Waxtractor Mule?

[ftwendy]

Anybody have some first hand experience using one? Seems like a halfway point between closed loop systems and blasting...

Awfully pricey, but justifiable if the design works and is reliable over time...LOL if they need product reviews I'm sure some of us farmers would happily comply ;)

 

[Natural]

looks like they're working on a reclaim device.."the cultivator"?? ..not sure. Looks good..safer...not sure about the plastic cap on top for the butane nozz..would want a closer look.

 

[ftwendy]

The plastic cap looks like the same grade material used in the base of most torches, and the idea of storing butane under pressure in glass is nothing new...so those ideas seem safe enough. That said, I'm not a fan of explosives being stored in unprotected fragile vessels. Something like a steel jacket, or even a silicone cover would make this idea a whole lot safer. The process is dangerous enough already...

 

[Natural]

right on man..that whole pressure relief valve gizmo would have to be pretty darn solid to make me un-nervous about the pressure and the temps. Like you said, some stainless..there and in the holding pot..maybe with all silicone gaskets and what not too. Not bad idea over-all here..maybe not the best components. Can you imagine this idea coupled with an attachment to a fractional reclaim still. Seems like it would avoid dry spots in the tube they way it's set up too.

 

[donmekka]

Just chatted with Tim from waxtractor and let me say dude is on the ball my emails were answered within minutes. I was just checking if he had any promos going and of course he didn't but emailed me back and let me know that he lowered the price on the mule 50 dollars. pretty sweet so I think i am gonna have to pick one of these up and give it a try. I will post my results.

 

[squiggly]

The plastic cap looks like the same grade material used in the base of most torches, and the idea of storing butane under pressure in glass is nothing new...so those ideas seem safe enough. That said, I'm not a fan of explosives being stored in unprotected fragile vessels. Something like a steel jacket, or even a silicone cover would make this idea a whole lot safer. The process is dangerous enough already...

I see where you're going, but adding sillicone to the outside would make this significantly more dangerous. An explosion is bad enough--the more a vessel wants to hold something in, though, the worse the explosion is when it happens.

Compare a stainless steel enclosed explosion to a glass enclosed one--it's pretty obvious which is safer.

Beyond that, with butane you're best off letting the dang thing explode and getting the fuck outta there to let it air out. With a silicone vessel around, the butane would take longer to leak out and it might send it in weird direction--not desirable at all.

Crack a butane lighter. Now crack one with silicone wrapped around it--which one seems more dangerous to you on a bigger scale?

Be in a sparkless area and wear protective eyewear. Problem solved.

 

[squiggly]

Also, the valve used there is the same we use in high/low pressure chemistry apparatus. They are extremely reliable.

 

[squiggly]

Also, the valve used there is the same we use in high/low pressure chemistry apparatus. They are extremely reliable.

I'll actually add to this. You can also leave such a valve slightly loose so as to prevent the pressure building up too high in the chamber. You don't need super high pressure to keep butane liquid, so a little bit leaking out the bottom is okay, especially if you hook it to a proper vessel like an RBF or something on the bottom (and properly use valve grease and keck clips to fasten it). This way you'd get some butane leaking into the RBF to alleviate the pressure above once you reach a certain pressure in the extraction vessel. You wouldn't need it to be very loose. Basically get it too full tightness (do not over tighten valves like these) then load a bunch of butane in--to whatever pressure limit you're comfortable with. Then loosen it till you hear a faint hiss of butane leaking (or see some liquid dripping) and go ahead and add the rest of your butane. Doing it this way you're still going to get a great extraction and you don't have to worry about the thing blowing up on you.

 

[squiggly]

FWIW though I think I might go ahead and undercut the shit out of this guy. He's charging way too much for this thing.

 

[squiggly]

It's also possible to 100% avoid the risk of explosion here. Simply throw your butane in the freezer before extraction. You may need to extract a few more times to get everything out due to the reduced temperature--but you'll be rewarded with a much higher quality oil.

