hey guys!

SWIM wants to get his STB-procedure to the next level. so he got a nice 1000ml separating funnel.
here comes the point where SWIM needs your advice. it's clear that the mimosa-lye needs to be filtered before giving it into the separating funnel. SWIM tried several ways with no good results so far.. so he wants to know what you would use for filtrating the lye to have no shitty sediment on the ground. is there anything SWIM could use best for filtrating it? the only thing is the filtering.. rest will workout fine.

thanks for listening and giving some tips for SWIM.

PEACE & LOVE

That sep. funnel is going to make your life a lot easier. Great tool.

You could try a french coffee press to prefilter and than filter through paper so it won't choke the paper that much. This is what I use at the moment.
The problem is sometimes the mush gets shooted out because of too much applied pressure. It's quite time consuming and dirty too.

I ordered a vacuum filtration setup with a large buchner funnel which I'm going to use for these messy extraction steps. I think it's a very usefull tool for filtering the mush and later on filter the freeze precipitate crystals fast before the solvent heats up.
It's a bit pricey though, about 100 Euro in total for a 28cm buchner, filter papers, a water aspirator, tubing and a 2000ml vacuum flask. A good 1.5 liter coffeepress will cost you half of that.

Edit: for acidic solutions the coffeepress is not a very good option. I't could rust easily.

I personally use the BLAB tek which is STB with and A(cid) pre-soak hence has some STB 'features';there is no need to filter the lye:MHRB mix at all.Once youve let the lye:MHRB sit for as long as you plan to, you can then add your non-polar solvent ie naphtha, agitate slowly to avoid emulsions and then let it sit.Your naphtha should separate after a time, forming a layer on the top.This is what needs to be separated off without any of the black goo getting into it and a turkey baster and care should allow this to happen.

I used a sep funnel when I performed Vovins tek which is a 'proper' AB tek.You dont need one for the step you are at with the basified mix before you, and its consistency is not suitable for separating liquid from wet powder as it will clog the sep funnel rapidly.Sep funnels are ideal for separating liquids of different densities, as encountered in Vovins tek.

Have a look at the Wiki; its got excellent info on all the teks, including STB.

wow! the idea to use a french coffee press is awesome! pretty cool idea! SWIM has to keep the costs low so seems to be the easiest way for now. thx a lot. what kind of paper you mean? isn't it enough to filter it with the french coffee press?

thx so far

notice you have to filter the mimosa material BEFORE basifying, while its still acidic. Mimosa can be decanted, filtered crudely with a metal strainer, and then with an old t-shirt (and decanted again after a few hours if you want), it should work just fine. If there is a bit of the sludge and it isnt too thick, it wont be too bad, but if its too thick or there is too much, it might block the stopcock.

When you work with a separatory funnel, after draining the bottom layer, add a bit of sodium carb water and move it around, because this will wash down the lye/mimosa tea remains that are stuck to the walls.. I usually do this 3 times or so, till the bottom liquid that your draining is clear. Then you can drain the organic solvent layer.

Also, just before you drain the solvent layer, let it stand for a few minutes, so that water around the walls will go down, otherwise your solvent will have a little bit of water as you drain it (not too much of a problem if its been washed as mentioned above, but if youre doing something like FASI/FASA, better have it as dry as possible.)

By the way, when youre draining out, remember to open the top part so air can come in, otherwise the water comes in through the bottom opening and its very ¨shaky¨ and messy as it drains.

So it would be ok to first add the mimosa and solve it in water, filtering it and then add the caustic soda?

You need to look into A/B extractions (lots of A/B info in the wiki and the A/B section of the forum). This adds some time to your extractions, but also makes some parts of the extraction far easier.

Basically you use acidified water to pull the spice, then it is filtered, reduced (if necessary), and base is added to the solution. Once the solution is basified you add non-polar solvent, mix and then separate using the separatory funnel.

