…. It really is that easy!

Note; I no longer use Vector Butane anymore because it isn't as clean as a few other brands including Special Blue x7 which I am falling in love with more and more every time I use it.

It is Super clean and leaves no aftertaste behind like Vector products do.

I recently found this company which offers a 95.1 % ultra pure N-Butane in regular cans.



Will be placing an order with them in the near future.

 

[Pisces]

I dug up the pics from the run above…. this was the 5.3 grams of White Amber.

The parchment was zeroed out 1st…. before weighing the Oil.

 

[Aladeen OG]

Another good way to winterize is a foam cooler and dry ice, you can blast directly into a mason jar OUTSIDE and put it in there to stay cool for 24-48 hours. Fats and lipids stick to bottom of glass, you can screw a filter on the top of a jar with just the screw part of lid, dump into Pyrex dish and purge like normal.

Just takes the ever clear out of the sitch with the same results. Looks kill!!