Hey guys. So I imagined that I used cyb's Hybrid Tek for my first extraction. It was a good learning experience. I don't know if I ended up with anything usable yet, but I'll find out later today and will update.

Here's what I'm curious about..

At the point you add the solvent, I understand that you need to mix your MHRB solution with the solvent in order to pull spice into the solvent... And, as I understand it, this needs to be done in a gentle way. Like in cyb's Tek, you're supposed to "gently roll" the bottle. Other Teks call for gentle stirring of the two layers, etc. Just looking for some clarification as to the idea of getting the spice from the MHRB solution into the solvent. Why should mixing at this stage be done "gently", and what exactly is the idea/science here?

Next is the pulls. For smaller volume extracts, like cyb's Hybrid Tek, I'm wondering if you guys would shoot multiple pulls into a single evaporation container, or if it's better to give each pull its own tray?

Lastly, I'm wondering about the color of the solvent after separation. This ties into my first question, since I believe I mixed too violently after adding the solvent. Whatever the case, after the very first separation my solvent layer was a yellowish-brown color, while the photo in the Tek shows a crystal-clear solvent layer after separation, and I was quite jealous and wondering what's the deal there.

Unfortunately my glass cracked in the heat bath, so I lost everything after the first pull and didn't get as much experience out of this extract as I'd hoped. I learned how to clean a stove real good though. I would have been able to gain more insight trying 3+ more pulls, but w/e. At least there wasn't naptha in the glass (and over the burner) when it broke The solution had come down to room temperature and I decided to shake it and give it a heat bath before starting the next pull. Could have been a lot worse.

I did get the one yellowish-brown pull into the freezer, so we'll see what happens there.

Anyway, just figured I'd run my experience by the Nexians and gobble up any feedback I can get before I go in for another attempt at glory!

What solvent are you using? Usually naphtha will turn slightly yellow/golden and have a misty appearance to it, I can only assume other solvents would also but only ever used xylene and naphtha so I can't be certain, if you have a layer of emulsion like bubbly nasty looking stuff amounting to basically a third layer? Not sure if that's what you mean by brown stuff, that can usually be remedied by adding more base, but I'm not sure in your case typically I used STB, and adding more base in that case can get rid of an emulsion fairly well try letting it just sit patiently for a few hours-a day though if it still looks wonky then maybe try PMing Cyb personally if you haven't already or simply posting the question on the Tek. Hope that helps

EDIT: When I say adding more base btw I don't mean a lot, usually just sprinkle it over the emulsion and I can usually visually watch the layer drop, only reason I mention emulsion is the bubbles can trap the brown looking mimosa mud in them turning the solvent layer slightly brown IME.

Causmic
You can shake/mix the solvent in with mix quite vigorously (but not too hard) as the salt will stop any emulsions (tiny bubble layer) forming...if an emulsion has formed...throw salt over it to disperse it. Sometimes a little heat as well can help.

The idea is for the solvent to 'touch' every part of the lye mix...so that transfer can take place....So Roll/Jiggle/Slosh/Shake/Shimmy...whatever you need to get them to touch each other.
See HERE for an explanation.

All pulls can be joined/collated and frozen in one go if you like...Just leave to evap a little (or put a fan over them) to reduce it a little...so that they saturate further....then freeze the lot in a flat bottomed dish.

The solvent (if naphtha) can be clear or yellow...or dark yellow...depends on how much oil/plant dye...you picked up....it may stain your spice yellow...but thats OK...some really like it yellow or you can clear it up with further Re-X ing.

If yours is brownish...you might have used too much lye...or shook it so hard that micro particles have suspended in the naphtha...if so just leave to settle out for an hour or so and repull

If you cracked your vessel...the heat is TOO MUCH....just warm the mix through...not boil it.
Heat up a pan of water ...turn off the heat...put in the mix vessel...and walk away...after a while when the jar can be touched again...reheat...etc.

Sorted..

I'm using Naptha, and there was no emulsion layer. It separated nicely, it just had a lot of color as opposed to cyb's crystal clear layer of naptha. Once I got it into the pan it looked more yellow than brown, actually.. but hey, if yellow gets you to hyperspace, I'm in!

cyb, that was one other question I had about the baking dish .. so just to clarify, if I'm putting all the pulls in one container, then I'd leave the finished pulls on the counter with a fan on it while the other pulls complete, and as soon as the last pull is finished, cover the dish and into the freezer? Or would it be even better to leave all the pulls under a fan for some time before freezing?

