Hey all,

SWIM did a Lazyman's TEK out of powdered MHRB.
They were successful in extracting spice, but compared to others, my yield appears tiny.
They dont have a scale, but one is in the mail.

SWIM thinks they may know the reason..
They mixed the lye and water to approximately 13.5 pH using papers.
They think the problem may be lack of lye.
(Some versions of these TEKs seem to require a larger amount of lye)

Please help SWIM!

There is an official extraction help thread. You can try asking there next time

As to why the yield 'seems' tiny.. First of all you dont have a scale, so you cant really know (crystal density varies greatly, you cant judge by looks). Secondly, who knows? Maybe you didnt make enough pulls, or didnt mix each pull well enough before pulling, or maybe your bark sucked in the first place, or maybe you were using bark in pieces and not powder, or maybe your room temperature and therefore your solvent was very cold when doing the extraction so dmt wasnt soluble enough in the solvent, or or....

If you dont include more information when asking questions, its hard for others to have a clue. One thing i do doubt though is that you didnt use enough lye. If your pH was 13.5, that is definitely enough for freebasing all the DMT and making it soluble in your non-polar...

Here's one tip: Never throw the content of your extraction jug (or anything, for that matter) before you have your final yield, because if yield is small and considering your plant source is good in the first place, then you can always do more pulls and so on.

SWIM used about 500 ml water, a few tablespoons of lye and approximately 150 grams of powdered MHRB.
But theyve done lots of reading and some people claim a 1:1 MHRB/Lye..
The pH was 13.5 before adding the MHRB.(Water+Lye)
As for the quality of the MHRB - Its hard to tell..

I'm no expert, but I believe that's your problem. Once the lye starts breaking down the MHRB, the ph of the solution will drop. Therefore, the ph should be measured after the MHRB is mixed in, and more lye added as neccesary to push it back up to 13+. That's also why it sometimes helps to add extra lye on later pulls.

If you haven't thrown away your solution, you may be able to add additional lye and repeat the rest of the steps.

Good luck!

Thanks
Thats what SWIM was thinking but didnt want to sound like an idiot..
They were having a hard time measuring the pH level with the lye in there though..
The pH papers all turn purple now. :/

- And yes, SWIM still has the batch of basified goop.

Can someone confirm please?