This was 3g of Flower stuffed BottleTek style into a 75micron bag.
Yield was maybe a 1/4g if that.
235f for 2.5 minutes.
Also tried 2g of weed in a .75" pre-press, made a little puck about a 1/2" thick.
Pre-pressed for 20 min.
220F and 3 minutes with no bag, just parchment.
Yield was about the same as above, not even a 1/4g, albeit a little better % wise.
Found this on the web: What’s a “good” yield? The goal of pressing rosin is to get all the cannabinoids and terpenes out of the trichome glands. Theoretically, if your cannabis has 18% cannabinoids and 2% terpenes, the yield you’d get from pressing 1 gram of flower would be 0.2 grams of rosin.
So for your yields, they’re actually pretty close. What were you expecting from 3 grams of flower?
1/2 g from 3 grams of flower is ~16% cannabinoids + terpenes in your flower. Which seems average. So either the flower is lower than that or something was wrong with the process.
Maybe try a different strain and compare the results.
One ramp up your pressure over time as it helps push it out vs trapping, two a little more moist bud helps if too dry it doesn’t press well also yield wise expect say 10% and then on up some plants may have higher % amounts but don’t press well.
Some flower doesn’t yield well at all and can be dependent on strain, grow process/health, humidity level of the product etc etc.
With a temp of 235 (much higher than I press at) I would have expected a little better yield, yet a darker color and slightly lower quality than what should be got from a lower temp press.
Pressing definitely can take some trial and error with your method and flower used. Sadly one of my best smelling plants is HORRIBLE to press. Small yields and the rosin is a nightmare to collect off the parchment even with assistance from the freezer. But I have other strains that will press a fat yield with rosin I can roll up off the parchment with my fingers.
Also the small the micron the lower the yield but potentially cleaner result. Personally 120 is my go to for pressing flower for the most part.
Keep playing around with things and you should find a combo that works for you, all flower is not created equally
It really is cultivar dependent. I’ve had flower press as low as 6% and as high as 30%.
I typically pre-press 5 grams of flower and put it in a 160 micron screen. I press at 95°C (about 195°F) for about four minutes. I start with a real low pressure and slowly add more as the rosin starts to get the bag wet.
When making a pre-press puck, should I attempt any temp control?
Maybe hitting the press with a heat gun, if so how hot?
Is there any benefit in then cooling the puck down, like in the freezer, before pressing?
These spent pucks look like a lot of resin is left in them, in the weave of the bag, etc. Not sure about the weed pancake itself. I have been throwing them in a smal 4oz jar of 200 proof ethanol to maybe reclaim later. Is the view worth the climb?
I pre-press without any heat. I have a 600lb hand clamp I use with a 1.5x1.5" mold to form the pucks.
I’ve never tried bottle tech, but hear that’s the way to go with no pre-press necessary.
I am certain it is your flower and not your technique/equipment.
Yes you can reclaim quite a bit from the bags. I like to remove the weed puck from the bag and rinse the bags in alcohol for about 5 minutes. I then evaporate the alcohol and use the remaining resin for edibles.
As other have mentioned, the biggest factors that influence yield ime
1.) Cultivar - this is the biggest imho. GG4 will ooze resin, a Haze probably wouldn’t. Try to find cultivars/breeders that are known for extraction or hash making.
2.) Moisture level of bud - you want this on the higher side. I like the throw a couple of fresh fan leaves in the jar with herb I’m going to press 24 or 48 hours ahead of time to re-hydrate the buds. You definitely want them more spongey feeling and less brittle.
3.) Pre-press mold - I yield better when I pre-press my bud into a mold. I use this one. I’ll pre-press with no heat. Then take the pre-pressed pucks and put them in the bags. Then place the puck/bag on the heated plates and increase the pressure just enough to start heating both sides of the puck. After heating for approximately 1 minute, slowly increase the pressure, pump by pump. Once you start seeing rosin ooze, you can experiment with the increasing pressure or just leaving as is to see how much will ooze out.
4.) Temperature - lower is better quality, higher temp - more yield.
You’ll get it dialed in and be overflowing with rosin in no time…
Ya the pucks are worth processing as @ReikoX mentioned. Personally I just toss 10-15 pucks into a pot with 16 oz MCT oil and add in 20+ grams of CBD hemp flower and stir/extract for 2-5 hours at 140-240 degrees F and then strain all I can through cheesecloth.
(after cooled down a bit) I then stick gelatin capsules in a 3d printed pill holder, suck oil into a syringe and fill up all the capsules, cap them off and throw them in a small mason jar so they can chill in the freezer and not melt the capsules.
I really want to make something for my shop press so I can squeeze more oil out of the material before I throw it away.
My gf just got me the same press for my birthday cause she knew I was bummed I didn’t win anything from the raffle lol.
I pressed some grim glue and it was low yielding as well.
Couldn’t quite get the pressure right as u can adjust the length of top plate before moving the lever but when it “locks” down you can only release pressure. Very hard and impractical to tighten the nut to increase pressure while it’s locked down.
Feel like it’s just “stuck” between the plates, tried doing a directional fold for one press, didn’t notice much of a difference.
I have the same press and had same issue.
I’ve watched videos where they got good yields but mine have sucked. I recently harvested some runtz I’m going to give it another shot with a pre press before pressing in the rmp2.
Unfortunately I didnt have my camera handy, but I got my first decent squish last night.
Put 2.5g of zKittelz at 67% rH into the pre-press
I pre-pressed for about 30 minutes.
Pre-heated the unit at 205f for 30 minutes
Applied pressure slowly and gradually for 30 secs, feeling it melt and not pushing to hard when it starts to give.
Flipped the lever to lock position for 2 minutes.
I got .52g out of 2.5g puck.
I did have a small blowout, the puck slid towards where I folded the parchment in half, it blew out at the fold. Next time I will just use two separate sheets of parchment.
I got a good sticky rosin that was easy to scrape off the parchment. It tasted yummy as hell. Got baked.
Anyway, I have now seen that this RMP2 can deliver. It looks like it is all about technique, and perhaps that 67% rH helped too.
