Hash from Trash : Larger Volume Mixing hash makin'
This is a hybrid way to make hash based off two tutorials(one is from a private canna site, and forget where the other is from ICmag maybe?) found on the net with some variances that i came up with. I'd like to note that i am not a hash expert by any means(i do have the ability to adapt pretty well though). I just started doing this a few years ago, this is my third season. Last year it took so long(using 5 gallon standard mixing method) to get a small amount of return, and i think the majority of the trim being frozen wet had a large impact in final yield.
The purpose of this tutorial is to be able to mix a large amount of leaf and underformed bud at once, but still use standard 5gallon/20liter bubble bags for the filtering of the hash. I didnt want to take pics for this as too much background stuff would be exposed, so i decided to draw some illustrations instead(and ouch are they rough...hahahaha) I may replace illustrations at some point.
Tools Needed for project:
Cordless Drill with 1" Drill bit and various smaller bits(size dependant on wire used for hoisting harness and also for drilling pilot holes for the closed eye hooks)
Pliers (cutting plastic coated wire and wrapping wire securely)
Marker
Silicone tube and gun (use kitchen silicone)
Lighter (for melting the ends of cut nylon rope so they dont fray)
Sharp Scissors (for cutting wire screen)
Supplies needed for project:
100gallon/400liter per hour to 300gallon/1200liter per hour pond/hydro pump
1.5 meter/4feet Hose with connector to pump for intake
1 meter/3 feet garden hose with connector for outtake
26gallon/100liter Rubbermaid Trash Can X3
Window screen(large enough to fit in the bottom of a can)
Silicone(to keep the screen on the bottom of the bucket)
Paint mixer for cordless drill or kids wooden canoe paddle(ideally both)
2X Heavy duty screw in Closed Eye Hooks
2X Lighter duty screw in Closed Eye hooks
1/2" Climbing Rope (length depending on height of eye hooks, a 50 foot piece did my height of approx 11-12 vertical feet perfectly)
1/4" rope (for suspending hash bags)
Plastic Coated wire(must be really strong, i used heavier guage electrical wire)
Actual hashmaking components
Ice 10 Bags per run
220, 90, 73, 25 micron Hash Bags
5 gallon/20 liter pails (final place for the hash bags)
5 gallon/20 liter pails (bag washing bucket)
Bubble Bag Bowl (i prefer stainless for easy cleaning, and durability)
Spoon (scraping hash)
Clean Ink free Cardboard (drying)
Paper Towel (drying aid)
Preparing the overhead area.
You will need a very strong overhead structure to do this technique. If you have a garage with exposed roof truss's you are set up and ready to begin. Make sure they are sturdy!! The idea is this. One garbage can will have holes drilled out in the bottom. This can will fit inside another can and this is where you can mix lots of ice and bud all at once. Once mixed, you have to lift the strainer bucket from the second bucket and that is crazy hard even for 2 guys. I have a bad upper neck injury and physically I could be risking further injury even with the help of a second person, so i had to figure a way to make the lifting of the straining can easier. This lead me to a roping system on heavy duty eye hooks attached to the roofs truss beams. With a foothold tied(a secure loop that my foot will fit into) in the rope, and the other end of the rope attached to the rim of the strainer bucket, i am able to use my own weight and leg muscles to do the hardest part with much less effort. I do a simultaneous lift of the bucket while exerting downward pressure on the ropes foothold to lift the strainer can. Once the can is above the water line(by that time my foot is almost on the ground and is able to keep the line taunt easily while the can drains for a minute or so) the strainer can is much lighter and its not too hard to "swing" it over to the second can and lift my leg in the foot hold to lower it into the second can. Now i am left with the strainer can in the second can with no water, and the original can with around 70-80 liters of hash water. This will be pumped into 5 gallon bubble bags with the pond pump.
Mixing Phase overview Illustration
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Closer illustration of heavy duty eye hook in roof truss beam with hoisting rope attached.
