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Hash oil and the ISOMERIZER machine that made it

oh i was getting it confused with converting THCA to THC, which is actually only done for edibles and green dragon.
 
Sorry to be the negative one, but Wouldn't that just be like a really long iso/ethanol wash? And you'd get a shit load of chlorophyll and other unwanted stuff in your product?
I also thought isomerization was, well, isomerizing CBD to THC using a strong acid. but I dont get how 'the isomerizer' does that bit?? I can see how it extracts but not the rest? anyone who used one want to shed some light?
But when using plant matter your never going to have only CBD, and I think I read it changes delta 9 into a less potent isomer?
Im not 100% on all this, so please correct me or add anything i missed. but it seemed to be the general conclusion from what others have written..
 
The basic concept is called a cold finger where soxhlet is expensive fancy.
 



Hello,BlueLighters!

Last night,I was fondly remembering the many hundreds of times that--in my youth—I usedboth the Original Isomerizer, and later, the machine described here inthe first post of this thread, which was called the ISO-2. Just for sh*tsand giggles, I decided to look the term Isomerizer up in Google, to seeif, perhaps, they were still for sale.
Lo andbehold! Google took me to this thread, and I read each post, eagerly, and soondiscovered that I had a wealth of knowledge that the contributors of thisthread, apparently, did not—and they seemed to be thirsty to learn more.
So, Iregistered, and as of this writing, I am awaiting activation of my account.Nevertheless, I figured that I would write this tonight, and then post it when myregistration came active.

I boughtthe original Isomerizer within months of seeing the first ad in HighTimes, circa 1975 or 1976. It was a much bulkier and more complex machinethan the Later ISO-2. I won’t bother to describe it—and I’m stilllooking for pictures of it on the ‘Net—but the ISO-2 was a simpler andmuch more elegant machine, and over the years, at one time or the other, I had 3 of them.
Theoriginal post of this thread was correct in nearly every detail. It was astainless steel pot, enclosed by a parabolic reflector and a light bulb. Thehighly polished reflector magnified and evenly distributed the heat around thestainless steel cooking pot.
Theair-condenser that spring-snapped onto the top of the cooking pot was exactlyas described: it looked like something out of a bad 1950s to 1970s sciencefiction B-movie, but as it had a heat control knob that was essentially adimmer switch, so the heat was very controllable.

Theoperation was simple, but through trial and error I streamlined it into awonderfully efficient process:
A pound oflow grade marijuana was ground up in a blender with 99% Isopropyl alcohol. Notthe standard rubbing alcohol, as it was 30% water, which would extract way toomany of the undesired elements of marijuana. Isopropyl alcohol, and later wefound that denatured alcohol was just as good, and way cheaper than the99% isopropyl alcohol the machine’s instructions called for.
The groundup dope and the alcohol you ground it in was poured directly into the stainlesssteel pot. Snap on the condenser, and turn on the heat. Generally, you wantedto reflux the mixture for 8-10 hours. Refluxing is just continuous boiling,where the solvent fumes are condensed back into a liquid and returned back tothe liquid, allowing many hours of boiling with no loss of liquid.
After theappropriate time, the machine was turned off, and allowed an hour or so tocool. Then the whole mash is strained through a colander. The green liquid ispoured back into the bottom pot of the isomerizer. This has all been part one,the Extraction.
Now, if you intend to Isomerize the extract, whichconverts any Cannabidiol (CBD) into THC, you had to add 4 drops of concentratedSulphuric Acid per ounce of marijuana. And as soon as you do that, you will addthe soxhlet basket (basically a shaped colander) to the machines bottom pot,and scrape the powdered dregs of the pot into the basket. This keeps the liquidand the soggy pot-powder separate, and then you put the condenser back on, turnon the heat, and let it reflux for about four more hours.
The heat and acid change the CBDinto THC, and as it refluxes, the condensed fumes rain into the basket,leaching out whatever good stuff that might have remained in the weed, and thendrips back into the bottom, to repeat the cycle.
Eventually, I would cool it off,add the appropriate amount of baking soda (as I recall, it was per the machinesinstructions) to neutralize the acid. Then squeeze what liquid remaining in thebasket through an old pillowcase, and discard the weed.
Then I put the liquid back into themachine, and the basket as well, but this time, the basket contained acontainer that would catch the alcohol rather than letting it go back into thebottom pot. Then, when the machine was turned back on, and the liquid boiledand evaporated and was finally condensed in the condenser, it was separatedfrom the extract. In other words, the alcohol was distilled off of the oilextract.

At this point, you have manyoptions. If hash oil is the desired end-product, you would dissolve the extractinto a much smaller amount of fresh alcohol—even the distilled alcohol in thecatch-bowl. Then I would pour the green liquid through a funnel and filterfilled with Finely Powdered activated charcoal, and the result, afterdistilling off the alcohol, was a beautiful—and very potent—honey oil,at the ratio of about 1 oz. of oil per pound of weed.
Other things I did were:
Extract a pound of weed and thenadd an ounce of already-good weed to the liquid before taking off the alcohol(or even an ounce of the ordinary pot.). Result: If I used the ordinary pot,the result would be at least 16X stronger! And if I used already potentpot, the oil from a pound would result in a ridiculously potent product.

Finally, one more thing I wouldlike to share with you. In the mid ‘80s, I lived about 20 miles in themountains above Chico, California-Marijuana Country USA. I knew a group ofgrowers who told me that, every year, they would bury their leaf for mulch fortheir next crop. We struck a deal, and for several years, they supplied me withpounds of leaf in huge yard and lawn bags. I cooked the leaf into oil, and wesplit the resulting honey oil 50-50. Damn, those were the days!
So there you have it. I’m 60 yearsold, now, and I am retired. I live in astate where Marijuana is legal for both Medical and Recreational purposes Butwhat a lot of fun I had with my ISO-2!
 
Cool thread resurrection!




Above is a picture of and an advert for the aforementioned Iso 2 machine.



And a vintage advert for a similar device.

There surely is somebody producing these devices today?
 
Ah! I'm glad you posted that pic of the ISO 2! I had one to post, but I haven't figured out
how to do that, yet. I also remember the KIK, but I never had one. I'm sure it works much like the
Thai Power Iso 2, though. The claims were virtually identical.

Sir Adam, the Bombed :)
 
Hey, Jude! :)

Thanks for posting the pic of the ISO 2! Spacey, isn't it?
As to the KIK machine, I saw the ads, way back when, and it appears
to work much like the ISO 2, but I never owned one. Maybe someone
will come along and give us the skinny on that.

Sir Adam, the Bombed :)
 
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