Someone was thinking sea salt might be able to break up the emulsive layer. That person was going to wait and hope for some more feedback here in this forum based on photos supplied. Thanks much weare for commenting.


Btw, would that be coarse or fine with the NaCl?

get it really warm and the emulsion should break if you are basic enough

be safe heating- no open flames. a double boiler type rig is good- release pressure from the vessel frequently

heat the entire vessel evenly- cheap glass can crack if only a portion gets hot.

i've never used salt

good luck and feel free to pm again if needed
d

How about a crockpot with water in it. The jar is a martinelli apple juice bottle. I would assume this means extremely durable to heat due to process for creating apple juice.

Say it doesn't break up..... More lye?

It didn't seem to break, or so I was told - however it was noticed that some more separation occurred - specifically to the D-Limo layer - and now - beneath the d-limo layer it can be seen that there are "chunks" of stuff floating.... Said "tea" was very very "see-through" prior to basing and then providing the solvent.... is it possible that the lye was added too quickly? - is that what could be the chunks as it was previously unknown how slow is "add lye slowly?"

If so - what is recommended.....?

heat
more base
time
gentle stirring

nothing else to say!

if you add nps to cacti mix before the flesh is fully hydrated some solvent can be lost forever

DG, you are the man!!!!

So for anyone who has been following along and reading, let's report someone's results and findings.

The vessel was heated slowly - first with a warm "sink" bath - with water set at as hot as possible for 15 minutes to apply heat to the vessel's exterior glass. A thin piece of glass (candle plate) was then placed into a "ceramic" crock pot. Said crock pot was then filled with the same hot water from the tap and the vessel placed on top of the candle plate inside the crockpot. (The candle-plate was flat on one side, but only had a protruding ledge on the other side around the perimeter, (kind of like feet/standoff) thus allowing for minimal heat transference through the plate and at the same time removing the vessel from being directly connected physically to the crockpot.)

The crock pot proceeded to gently heat the water over the course of 3-4 hours to approximately 160f. (For those who do not know, a crockpot does not have a designated temperature setting for low or high, but a good generalization of 160 - 180f for the low setting is accurate. - Typically it takes a crock-pot approx. 4 hours to heat meat on low to a proper temperature for consumption.)

The slightest bit more base was added after 2 hours, and as opposed to gently stirring, the vessel was rotated in such a way as to make the emulsion inside move.

Attached below is a shot of how it looked this morning.

Also - 2nd picture below is a candle-plate for those who are curious.


Questions are:

Does the limo layer look correct (SWIM can still see spongy mass directly beneath the limo layer....is that okay?)

...because the Limo layer is available and extractable and no-longer colorless/clear (i.e. it has changed to the yellowy color illustrated in heavenly's tek) - someone should have no problems and has done things correctly to this point??

Also, once the limo is pulled - is it ok to apply "more solvent" and let said emulsion separate again and then do a 2nd cleaning? Can more product be harvested a 2nd time?

Candle Plate::

Does the limo layer look correct (SWIM can still see spongy mass directly beneath the limo layer....is that okay?)---YES

...because the Limo layer is available and extractable and no-longer colorless/clear (i.e. it has changed to the yellowy color illustrated in heavenly's tek) - someone should have no problems and has done things correctly to this point?? ----LOOKS GOOD

Also, once the limo is pulled - is it ok to apply "more solvent" and let said emulsion separate again and then do a 2nd cleaning? Can more product be harvested a 2nd time?---YES- do three- five "pulls" from the aqueous

If layers are not separating again, apply more base?

I'm working on this tek, and I've got something strange happening. Perhaps you folks can share some insight as to what might be going on.

I followed the tek to the letter, using about 4.5 lb T. bridgessi flesh, and I am at the limonene pull stage. I did my first pull, no problem, saved it in a jar. But the second pull isn't getting that nice yellow color that the first one did. I have never had this happen with other cactus teks, they were always about the same color when I removed the limo layer. I mixed the solvent very thoroughly about 15 times, and when it separates it's just barely tinted greenish yellow rather than that nice urine-yellow color I was expecting. The first 150mL pull couldn't have possibly pulled all the yellow, right?

