nvm, this probably fits better in a thread

On filtering/drying crystals - If I were to be freeze preciping in a garage fridge, and have to leave the garage to get into a room temperature house to get the crystals somewhere not super warm, are they likely to melt in that time frame?

Would it just be smarter to scrape the crystals onto the filters and leave them in the freezer to dry?

If so how long/bad would my freezer smell of naphtha?

Thanks for any and all input!

Do the FAQ trick to retrieve crystals/preventing melting. Dont let open solvents in the freezer, it might be hard/impossible to get the smell out unless you open it, let it all thaw, wash/clean the freezer and throw whatever was inside with solvent smell away. Better avoid that.

*Found my answer in Vovin's teq.

I do have another question actually. If I were hypothetically doing a sodium carbonate wash, would the two layers be very distinct? It seems to me as though the two would look very similar, and therefore be very hard to distinguish between when siphoning off the top layer (with no sep funnel). It seems that when the top layer would get really thin, it'd be tough to tell where one ended and the other began.

On that note, what if you accidentally sucked some of the sodium carb solution up into a collection jar? Would this be detrimental to your deems? Would you be able to tell if you did? If so, how?

Again, thanks to anyone that wants to give input on these matters. They are very important, and in some cases urgent to me. If I were doing pulls off an StB, I'dve just done what seemed best at the time, but would desperately be looking for advice on future pulls that would be *very* soon to come.

Here's lookin at you, DMT Nexus. This place and you guys are awesome!

They are easy to tell appart, you can see a line between them. Just dont suck up the bottom sodium carb solution, better leave a bit of naphtha with the sodium carb, rather than trying to get it all and getting sodium carb together.

If you do bring the sodium carb across, you can just put it in a thin tall container which will make both layers thick and easy to separate, and then you suck up the sodium carb solution and throw it away or get the naphtha solution and put into your freeze/evap container.

In the end if a couple of drops remained, it wouldnt be the end of the world, but you should avoid. What would happen is your product would take longer to fully dry (due to water) and would have some sodium carbonate remains, which could make the dosage weight a bit off depending how much you ended up there, but sodium carbonate doenst vaporize at lighter temperatures and isnt toxic.

Man, that is great information. I can't even begin to tell you how helpful you are Endlessness. Thanks so much for your time. I did wind up getting like a very miniscule amount of wash in my final collection jar. They've been freezing for about 28 hours now and I am going to check them soon. Thanks for your help.

Hey guys, I'm having a collection issue. The extract was successful, but I'm having a hard time collecting the spice. I'm using 1/2 pint wide mouth ball jars and I can't get the spice out. It's not gooey, it is hard, but its like wetish with naphtha still and just gets stuck to the sides. I tried a razor blade and a small rubber spatula but I'm getting minimal amounts out of the jar. This is after draining the NP and leaving them upside down for a day. They are currently upside down in the freezer again. I'm hoping that helps. Any tips or suggestions?

PS edit - Also, the jars have been sitting upside down minus naphtha for a day now, and they still smell heavily of naphtha. Is that normal? They have NONE of this spice smell I hear people talk about.

Also some of my crystals are real sharp and pointy but most are round and lumpy. Is it all still good stuff? What causes that? The sharp ones are real small btw and the bigger ones are round.

Also my later pulls are very yellow is that ok? What causes that?

Finally, in a couple jars it looks like 2 different substances frozen. A very round long white mass, and a bunch of yellower lumpier masses. Are they both dmt? That is the jar I thought I got some carbonate wash in, is it possible it's the wash? It looks like too much to be.

Any help is soooooooooo appreciated! Thanks guys!

You can use some acetone or warm naphtha to redissolve the crystals and let them evap in a flat bottom wide container such as a pyrex dish or a petri dish, and then you can scrape that with a razor blade or a "window scraper".

Different forms of crystallization is fine, it happens, there's many variables why that happens (temperature, amount of solvent, movements, surface of container and other already-crystallized DMT that the rest of DMT grows on top, etc).