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Making the strainer Can - Main Drainage Holes
When you buy your cans, its imperative that they stack inside each other. I bought rubbermaid trash cans as they are pretty cheap($20 each) and the material is incredibly strong while not being brittle(important for the wire harness that will be used for the lifting of the strainer). First thing i did was drill a bunch of holes every 1.5" with a 1" drill bit in the bottom of the can(around 50 holes total). Clean out any excess plastic leftovers from the drilling.
Making the strainer Can - Leaf Screen
Okay so now flip the strainer can upside down and take your piece of window screen and use a marker to draw a circle about 1"smaller than the outer circumferance of the bottom of the bucket. Take a sharp pair of scissors and cut out the circle. Dry fit in the inside bottom of a trash can and see how it fits. You might have to custom cut a bit so it fits well and lays flat on the bottom of the can. When it fits well remove the screen, and take your silicone and apply a nice even ring close to the edge of the screeen, making sure it will have good contact on the bottom of the bucket before applying. Carefully place the screen on the bottom and smooth the silicone with some saliva on your finger through the mesh. Let cure for 24-48 hours.
Making the Strainer Can -Suspension Harness
Next is the suspension harness. These will be the wires that will connest the strainer bucket to the "hoisting ropes", so you want this to be quite strong. I used heavier plastic coated electrical wire for this task. I "repurposed" electrical wire and stripped the heavy plastic coating off a 10 foot section of wire which left me the copper, and the white and black coated plastic wire which i used for this task. I cut the wire into four 2.5 foot long segments. First i marked out 4 even spaced holes with a marker. Then drilled a hole through the side of the upper rim for each of the evenly spaced marks I did. This part of the can is strongest and manipulation of the wire through the holes is easy. I feed my 4 wires through each of the 4 holes and tightly wrap the wire around itself 6-7 times to secure it tightly. I used a pair of pliers to make the wraps really tight. So now take one of your 3 quick release clips and attach your wires using the wrap method from the last step. Try to make sure that each of the 4 wires attached is the same length at the point of attachment. That will insure that when you hoist the bucket it will lift straight up instead of an angle. Hook it up and give it a test empty. Using heavy electrical wire you can manipulate the wire to go the direction you want.
Suspension Harness attached to strainer can:
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The Hoisting Rig
Lets go through the steps to make the "hoisting rig". Plan your where your eyehooks will go overhead. Get someone to help you hold a ladder if its high up, and to pass you tools/drill bit ect. Climb the ladder to the high point in which you will be putting your eye hooks to suspend your ropes. The height of this must be at minimum 7 feet or so(high enough you can lift the strainer bucket 4" higher than the lip of another bucket). Choose a heavy duty closed eye hook that will support lots of weight. These hooks will be supporting at least a hundred pounds, likely even more weight. Use a drill bit that is 1/8" smaller than the diameter of the eye hook and drill a pilot hole in the roof truss beams. Again make sure the overhead support is very strong. Drill another hole with the same drill bit around 2.5-3feet. Drill the second hole basing your distance of the second hole on the diameter of the bucket you are using, so a 3 foot diameter bucket's pilot hole should be 3 feet from the first hole you drilled). That way when the ropes are hanging straight down the buckets will be side by side making the strainer bucket transfer more easily accomplished. Screw in your heavy duty eye hooks. This is easily done with the use of a screw driver to give you leverage to help screw it into the hole. Feed enough rope through the eye hook to hang to the floor plus an extra 2 feet, and then the other end should have enough rope to reach the strainer bucket quick release clip. On the end of this rope securely tie a quick release clip. Do the same roping process for the second heavy duty eye hook. Hook up your rig to the strain bucket and give it some test pulls to get a feel how its going to work. Set up an empty trash bucket and put the strainer bucket inside. Now pull on the rope and raise the strainer bucket slightly over the top of the second buckets lip. While its in this position, step on the rope and tie a loop in the rope. When the can is full of water and heavy as hell, this should make it easier for you, as the foot hold will be in the proper location when you need to exert the most force.