Acid/Base Extractions - DMT Nexus Wiki
Acid/Base Extractions - Subforum

for those who want to experiment using a french press...make sure it's stainless steel.

eh, its pretty hard to work with lysed root bark...

if you want to advance your extraction procedure, your better off with acid/base extraction.
You'll have a lot more fun using your separatory funnel that way.

lysed rootbark should stay in the jug.


I use my french press for making aya, but i definitely wouldnt recommend using it in a highly basic or acidic pH,

you'll never have good coffee again.

Just a few tips for using the separatory funnel.

If you shake it take it upside down make shure that the lower end doesn't point towards you. Shake it gently the first times and always release the pressure by opening the stop cock. The best way to hold it is to put your palm of your left hand on the plug and two finger around one side of the bowl and the other two around the other side. With the right hand you grab it just over the cock holding it like a stick so that you can easily orperate the cock.

You can also leave it open in the beginning, but than don't shake just agitate it a bit that the first pressure is releases. Then close it and shake it harder.
After that let it sit for a while until the layers separate. After that open the cock and let the soltuion run out but close it when it comes close to the end (the last few cms) that the solution which is on the walls can get to the bottom and small emulsions which sometimes form at the end can spearate. You can also gently move it a little bit to help the layers separate properly. Then open the cock that it's just a little bit open and let the rest of the solution out of it. I would recommend to keep the last drips in the funnel so that no solvent is lost. After that decant the solvent through the opening in the top. The solvent flows faster than the basified solution so turning it around a little bit faster makes it easier.

I would buy a speratory funnel with a long shape (squibb) not the bowl one's. It is easier to see the layers with that shape. Also a holding is very useful if you don't want to buy one take a bucket and drill a hole into it which is big enough that it doesn't tilt when putting it into it. Do a dry test with water if it can hold the funnel safely. Before you use it make shure that the "screw" at the cock is tight enough.

If you use STB put the solution through a strainer first, if it still blocks the funnel put some solvent in it shake it and release the pressure through the cock so the stuck slurry gets poped out. But this may be dangerous and should only be done if it's not totaly blocked.

SWIM's lucky to have stumbled uppon this Topic.
He was considering buying a Separatory Funnel to ease up his Spice extraction-process.
Totally hadn't considered that the Mimosa goop could clog up the funnel.

He had in mind to perform a simple STB extraction of powdered MHRB using water,
Lye & Diethyl Ether. He wanted to separate the ether-layer with the separatory funnel.

So would it be best to filter the solids out of the water/Lye/MHRB mud and
then add Ether to the aquatious DMT & Lye solution, mix & separate using
separatory funnel?

for a stb and prepowdered bark (thus doubling the water) my sep funnel worked most the time, though sometimes it would clog, just had to swirl it around some so the clumps would go back into sludge and not clump at the bottom

on the topic of sep funnels and just wondering, endlessness wrote


this is the norm right, for base soup to stick to the walls of the sep funnel when doing an a/b?

and slowly slide down?

as i usually get some base soup in the collection jar due to this. I then combine all 3 then wash, seems more efficient rather than pull, wash, repeat and keep each pull seperate. though to each there own

When I do Str8 base I'll pre filter my jurema/lye with a glass powder funnel with cotton square cut from and old tshirt into another jar. That's usually enough to keep the sep funnel from cloging, but then if I'm really feelin' froggy I'll re-filter it with some filter paper. Cheers!

I use a Chinoise with very fine mesh to filter the mimosa goop. It works well but takes a wee bit of time and a bit of working with a spoon to keep it draining well.

Just checked out what a french press is & find its a cafetiere, that probably would work well if you get a good quality one.

You really shouldn't filter you based root bark sludge at all! Freebase DMT isn't very soluble in water, so if you filter the water off you'll leave behind a good amount of DMT.

Sep funnels are best used for A/B extractions not STB.

http://www.ehow.com/how_...ake-centrifuge-home.html

If you are working with MH root bark powder that stuff will NOT filter completely pretty much no matter what you do. Spinning it down is the only thing I've found that really gets the job done. I have occasional access to a centrifuge that can spin 10k rpm @ 4 degrees c, that works wonderfully. The at-home solution might be slightly less effective but I'm sure it would still give good results.