quentin132003

After searching around on multiple sites to find the best way to extract the great, free, product that most people wash down the drain I decided I would try and take the task on. This is a completely open guide and feel free to give me any more suggestions and I will try to get them all in. So to start off:

What is wandhash? Wandhash is the gold to brown buildup of materials in the wand of your vaporizer. This material is made up of mainly thc that has vaporized and then condensed on the cooler wand. There are also particles of partially vaporized materials that may have slipped through the screen.

Before collecting your wandhash you want to make sure the buildup is very thick. Even for a daily vapist I would recommend at least two weeks but for most people a month will be about right at the very least. Here are a few pictures of mine before I cleaned it. Really It could have been used a little more before I cleaned it.



Supplies:
1 Very coated wand
2 pints/946mL (at least) of 90%+ isopropyl alcohol.
1 wide but shallow pan

Optional:
2 pieces of plastic wrap
2 rubber bands
1 scraping tool (I found metal cooking skewers work well)

The first thing I did was shake out the excess pieces into my container that I would be soaking the wand in. Then I poured the isopropyl alcohol through the wand until I had enough liquid to completely cover the wand in the pan. Isopropyl is a very pure alcohol and will evaporate out completely anything that is not alcohol should be water but read the bottle. After that I took and covered the bottom of the wand in plastic wrap very tightly. I filled the wand almost completely to the top then put plastic wrap over the top and secured it with tape. After making sure it is good and tight shake the wand until you notice it is getting cleaner. At this point you can take off the plastic wrap on the wide end and dump the alcohol into the solution and submerge the wand.

As pointed out by Buzzby you can actually keep your equipment clean most of the time by reusing the iso you put through it and only extracting when it has reached a nice tan color similar to, if not darker than, what I have in my pictures. This is a nice way to keep your wand clean if you are a neat freak but still get a buildup of wandhash.



I have found that you can put any grinder or tools you use that have thc on them in the alcohol for a few seconds and they will come out completely clean.

After submerging the wand I let it sit under the alcohol for at least 4 hours. Overnight is good just be aware you will have alcohol evaporate out. You can move the wand every once in awhile to speed the process along. You can also take your scraping piece and rub it along the inside of the wand and along the corners and on the screen after it has soaked a while. This will vastly speed up the process of cleaning the wand. Any residue that is on the scraping tool can be dissolved back into the alcohol.



When your wand is completely clean (if you notice in the picture you can actually see the screen is clean again) you can remove it and rinse it out very well, make sure you clean out all the alcohol because that could be one toxic hit.

The tubing on the actual whip can become full of residue as well. Most people will simply cut new tubing since there is question of if the tubing can actually absorb the alcohol. If you want you can run some alcohol through the tubing to try and clean it but it will be hard to clean completely. The best option is to just buy tubing in rolls so you always have it on hand and can just cut a new piece (food grade only please).

At this point you have a few options. You can wait until the alcohol evaporates out (stir the mixture occasionally to make sure it evaporates evenly). Or you can take a more active approach and create a double boiler to evaporate off the alcohol.

If you want to follow the active approach you will need to create a double boiler. The easiest way I have found to make one is by using the lid of a pan I already have and flip it upside down to be the container that I extract into.

To prepare the pan you heat up water in the pan to around quarter power on your stove. After it has had time to completely heat you put the lid upside down over the water. The best way to tell that the water is warm enough is that it should be hot if you hold your arm above it but there should not be very much steam coming from it.



After reaching the proper temperature you can place the lid upside down over the pot so it creates a basic double boiler. Make sure you do this in a well ventilated place because the alcohol evaporating off creates a very strong smell and could be hazardous to your health (not to mention disgusting).



You will notice almost immediately you will begin to smell the alcohol but if you see bubbles form in the bottom it is too warm and you should reduce the heat accordingly. Mix by swirling about once every 5 minutes so that everything evaporates evenly. When the liquid is almost gone make sure you stay with the mix so it does not cook. You will notice a reduction in the alcohol smell and as soon as it is done you will start to smell something similar to heated hash. Evacuate from heat immediately and scrape the residue so you make sure all the alcohol evaporates.



What to do with the final product:

At this point you can scrape the hash into a ball for storage. To use I personally cut off a little piece and smooth it over the vaporizer screen. I would recommend taking it a hit at a time as this stuff is potent and I vastly underestimated it. I was completely vaked the first time.

Another way to use this was pointed out by Buzzby (thank you so much for all the help) you can also put the wandhash into a tincture. After you extract your wandhash you use just enough Everclear (190 proof drinkable alcohol) to dissolve all the wandhash. A few ounces should do it. After creating the tincture you can store it in eyedropper bottles. This tincture is great for any kind of food or drink. It can also be vaped on top of a load of weed. The tiny amount of alcohol you inhale isn't enough to get you drunk and is harmless. The tincture solves the problem of the wandhash being sticky and hard to work with. Do not set fire to anything before the alcohol has had enough time to evaporate out. Also be careful if putting it on a vaporizer and do not set the temp too high.

Well I hope this guide has helped you learn how to extract one of the most rewarding aspects of having a vaporizer. Wandhash. If you have any questions feel free to ask them on here and I will do the best I can to answer and like I said earlier feel free to add anything I might have missed.

[Admin note: As requested by Quentin132003, this post has been edited to include the warning by Nornerator (given much later in this thread) regarding the flammability and dangerous nature of heating alcohol. - sec]