Note: If you find a “Rosin Press” that is small, compact, it will be NO BETTER than a hair straightener, don’t waste your money. To be successful post hair straightener, you will need a high pressure (1200+ PSI) hydraulic jack or press (manual, pneumatic, electric). Invest in your Rosin future!
Table of Contents:
- 1 WHERE IT ALL BEGAN (Rosin)
- 2 How To Make ROSIN (Rosin Pressing)
- 3 Tips for High Yield Rosin Pressing
- 4 Cheapest Way to Press Rosin: Hair Straightener
- 5 DIY Rosin Press Plates for Quick Clamp
- 6 DIY Rosin Press Plates for Shop Press
- 7 Manual Rosin Press
- 8 Hydraulic Rosin Press
- 9 Pneumatic Rosin Press
- 10 Professional Hybrid Heavy Duty Rosin Press
- 11 Electric Rosin Press
Bob Glob is a cannabis activist and hash connesuer striving to bring you the latest info in trichome extractions! Check him out at BobGlob.com
WHERE IT ALL BEGAN (Rosin)
So you heard about rosin.. Here we go, let me start from the beginning
Hash Church Episode XXV ROSINTECH (March 15th, 2015 YouTube). We had all been happily watching Bubbleman and his gaggle of dabbers for weeks now, never to realize Soilgrown Sal would be invited on to share this new, and soon to be revolutionary, tech he had discovered. While pressing some bubble hash with a hair straightener to make it dabbable, he discovered ROSIN
Rosin is by definition a softening of the trichomes through heat along with an extrusion of the softened trichomes via pressure. In the early days all we knew was a hair straightener. Grab a bud, stuff it in some parchment, squeeze and viola! Fresh, tasty (sometimes), and ready to smoke dabs! Very quickly the rosin press market developed. Some good, some bad, and most ugly.
How To Make ROSIN (Rosin Pressing)
The simply described way to make Rosin is this:
- Take a rectangle of parchment paper and fold in half the long way.
- Take a bud and place in the center of the fold in the parchment
- Place wrapped bud in preheated hair straightener or Rosin press and press.
- Remove “squished” bud and collect rosin.
Let me elaborate on all of these steps.
When selecting parchment, it is best to select a natural or organic option, if possible. Allow enough room for the bud to “stretch” as it is squished, and room for the oil to spread around the bud.
** An additional tech that came along, is called directional flow. After folding paper in half and loading product into the center, Then fold each side diagonally on each side of bud, as to direct the pressed oil towards the front of the created pocket.
This biggest key to Rosin is the beginning product. High quality fresh nugs and bubble hash will produce the finest quality rosin. Another factor is that every strain will product different results. Start small, experiment, and with good results, continue. When pressing bubble or shake, use an unbleached coffee filter, tea bag, or specialized rosin bags like these on Amazon to prevent plant material getting into your fresh rosin!
Tips for High Yield Rosin Pressing
When PRESSING there are 3 KEY Factors. TIME of Press, and TEMPERATURE of plates and PSI! Since every strain of cannabis will react differently, you’ll need to play around with time and temperature to find what works best with your product. **To find the PSI of your setup, simply take the Pressure (tons, lbs etc) and divide by the surface area of your place. I would recommend staying above at least 1200 psi for an effective press.
Ex. 3″x3″ Plate in 20-ton press gives you 9sq in of surface area.
10 Tons = 20,000 lbs 20,000 / 9 = 2223 Lbs per Square In.
TIME and TEMP GUIDELINES FOR BUBBLE HASH
90-160ºF for 5-20 seconds
TIME and TEMP GUIDELINES FOR FLOWER
155-240ºF for 10-30 seconds
When collecting rosin, if product is sappy, place on frozen pizza box, etc to stiffen while collecting.
Cheapest Way to Press Rosin: Hair Straightener
Any hair straighter will do. Try to find a model that can be turned down super low like this one on Amazon, but here’s the thing about using flat iron hair straighteners for making rosin. Eventually you are going to break it.. One way or another.. You’ll stand on it, put it in a vise, and eventually it will break.
Temp guns are necessary because the temperature of plate vs heater (readout on display) generally differ 5 – 30ºF.
As an alternative rosin pressing method, you can simply disassemble the straightener and remove all the plastic, leaving only 2 heated plates and a controller. Now how do you press theses? The best option to be found has been a handheld “Quick Clamp”.
Build your own, check out this reddit post as an example of the DIY hair straightener w/quick clamp rosin press.
