Junk's Growing Log

[Farmer P]

Thank you. I understand the nature of "likes". I appreciate it. He's handling it like a champ, I'm really impressed. We're both Christians and pragmatists so we're not afraid of death much, but still.

If he goes and sh*t goes sideways and we can't cover the bills, I figure we have roughly three months from the last house payment. At least that gets me through most of winter and I can squirrel up more than a few grand in $$$. I'm pretty good at hustling up cash but not enough that it wouldn't wipe me out if I tried to help keep this property. Plus I can't consistently maintain that level of cash flow.

All my first cut is dried and curing in vacuum sealed mason jars with 58% Boveta packs. As long as I'm vigilant at keeping them sealed they should last at least a year. If I can't get rid of them by then, I shouldn't be growing. Probably still going to buy the small rosin press. Extracts move better than flower around here.

I think you might be better off making shatter than rosin if you want to sell. Rosin gets too small of a return. 10 to 15 percent. You'd probably have to get dispensary prices to make it worthwile.

 

[SmithsJunk]

Same here, I think this is true of most places in the US right now. Shit maybe even Europe.. The guy I get my oil from doesn't even carry flower anymore. It wasn't worth it for him I guess, didn't get rid of it fast enough. Besides you can take a multi # stash like yours and reduce it down to something that could fit in a back pack. Less smell, overall more incognito. My plan is to blast or press whatever I have left from my last harvest as soon as I pull down my current room. :ninja:

*Side note edit* Am I losing it or did the site go black, and then go back? Thought that was against the rules :cry: lmao

By the way, sending positive vibes to you and your cousin. You guys making RSO for him? I know it's probably a little late for that, but it may help any pain he's in? Just thinking aloud, could be a good use for a little of that bud. Best of luck to you as well in your endeavours. Everything will work out how it is supposed to.

Thanks for the good vibes.

If you want to keep it black, go to your settings and pick the black option from it's drop down menu. It's not obvious but I think there are only 2 drop down menus.

 

[SmithsJunk]

I think you might be better off making shatter than rosin if you want to sell. Rosin gets too small of a return. 10 to 15 percent. You'd probably have to get dispensary prices to make it worthwile.

I can't do solvent extractions. My cousin and I both agreed it was way too illegal. You can grow all the pot you want around here and no one cares, but they will hunt down anything that remotely resembles a lab.

I am buying the press mostly for me and if I need to make a few quick bucks. I've got 3-4lbs of secondary nugs and sugar shake. My Kush buds are so resinous they're practically wet and this particular extractor has a good track record of bigger results. The pictures of extractions look good. If it works I'll be happy. I'm going to use it to make Christmas gifts and because I really like my weed, I'll be able to get rosin from it whenever I want. Which is really f^ckin cool and I'm totally stoked.

 

[King Julien]

Same here, I think this is true of most places in the US right now. Shit maybe even Europe.. The guy I get my oil from doesn't even carry flower anymore. It wasn't worth it for him I guess, didn't get rid of it fast enough. Besides you can take a multi # stash like yours and reduce it down to something that could fit in a back pack. Less smell, overall more incognito. My plan is to blast or press whatever I have left from my last harvest as soon as I pull down my current room. :ninja:

*Side note edit* Am I losing it or did the site go black, and then go back? Thought that was against the rules :cry: lmao

Where I'm at, in BFE of the midwest, it's actually hard to get rid of concentrates compared to flowers. A couple years ago nobody at all wanted them around here but it's started to filter in as a normal thing and you can find it although most people don't sell it and if you've got it you gotta know the right kind of people to get rid of it too or it won't move at all. Then again it's not legal here and a surprising number of people think of it as the "heroin" of cannabis around here. Stupid yokels.

I don't know what the legal market is like so I can't say for sure but I'd guess ISO shatter doesn't have a place in the legal market. It is a very cheap way of making a concentrate though that doesn't require any "lab" equipment besides mason jars and a pyrex baking dish. Then you can either use a large double boiler or an electric griddle to evaporate the alcohol out.

I'm just saying it could give you another way to concentrate it and get rid of it down the line without sending up a ton of red flags. There's also always tincture.

