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How To Make THC Oil That Works in an E-Cig

Yes, you really can learn how to make THC oil for your e-cig without getting a science degree. This guide will show you what you need to know.

By Riley Raul ReesePublished 6 years ago 7 min read
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Even though marijuana is quickly becoming legalized throughout much of the United States, any stoner who knows the least bit about the current political climate will tell you it's still a wise idea to stay low-key. This is doubly true if you want to smoke weed in public, or smoke pot at work.

One of the easiest ways to conceal your green habit while also getting sky-high is to use an e-cig that has THC oil in it. This is easy, if you live in a green state. All you have to do is get a vape pen that has a THC oil cartridge with it.

But what about those who don't live in a legal state yet? In order to do this, you're probably going to need to know how to make THC oil that doesn't destroy your e-cig piece.

Making that THC oil is often the hardest step in this process, but there's some good news: it's not impossible. Here's how to do it quickly, easily, and surprisingly affordably. Worst case, you get tired and order some online instead.

First things first, gather your supplies.

Part of the process of learning how to make THC oil for vape pens is knowing what to buy. This can be tricky, since you will need a lot of supplies and tools to do so.

The good news is that most of the tools are reusable. The bad news is that you're probably going to find the buying part to be somewhat annoying if you're not a shopping type.

Here's what you'll need:

  • 7 grams of good bud (or a single gram of concentrated cannabis)
  • 2 Mason jars
  • A Pyrex bowl
  • Cheesecloth
  • Aluminum foil
  • A precision thermometer
  • A grinder
  • A pot
  • A baking sheet
  • Everclear (or any high-proof alcohol other than rubbing alcohol)
  • PEG400
  • Dropper bottles

I'm going to assume you have a kitchen to do this in—complete with freezer, stove, and oven.

If you are doing this at home, please read this.

You might want to know how to make THC oil—and that's fine. However, it's crucial that you realize that cannabis isn't legal in many parts of the country. If you are in a place where cannabis is illegal, make sure to use common sense when choosing a kitchen.

The process of making THC oil and decarbing weed smells. That smell is umistakeable, and if your neighbors notice, can get you in trouble. Choose your venue wisely.

I also very strongly suggest coming up with an odor control tactic. If you can, get some incense and burn it while you're making the oil, or get a bunch of room deodorizers.

We should probably talk about PEG400, too...

There has been some talk about PEG400 being toxic when used in cannabis vape pens. If you are concerned about this, you can use a different cutting agent instead. Vegetable-based glycerin seems to be a popular alternative.

Now that you've got the goods and know what to expect, it's time to start learning how to make THC oil.

The first thing you're going to need to do is to prep your area. To do this, you will need to put aside lots of space—since this is a pretty crazy procedure in terms of equipment.

Next, you're going to need to freeze the two jars for at least two hours before you get to work. This will make sense later on.

Before you can do any extraction, you're going to need to decarb your weed.

The first part of learning how to make THC oil is actually a lot like learning how to make cannabutter. To get THC out of your herb, you will need to decarboxylate your cannabis. It sounds terrifying, but realistically, it's just baking your weed.

To decarb your ganja, do the following:

  1. Grab your baking sheet and cover it with aluminum foil. This is just simple prep work and will help with actually collecting your weed later on.
  2. Next, grab your weed and grind it all up. Dump the ground up weed on the foil-lined baking sheet.
  3. Preheat your oven to 230 degrees Fahrenheit. This is a great temperature for decarbing cannabis.
  4. Heat your weed for 15 to 30 minutes at 230 degrees. Once that's done, remove the weed from the oven.

As simple as this sounds, it's crucial not to skip this step. If you don't decarb your herb, all the other steps to learning how to make THC oil will not do anything useful.

Personally, I like to prep for the process by letting the ground up goods cool and taking a shot of Everclear. After all, there's nothing wrong with having a little fun while you do this.

The extraction process takes the longest of all steps. If you want to learn how to make THC oil the right way, you'll be very careful. I tend to get jittery with this part, so it's a good idea to calm down with a shot if you're like me.

Let's extract!

This is the main aspect of learning how to make THC oil that tends to trip people up. Believe it or not, it's still really simple. Here are the steps:

  1. Grab one of the Mason jars from the fridge. It should be cool to the touch or, ideally, slightly frosty.
  2. Put all the decarbed weed into the jar. I suggest folding the foil into a funnel for easy pouring.
  3. Grab the Everclear and submerge the weed in it. You need to completely submerge the weed in order for the extraction to work.
  4. Once the weed is submerged, swish the herb back and forth. Don't shake it up and down, because that's going at it too hard. That can actually make extraction more difficult.
  5. Place the jar in the fridge, and leave it there for a minute. Just let the THC settle a bit.
  6. After being left to settle, grab the jar and place a cheesecloth over the opening. I hold mine in place with the jar lid. Take the other frozen jar out of the freezer, too.
  7. Strain the contents of the first jar into the second jar. Make sure to squeeze every drop of the mixture out. That's the good stuff!

Congrats, you've made a THC-alcohol blend which you're going to purify!

To purify the extract, you're going to need to evaporate the alcohol. To make sure you don't start a fire, you're going to use a water bath for this. This process will turn your THC-alcohol blend into THC.

Here's how to make THC oil's most important base ingredient:

  1. Fill the pot with four inches of water and place the Mason jar (yes, the entire jar, not just the contents of it) into the pot. Do not pour the stuff into the water. This will ruin your batch!
  2. Keep the water's temperature at about 160 degrees Fahrenheit. You can check the temperature with the thermometer you got.
  3. Once the water reachest 160 degrees, keep the jar in there for about an hour. This will evaporate all the alcohol, leaving nothing but THC and other goodies in the jar.

Want to do it the raw way?

You can also let the alcohol evaporate away naturally by leaving the jar open with cheesecloth strapped over it. However, there is a drawback to this method: it can take up to two weeks to finish.

Personally, I find it faster and easier to just do the bath method. Some people insist that a "raw" evaporation method is better, though, so it's up to you.

You're now nearing the end of learning how to make THC oil...

Source

The next step is to add PEG oil to your THC oil, and to be fair, this can actually be a bit tricky. Everyone has their own PEG blend that they like to use with THC, so you might need to experiment a bit.

  • A good rule of thumb is that you will need at least a milliliter of glycol to make a single gram of your concentrate into a vape juice that's actually suitable to smoke.
  • If you love big, puffy clouds when you smoke, then you should add a little bit more PEG to your THC.
  • People who are looking for high potency would be better off just using the PEG as a cutting agent to the cannabis oil so that the vape pen doesn't break.

Mix the PEG and THC oils together by adding the portions you want into the dropper bottles, and shake. Ta da! You've learned how to make THC oil like a pro.

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About the Creator

Riley Raul Reese

Riley Reese is comic book fanatic who loves anything that has to do with science-fiction, anime, action movies, and Monster Energy drink.

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