Hobbes
Well-Known Member
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The Honey Bee is beautifully made and a pleasure to use but it's relative wide diameter to it's length makes it an inefficient butane honey oil extractor. I did a test of equal weight samples (~28 grams) and got an additional ~35% honey oil using a longer but smaller diameter extractor pipe.
At 1 3/8" Inside Diameter and 5" inside length the Honey Bee has an area of 1.5" square and a voume of 7.42" cube. A 1/2" diameter pipe has an area of 0.2". The Honey Bee cross section has 7.5 X the area of the 1/2" pipe, so each piece of plant mater in the 1/2" pipe would be touched by 7.5 X the butane as the leaf in the Honey Bee. Butane acts as a non polar solvent - it does not absorb the cannaboids as does oil - therefore it will continue to dissolve resin as it passes through more and more leaf.
For a 1/2" diameter pipe to have a 7.42" cube volume, as the Honey Bee, the pipe would have to be 38" long. However, the column of leaf in the 1/2" diameter pipe is denser than in the 5" x 1 3/8" Honey Bee because the weight of the tall column compacts the leaf below. Settling during the loading process makes the same weight of baked leaf settle at ~30" in the 1/2" pipe. For this test the Honey Bee took 28.2 grams of baked fan leaf, the 1/2" x 30" took 27.9 grams.
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My Equipment and 56 grams of baked fan leaf. I used 1 can of butane per pipe per extraction.
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A wax seal for the 1/2" x 30" copper pipe cap - eliminates spray.
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Everything packed and ready to go. The copper tube wax seal is secured by masking tape, a white butane adapter jammed hard in the end. A double coffee filter is secured to the pipe with a hose clamp on the other end. I put them both out in -15C in a plastic bag for two hours to cool the leaf before extracting.
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1/2" Extractor. The oil always looks green at first. The butane just pours and drips out of the bottom.
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The Honey Bee. It sprays the butane out under a small amount of pressure.
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I boil the butane off in a tub of hot water. Everything, extraction and boiling off, is done out doors in the open. No electricity, no flames, no wool.
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I leave the Pyrex trays in the hot water for 10 or 15 minutes after the butane is boiled off to expand any gas trapped in the oil. I bake it in the oven at 106C for 5 or 10 minutes after wards to be sure no gas is left.
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After baking, the Honey Bee
and the 1/2" x 30" copper pipe.
.
0.7 grams for the Honey Bee
.
1.0 grams for the 1/2" x 30" pipe
.
My scale goes to tenths of a gram only, so I'm going to call it 2.5 grams instead of 3. 2.5/7 = 35% more extract using a narrower tube.
The fan leaf had few trichomes, little oil to get with even the best extraction. I think the difference would be higher using high quality leaf or bud.
Conclusion: I love the Honey Bee, beautifully made and simple, but I'd never use it because it's inefficient. As well, though it sports a "Made In Canada" label that does not mean that it was entirely made according to Canadian standards.
"Made in Canada is defined as having the last major transformation done in Canada. Any product that has more than 2 per cent foreign content will have the Made in Canada label but, it will have to also have the stipulation of either: "...from domestic and imported ingredients" or "...from imported ingredients."
.
The Honey Bee is beautifully made and a pleasure to use but it's relative wide diameter to it's length makes it an inefficient butane honey oil extractor. I did a test of equal weight samples (~28 grams) and got an additional ~35% honey oil using a longer but smaller diameter extractor pipe.
At 1 3/8" Inside Diameter and 5" inside length the Honey Bee has an area of 1.5" square and a voume of 7.42" cube. A 1/2" diameter pipe has an area of 0.2". The Honey Bee cross section has 7.5 X the area of the 1/2" pipe, so each piece of plant mater in the 1/2" pipe would be touched by 7.5 X the butane as the leaf in the Honey Bee. Butane acts as a non polar solvent - it does not absorb the cannaboids as does oil - therefore it will continue to dissolve resin as it passes through more and more leaf.
For a 1/2" diameter pipe to have a 7.42" cube volume, as the Honey Bee, the pipe would have to be 38" long. However, the column of leaf in the 1/2" diameter pipe is denser than in the 5" x 1 3/8" Honey Bee because the weight of the tall column compacts the leaf below. Settling during the loading process makes the same weight of baked leaf settle at ~30" in the 1/2" pipe. For this test the Honey Bee took 28.2 grams of baked fan leaf, the 1/2" x 30" took 27.9 grams.
.
My Equipment and 56 grams of baked fan leaf. I used 1 can of butane per pipe per extraction.
.
A wax seal for the 1/2" x 30" copper pipe cap - eliminates spray.
.
Everything packed and ready to go. The copper tube wax seal is secured by masking tape, a white butane adapter jammed hard in the end. A double coffee filter is secured to the pipe with a hose clamp on the other end. I put them both out in -15C in a plastic bag for two hours to cool the leaf before extracting.
.
1/2" Extractor. The oil always looks green at first. The butane just pours and drips out of the bottom.
.
The Honey Bee. It sprays the butane out under a small amount of pressure.
.
I boil the butane off in a tub of hot water. Everything, extraction and boiling off, is done out doors in the open. No electricity, no flames, no wool.
.
.
I leave the Pyrex trays in the hot water for 10 or 15 minutes after the butane is boiled off to expand any gas trapped in the oil. I bake it in the oven at 106C for 5 or 10 minutes after wards to be sure no gas is left.
.
After baking, the Honey Bee
and the 1/2" x 30" copper pipe.
.
0.7 grams for the Honey Bee
.
1.0 grams for the 1/2" x 30" pipe
.
My scale goes to tenths of a gram only, so I'm going to call it 2.5 grams instead of 3. 2.5/7 = 35% more extract using a narrower tube.
The fan leaf had few trichomes, little oil to get with even the best extraction. I think the difference would be higher using high quality leaf or bud.
Conclusion: I love the Honey Bee, beautifully made and simple, but I'd never use it because it's inefficient. As well, though it sports a "Made In Canada" label that does not mean that it was entirely made according to Canadian standards.
"Made in Canada is defined as having the last major transformation done in Canada. Any product that has more than 2 per cent foreign content will have the Made in Canada label but, it will have to also have the stipulation of either: "...from domestic and imported ingredients" or "...from imported ingredients."
.