As long as it's kept cool and dark a tincture will last years and only requires filters for straining, a decarb in an oven, and a freezer for proper extraction. Super low effort and low tech.

The upside is you can make it into edibles at any time and at any dosage simply by cooking off the alcohol in butter or adding it to sugary candies as needed. It also is good to just put in about damn near anything for a dose so if people know what it is and like it there's a market for it. There's one around here now but only after I introduced a number of people to it and they introduced some more. Before then nobody had even heard of it around here.

The downside is it's an edible and only an edible. You can evaporate the alcohol off later but it will still be a liquidy decarbed mess. Smokable but without much for flavor and a higher tendency to put you to sleep than give you a clean high.

Just throwing out some ideas.

 

[Farmer P]

I gave all my pucks (smashed weed after making rosin) to a friend who also has a press and had been saving his too. He made some qwiso from them to make salves from. He said he dabbed some and it was ok too.

 

[SmithsJunk]

100 micron kief, Royal Nepal Kush. Sifted from 1/4 zip of 150 micron kief.

It's dry but sticks to itself like a magnet. It chunked up as I was sifting it.

I've seen what comes out of a rosin press and the one I'm looking at has 3x the pressure of the mini nug masher, at 6tons. That's up there with the pneumatic ones. It only has a 3" plate but that should allow 7gr extractions. Supposedly, its touting a 20%-30% extraction rate. That's plenty enough for me. The commercial labs are charging around 60%. F^ck that!!! I'm betting I can pull better than 30% with the Kush. It's just some icky, sticky, glue with the consistency of cold honey or Play-Doh. Worst case scenario, I'll have some fire to dab, and it'll be smooth. Its a win/win.

A tincture is a good idea as well but if you want to sell it here, there must be a lab test and labels. It's legal to make and trade tinctures here and it's a buyers market.

Around July-Aug the prices usually go up (we'll see this year). That's when I was getting offers of $900+ per lb from the co-op that didn't return my text. Even with the commercial growers flooding the market it should still stay above $600-$700 per lb. I have lbs of sugar shake and secondaries to play with in the meantime. Sh*t, that's what I've been smokin. I've been smokin everyone out with these bomber 4-5gr secondary roints. Hopefully I won't have to concentrate any of the top shelf.

This one also has that 100 micron kief. I usually use Zig-Zag 100mm black wraps. Can shape them just like cigars but I'm out for the moment. Had to use a Juicy hemp wrap but I can't shape them like I can with blunts.

 

[Farmer P]

View attachment 757128 100 micron kief, Royal Nepal Kush. Sifted from 1/4 zip of 150 micron kief.

View attachment 757129
It's dry but sticks to itself like a magnet. It chunked up as I was sifting it.

I've seen what comes out of a rosin press and the one I'm looking at has 3x the pressure of the mini nug masher, at 6tons. That's up there with the pneumatic ones. It only has a 3" plate but that should allow 7gr extractions. Supposedly, its touting a 20%-30% extraction rate. That's plenty enough for me. The commercial labs are charging around 60%. F^ck that!!! I'm betting I can pull better than 30% with the Kush. It's just some icky, sticky, glue with the consistency of cold honey or Play-Doh. Worst case scenario, I'll have some fire to dab, and it'll be smooth. Its a win/win.

A tincture is a good idea as well but if you want to sell it here, there must be a lab test and labels. It's legal to make and trade tinctures here and it's a buyers market.

Around July-Aug the prices usually go up (we'll see this year). That's when I was getting offers of $900+ per lb from the co-op that didn't return my text. Even with the commercial growers flooding the market it should still stay above $600-$700 per lb. I have lbs of sugar shake and secondaries to play with in the meantime. Sh*t, that's what I've been smokin. I've been smokin everyone out with these bomber 4-5gr secondary roints. Hopefully I won't have to concentrate any of the top shelf.

