Grass_hopper's Butane Honey Oil (BHO) Thread

[grass_hopper]

Not satisfied with the quality of the results from any of the oil threads I've been perusing, I decided to do some serious research and start my own thread. This is not my own tek, but has gleaned the key concepts from several threads on different boards. Here's what I came up with. I hope you like it.

Hash oil is a great way to get a very potent, smokable product from trim fan leaves, from buds that got moldy in curing, or from plants were damaged or died accidentally. This is one of the only ways to safely extract anything smokable from moldy plant material, as the solvent only picks up resins and will kill any mold spores it comes into contact with. If you want a quick way to extract some good stuff from your trim and don't want to go through the hassle of bubble bags, this is definitely your tek. It's cheap, quick, and the results are super pure.

[grass_hopper]

The basic premise is that low-boiling point, residue-free solvents are used in a non-pressurized vessel to saturate and separate the resins in the plant material (and on it, in the form of trichomes). The resins are suspended in a liquid slurry, which is evaporated off in a wide-mouthed container, leaving behind pure honey oil.

There are a variety of solvents used to extract honey oil from cannabis leaves and flowers, including isopropyl alcohol, hexane, electronics contact cleaners (which contain a cornucopia of petrochemicals), grain alcohol, butane, and a variety of other materials. The chief differences between these solvents (as it relates to preparing honey oil) are:

A. Toxicity/cleanliness - some of these solvents leave dangerous residues that can harm you if smoked/ingested. Some are residue free. These are the ones we want for our work.

B. Polarity - some of these chemicals extract unwanted plant waxes, chlorophyll, and other things that are undesirable in honey oil and ruin it's clarity, color, taste, and sometimes its high. Non-polar solvents will leave the unwanted stuff behind and only extract the golden honey oil that you're after.

C. Boiling Point - all solvents have different boiling points, which changes the degree of difficulty in getting the solvent out of the oil so you don't smoke it. Ideally, a solvent will have a low boiling point which will allow most of it to evaporate naturally without needing to accelerate it with additional heat.

This tek uses butane, which has a very low boiling point, leaves no residue, and is completely non-polar. Butane fluid is commonly available from tobacconists, sporting goods stores that specialize in camping equipment, home centers/hardware stores that sell butane torch tools, and kitchen supply places that sell creme brulee torches and refills. Many people use Colibri because it is known to be free of benzenes and other contaminants which can cause you harm. I've also found Lenk butane in 42 g canisters at Lowes. Lenk and Colibri are very clean butanes. Do not use butane used as fuel for camp stoves and very cheap lighter refill butane in little 18cc canisters. These will be the cheapest per gram, but they are imported from god-knows-where and may have loads of benzenes and nasty chemicals. It's only a matter of a fraction of a cent anyway. All butane I've found commercially available ranges from $.07-$.08 per gram, with Lenk being on the low end and Colibri on the high end.



I've looked around the internet and there are no online deals to find these materials. Even some of the eBay auctions were ripoffs - one joker was selling 50g cans for $12.95 (they usually go for $3.50-4.00). The shipping is also expensive. Since it's a flammable material, it can only be shipped USPS ground and has to have extra handling which raises the shipping costs. One vendor quoted me $5 per can for a bulk order - the shipping was more than the cost of the fuel! Look around - you will definitely be able to find butane refills locally. Unless you become a Colibri distributor, I doubt you'll find a better price.

[grass_hopper]

This thread does not intend to recapture the solvent to reuse again. This is dangerous and should not be attempted by lay people who have no knowledge of chemicals, laboratory standards and access to the proper equipment equipment. Many people have been seriously injured trying to prepare honey oil so please do not attempt to do this if you are not experienced with working with flammable chemicals!!

Note that this tek is intended to be done outdoors. In no way should you do any of these things indoors, where there is a chance for fumes to build up and explode. No open flames of any kind should be anywhere near your work area, including that J that your buddy is handing to you or the barbecue on the other side of the porch. Butane is heavier than air, so the fumes will collect at the floor, where any ignition source like static electricity from your socks on the carpet or a water heater pilot light could blow your house into the sky like the Wizard of Oz. Don't become Dorothy - do this outside. Also, gloves, goggles, and clothing that doesn't melt to skin (like synthetics such as rayon and nylon) are a great idea in case something bad does happen. If it does, you were warned!

