california recently upted their environmental regulations and banned some solvents. so now you got this industrial maintenance coating thinner made by klean-strip. and it says use wherever MEK, toluene, xylene and vm & p naphtha are recommended. im worndering if this could be used for a stb

DO an evaporation test on it. Just put a small amount in a clear dish and let it completely evaporate. If if it has some contams it could be used as long as you do a freeze precip.

Saw that today, it is has some nasties in it you don't want to mess with. Mail order some D-limonene if you are making full spectrum spice.

1. Light aliphatic solvent naphtha (petroleum) 15.0 -40.0 %
2. Acetic acid, ethyl ester {Ethyl acetate} 15.0 -40.0 %
3. Petroleum Hydrocarbons 10.0 -30.0 %
4. 1,2,4-Trimethylbenzene {Pseudocumene} 7.0 -13.0 %
5. Xylene (mixed isomers) {Benzene, dimethyl-} 1.0 -5.0 %

You see the word Benzene just automatically crap yourself a little bit.

thanks. i wouldnt even think of doing an evaporation test since its smelled absolutely horrible

Try doing a blank run with it. e.g., If you are looking at doing a MHRB STB with freezer precipitation, go through all the steps except don't use any MHRB; if the solvent mix is stable/non-reactive with the conditions of the experiment you should end up with no product, if something precipitates out then you know it's a "bad" mixture which shouldn't be used.

Of course that tells you nothing about whether the solvent mix is a suitable one for the product you are after. Doing a solubility test or spiking the solvent with some product and seeing how easy it is to recover is the only way to get a handle on that.

You could always use Heptane instead of naphla...a bit more expensive, but still viable.

no.

fear of chemicals exists simply because of ignorance. I've never had a chemical attack me yet.
I educate myself on storage, potential hazards, and how to handle them.

believe it or don't, xylene is actually considered a green chem. look it up.

That's your only option, they didn't touch heptane. You could also use d-limo. SWIM has also been looking into mineral spirits. If that works, it's available at Walmart and very cheap.

Mineral spirits seems to work. I've been getting yields >0.6% of white-pale yellow crystals (I don't bother concentrating before freeze precipitating, or weighting the yellow junk that co-precipitates out of the last couple washes) from Brazilian plantation grown MHRB... I've never used naptha, d-limonene, etc.

Good to hear. Do you heat up the mineral spirits for your pulls?

Also, SWIM should have clarified that d-limo can be used for the extraction, but obviously can't freeze precip.

No. I've tried it, and it does appear to increase yield for at least the first couple washes, but it guarantees a yellow product... I don't know if overall yield, after recrystallizing the yellow stuff, would be greater if I used heat. I suspect the few extra mg would not be worth the bother but haven't properly tested that assumption.

Just so I have this straight, while living in california, I will no longer be able to walk into my local hardware store and buy naptha?

Correct.

These regulations have been a long time coming. It began with paint formulations. Even auto color must be water based now. This transition was crippling/killing to a HUGE number of small business people in the State, but the intentions were always good - environmental cleanup and improvement.

First the paint formulations and now the solvents. This is part of a long term strategic plan by regulators to cleanup the state.

Needless to say, as usual, the little guy, not making a significant environmental impact (Californian evapping a little solvent after extraction) will feel the most pain with these changes.

A little birdie told me McFadden-Dale will continue selling naphtha until all is sold out... If you happen to be near one. Better hurry.

Wow, I wish one was close to me - never heard of them before. If you can access it, I'd suggest buying up as much as you reasonably can (imo, that means walk in, cash payment, walk out, don't re-enter for at least 6 months).

In the long run, if we want nahptha, my husband and I are considering picking it up on our infrequent out-of-State road trips.

Damn, I was planning on starting another extraction tomorrow evening but obviously I am going to need a new method. Can Heptane or mineral spirits be picked up at a local hardware store? Does using Heptane or mineral spirits change the process of a STB extraction? which would be a better choice?

Go to the art supply store for heptane. It is sold as "Bestine: rubber cement thinner" On the manufacturer website there is a store locator app if it eludes you.

Also, Benzyne is the devil and it will grow cancer ontop of your cancer. lol.

everyone of our local hardware and paint shops still had naptha and xylene in stock when i checked(and stocked up!!) a couple of weeks ago

i'm in the foothills, 1-2hrs from sac

Is it a bad idea to order from Amazon? When I looked it up they had it and under the product listing they had: "People who purchased this product also ordered glass turkey baster and drain cleaner."

so I assume buying naptha online is not a good idea, I'd like to try my very first extracton. I planned to use the sb evap method, not freezer. Will these other products like Bestine and Mineral spirits work? I haven't been able to find heptane.