Extraction Noob with a press, save me from me please.

[Saro01]

Hey everyone, kind of as the title suggests, I just bought a nugsmasher mini. My first press ever. I have actually never pressed any rosin before. I'm a fairly quick learner and pretty handy so I do not think this is going to be difficult to get good at, but im sure like most things, hard to master. Anyhow, looking back I probably got the wrong bundle, as I picked the essential hash bundle. I believe it's coming with 30 something micron bags. So I'm sure I'll need different bags. But one of my main questions is, what other accessories are a must, what are definitely good to have and what's just not worth it. As I know nothing and already have a fairly pissed off wife at the moment. Giving the impression of ease would be nice. Haha, she's not near as happy about the press as i am. Well, the financial part anyhow. Also any tips would be greatly greatly appreciated!! Thanks in advance to everyone for your help.

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

Hey everyone, kind of as the title suggests, I just bought a nugsmasher mini. My first press ever. I have actually never pressed any rosin before. I'm a fairly quick learner and pretty handy so I do not think this is going to be difficult to get good at, but im sure like most things, hard to master. Anyhow, looking back I probably got the wrong bundle, as I picked the essential hash bundle. I believe it's coming with 30 something micron bags. So I'm sure I'll need different bags. But one of my main questions is, what other accessories are a must, what are definitely good to have and what's just not worth it. As I know nothing and already have a fairly pissed off wife at the moment. Giving the impression of ease would be nice. Haha, she's not near as happy about the press as i am. Well, the financial part anyhow. Also any tips would be greatly greatly appreciated!! Thanks in advance to everyone for your help.

I hope she likes dabs or you may be sleeping in the dog house .

A pre-press is the first thing that comes to mind. I built my own and bought some The 1.125 inch square is the one I use all of the time. I use 90 micron bags that I buy on EBay and they come from china so it takes 2 months to get them now. Order big (don't let the wife know). If I were going to make another Pre-press it would be round. I put a bag in the square tube and use a metal funnel to pinch the top of the bag to hold it in place as I load the bag with 4g of bud. Pushing it into the bag with a big Chopstick.

Tools to pick the rosin up and silicon containers to store it in. There is a learning curve to picking up the rosin and handling it. I lost quite a bit in the beginning.

You will need silicon parchment paper to press in. I like Raw 5x5 papers but they are hard to find sometimes and now I am using Oil Slick 10 x 10 and cutting them in half 10 x 5 then fold on one edge to get a 5x5.

Some rosin is too oily to pick-up warm. I have cake pans in the freezer with a blue ice pak sandwiched in between to keep the pans cold as I work the rosin on them.

Click on my link 6 ton press and all things rosin for the whole story.

Since I started doing dabs my tolerance has gone way up. Be careful not to get your wife too high the first time or you may have to move into the dog hose permanently.

 

[Saro01]

I hope she likes dabs or you may be sleeping in the dog house .

A pre-press is the first thing that comes to mind. I built my own and bought some The 1.125 inch square is the one I use all of the time. I use 90 micron bags that I buy on EBay and they come from china so it takes 2 months to get them now. Order big (don't let the wife know). If I were going to make another Pre-press it would be round. I put a bag in the square tube and use a metal funnel to pinch the top of the bag to hold it in place as I load the bag with 4g of bud. Pushing it into the bag with a big Chopstick.

View attachment 1214719

Tools to pick the rosin up and silicon containers to store it in. There is a learning curve to picking up the rosin and handling it. I lost quite a bit in the beginning.

You will need silicon parchment paper to press in. I like Raw 5x5 papers but they are hard to find sometimes and now I am using Oil Slick 10 x 10 and cutting them in half 10 x 5 then fold on one edge to get a 5x5.

Some rosin is too oily to pick-up warm. I have cake pans in the freezer with a blue ice pak sandwiched in between to keep the pans cold as I work the rosin on them.

Click on my link 6 ton press and all things rosin for the whole story.

Since I started doing dabs my tolerance has gone way up. Be careful not to get your wife too high the first time or you may have to move into the dog hose permanently.

Excellent!!!! Yeah I'm looking forward to playing around with it. Seriously doubt it will be my one and only machine. I have a feeling that I've just opened the door. I'm already frustrated enough with tolerance, and honestly, I didn't even think about that, but makes sense. Thanks for the help my brotha. Very much appreciated.

 

[GinFizzLuv]

I’ve had a Dabpress 3-ton for a couple years and it has served me well.

I usually do first press around 190F for 3min or so. I keep that for dabbing. I’ll do a 2nd press at 215F and keep that and the spent pucks for edibles.

I think @Mañ'O'Green ’s advice is spot on. I agree it is definitely easy to jack your tolerance sky high. I also burn through rosin quicker than herb. But quality rosin is certainly a tasty treat.

I have Dabpress’ cylinder prepress and consider it essential. I do the prepress with the cylinder and then stuff in the bags which are folded “bottle tech” style. I don’t like the Dabpress brand mesh bags though - they blow out too easy for me. I have Press Club’s bags right now and they are a bit better. I am still looking for the best option.

I also get better results if I hydrate the herb with a 62 or 65 Boveda overnight. Not too long with the Boveda though or the smell can disappear.

 

[AFNG]

I have mini as well. I'm thinking of getting prepress myself as well.

I get better yields without bag but I save all pucks anyways so not worried about some losses.

Use fresh quality material and as I was told here 185 degrees for up to 5 minutes is great starting point for first press for quality material. I took some of that and just made Thca crystal with press and it's strong!

If you press higher temp it will be stickier, for that I put cast iron in freezer to get it cold then take out to use as work area to keep it cold and manageable.

Oh and experimenting is fun!

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

I have mini as well. I'm thinking of getting prepress myself as well.

I get better yields without bag but I save all pucks anyways so not worried about some losses.

Use fresh quality material and as I was told here 185 degrees for up to 5 minutes is great starting point for first press for quality material. I took some of that and just made Thca crystal with press and it's strong!

If you press higher temp it will be stickier, for that I put cast iron in freezer to get it cold then take out to use as work area to keep it cold and manageable.

Oh and experimenting is fun!

I make a SWET extraction of my pucks. Basically I just soak them in 190 proof a day or two then distill out 70% of the ethanol and dry the rest in a rice cooker. It makes SLUDGE. Tastes terrible, smells bad but gets you so stoned. I make it into chocolate bars with a couple drops of flavored Terps and it works ok.