What tek are you using man? Seems unusual that you'd need a seperatory funnel for a first extraction.

Tried lots of things. Syringes, pipettes, turkey basters... All of them work. Kind of.

But nothing beats a sep funnel.

I agree wholeheartedly with Trickster. Once you have a separation funnel you will wonder why you suffered through even considering using anything else.

i read this somewhere:

"i agree, a sep funnel makes life a lot easier. i'm about to do my first extraction in years and have found that mine didn't make it over here when i moved

causes a nagging rage every time i think about it . . . *sigh*"

i'd be tempted to use a little plastic syringe if it were me and i didn't know how infuriating that can be.

The problem with a plastic syringe is that some solvents will eat it up. Medical glass droppers work, but they're usually too small to be of primary use. Sep funnel is the way to go.

That's very inventive, hydrocarbon. Do you have any pics to share?

I have been eyeing this hdpe bottle of toilet bowl cleaner. It's designed to be turned upside down and let liquid run out of the nozzle. The cap screws out to let liquid flow out the nozzle and screws back to stop the flow. With a couple chopsticks epoxied to the cap, it would get a really smooth action. All that would be needed after that would be to cut off the bottom and mount it upside down in a stand. The cap is likely not hdpe but with a good buffer of acidified water, that shouldn't be any trouble. I figure that it's not necessary to retrieve all the aqueous layer in the salting step because it can be diluted with more water and drained some while still leaving a healthy buffer between the non-polar solvent and the cap. Eventually the amount of goodies in the aqueous layer will approach zero. The only downside to this is that there is extra water to evap. If I try this, there will be pics.