The upside down trick does not get rid of all the naphtha, it merely removes the excess, after that you still have to air dry the crystals after you scrape them and leave in a plate (or redisslve and re-evap) to finish drying

Yellow in solvent can be plant oils or other impurities, but if you freeze, you separate your DMT from most of these impurities. Later if your spice is too impure you can always recrystallize.

Lastly, as for the stuff you are not sure what it is, its possibly just DMT in different purities/crystal structures. If you are affraid it is sodium carbonate, you can:

a- Put a bit in a spoon and heat it up. If it melts, its not sodium carbonate
b- use acetone or naphtha to redissolve. Sodium carbonate wont dissolve in any

I can't imagine trying to actually scrape DMT out of a mason jar. They work fine for dry tek mixtures, but a good flat pyrex dish is king for collecting the product. Only the corners will be a bit tricky to remove 100% of the DMT from, the rest a glass scraping blade/knife work wonders for collecting the crystals

You can use some acetone or warm naphtha to redissolve the crystals and let them evap in a flat bottom wide container such as a pyrex dish or a petri dish, and then you can scrape that with a razor blade or a "window scraper".

In regards to this ^ Would like an eye dropper of warm naphtha do per jar? Can they evap in high heat? It is HOT around here these days. Would I be able to just do another freeze precip if I didn't use too much naphtha? This part worries me. I hear so many horror stories of people having spice, redissolving, and being left with nothing or something different.

I've done some scanning and a few searches but am still uncertain what to do about some old spice I have. My original idea was to recrystalize it to get some of the impurities out since it was my first extraction and the end result was a bit red and gooey. My problem is that when I go to dissolve it into warm naptha, it doesn't want to dissolve. It just stays as a gooey glob on the bottom. I've tried stirring it a bit to move it along but it doesn't seem to be working. Do I just assume the DMT has moved over and decant?

Yes, follow FAQ instructions

Would an eye dropper of warm naphtha do per jar? Can they evap in high heat? It is HOT around here these days. Would I be able to just do another freeze precip if I didn't use too much naphtha or does it have to be an evap?

Thanks again for all your help.

So im currently performing this tek Q21Q21 Lime extract tek here I'm doing this tek with 50g of MHRB. Im currently at the "Basification stage"... I added the recommended amout of Lime, I stird for a little while, adding a tiny bit of Lime, it will be grey for a little while, then the top part turns red (thats normal). Im performing "CONSISTENCY 1" option. Its been about 20min, but it still looks the same, It looks a little watery, but it hasnt dried yet.

Do you guys have any tips, pointers or advice for this stage???? I want to know what its spose to look like, before I proceed. (the tutorial pics, are to small) I just dont want to mess this up


Like I said, this is happening now, in Real time

at this point i would let it sit for a couple days in a high place, should be dry by the time you are ready to pull w/ the solvent, or if you are impatient, you can use a fan or an oven on low temp with the door cracked.

but the consistency really doesn't matter all that much, IME

Okay great! I have it in a glass container, dose it need to be sealed or can it be open top?

sealed would hardly let the moisture out (i would assume) the only thing an open top would do would dry it out, which is what you are trying to do. unless you want to wait say 7 days to do your first pull, and its mostly fully dried in 2, then you could put the lid on for the last 5 days, but this is just common sense.


also i believe you should have posted this in the "general extractions help" subforum..

The TEK calls for 3:4 ratio of lime:bark, but I usually use 1:1. I feel it works a bit faster and more thoroughly. The consistency isn't supposed to be totally dry I don't think... crumby is just supposed to be more dry. The difference there is solvent-loss, with the wet consistency losing around 50% naphtha for me and crumbly being closer to 20-30%. This isn't too big of an issue with naphtha (although it adds up), but if using limonene then crumbly is the way to go (though that is still lots of $$ to be losing to a TEK).

I let the basification stage go 24 hours, mixing every few hours. This is to ensure that I get the most Spice with fewer pulls. If I let it go this long I get close to half the Spice in one pull.