Thanks for reading, if anyone would like to share some ideas I would really appreciate it. If I don't figure it out I may just salt it separately to see if it has picked up any mescaline.

Entheo,

If he doesn't respond, I would reach out to dg via private message. He is a wealth of knowledge.

That being said, my 2nd/3rd solvent pulls were distinctly less yellow in terms of intensity.

But I still pulled product. Definitely not tinted greenish tho.

Dg?

Thanks archmage, I appreciate your input. It didn't appear all that greenish to begin with, but I let it sit for a few more hours and looked at it in a different light and it wasn't really green at all. Just faintly yellow. I have done 69ron's D-limo tek in the past and all my pulls were very yellow, so perhaps it has something to do with the different methods.

Thanks again for chiming in. I'll probably just continue the tek and post again if I run into any problems.

Ok, one more question. It seems to be a pretty impossible feat to separate the HCl layer from the limonene when salting without getting a little bit of limo in the aqueous layer, if using a turkey baster... Will the remnants of the limonene be removed by the acetone wash at the end? I am not too terribly concerned about it, since limonene is non-toxic. But as I'm sure some of you can understand, I tend to be a bit of a stickler for purity

Sorry for the double post, but I really am kind of eager to figure this out. I guess I'll know once I get to the acetone wash step, after I finish all my saltings of all my pulls, but it'd be nice if I could have some idea what to expect.

Supposedly D-limonene is miscible with acetone. Does this mean that an acetone wash will remove the dried-out D-limo remnants?

Enth.

I missed your post.

Here's what I do.

I use an eye dropper. Glass and a 25 ml pipette.. And be aware that when you siphon off the HCL layer from beneath the limo you're always in most cases going to get a little bit of limo. But, not to worry. Get as much of the hcl extract onto your evaporation medium and then when there's almost none left, suck the rest of everything up....wait a few minutes and the limo will rise to the top of the Baster/pipette. Just drip out the rest of the hcl, leaving the limo in the Baster.

If you're still having problem with the last 1/2 to 1 ml. That's when I switch to the eye dropper.
I don't have the answer on the last question in your post but I don't think it matters.

Hope this helps.

Thanks Archmage. This is basically what I have been doing, but I still end up with some D-limo contamination. Right now I'm trying the freezer method - where you freeze the bottom aqueous layer, pour off the limonene, and wipe any residual limo off the top of the HCl/mescaline solution ice block. It's a little ghetto, but it should work pretty well for the time being. I really just need to invest in a new separatory funnel...

They're pretty cheap on amazon and if you have prime they ship in no time. Turkey Baster was certainly not getting it done for me. 25 ml pipette with rubber bulb and glass calibrated eye dropper made a serious difference.

Let me know how things go brother.

Thanks, will do. I used to have a couple of really nice sep funnels a few years ago, 500mL and 1000mL, but one broke and the other had to be disposed of for other reasons. I have a newer 500mL sep funnel without a stand, but it has a pressure equalizer tube so I can't mix things in it...

EDIT: I am not so much concerned about ingesting the dried up D-limo contamination as I am about accurately weighing doses. After evaporating my first salting, I scraped the dish up into a waxy residue. After chopping and stirring this for a few minutes it became more of a powder. The powder tested positive for mescaline with Meck, Marquis, and Mandelin reagents (as expected); but it smells very strongly of D-limonene. I really have no way of knowing how much of it is mescaline and how much of it is concentrated D-limonene residue, so if all else fails I may perform a mini-A/B on it using Xylene.

Lmao.... don't want to know.

Wouldn't mind seeing some pics posted tho of what you have going on and the process.....

Good luck with all of that.

I'll see what I can do!