What follows is the process I utilise to make BHO from trim.
But first...
Butane is highly flammable, so let us next talk about safety.
First and foremost, always perform the extraction outside in a well ventilated area.
Have a fire extinguisher handy, as well as a blanket to roll up in, should the unthinkable happen.
It goes without saying that smoking around a butane extraction is asking for a disaster, but I have literally grabbed the hand of folks starting to light up because they “forgot” where they were at and what they were doing.
May I suggest that you leave your lighter and smokes somewhere else when you are doing extractions.
Same with your cell phone!
Wear no synthetic fabrics, including your socks, because static electricity sparks probably ignite more butane unintentionally than bone headed smokers.
Butane is heavier than air and will collect in low spots given its own devices.
In dry cold conditions (cold winter), we add a grounding strap to our cans, so as to not draw static electricity sparks between the can and the column.
Put your butane in the freezer when you are about to begin your extraction. This will result in the butane dripping nicely out of your extraction tube instead of instantly expanding everywhere.
As extraction tube I use a stainless steel turkey baster from amazon. It is nearly perfect for my needs as a butane nozzle adapter fits right inside it’s tip, like it’s made for it. Be sure to use teflon tape to seal any small gaps. You want this to be sealed tight cause otherwise it would result in a loss of pressure and thus in a loss of yield.
Fill the trim in the extraction tube. Pack it tight! You don’t want air pouches in which the butane could expand as we want it to be in its liquid state. Fill your tube to the top. If you don’t have enough material you can use 100% Cotton as a filler. But if the tube isn’t fully loaded the filling may move around which would hurt our yields significantly.
When it’s filled, it’s time to cap it. I use a coffee filter followed by a stainless steel mesh and attach those whith a steel clamp.
Preheat an oven to about 60° - 70° C. Put two chamotte stones inside.
Prepare some hot water and pour it into a bowl.
Put some Teflon around the nozzle of the butane can.
Place the dish which you want to use for your extraction (i.e. a pyrex bowl) inside the hot water bath.
Take some gloves or a potholder or something equal. You can’t hold the extraction tube with your bare hands while extracting.
This WILL result in severe frostbite.
Now the fun part begins…
Place the nozzle of your butane in the butane nozzle adapter in the end of your extraction tube. Hold the tube above your extraction dish, which sits in the hot water bath…and spray the butane through the tube.
It may take some time till the butane begins dripping out of the other end into your extraction bowl.
So spray a few seconds the stop spraying wait a few seconds and spray again.
It seems the consent that one can (250ml) of butane is enough to extract the goodies from 1oz. of trim.
Speaking personally, I just check with my finger if the dripping butane still leaves a sticky residue on it after evaporation.
If not, it was enough.
Now wait and let the butane evaporate till
no more liquid butane is visible.
You can bring the dish inside now. But be careful as there is still a lot of butane in your product.
I place the dish in the pre heated oven, with an opned door to quickly evap some of that excess butane and to make the extract thin and runny.
Then I scrape it up onto parchment paper and put it…
... alongside a chamotte stone into my vac chamber. The stone is to keep the extract warm and runny, so that the butane can escape faster and easier.
After a while, when the movement has slowed down, I replace the chamotte stone with another one from the oven and put the used one back, in case that I need it again.
I repeat this procedure till there’s no more movement when the extract is under vacuum.
Then I put it in the fridge for a few seconds to harden up after which I transfer it into my dish.
That’s it.
I used about 15 gramms of trim this time. I didn't weight the result. Looks like something between 1.5 and 2 tasty gramms.
Some words on the butane...
Personally I only use butane whis has the "Near zero imprurities" stamp. I also check the MSDS to make sure that there aren't any anti rust agents or something like this in it.
