Hello folks,

Long time reader, first time poster. SWIM's pet cat has been telling me stories of this dream they've been having. Here's the story they told me:

They have done plenty of MHRB extractions using Marsofold's tek. Usually they get 2.5g spice from 1lb extraction. This time, however, they processed 4lbs at once. Everything was going well.. they had put the naptha in the freezer from the first 2lbs (275ml naptha * 2 = 550ml) and after a few days there were many crystals. Then the other 2lbs of MHRB were processed and the naptha from that was ADDED to the 550ml already in the freezer. The idea was that the naptha from all 4lbs of MHRB could freeze precipitate together in one dish. SWIM's cat thought that as long as the ratio of dmt/naptha was the same that it wouldn't matter if there was more naptha.

After adding the 2nd 550ml of naptha to the dish and putting it in the freezer for 2 days it looks like there are LESS crystals than when there were with just the 550ml. SWIM's cat thinks that this is because there is so much naptha in there that the crystals aren't being pushed out.

Any advice on how to get the rest of the crystals out of the naptha quickly? SWIM's cat is leaving town in 2 days and needs to get what they can. Here are the ideas that SWIM's cat came up with to quickly get the rest of the crystals out:

1. Pour off the 1100ml of naptha and collect the crystals already on the glass dish. Then split the naptha into two glass dishes and put them back in the freezer.

SWIM's cat doesn't think this will work that well since there is already less crystal in the naptha since some of it precep'd out already. Alternatively, the naptha could be evaped down to 50% or 25% or 10% the volume and then put in the freezer, but this will take more than 2 days that SWIM's cat has.

2. Pour off the 1100ml of naptha and collect the crystals already on the glass dish. Then take the 1100ml naptha and either put it in a crockpot on high or on an electric stove on low and heat it on a low heat with plenty of ventilation to more quickly reduce the volume. Then when it is down to 10% put it back in the freezer to freeze precip the rest out.

3. Pour off the 1100ml of naptha and collect the crystals already on the glass dish. Then, follow steps in #2 above, but instead of freezing when it gets down to 10% let it evaporate ALL the way, watching closely when there is little naptha left and then collect the DIRTY crystals that remain.

SWIM's cat knows that #3 will result in "impure" crystals, but this is better than not being able to finish before leaving town in 2 days.

Advice?

SWIM's cat just called me. They said they think that what happened was that since the 550ml naptha was already frozen for a few days, that pushed most of the crystals out of it. So when the additional 550ml naptha was added, the ratio of dmt/naptha was already off, so the naptha re-absorbed some of the crystals. After talking to a few friends, SWIM's cat thinks the best idea is to heat the naptha on low heat with fan to get it down to 10% volume and then throw it back in the freezer. Or just heat it until all of the naptha is gone.

Yeah you won't be able to get it all back but if I was in that situation I'd go with the idea of separating the naphtha from the dish and putting it into multiple dishes.
The problem is that you're pretty much diluting what you originally had since you're adding more naphtha than dmt.

well..the DMT hasnt gone anywhere...its all still there...and what i think happened was by putting in naphtha that was warm..it warmed up the whole solution so that yes..some of the dmt got taken up by the naphtha..id say just evap it down to say 50%..that will be fine..and stick it back in the freezer

Yeah, that's true, but there is definitely a kind of diluting effect going on, when my friend made this same mistake there was definitely a decrease in crystal that he just couldn't get back. (evaporated all of it)

Jorkest, I think you're right on. When SWIM's cat was adding the warm naptha he said he could see the dmt being absorbed right in the spots where the warm naptha was being added. Also, I think you're right that he only needs to evap it down to 50% and re-freeze to get most of the dmt to precip out.

SWIM's cat is now only wondering if they can use a crock pot to heat the naptha to help evap it down to 50% faster. SWIM's cat read that dmt will start to vaporize at 140 F and just is concerned if heating the naptha will reduce the yield... but, they are thinking that since the crock pot was used to cook the MHRB it SHOULD be ok to heat the naptha with it, too.

SWIM's cat looked it up and it seems like the temp of the slow cooker will be over 140 F, but wonders if this is still ok to heat the naptha with... shouldn't the naptha prevent the dmt from vaporizing as long as it is only heated until it gets to ~500ml?

That seems strange. SWIM's cat figured that the warm naptha just absorbed the dmt and that if it was evaporated all the way that all that dmt should still be there... hmm..

SWIM's cat said they are gonna try evap'ing down to 50% and then freezing and if there aren't lots of crystals after 24 hours they will try and evap it all the way and see what's left.

um..well what you can do is fill the crockpot with water..and put a thermometer in it...on its lowest setting and see what the temp goes up to..also as naphtha evaporates it will also cool...just like when you pour iso alcohol on your hand it feels cold because its evaporating so fast...so as long as you keep the naphtha fumes blowing away it should work..just dont use warm air..because this could cause the dmt to oxidize..thats the only problem with evapping..so just do it as quickly as possible..and get it down to about 50% and stick it back in the freezer...

Just like with a hotplate the real temperature on the dial and the temperature inside, the liquid filled bath is probably different by a substantial [less heat] amount.

Thanks Jorkest! SWIM's cat doesn't own a thermometer but will consider picking one up on the way home. SWIM's cat has GOT to imagine that the crock pot won't hurt the dmt, as the crock pot was used in cooking the original MHRB with water. Add this to the fact that evaporation involves the absorption of energy, and is therefore a cooling process... so this should work to benefit the situation.

SWIM's cat will give an update after they try Jorkest's suggestion.