This one also has that 100 micron kief. I usually use Zig-Zag 100mm black wraps. Can shape them just like cigars but I'm out for the moment. Had to use a Juicy hemp wrap but I can't shape them like I can with blunts.
View attachment 757142 View attachment 757143 View attachment 757146

Your kief looks killer. Check out this one my friend rolled last night almost as big as the lighter. Like a cigar lol. I was working on my flood table I built yesterday. Finishing up painting it now. Next run in a week and a half I'm going to try it out. Got the ebb and flow kit and an air pump coming tomorrow. :cool:

 

[SmithsJunk]

Your kief looks killer. Check out this one my friend rolled last night almost as big as the lighter. Like a cigar lol. I was working on my flood table I built yesterday. Finishing up painting it now. Next run in a week and a half I'm going to try it out. Got the ebb and flow kit and an air pump coming tomorrow. :cool:

Very nice.

I'm really enjoying having so much pot to play with and no real plans for. Doing all the stuff that was cost prohibitive before. Except with sh*tty shake and that still turned out good, usually. Will be cooking some soon.

 

[SmithsJunk]

Happy holidays everyone.

I've been taking a little time off while I'm fundraising for my rosin press and indoor solar grow (...and a Nintendo Switch. I'm not really a Nintendo fan but with all the winter power outages we have it'll be cool to have a console that can go portable.) The wholesale weed market has gone to sh*t so I've had to go back to my roots as a street level dealer. Glad I have experience from my younger days and a small network (private co-op) I've been cultivating for some years. Decided on a mix of high thcv strains for my indoor grow, GirlScout Cookies, Durban Poison, and Tangie. They're common enough strains I should have no problem getting seeds. Hoping to be able to get my rosin press soon, have a lot of my people asking for concentrates due to the already higher dispensary prices and I need to be able to accomodate them. They're also pushing me for a more diverse supply of strains. Next spring should be great.

RN Kush flower&kief, eggnog chai latte, and Durban Poison oil in a spent Rove Tangie cartridge (fyi, works great with an adjustable 2200ma 510 battery set to 3.8v. No burnt flavor, just clean natural terps. Smaller batts don't get hot enough.)

 

[BudBogart]

Very nice.

I'm really enjoying having so much pot to play with and no real plans for. Doing all the stuff that was cost prohibitive before. Except with sh*tty shake and that still turned out good, usually. Will be cooking some soon.

I really need to get a plan. We have just been dumping all our non bud material in tubs, not keeping the Kief separated. We switched this year from unrealistically trying to cure and burp 200 mason jars to 5 gallon buckets with gamma seal lids. Much easier to hit the target rh using air tight buckets.

 

[SmithsJunk]

I really need to get a plan. We have just been dumping all our non bud material in tubs, not keeping the Kief separated. We switched this year from unrealistically trying to cure and burp 200 mason jars to 5 gallon buckets with gamma seal lids. Much easier to hit the target rh using air tight buckets.

I feel ya.

I have had zero problems with the 58% Bovetas. No mold, terps are holding. Have you looked into the 60-64gr Boveta packs? Been tossing packs in every bag of green I can, including previously purchased herb as well as sugar shake. I love these things and have not found that they pull the terps from the bud as has been reported by some.

 

[SmithsJunk]

Good news. The market here in Cali is nowhere near as soft as I thought. Though it is still weak, lbs under $1k are still moving. The first co-op I tried to contact didn't respond because my text got lost in the Halloween rush. They are interested in my Kush but need to see if they have the extra cash to risk on a strain they don't normally carry. I think they are interested in buying from me mostly to help with my upcoming project. They like the idea of boutique grows with a limited run, and their ears really perked at the idea of small batch rosin.

The bad news is every other bigger deal I had in the works has eaten sh*t and it's left me holding my d*ck in my hands. I'm no closer to a solar grow than I was a few weeks ago but at least I'm only about a hundi shy of getting the press.

Though the current market has it's challenges, if we adapt, I can still see a place for hobby growers. What I learned from keeping a store in business during the "ebb-and-flow" of the precious metals market is there's always, always, always, a way to make money in both bear and bull markets. You've gotta step back and look at the whole picture, find the weak point between the supply and demand and nose yourself right on in there. Make the market, create a need to fullfill. While many people are looking big to offset loss, I'm looking small for the niche. Because the co-op I'm talking to is mostly an in-house supplier and the new laws are requiring licensed exchanges, I'm pushing to join the household. If you can't beat em, join em. If I pull this off I'll be doing in-house limited rosin runs.