You will need to have a well thought out drying method for this as evaporative cooling will keep the stuff cold for MUCH longer than you're likely willing to wait post extraction. I, personally, use a sparkless hot plate for this.

 

[ftwendy]

Excellent input @squiggly

...rbf... round bottom flask? How would you go about completely removing the extracted resins from it? I scrape to remove when there's still solvent in the extract so its still pretty viscous and its hard to get it all because the resin smears instead of scrapes. The same questions apply to how one would use a buchner funnel... how can you create a vacuum in something that allows easy for removal of the concentrate after filtering? The small neck on the vac flasks I see the buchners paired with seem like they would make recovery a challenge.

So, I purchased the midsize Farmer model and after using it more than a dozen times I can say that overall I am pleased. It was expensive when I bought it but the piece is solid enough and the extracts are really top notch. Very clean. The big benefits are that it is super efficient with butane (the farmer size only needs one can to cover an 80% packed tube, ~42g ground material in my case) and the yield in concentrates. The quantity extracted will surprise you if you've only shot with open tubes in the past. All I can think about when I'm shooting this thing is how much gas I used before and how much resin I left in the material I mulched last spring....... oof!

Ballwashing aside, they need to be EXTRA clear about how fragile the blue exhaust valve is. Mine broke after I overtightened it before extracting. This was definitely my fault, and the guys at waxtractor had some foresight and included an extra with my order. This new one is tightened very delicately. Also, customer support guy Tim suggested cleaning the glass filter with hydrogen peroxide or denatured aclohol when I asked. The DA sounds like a recipe for funky tasting extracts (maybe he meant etoh, I didn't ask) so I opted for strong h202 and it worked fine, but there are still a buttload of cystolith hairs and trich stalks in there that wont easily rinse away. Very light and they stick to everything.

Any thoughts on how to clean the filter (not removable btw) would be super helpful. I may go with a brewers bottle washing wand or some other gizmo so I can avoid tainting the filter with residual chems.

Overall I'm quite pleased. Although it may not be as efficient as a closed loop system, it is much easier to hide than say a terpinator, and it does a great job for the serious little guy looking to improve or maximize production and minimize wasted solvent.

I'll post some pics of the process and results when I get a min. Happy Friday guys, ftw

 

[donmekka]

@ftwendy thanks for the review now I am getting gitty like a school girl waiting for mine to arrive!

 

[ftwendy]

Be gentle with the threads on the plastic caps and you will be pleased @donmekka . Please keep us posted

Data......

gsc forum trim: average loaded was 40g, average yield was 7.7g using only one can of gas and a single soak extraction.

gsc lowers, nug run: average loaded was 41.5g ground finely, average yield was 10.8g...also single soak with one can per load of material. BAM! :)

Business is all about getting more from less. Well done guys

 

[donmekka]

@ftwendy if you don't mind how long are you soaking for? Also are you freezing anything before the soak? Thank you in advance.

 

[shawnskush]

Doesnt look very safe to me!

 

[donmekka]

Awesome data! Hopefully I will do as well I never made bho before. I just ordered 24 cans of butane a mule and a vacuum chamber so wish me luck!

 

[squiggly]

Excellent input @squiggly

...rbf... round bottom flask? How would you go about completely removing the extracted resins from it? I scrape to remove when there's still solvent in the extract so its still pretty viscous and its hard to get it all because the resin smears instead of scrapes. The same questions apply to how one would use a buchner funnel... how can you create a vacuum in something that allows easy for removal of the concentrate after filtering? The small neck on the vac flasks I see the buchners paired with seem like they would make recovery a challenge.

So, I purchased the midsize Farmer model and after using it more than a dozen times I can say that overall I am pleased. It was expensive when I bought it but the piece is solid enough and the extracts are really top notch. Very clean. The big benefits are that it is super efficient with butane (the farmer size only needs one can to cover an 80% packed tube, ~42g ground material in my case) and the yield in concentrates. The quantity extracted will surprise you if you've only shot with open tubes in the past. All I can think about when I'm shooting this thing is how much gas I used before and how much resin I left in the material I mulched last spring....... oof!