And for the nay-sayers and doomsdayers, I'll save you some typing... this is HC.com's disclaimer about being stupid and blowing yourself up. This is a good thread on chemicals and how they can turn your beautiful human self into a hissing pile of chemical goo. Everyone should read these carefully. Otherwise, please limit your posts to constructive comments and keep the thread clear of additional negativity.

[grass_hopper]

OK - with that said, we can move on to the equipment needed:

Your MJ
Butane (I'm using Lenk & Colibri)
Stainless steel turkey baster
Wire mesh - pref. a non-corroding steel one from the tobbaconist or alum from the home center
3/4" Hose clamp
Pyrex dish
Razor blade or scraper
Coffee filter.



Your MJ should be preferably sugary trim and popcorn buds, but even non-sugary trim leaves and stems will work will work, your yield will just be much lower. The material should be very dry and crumbled into a fine mulch but NOT ground finely like in a coffee grinder. If you grind the material too finely you will get lots of chlorophyll in your oil which will make it dark green/black. You can also use skuff/shake if you want to do that step first, but that sort of defeats the purpose. This process will result in perfectly clean, clear amber colored oil (color will vary based on your weed), but it will be free of chlorophyll, plant waxes, and other bad stuff.



Why a stainless steel turkey baster? Well, I want completely clean oil and equipment that I can reuse again and again. I'm concerned about copper pipe, which is very popular for this type of application. The copper can corrode over time, and the solvents can introduce these metallic contaminants into your oil. Stainless steel is much better. These are available at any decent kitchen accessory store. They are also better for the lazy stoner, since a turkey baster will work right out of the box with no modification, unlike copper that has to be cut, drilled and soldered.

Using a glass dish is great because you can scrape it up from the bottom with a razor. If you have a square pyrex dish, all the better. It's hard to get all the oil from the corners of round dishes.

[grass_hopper]

First, remove the rubber ball from your turkey baster and attach the wire mesh to the end with the wide mouth. Clamp it down tight. I used two layers of mesh that has been turned at a 45° angle so that it maximizes the filtering capability. Remember - you're not grinding the MJ into a powder. Dry bud bits will fall through the screen, so we'll also put the end of this into a coffee filter when we actually do the extraction



Once you've formed the metal screen to your turkey baster and clamped it, loosen the clamp and remove it temporarily. This is when you can pack it with bud/trim/whatever. It should be as full to the top but not tightly packed. Remember to DRY your bud first, as this will release less chlorophyll and fewer contaminants into your oil. The drier the better.

[grass_hopper]

OK - here's the moment of truth! Turn the baster upside down (mesh down) towards the pyrex plate. Hold a coffee filter over the screen end to catch any of the little bits of stuff that may come out. Holding both the tube and the coffee filter with a glove or towel is suggested, as the tube will get very cold and may even freeze your skin to the tube.



Inject the tube with butane into the small end and let the liquid fall through the coffee filter into the pyrex dish. Be sure to catch all the drips. You can repeat this as necessary until you feel you have captured all the resin from your MJ, depending on how much butane you have and feel like using. I used two 50 gram cans of butane per tube of trim and I still feel like I could extract more. I am just limited in the quantities of butane I can source. Most of the canisters I've found are ~50 grams. I only feel comfortable buying it in 6 can batches without raising eyebrows at local stores. If you've got more and it's reasonably priced, go for it.

The butane will begin to boil as soon as it hits the dish. It will boil/evaporate away quickly, esp. if there is a breeze or if it's a warm sunny day. If you're impatient, you can place the pyrex dish on top of a frypan full of boiling/hot water to make the butane evaporate faster. If you do this, be careful. Do not boil over a stove. You can also use an electric hot plate here if you want, but it's not entirely necessary. The butane/oil mix will bubble as the butane goes supercritical and boils/evaporates off. The goal is to remove ALL the butane. Some folks will also flame the back of the plate with a torch or lighter to make sure all the butane evaporates/boils off. I just let mine set for a couple of hours and by the time I come back all the butane is gone. ONLY do this after all the visible butane has evaporated off, or you'll be staring into the biggest fireball you've ever seen.