Bubble Bag Suspension
Drill 2 smaller pilot holes that will be used for the lighter duty closed eye hooks to suspend the hanging bubble bags. I never fill the bags with more than a couple of gallons of water so holding a ton of weight is overkill which is why lighter duty closed eyes hooks are only needed. Tie a secure knot with a lighter rope(1/4" or just small enough to fit into the hash bags metal grommets), and leave enough rope that the end hangs just below the upper rim of the strainer can. Do the same with the second light duty eye hook. These two ropes will suspend the bubble bags.
I believe that might have been long winded, but i wanted to cover everything i could think of!! I cant stress how important the strong overhead beam you use as a roping point. You will be standing directly underneath the support you are exerting great amounts of force pulling the beam directly at your head/body and risking serious bodily harm.
Make sure your hoisting harness, and especially the overhead beam is secure. Of course you can skip the hoisting rig, if you are in good physical condition and have a second person in good shape to help.
Okay so we are ready to make some hash high volume as a team of one! But wait a second! We had better talk about pond/hydro pumps for a minute. Ive only owned a couple of hydro pumps in the past many years ago, and i was sort of going off another tutorial and suggestions from a guy i got the large scale trash mixing technique from. He suggested a 100gph(gallons per hour) pump. Looking to buy a pump locally the only pumps i found in the 100gph range had a very poor flow rate once you got to 4 feet of hose, so i opted to buy a more potent pump once so i grabbed a 320GPH LIttle Giant pony pump. This pump is not submersible. It draws water through one hose and out another using standard garden hose. A quick chop of a garden hose and i had the two hoses i needed. One hose(outtake so into the hash bags) i cut around 3 feet and one i cut a little over 4 which will suck the hash water out of the bucket. The suspending bags could not drain fast enough to handle the volume of the pump, so I found it easier to have the pump on a "6 pack" electrical box with an on/off switch. I was concerned that submersible pumps might have a problem with them getting clogged. I suppose its just the lack of experience i have with the various styles of pumps that was making me nervous in pump selection. I ended up investing $120 in a pump...overdid what i needed for sure, but i figured i could at least use it as a hydro resevoir pump as a last resort. I might try to buy a cheap weak pump and see if it has the balls to push a desired amount.
And finally making some Stash! Jeez come on already right!
Phase 1 : Straining
Step 1 - Put the strainer can in another bucket directly underneath a hoisting rope. Hook your hoisting harness up to the overhead hoisting rope using the 2 quick release clips.
Step 2 - Break up underformed buds well, and fill the strainer can 30-40% full with leaf, ideally fresh frozen buds/leaf is used.
Step 3 - Add 8 bags of ice if warm conditions, add 7 if cool temperatures.
Step 4 - Fill to 6" from the top of the strainer with cold water(colder the better).
Step 5 - Mix the ice and weed well. I like to do 10 minutes with the drill and paint mixer on medium speed, followed by 100 strokes of the canoe paddle(its like paddling through a bloody bog!
).
Step 6 - This is the tricky part if alone. Put your foot in the foothold you tied earlier while standing beside the strainer bucket, and put a bit of tension using your leg. While applying a bit of donward force use your arms to help lift the bucket, but let your leg and the rope do most of the work. Continuse to apply pressure with your leg until the strainer can rises enough that you hear the can start to drain. At this point lifting any higher will required a simultaneous arm lift and leg pressure. Hoist the can thigh enough to sit on the edge of the hash water can for a minute or so, then manhandle it into the empty adjacent trash can which is situated under the other series of hoisting ropes. This will require you to slowly drop the bucket in the empty one while raising your leg(still attached to the foothold...hahahaha) Release your foot and the hardest part is done!(for now) Another method could be to get the strainer can lifted and mostly drained until you can rest it on the edge of the hash water can. Then hold it steady with one hand and take the rope off your foot, and then proceed to transfer into the empty bucket. I like the first method but i am also over 6 feet tall and 200 pounds.
Step 7 - Remove the quick release clip(which is now criss crossing from the adjacent eye hook), and attach the quick release clip directly above the strain can.
