I have two of them but wish I'd sprung for the bigger unit for capacity. I'm sure [MENTION=3586]Graywolf[/MENTION] can add much more relevant detail than I can, but these are fine units for making extract for edibles and topicals. For dabs and other vapables you'll probably want to at least get a vacuum pump, buchner filter, a medical freezer and a vacumm chamber for purging.
I tend to use first washes for dabs, second washes for edibles and then third washes for topicals. It's a lot of work, I'm not gonna lie, but considering that the material I use would more than likely just be composted or thrown away, if you grow enough its a nice way to make your efforts go farther.
and making infused canna oil is way easier and I get a much more accurate dosage using extract rather than plant material.
Good points. Now that I no longer have a lab, I am rediscovering how to extract for personal use at home. What is the miminum equipment besides the Extract Craft vacuum stills??
I hand prepped the buds into 1/2 or less pieces and froze both the 1/2 gallon jars of bud and the Everclear to -18C/0F, before wrapping the jar of bud in a towel and pouring in the Everclear.
I did a three, a five, and an eight minute wash before finding the sweet spot for this crop, and then combined and refroze the plant material from the first washes for a second wash of 5 minutes for a tincture.
At the end of the washes I dumped them through a wire mesh strainer for rapid draining and then re-jarred the wet plant material for further processing as soon as possible to conserve alcohol.
I further filtered the alcohol/concentrate solution through a Buchner with #1 Lab Filter, protected by a commercial coffee filter, before pouring the mixture in the Extract Craft.
At the end of the process, I poured the recovered alcohol back into its original bottle using a funnel and returned it to the freezer.
I stopped the Extract Craft while I could still pour the remaining liquid without leaving a thick film, and decanted it into Pyrex pie plates and casserole dish to further evaporate the remaining liquid.
Equipment was (4) half gallon fruit jars, (2) towels, (1) mesh strainer, (1) Buchner funnel, (1) vacuum flask, (1) vacuum pump, (2) 10" Pyrex pie plates, (1) Pyrex casserole dish, (1) single edged razor blade, (1) funnel.
Supplies were, (4) half gallons of prepared buds, [(1/2) gallon of Everclear. I bought (3) half gallons for the process and after six runs have two full bottles.], (2) #1 lab filters, (6) commercial coffee filters, (4) dab jars, (2) tincture bottles, paper towels and alcohol for cleanup.