Has anyone had any extractions that just felt cursed?

I´m in the middle of a 250g stb/ab hybrid (acid cook but leaving the bark in when basing)

It just seems that everyrhing is going wrong on this one

First i didnt chop down the bark enough so my hand mixercan´t shred it properly, so i have some big bark pieces in there that i can´t break down yet (hopefully they will soften from the lye and i can try again in a week)

Then i have done a few stupid spills, both mimosa soup and naphta (hopefully with not much dmt in it yet)

My latest blooper was to add camp fuel instead of naphta in one of my bottles (1/5) although i had done 3 big pulls already so hopefully there wasnt to much dmt left in that one.

I still have alot left so i hope i can salvage this operation but so far it´s been a hassle.

Is this your first extraction? If it is perhaps try sticking to one and only one tek. I find it is great that you're trying new things but at least get the basics down before you start trying different things.

I just finished my first stb tek on a 1/2 pound of mhrb and i yielded 2g of pure and recrystallized dmt.

Best of luck buddy.

SWIM's first BLAB, she broke ten mason jars, and lost so much yield going through the entire process. It was MADNESS I tell you.

How long did you leave the bark, lye, and vinegar (if that's what acid you used) before adding your naphtha?

for an hour or so, not really sure, the extraction worked out preety ok in the end...

I have a new one going now and so far all good

2 grams on a half lb!?!? swim gets .88 to a 1.00 gram for every 50 grms of mhrb
swim is doing his first shredded 50 gr attemp as he types this.

For optimum yields, Ive not found a tek better than BLAB for getting a large a yield as possible.This is essentially a STB with an acid-soak done first.

I wonder if a few days acid soak might make the fact that ones bark is not powdered or shredded into sufficiently small pieces less of problem by making it more accessible by the acids effects on the bark.

Im sure the chemistry experts could comment on this.If it is the case then I wonder if an acid stronger than 5% acetic as suggested by the tek would be more effective on shredded bark.

Having said that, if you soak it even in 5% acetic acid for a week with regular shaking, I think this can only help.Yields of of 2% are not uncommon with a slower than suggested BLAB tek.Hoever, this is on powdered material.

Lastly I wonder if the fibres on home shredded MHRB might be worth working on separately from the powder; I plan to try this next time and show it no mercy by using 16% HCl and basifiying with excssive lye.It would be good to know how rich in content these fibres actually are.

http://imageshack.us/g/207/imag0195t.jpg/

Welcome to hell.
These ladies have been left alone for about 3 months now, mainly because I was moving to another place to live.

A long road of re-x'ing lies ahead... And small miracle at the end of that road ^^

What happened, longshot?!

Are those pics of a freeze precip? Seems like you had the dreaded red naphtha of doom that you didn't clean before freezing (or maybe not). I have only had a slight coloration like that when having small bark particles in my naphtha.

What was the colour of your NP solvent after pulling?

These are from a larger extraction, +- 300gr of Powder MHRB.
Because of a bad syringe, I didn't manage to pull my solvent out clean.
STB, freeze precip; didn't come out so well, tried re-xing, failed because there was no seperation in fluids. Using a pipette didn't had the desired results because there were no distinct layers in the fluids. (And I desperatly made it worse by adding all the pulls together)

Any advice in handling these?
Current options:
Re-x one by one? or
Re-x all together in same solvent jar ?

You can do it all at once, but I prefer to only do a gram at a time to be able to use a shot glass for the process (1g of DMT to 30ml of solvent).

Are you saying that when you added heated naphtha to your dirty spice, there was no "goo" sitting on the bottom of the glass?

Only a little bit oily goo. But it was so hard to remove, the fluids were homogeneous instead of hetero

I find decanting your solvent away from the goo easier than trying to use a pipette to get rid of it. The goo stays stuck to the bottom of the shot glass.