save the glob and what a friend does is, after he saves a lot of the crap from each recrystalization he does... and then he does a recrystalization with a ton of gunk to get some spice.. so dont throw it away you still can use the gunk later in time

ok , glob will be saved for later then w

hi all, first post here! i had a question about lye- what is the difference between powdered or granulated lye and lye crystals in terms of weight? would one need to use more lye crystals than if they were using granulated lye? if anyone could suggest a proper lye crystal to water mixture, it would be much appreciated. thanks!

[quote:adbd0e751b="VaeSolis"]hi all, first post here! i had a question about lye- what is the difference between powdered or granulated lye and lye crystals in terms of weight? would one need to use more lye crystals than if they were using granulated lye? if anyone could suggest a proper lye crystal to water mixture, it would be much appreciated. thanks![/quote:adbd0e751b] I'm interested in the difference between granulated and powdered lye. Swim followed Noman's tek to the letter on his last extraction, he stirred his mixture very slowly and he still ended up with a thin film of emulsion. He added some lye solution to correct this, but it was TOO much lye, and he wound up extracting a lot of gunk along with the spice. Now swim is extracting again, using Noman's numbers again, and there is still a small amount of emulsion formed after he stirs in naptha. He was extra careful stirring this time, so it cant be that. He thinks it's his lye, which is "Food Grade Granulated Lye" . This is it: http://www.aaa-chemicals...m/30-pounds-naoh-fg.html He suspects it is weaker than the drain opening variety. He will added lye solution again, but this time in much smaller increments , so as not to upset the balance and extract the brown gunk again.... any insights would be helpful.Thanks famalams

It's not too little lye. Straight to base teks all use about ten times more lye than is needed to avoid emulsions. A thin line of emulsion is not a problem or unusual - its probably just something floating on top of the base solution under the naptha. Don't worry about it, just separate it off with the rest of the base. If you guys want to be more precise with your lye, you should buy scales rather than investigating the density of every lye on the market.

noman- you are correct (surprise, surprise). it's not too little lye at all. forgive my noobishness (swim is using a scale btw) snow globes have appeared en masse. the emulsion even went away with time. swim just gets worried easily because he is inexperienced.he will stop his foolish lye grade questioning. thanks again and again. H

A buddy of mine is doing a tek on PHALARIS arundinacea Following the tech from http://peyote.com/jonstef/phalaris.htm He has frozen it and thawed out only once as he thought the freezing was to facilitate it being broken up by a coffe grinder and shredded/pulverized. DO you think the step of freezing and thawing cycle of 2-3 time is essential? He's added about an ounce/30 grams of the Phalaris to a steel pot and 500 ml of water. Along with enough White vinegar to bring ph down to 4. he plans on simmering "overnight" even though that isn't really time specific. Defat with Vm&p Naptha Basify with Sodium hydroxide (his label says caustic soda-lye, contains NO phosphorus) Then use vm&p Naptha to Do the extraction over. having read a lot about freeze precip. on this thread. Could that be used? The concept is not completely clear to him. This person in the link below claims to have success with one ounce of material. using Phalaris arundinacea var. picta, commonly known as 'tricolor ribbon grass) . http://www.erowid.org/experiences/exp.php?ID=28201 He heard that the Phalaris arundinacea varients picta and feesey are the same as far a effectiveness. Source of that info below http://forums.ayahuasca....amp;amp;highlight=feesey He hasn't exactly run into any problems yet but wants to ask if there are any holes in his method/ Tek. Materials used are ok? Also what about the freeze precip ? Anyone else ever successfully do extraction on phalaris. Please forgive my newbie mistakes with my 1st post here if there are any.

Be aware that the solution will be very prone to forming an emulsion when agitating the naptha in the defat. Mix very carefully and slowly. If you get an emulsion while extracting (after basification) you didn't basify enough, add more lye. I think that phalaris would lend itself well to Coschi's acacia tek or Marsofold's procedure of doing an A/B with no defat and then doing a second A/B with defat on the extracted material. Those are both a little more advanced than where you want to be right now - just something to keep in mind for the future if one plans on working more with phalaris. Forget freeze precip - your extract will be too gooey for that and way too low in concentration. If you can get some heptane (Bestine rubber cement remover) it would make a better extraction solvent than naptha - its more selective and evaporates a lot quicker. Stick with naptha for your defat though. Good luck, post your results.

Now in the solvent layer (naptha until swim can get bestine as suggested) There are little "oil blobs" kind of similar to the ones seen during the defat. Is that more fats/oils maybe? solvent appears to be turning yellow as tek said. Can bestine still be used to do extracts of the aqaues solution even after using naptha?

[quote:c56a909c58="vroom"]Can bestine still be used to do extracts of the aqaues solution even after using naptha?[/quote:c56a909c58] Yeah, but it won't pull anything that the naptha didn't. Don't worry about it. I'm interested in what's going to come out of this naptha.

vroom very anxious to hear about your outcome, my beetle was telling me about the extraction tek at peyote.com, i'll be attemtpting something similar soon.... habib

my friends starting to question 2 things about swims extraction container with a plastic o ring for a tight seal. Plastic is no prob with all the naptha/lye etc.. ?? 2nd attempt now for my buddy using Coschi's Tek. The lye (in the form of drano drain cleaner) seemed to have a blueish tint of coloring. when bestine was added the tint all migrated to the solvent layer which alarmed me... swim removed all of the blueish tinting immediately and added new bestine for extraction. I hope im not over analyzing , but reading this thread has taught me to respect the power of Lye.

this man in the bathroom stall next to me at Mcdonalds restaurant said out loud that after the first 24 hour extraction on the phalaris and the naptha evapped there WAS some gunk left in a baking dish.

What does it smell like? (oh man in the shitter)

No identifiable smell, but It's belived by swim that this extraction was a failure, or the amount of phalaris used was not substantial enough at 30 grams. On to Mimosa bark until swim can find a Bushel of phalaris. swim does have one question though. The lye used is Drano drain cleaner. Their label says caustic soda lye. It seems to have a blue tint and possibly dye in it. Is that problem? If so what would be a recommended source?

Ace Hardware Rooto drain opener or find a soapmaking supply place.

swim says ace didn't have that particular brand. Lye crystals are typically clear correct?

They are tiny white spheres or balls, I guess you could say. It just has to say 100% Sodium Hydroxide or NaOH. You should also be able to find a source by googling.

My friend says lye is a problem to order these days because of people making hardcore man made crap out of cough syrup and cold pills kind of thing, and lye is used in that process. They've taken measures to remove it's previously easier access. Orderable sources from google have found to be in flake form instead of pellets, and also not 99% pure but only 96% or 97%. flakable version are said to not stick with static electricity as pellets do. awww well....

[quote:532ced16c2="vroom"]They've taken measures to remove it's previously easier access. [/quote:532ced16c2] That's why I bought 5 kilos last time I found lye in a store That was several months ago and I had been looking all over the place. But that store doesn't sell lye anymore!