Ballwashing aside, they need to be EXTRA clear about how fragile the blue exhaust valve is. Mine broke after I overtightened it before extracting. This was definitely my fault, and the guys at waxtractor had some foresight and included an extra with my order. This new one is tightened very delicately. Also, customer support guy Tim suggested cleaning the glass filter with hydrogen peroxide or denatured aclohol when I asked. The DA sounds like a recipe for funky tasting extracts (maybe he meant etoh, I didn't ask) so I opted for strong h202 and it worked fine, but there are still a buttload of cystolith hairs and trich stalks in there that wont easily rinse away. Very light and they stick to everything.

Any thoughts on how to clean the filter (not removable btw) would be super helpful. I may go with a brewers bottle washing wand or some other gizmo so I can avoid tainting the filter with residual chems.

Overall I'm quite pleased. Although it may not be as efficient as a closed loop system, it is much easier to hide than say a terpinator, and it does a great job for the serious little guy looking to improve or maximize production and minimize wasted solvent.

I'll post some pics of the process and results when I get a min. Happy Friday guys, ftw

You wouldn't use a buchner for this, these are for collecting solids (or removing them), not necessary for this process. A vac flask is usually used with a buchner to collect a solid of some type. However, if you were doing say an alcohol extraction you could use one of these just fine to remove solids as the stuff would be in solution and it'd flow right through (just wash any residue through with some excess alcohol).

As for the RBF, simply wash the stuff out with ethanol and dry it. That's just my chemistry brain talking though, you can easily just blast the stuff into a dish.

Your intuition is right with regard to the filter, use etoh or iso. If it gives you trouble use warm/hot iso and if it still is giving you issues, hit it with some acid--ON THE FILTER ONLY. Do NOT run acid through your fritted disk.

Also, I'm shocked to hear there are hairs coming through--it looks like the thing has a fritted disk separating the plant material from the evacuation end. Nothing should get through that shit.

In terms of efficiency over a closed loop system you're really only losing out on recovery. If you're willing to spend the butane you will probably see a yield increase doing a 2nd wash (a 3rd wash is not likely necessar) You should get a fairly complete extraction doing it this way. Try throwing the can in a freezer first and doing a first run with cold butane--you'll get some really high grade shit out of this. It will shock you.

Let the glass come back to room temp and do a 2nd and 3rd extraction at RT to get the rest of the goodies out--there will be plenty left.

 

[squiggly]

@ftwendy if you don't mind how long are you soaking for? Also are you freezing anything before the soak? Thank you in advance.

Anything more than a minute or two is a waste of time, the only way you'll get more out after this is to run more butane through. Be sure to agitate for that minute or two, though.

 

[squiggly]

Doesnt look very safe to me!

It's safe. Safer than blasting through a tube by miles and miles.

 

[ftwendy]

Gotta be on your shit to use this thing. True. But that's the case for any butane extraction system. Nevertheless, I hear ya @shawnskush ... this is dangerous in the wrong hands.

Congratulations on the new toys @donmekka ... I tried freezing material and gas with dry ice and the outcome was the same somehow... lipids and all. I must have fucked up something tho, so I'll have to give it another shot when time permits. It was extremely slow to fill when the gas was so cold, and I think the butane warmed during that process. Maybe cutting open the frozen can?? Seems risky so any thoughts on it are appreciated.

Soak time is about a minute of gentle agitation after filling the unit with butane (use a needle type nozzle adapter from the top of the can for best results).. fwiw, the lucienne I use has a hard time creating enough pressure to fill the tube once it is more than half full, so I suggest shaking the butane occasionally. Even with that it takes 3 or so minutes to fill the waxtractor. I tried soaking for 10 minutes out of curiosity and the yield was within the average so I just do the quick soak now.