DIY Rosin Press Plates for Quick Clamp
This is a cheap hack to upgrade your rosin pressing on an affordable budget. An easy DIY rosin press set up consisting of heated aluminum plates to be pressed to 600 lbs. (272 KG) of clamping force. Simply attach these 2″ x 3″ heated rosin plates to a Dewalt extra large 12″ trigger clamp. The DIY rosin plate kit below features a dual cartridge heater with external Thermocouple Pid controller to dial in your temperature.
Featured DIY Rosin Press Clamp Plate Kit: SnobClamp
The Next Step-
Now you’ve seen Rosin made right in front of you, you’re excited to make more and more. You’ve gone through 4 hair straighteners, a roll of parchment, 2 ounces of bud and you have barely any Rosin to speak of… If you want to process more than a gram or two at a time, you’re going to want to invest in a Rosin press with a higher PSI. Simply put this is a “Shop Press” or hydraulic press with 2 heated plates.
DIY Rosin Press Plates for Shop Press
You can fit an custom DIY kit onto a standard hydraulic shop press to turn it into a fully functioning press for making rosin. These DIY rosin press kits include rosin press plates, heating rods, double Pid controller, cords, ect.
Featured DIY Rosin Press Shop Press Plate Kit: Wesseltech
Manual Rosin Press
The next cheapest option and most reliable, but it will make you work for it. If you’ve ever jacked up a car, well this is the same jack. No extra features to worry about and total control make this the best option for a beginner. Don’t forget your PSI! Have plates in mind before buying a press, or check the sizes when buying a kit. (*T Shirt Presses and the like, do not work well for this reason)
Featured Best Cheap Manual Press:
My Press is a portable 6-ton manual rosin press equipped with 3×3 heated stainless steel plates. Temperature is adjustable in 10 degree increments. An LED counter shows the elapsed time between closing and re-opening the plates.
| Pressure | 6 tons |
|---|---|
| Temp Range | 160ºF-280ºF (71ºC-104ºC) |
| Plate Size | 3.07” x 3.07” |
| PSI | 1,333.33 |
| Voltage | 110v Power: 1A/120W |
Hydraulic Rosin Press
No air compressor needed! A hydraulic rosin press uses hydraulic pressure to create the force necessary to extract rosin. Once the pressing plates are heated(electric) to the desired temperature, simply crank down the hand pump in order to operate a hydraulic rosin press. When shopping for a hydraulic rosin press, look for a high pressure model, starting at 10-ton (20,000lbs).
Featured Affordable Best Hydraulic Rosin Press:
Puff Tuff’s hydraulic rosin press is the rated #1 Hydraulic Rosin Press of 2017 ACL Awards. A high pressure 1,200 PSI hydraulic rosin press that’s fairly affordable. Heavy duty construction, built-in digital temperature and timer gauge.
| Pressure | 6 tons |
|---|---|
| Temp Range | 0° – 482ºF |
| Plate Size | 4.7″ x 4.7″ |
| PSI | 1,200 |
| Voltage | 110V-120V |
Pneumatic Rosin Press
While one of these will cost you a little more, if you’re looking to press rosin long-term this might be your best option. Pneumatic rosin presses are easy to use. Simply press a button and your press is activated! You’ll also need an air compressor to go with this one!
Featured Cheap Pneumatic Press for Rosin: CA Rosin Press
Professional Hybrid Heavy Duty Rosin Press
Hybrid rosin presses can be operated as both a manual and pneumatic press. The heated pressing plates are also often interchangeable, and the whole machine comes built as a heavy duty stand alone unit. These monster rosin presses are far from the most affordable, with many ‘professional’ rosin presses are priced at a few thousand dollars.
Featured Best Professional Hybrid Rosin Press:
The NugSmasher Pro 20-ton rosin press is both manual and pneumatic, meaning that you can plug it in and use without a compressor if needed. 3 interchangeable plate size choices.
| Pressure | 20 tons |
|---|---|
| Temp Range | 32º – 752ºF (0 – 400ºC) |
| Plate Size | 7″ x 10″ |
| PSI | 4,444 |
| Voltage | 110V/220V |
Electric Rosin Press
Electric rosin presses are the newest design on the market, and are gaining widespread adoption. Electric rosin presses do not require air compressors, nor hydraulic pumps or jacks to operate. Fully automated, adjustable function powered by pure electricity.
Featured Affordable Best Electric Rosin Press:
Uses 1200Wof power. This 10-ton electric rosin press requires only electricity to operate. Plug and play.
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I do like how you mentioned that it would be important to keep an eye out for the time of press, the temperature of the plates, and the PSI as the reaction could be different for each strain of cannabis. That sounds like a very helpful thing to keep in mind since we just obtained some Rosin earlier. Just to be safe, we would do our best to get the best possible equipment and filter for it. Thanks!