 

[SmithsJunk]

Wasn't happy with most of the presses I saw in my current price range. The clamshells had decent heating elements but nowhere near the pressure I was looking for. Finally found what I wanted on Ebay. It's a 3.5"x3.5" with only a 300w element on each block but it uses a 4ton bottle jack for pressure. The clamshells have all the bells and whistles but it took way too much material for very little results. In one Youtube video I saw, the guy pressed the filter bag 3x. Each time the rosin got darker and more burnt looking. I'm hoping I can pull better amounts off one press and lower heat. Less heat, more terps. The 300w elements will get the plates to the 200F-230F sweet spot and that's all I need.

I ordered 90micron silk bags. Not sure if I should have gone with 25-37micron but will see how clean it is after the first press.

Really looking forward to seeing how much comes out of the Royal Nepal Kush. It already turns to nougat from scissor cuts.

 

[SmithsJunk]

Wasn't happy with most of the presses I saw in my current price range. The clamshells had decent heating elements but nowhere near the pressure I was looking for. Finally found what I wanted on Ebay. It's a 3.5"x3.5" with only a 300w element on each block but it uses a 4ton bottle jack for pressure. The clamshells have all the bells and whistles but it took way too much material for very little results. In one Youtube video I saw, the guy pressed the filter bag 3x. Each time the rosin got darker and more burnt looking. I'm hoping I can pull better amounts off one press and lower heat. Less heat, more terps. The 300w elements will get the plates to the 200F-230F sweet spot and that's all I need.

I ordered 90micron silk bags. Not sure if I should have gone with 25-37micron but will see how clean it is after the first press.

Really looking forward to seeing how much comes out of the Royal Nepal Kush. It already turns to nougat from scissor cuts.

View attachment 761339

You should check out building some like this @Farmer P.

 

[SmithsJunk]

Couldn't wait for a press...

Picked up some Northern Lights shatter and Girl Scout Cookies rosin. Everyone is carrying risin right now. Looks like I'm jumping on the bandwagon at just the right time.

Not so sure about this titanium honey dabber though. Seems to cool off too quickly.

 

[SmithsJunk]

I have to admit, I didn't just buy the press for function, though that was 90% of my reason. Then I saw these rigs and asthetics hopped right up in the front seat. I have a weak spot for industrial art and these are the epitome of man-cave eye candy. I can see it, Snap-On toolbox, Coke mini fridge, Bose Soundlink,... rosin press. Hes put so much work into the details, especially the bigger one. I could make a functional copy for less but I wouldnt want it on my counter next to my Keurig (knock-off, only $25 and works waaaay better, lol. Ex-wife got the Keurig, good riddens. Total pain in the a$$, always had problems. ...and the coffee maker sucked too ). Here are some pics of the bigger machine.

3.5"x7.5", 300w x 4 elements, & 8ton jack, I love the pseudo structural fins. Not bad for $650.

 

[Farmer P]

Looks cool. The only table top model we've considered is the 6 ton harbor freight press. Yours looks better. I would have to buy a milling machine to build that. Not likely anytime soon.

 

[SmithsJunk]

Looks cool. The only table top model we've considered is the 6 ton harbor freight press. Yours looks better. I would have to buy a milling machine to build that. Not likely anytime soon.

With the right bits and a few cheap upgrades this little $300 machine should be able to mill aluminium. It's crazy how much cheap tabletop equipment appeared after the Rep Rap movement had been going for a few years. The only thing is, you have to pick up an old Win XP computer from a thrift store to run most of them. If you do, make sure the thrift PC has a dedicated graphics processor with at least 1GB of onboard ram. The CNC doesn't require a GPU but programs like Turbo Cad do. I've considered putting a mill together but just don't have the room. I've even seen cheap laser cutters for the tabletops.

 

[Farmer P]

That's pretty cool. I haven't seen that before. I'll have to check out some youtube videos and see how it works.

 

[SmithsJunk]

That's pretty cool. I haven't seen that before. I'll have to check out some youtube videos and see how it works.

They're all over Amazon and Ebay. That's one with a bigger table. I think most connect via serial port. Definitely do the research before buying.