MBM makes it easier on me, just set and forget. Only have used I twice for tincture (comes out dark green). And once for butter so far. I see it as a time saver.
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I wouldnt waste my money on one personally. Heated tinctures are nasty. I guess it could be nice for Butter, but I just use decarbed rosin/RSO.
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We picked one up last year at the Cannabiz show and thoroughly love it. We were running butter and olive oil the first few times then switched to ethanol (more efficient extraction).
pros:
very well insulated
simple to use and run
great final product
well sealed (I did a tear down, I’m a retired engineer - I can’t help myself)
cons:
kind of noisy
My recommendation: Look for a deal but get one.
Cheers
G
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Ya I imagine looking around for coupons for 15% off or so would tip the the decision in getting one
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You people are awesome:) Learned how to make GD off psams post on grasscity. Transferring your gd to another medium, does it have to be agave, honey or glycerin? My friends wife makes desserts, she is saying the agave was tricky and should be corn syrup.
My question is basically after I make my GD, is there a preferred medium that works for candy and to retains the potency ?
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We like using ethanol for the extraction as it is twice as efficient as oil/butter & we keep that tincture as the base for most applications (including gummies & fudge)…
We haven’t done hard candy so - no expertise there!
We have transferred the tincture from alcohol to oil - dead easy.
I understand the same re. agave, it is a little tricky.
If you are trying to preserve terpenes, you want to keep the temperatures as low as you can.
My next move is fiddling the flavour of the alcohol tincture by adding a little orange brandy extract… That will move the THC chocolate squares from amazing to legendary.
Cheers
G
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There is a recipe for hard candies made using the Green Dragon here.
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@ReikoX
If you make VG/PG tinctures, like I do, would you just do a 1:1 substitution with the Green Dragon or would you need to adjust the corn syrup as well?
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The corn syrup is simply to keep the sugar from crystallizing and becoming cloudy.
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If I were making those I would avoid the corn syrup and agave. They both have a bad affect on your insulin production, your body does not understand how to respond to it, so keeps producing the insulin, sometimes twice as much, compared to cane sugar. Its a fast track to type 2 diabetes.
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Knew an old hillbilly that had this problem he was an old distiller.
Got diabetes and lost his sight.
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my wife comes from Scotland and there is a Whisky distillery 10 miles up the road from where she lived, so we did the tourist bit one day, and checked it. The people who worked there in the early 1900’s would take some of their pay in Whisky, before it it got proofed down, and the tax man added his bit, the term, Blind Drunk comes from the Whisky distillers who eventually went blind from too much product testing before lowering the proof lol.
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Cool! Learned something new today.
Thanx Shadey
Cheers
G
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It’s actually the foreshots which contain methanol that causes the blindness, but too much of anything is not good for your health regardless
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You can infuse corn syrup just like agave or honey, no difference or just make some infused sugar and use that directly in recipes or make your own syrup from it. Of course, you wouldn’t be able to use that in anything like hard candy that gets over 260°F but anything else is fine. It seems especially suited for desserts.
You can make gummies directly with GD without having to transfer to oil. To be truthful, that is a new one for me with all my experience. I have been trying to figure it out for years and now I’ve done it…twice in the last few weeks.
Gee, I really love solvent transfers. After all these years I’m still learning.
Thanks for joining the conversation, Hanswermhat. You’ll like it here. 
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Cheap DIY Buchner funnel.
I really really hate waiting for my Green Dragon mix to drain through a coffee filter. Especially if I have a lot to filter at one time. That can add hours to the process of making Green Dragon, RSO, capsules, edibles, etc.
If you are like me, you already have almost everything you need laying around the house to make one on the cheap
.
I have been looking at Buchner Funnels because they should speed up the process a lot by using a vacuum to suck the tincture down through the filter - in theory much faster than just gravity.
This is the cheapest Buchner funnel I can find on Amazon. Good ones are a lot more $$.
Reviews are mostly just ok, but its fragile from some reports and sometimes doesnt seal well. Plus, its still more than I wanted to spend.
Then I found this one - which is basically just a cheap plastic funnel instead of glass or ceramic. But you still need the lower receiving vessel and a way to apply the vacuum. It had several not so good reviews, but most of them had to do with it not fitting the “standard” size lab filters, and/or it leaks where it comes apart for cleaning.
Both problems can be easily fixed.
If yours leaks (mine seals just fine as is) simply wrap a layer of electrical tape around the join.
As far as filters not fitting, I dont have lab filters, and dont want to spend money them anyway. It turns out a standard coffee filter fits just fine - but - you will need to add something to hold the sides up at the beginning. More on that later.
Here are some build pics. Its really easy and simple. One of the main complaints was that the neck of this filter is too big to fit the standard rubber bungs. Turns out it fits a 3/4" PVC coupling just fine.
I took a standard mason jar and lid. Cut the appropriate holes and hot glued a 3/4" PVC coupling and a short piece of 3/8" push fit tubing onto the lid.
Next wrap a thin layer of plumbers teflon tape around the funnel neck where it sits in the coupling. That makes a tight seal that also allows the funnel to be removed for cleaning. Im sure some plastic electricians tape would work as well.
I dont have a proper vacuum pump, but I do have an aquarium air pump Im not using any more. Turns out it makes plenty of vacuum for this to work.
I did a quick test with a plastic garbage bag.
The problem with the coffee filters is that the sides collapse when you poor liquid in. This might work ok with the sides down, but I was worried gunk could get past the filter that way.
I happen to have a piece of the plastic strip you tear off of a 5 gallon Home Depot bucket lid. Its maybe 1/4" wide x 1/16" thick and moderately stiff. I just coiled it up tight, then let it expand after I put it in. It holds the sides up in place while you poor liquids in. Once you get a lot of crushed up bud after shaking a container filled with Ever Clear, that stuff will stay in place. Its a lot like coffee in your pot. With a little thought Im sure a better option could be found, but this will work ok.
I did a quick test with just water, and the vacuum makes it drain super fast. Then I tested it with day old coffee grounds. Thats the closest thing I happen to have handy to simulate alcohol mixed with broken up up bud pieces.
With no vacuum I was getting maybe 2 or 3 drips per second through the filter. It took several minutes to drain two cups of water through with just gravity and it got slower and slower as it went.
With vacuum, it took less than 30 seconds.
It may be a lot slower when processing bud/alcohol mix. I usually see a lot of very fine powdery stuff in there. I will have to wait and see how well it works. I will be processing my latest harvest in a few more days and will report back.
I may do a pre-filter run with some fabric batting I have to get the big stuff out, then run it back through the coffee filter.
Im hoping this will save a good bit of time when making Green Dragon tincture.
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It will save lots of time. I use mine for when I winterize my GD (remove waxes by freezing). If you just wait for it to drill, the wax can remelt.
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Nice to see The Man Posting here
Welcome Back Sam, We are still hanging in there
The Virus is everywhere in my area Now. Wishing you well.
Trust this Guy he knows what he teaches.
Sam if you get to see this Question?
My Good friend @earl.dean.smooter is looking into The Source Turbo Vac devise.
He has been asking if I knew anyone or if I had used one yet, I told him I would ask you, Thanks.
Stiggy
This link is only for anyone looking for info there are many places to buy it from not just this link
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Great Build Should work wonderfully
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