My favourite analogy for how to make rosin is one I heard from Talal Rshaidat (the CSO at Fume labs) where he likened rosin to cold-pressing olives for extracting extra-virgin olive oil. Whether you are squeezing olives in the rolling foothills of Tuscany, or sitting next to a dab press inhaling the intoxating smell of freshly pressed rosin, the processes are very similar.
Pressure (and light heat) are used to extract oil from plant biomass. With both olives and cannabis lower heat = higher quality. This is why artisan olive oils are cold-pressed. Pressing quality cannabis flower yields a terpene-rich full spectrum oil that can yield up to 20% or more by weight.
I may be bias because I work in the cannabis industry but there is a reason rosin, in particular live rosin (from fresh plants), is one of the most sought after cannabis extracts available on the market. This post will teach you how to make rosin at home using items readily available on Amazon on your local head shop. No controlled or dangerous solvents needed!

Overview
Why Every Grower Needs a Rosin Press
Having a rosin press is the easiest way to analyze flower without paying a lab to provide an official Certificate of Analysis (COA). The % yield you get on rosin acts as a fairly accurate approximation of the THC/CBD content of a given flower. Terpenes are much easier to identify when concentrated into rosin. Typically the more runny and smelly the rosin, the higher the terpene content. The color of the rosin will give indication into how well the product was stored and how old it is. Older flower, as well as flower that has been oxidized by improper storage, will be much darker than fresh flower. And finally pressing flower allows growers to sample the product before it is finished the 4 week curing process.

The easiest way to press rosin at home is with a 3×5 Rosin Press. You don’t need any solvents, and despite the tool list below you can even press a single flower without parchment paper or silk screen bags.
Table could not be displayed.Those who have read my LED buying guide know that I recommend buying LEDs direct from Alibaba to save money. For whatever reason, these presses are cheaper to buy on Amazon. The shipping via DHL is $150-200 and the Chinese presses are not cheap enough to justify the steep shipping. A new unit can be scored on Amazon for ~$430 with same-day prime shipping. And lets face it, there is nothing better than having the UPS guy bring your dab press home the day after you order it.
Tools:
Materials and Consumables:
- Parchment Paper (Kirkland is the best hands down)
- 2.5″X4.5″ or 2″x4″ mesh bags (37, 90, 160 micron)
Unboxing and Setup
The Dab Press comes with all the tools you need to set it up. They include a silicone pad which is too small to be very useful but it’s the thought that counts.

Setting up the unit pretty much just requires attaching the feet. The dabpress is heavy which helps keeps it steady when pressing flower. You may still want to bolt it down to your table for maximum stability

Install the feet so that the counter sunk holes face outwards as shown in the plate on the bottom left of the picture below.

Pressing Flower
Flower Rosin is made by pressing flower, or full cannabis buds. Ideally, the flowers are between 60-65 percent humidity. 62% Rehydration Packs are a great tool for re-hydrating dry cannabis. I also recommend having a set of humidity monitors for putting in your containers.

A single bud can be pressed directly between two pieces of parchment paper with no silk bag. You can even press right on the plates but that makes cleanup a mess.
If you are pressing multiple nugs at a time you must fill a mesh bag to keep the flowers from sliding out. I prefer to use 36 micron bags for flower but you can go all the way up to 160 micron. Smaller micron will give you a better quality final product while larger micron bags are more suitable for lower quality or stale material that does not press as easily. The dabpress has a 3″ x 5″ plate which requires 2″x4″ or 2.5″ x 4″ bags. I recommend getting a few different micron levels to play around with or a variety pack if you can find it.
Rosin Pressing Temperature and Time

Flower:
180° – 205° Fahrenheit (82° – 95° Celsius)
Max 3 minutes (may need longer for old material)
Yield: 10%- 30%
Bubble Hash:
150° – 190° Fahrenheit (65° – 87° Celsius)
Max 5 minutes (may need longer for old material)
Yield: 50% – 80%
Pressing at a lower end of the temperature will preserve more terpenes while higher temps will yield more.
How Much Pressure to Press Flower Rosin With
How much pressure and at which temperature you press at is the art of making rosin. My typical process involves starting at the lower and of the temperature range. You don’t want to scorch the material.
To determine how much pressure to use it is important to watch the bag while it is pressing. Increase pressure slowly until you start to see oil oozing out of the mesh. When the mesh is fully “wet” with oil it is safe to increase towards max pressure. Increasing pressure prematurely can cause the bags to “blow out”. If you are still having issues with blowouts try increasing the micron size.

The two pucks on top are both pressed hash rosin. The one on the left has been pressed for an adequate amount of time. It is dry, cracks easily and has no oils left. The puck on the right should have been pressed longer, it is pliable and has oils remaining.

Drip Mode

One cool feature on the DabPress is the tilt feature. The idea is that by tilting the press during extraction you will encourage rosin to move away from the hot plates more quickly. This in turn preserves precious terpenes that are readily vaporized and destroyed at pressing temperatures.

I will say that in my experience this is not the most practical feature It is impossible to add pressure when the press is tilted and harder to see what is going on. Could see this having potential for live rosin which tends to be very runny due to the high terpene content.

Live Rosin
Live rosin is the cream of the crop when it comes to cannabis extracts. The prefix “live” implies that it was derived from fresh cannabis that has never been dried. Live rosin is the least oxidized of all of the forms of rosin, and is therefore typically the lightest in color.
Light Vs Dark Rosin
The color of rosin is predominantly correlated with the freshness. Fresh (live) rosin is the lightest in appearance, often having a barely off-white yellowish color. Flower rosin can be pretty light depending on the freshness but will almost always be darker than hash rosin. One trick for getting very light colored rosin is to harvest a week early, before any trichome heads have had a chance to turn amber.
Save The Pucks!
Pressed rosin pucks still have some THC and Cannabanoids remaining. At home they can be used to make tea and edibles. At the lab we use ethanol washes to recover and remaining oils. Store in an airtight jar. Stay tuned for a post on how to recover the most from your pressed pucks.