Phase 2 - Pumping the good stuff
Pump Setup Illustration:
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Step 8 - Tie on your 4 hash bags in the correct order to the thinner ropes. Position ithe bags so they are over the strainer can so it hangs half in the bucket. As we used wire for the hoisting harness, they can be manipulated out of the way very easily.
Step 9 - Use a small table to prop your pump up, and insert your intake end into the hash water barrel and the outtake end to the inside of the hanging bags, and fill 2 gallons or so. Dont overfill your bags, and keep an eye on the grometts to make sure the fabric isnt ripping.
Step 10 - Grasp the sides of the bags and agitate the water inside by rolling the bags back and forth.(similar to milking a cow) Repeat step 9 and 10 until you only have 2-3 gallons left in the bottom of the hash bucket.
Step 11 - Untie the bags from the suspensing ropes and place them into a 5 gallon pail. Pour the remaining hash water from the trash can into the 5 gallon pail with the bags.
Step 12 - Remove the 220 Work bags and discard contents.(or keep for canna butter maybe?)
Step 13 - Agitate the 90 micron bag until the water is out, and use a bowl that fits perfectly to flip the bags inside out and pull tight, which will expose the hash, and give a good surface to be able to scrape the hash off with a spoon.
Step 14 - Scrape the hash off with a spoon onto a piece of cardboard. If there is a lots of water left over i will use a paper tower twisted into a cone to act as a dissecent to suck the water out of the hash. The cardboard underneat does the same thing.
Step 15 - Wash the 90 micron bag , first in the 73 micron bag in the 5 gallon pail, and then wash really well in a clean 5 gallon pail of water.
Step 16 - Repeat Step 13-15 for the 73 and 25 micron bags.
Okay the first phase of the hash run is done!! So now its a matter of pulling a whole bunch more hash from the soaking wet weed in the strainer bucket!! I found the yields to be consistant whether you ran the batch for the first time or the 4th. Once your run the batch for the 5th time, yield seems to drop dramatically. So there you guys go!! Only have to repeat steps 1-16 another 3 or 4 more times, adding another bag of ice between runs. My first batch using this technique yielded 70grams of really nice black, and the second batch yielded an awesome 105gram chunk.
Processing the haul
Step 1 - The hash in drying on cradboard and excess water has been drained off with paper towel. I then use the edge of a spoon to lightly chop the hash patty to allow some good airflow to hit it.
Step 2 - Wait 8-14 hours until you can break off a piece and easily break it into fine powder using your fingers. Powder the whole batch and let dry for another 12 hours.
Step 3A - This is a bit tricky. Some hash is sticky and the powder simply needs to be rolled into a ball and then hand pressed. If you have sticky hash then your task is done!!(and congrats for choosing a sticky resin plant and growing it to the max)
Step 3B - If the powder isnt sticky in consistancy, then you will have to use heat to bind the resin. For this i use something i know many will not agree with....thicker plastic cellophane, similar to the type you would get with a bouqet of flowers in. I use that type of plastic in the form of clear DVD slips i just happen to have and they are already pouch shaped and work great. I fill the pouch and wrap seal it up really well.
Step 4 - Dampen well 4 sheets of paper towel and wrap the hash pouch. In a frying pan on low on the electric stove, heat for 20 minutes, flipping every 30 seconds. Make sure the paper towels stay damp.
Step 5 - Heat up some water to boiling in the last few minutes of the 20.
Step 6 - Fill a mason jar with the boiling water.
Step 7 - Remove the hash from the paper towel and put in a normal tea towel.
Step 8 - Roll the hot mason jar over the hash in towel a bunch of times while using a fair bit of down pressure.(use gloves or oven mitts!)
Step 9 - Remove from towel and place in freezer for 2 hours and then take it out, and remove from cellophane packet.
Step 10 - Get high as hell once the hash is room temperature! (nah bust a chunk off frozen and get it into ya!
)
This post may be edited to fix mistakes, add pics or better quality illustrations ect. Always looking for feedback or constructive critism. I am also very interested in hearing how everone else finish processes their hash.
Finished processed Chunks
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