Hey Nexus,

I'm not sure, but hope this thread works. Let me tell you what makes me think it should:

I think I'm not the only one with no real background knowledge regarding chemistry, who just follows a tek, without knowing much about what happens "behind the scenes". Imagine the number of people who just read here, without ever posting.

Without that background knowledge and a bit of routine little mistakes can, and from what I've learned, do happen. No matter how well the teks are written, which they surely are, when newbies and superficial knowledge come together, things can go wrong.

Tell which little mistakes happend to you during extraction and how to avoid them. Did you ever forget a little thing, or accidentially did something wrong? Post it here!

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I followed cybs inital salt tek from the earliest pdf. (not really sure if there is a newer one tough) Basically it said hot puils with nahpta. Worked great so far. Than the superficial knowledge came into play and I switched to light naphta, but without really being aware about all the consequencies of the lower boiling point.

As the pull really was hot (in lack of better knowlodge) the light naphta really boiled. And I was like: Well, this didn't happen last time?! ...anyways...just follow the tek.
I screwed the cap on the bottle and immediatly felt, that the pressure is strong in this one. Suddenly realizing what could happen I quickly unscrewed the cap. Although it sat on the bottle only for seconds the pressure was high enough to make more or less hot solvent splashing out of the bottle. Nothing really bad happened, but it could have!

My Chemistry lesson number one was: Mind your solvents boiling point!

Did anyone else learn a lesson?

Frozen DMT in solution melts extremely quickly at room temperature. I remember the first time I tried to extract DMT, I was so frustrated because I could not get to my crystals because they would always melt too fast. It was quite frustrating. It wouldn't be the last time that would happen, but it has been a rare occurrence for a long time now. I now am very quick when it comes to pouring off the naptha, and I put it back in the freezer for a little bit before scraping just to play on the safe side. Also when scraping up, I now make sure that it's completely dry, or it makes it a bit more of a difficult ordeal.

^^ this.

Be patient with every step, know what you are doing. Don't take any shortcuts.

Also this is just my opinion, but I think you should wait until you have time to perform the entire procedure, not stopping it and certain steps and trying to pick it up later. This seems to lower the chance of error ime.

Be patient, wear safety equipment, never throw anything out till the end because if something goes unexpected you can always recover your alkaloids.

methanol and methylene chloride are completey miscible.

Basifying. Base that bitch. I was keeping close track of the pH, not wanting to over-do it, and my first attempt at extraction from local phalaris was a failure, so I copped some root dust. So I'm gingerly adding the Red Devil watching the pH, and thinking I just blew through 150 simolians and no joy. But I keep dripping in the NaOH, and then all of a sudden the flask on the stir plate goes from inky to a milky blue.

Don't worry about the numbers so much. Look for the reaction.

Break on through.

EDIT (for clarity): When I talk about worrying about numbers, I'm referring to things you may be measuring with questionable accuracy (like your pH meter may suck). Otherwise, DO pay attention to the details of the TEKs available here. Lots of combined wisdom; lots of smart people.

It's already been mentioned several times but...Patience.

I thought I was a very patient person until I did my first rue extraction

I've learned that the size of the precipitation dish does matter. Maybe not for the precipitation itself, but for the first drying of the xtals inside the dish. When the dish has a large size but there aren't so much xtals in it, there's much room for moisture to condense on the cold dish. The condensed moisture may even form drops of water, which may dissolve the xtals.

Salt Works

I've suffered a complete failure with cyb's original hybrid salt tek.
I used Acacia Maidenii bark weighed at 53gms, followed everything to the letter and allowed a lot of patience.
Three major mistakes I've made:

- Water droplets appeared on the cling wrap of the baking dish when in the freezer.
- No yield after scraping glass dish (so angry so not a good time for DMT anyway)
- While I was boiling a heat bath, my extract was sitting approx 1 meter away from flames, began stirring the settled bark solution which had Naptha (i used shellite) in it and low and behold, FLAMES!!!! (They'd caught on to the vapor and looked like a fire dragon but I handle myself well in extreme situations and quickly removed the oxygen to extinguish flames by throwing a towel over the flames, don't use water you'll just spread the flames)So might be an idea to have an appropriate fire extinguisher on hand.

The bark solution had ignited however I still felt that I was quick enough in extinguishing the flames so the solution wasn't destroyed. I'd made pulls before this so I don't believe the incident affected the potential end product but after scraping the glass dishes there was nothing to scrap and all in all I've really messed the process up (Seemed really simple but there's more to DMT than just the drug)

BTW the Naptha I've drained from the jars is a yellowy colour and maybe the dmt was still left in the Naptha I drained as I may not have got the drying process correct.

I've experienced DMT twice however without associating with hippies, no one I know can acquire it and that's why I tried this procedure myself. After much anticipation followed by a lot of disappointment I've settled to the fact that I'm just not allowed to participate in Hyperspace.

For the successful ones enjoy it for me as I don't have the right it seems.

The process has been enjoyable even without the end product so at least I've learn't something.

Well, not regarding spice extractions but today i learned that iodine stains things real bad.
That did unfortunately include my hands.
Not a big stain but now i am more careful with this stuff.
And i did know iodine stains things but got lazy and wasn't thinking.
I will take more precautions in the future and follow the safety procedures.

Patience is a virtue.

Never change more than one thing per extraction.

- big turkey basters are inconvenient because they drip excessively, syringes and pipettes are better.
- emulsions are irritating, setting the jar on a washing machine and adding base helps solve the problem.
- heat helps most chemical processes, hot sink baths are your friend
- cleanliness is a must, especially because confusing "extraction-ware" and kitchen ware is extremely likely when constantly executing extractions.
- evaporation tests on solvents are a good idea to see if they leave behind any nasty residues.
- lye can make you blind, please wear goggles and a mask. Be safe!!
- open flames are very dangerous with solvents and other chemicals. Instead - double boil, heat baths, and hot plates are safer alternatives.

As stated above, patience. Once you realize what a little patience can provide you with, it will perpetually manifest itself within your reality.

Have fun!