And yeah, I would be all up in Cyb's Tek thread, but I'm too noob'd. I'm not allowed around those parts yet

Thanks guys!

EDIT: Oh and thanks for that info on NPS. Great

The longer you leave the nap in the mix with heat...the more yellow it will get.

I would put all my pulls in the dish...then when they're all pulled...blow a fan over it till it shows some milkyness...this means it's pretty saturated...cover it with food wrap then freeze overnight.

Learn Share Expand

That's the plan !

Thanks cyb !

You da man

!

Will report back on my endeavors.

Woooo yeeea! Just dried and scraped last nights attempt. Off of ONE PULL I ended up with 300mg of some very crystaline shards of dark yellow/tan looking substance. Quite crystaly indeed. Not much goo at all. The color is a little unsettling, so I'm going to re X tonight ....... but hot diggity ...... it's definitely the spice!! My first extraction certainly smells like some bomb product !!!

300mg off one pull! It'll shrink a bit when I re X, bit that's still pretty good methinks. I wonder how much I would have got if I did the 6-7 pulls I was planning to.

I followed the Tek to a T, but doubled all the soak times.

SHOUT OUT TO CYB for making this all possible

Brutal, absolutely brutal.
I can empathize, man. Live and learn.
At least you developed good domestic skills.
And it sounds like the spirit has graced you, despite.
It gives just enough,
And meets yo u where you are.

Haha, totally man. I'm wit that

Thanks dude

About the first paragraph: light/dark yellow is good IMO. You won't get pretty fluffy white DMT with those, but you will get some very nice yellow stuff with it. If a heavy goo percips from it, spread it out on a piece of glass and work it with a razor blade then let it dry and repeat. In my experience it will stiffen up nicely.

Dark red/Brown pulls are no good in my book. There's actually something about this in the FAQ on the wiki. In my opinion, it means your heated naphtha pulls were too hot. I typically aim for heat bath temps of 120F to 130F (48C to 54C).

About the second paragraph: It really sucks when jars crack. That happened on my very first extraction just after the first pull. At least I had that one pull to work with The temps I listed above work well with the canning jars I use.

My rule of thumb for heat baths: "If its too hot to keep the tips of my fingers in for 5+ seconds, It's too hot for the jars"

Best of Luck!

Dang, when I asked a few important questons about my future extraction, everyone just told me to go the the FAQ and read the teks. Thiey didn't help at all

When you say salt, do you mean actual NaCl salt? Or is that a term for the base?

Fear...if you read the tek you will understand the whole salt thing...

It is NaCl...standard table salt.

Here...

Update: Ok, this is officially awesome.

So that one pull I managed to get from my first extraction which was so stained, I realized that I forgot to add the 140mL of water at the basify step, so I may have had "too much lye" and pulled too much plant material due to having a more basic solution (less diluted)? This is probably why the resulting product smelled so strongly (more plant material). It did crystalize beautifully in a glass tray though. Freeze precip't for 24 hours and some pretty large and gnarly looking crystals had formed.

Dried, scraped, and re-crystalized with FRESH CLEAN naptha, and freeze precipt'd again for another 24 hours, and the result is nothing short of magic manna, manifest!

Ended up with 200mg (from 300mg of material from original pull) of fluffy, yellow/tan crystals with specks of off white. It's lighter and more vibrant looking than it was before re-X.

Product has almost no smell to it, which I read somewhere is a good thing, and an indicator of purity? All the DMT I've smoked before has all smelled quite strongly. I've never seen a yellow DMT that had next to no smell like this. I have to be almost snorting it to get any little trickle of scent in my nostrils. That clean naptha bath for re-Xing seemed to really do the trick, because it smelled so strongly and was quite dark before re-X.

I carefully put one individual little nicely formed crystal flake ontop of some bud to test it out just now. I didn't weigh it, but it was nothing, less than 5mg. Maybe even only 1-3mg. And wow. I got instant, noticeable body and cognitive effects, and the body effects persisted for a good couple minutes. It's most definitely the spice, and it feels like it's got some serious kick!

I do imagine I just extracted the best spice I've ever dealt with!

Beaitufl, cyb. Just beautiful

You say "future extraction" my friend. How can you know what you will come up against until you do it? And with all the info available here and on the web, one needn't have any trouble getting started. It's once you get started and run into things that you will need to ask questions, and people will be happy to guide you along your already flowing journey rather than feeling like they need to launch you through it. Like cyb said, you could have answered your question simply by reading through the Tek.

The Nexus will reward effort before it rewards potential effort

Godspeed