Here's why you want to hold it with a glove. The crystals on this coffee filter are ice. The tube was completely frozen to the oven mitt. This would be your skin if you didn't use a glove.



Once all the butane is gone, use your scraper to collect up the sticky, golden goodness. It should be free of any contaminants if you followed the directions, and shouldn't really smell like anything. It might have a slight hashy smell but should definitely NOT smell like butane or chemicals. If that's the case, there is still solvent inside and you need to flame or heat it to remove all the remaining butane.



Note this is the result of only about a handful of sugary trim leaves and stems (two turkey basters full). I could probably get another 25% if I ran the same trim through again. That metal bowl of trim is going to take me a while (and a few more cans of butane) to extract fully. Also note - depsite all my pictures being taken indoors, I made my BHO outside. It was night time, so I had to take things inside to take pix.

There you go - honey oil in under an hour. Note that in the US the equipment needed to do this cost less than $20. The most expensive part was the butane, and even that wasn't terribly expensive.

Mesh: $5 for a huge 36" roll that was overkill for this project
Clamps: $.50
Turkey baster: $10 at supermarket

Colibri butane is $3.50 per 50g can locally. Lenk was $2.88 at Lowes for a 42g can.

Good luck and play safe

[Fillabong]

Thanks grass_hopper, excellent thread. I will try this method the next time I make some oil. Did you feel you could extract more as this method was a pressure filtration and couldn't sit and gain more cannibinoid solutes? What was your weight in terms of grass used and oil made?

F

[grass_hopper]

I haven't weighed the results but I'm going to guess I have about 1 g of oil from finely chopped, very dry trim leaves that is about enough to fill a coffee cup (maybe 8-10 grams?) I had VERY sugary trim and a bunch of popcorn buds from my last grow. The trim is still visibly sugary - I could probably get more from it if I want to keep trying. This is in line from some published yield guides I saw:

1oz High quality bud/12oz/3-6g
1oz Average bud/10oz/2-4g
1oz low grade bud/9oz/2-3g
1oz high quality trim leaves/12oz/3-5g
1oz trim & leaves/10oz/2-4g
1oz fan leaves/8oz/1-2g

In regards to the contact time - I probably ran my butane through too quickly. Other threads that I've read have talked about running it through slowly, so it takes 30 seconds or more to inject a can. Letting it soak is not recommended, even though it's non-polar it will start to collect contaminants if it's allowed to come in contact with the leaves too much. The last batch of oil I made came out completely green/black because I used contact cleaner and let it sit for days. I don't want to repeat that mistake.

The one criticism I have of my own tek is that it seems wasteful of butane. I'm just thinking about all the butane I'm going to need to process that much trim. Even though it's less efficient and much more time consuming, I may just wind up doing the bubble hash. I already own the bags, which is the 'spensive part. It would be a challenge to create a pressurized vessel that could hold all the butane & trim safely. Shaking is definitely not an option (boom!)

Despite it's wastefulness, there really is nothing like getting that amber colored oil, though. It's a good feeling

[PolecatApe]

I was doing some googling and came across these guys http://www.kingbutane.com/

The price seems really good at 12 6oz. cans for $20 and they claim their product is "triple refined" (I noticed Calibri only claims double), but I am always skeptical of what see in advertising.

Does anyone have any experience with this brand?

*edit*
I got a reply from them on their "formula"...
Propane ---> 1.4829%
Isobutane -> 27.2148%
n-Butane --> 70.4838%
Nitrogen ---> 0.7870%
Ethane ----> 0.0315%

[grass_hopper]

The problem with mail ordering butane is that the shipping is really expensive because of the extra hazard criteria. The 12pak is only $20 but the shipping is an extra $13.10. Also, most hazards cannot be shipped internationally.

The qty per can is the big differentiator. I've not found 6oz cans of high quality butane anywhere. Colibri and Lenk are all smaller (Lenk = 42 g, Colibri 50 g) I'm not sure of the composition - may be you could contact Colibri and see what their composition is....

Thanks for the info.