Turkey baster - < $10 wal-mart etc Granted SWIM uses 1-2 turkey basters of naptha to make it easier to pull.

add lots of base so it separates quicker...... 24 hours max. i used a tube and gravity sometimes.

The reason you are having a problem is you are doing like most poeple say here and only us 1mL of naptha per gram of RB. IMO do what helps you pull the spice. SWIM uses 2-5x this. SWIM might have to pull more times, but each one is easy and no stress. 1-2 Turkey basters full of naptha makes it easier. You will not get 100% of the spice but hey, you WILL get spice easier.

Adding more naptha than suggested will not hurt anything.

You can get really clean pulls using a glass baster wile still using around 1ml per gram. Practice! When I started using the baster I sucked at it. Now I can get all but 1/16th of inch of the naphtha off.
Remove very small amounts at a time and release the pressure on the ball really slowly. Also looking though the side of the jar makes it easier to see what your doing.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think the advantage of using less naphtha per pull results in a more saturated solution which makes the freeze-precip process more effective.

-VT

SWIM uses these too...

I use a glass turkey baster. Even if some of the basic solution gets in there, you can squirt into a holding jar and then pour off into your freeze jar. This lets you get all the naptha out.

My friend went through many syringe plungers like this,
then he found a great fix.

Apply a very thin coating of vasoline (petroleum jelly) over the surface & sides of the rubber part of the plunger.
It lubricates the rubber nicely, and provides a protective barrier between the rubber and the naphtha.

He tried this with 3 different "broken" plungers and it worked amazingly

The method I have found works best is a nasal aspirator (also called an ear syringe, bulb style).

Also using a milk jug works amazingly well for larger extractions as you can squish the milk jug and have the naphtha raise to the tapered top.

The aspirator has a narrow opening at the bottom of a long thin tube. If you end up sucking up some of the basified mimosa stew you simply let it settle for a few seconds and squirt back out the basified water...once you see naphtha coming out you move it over to the collection jar and empty all of the naphtha out.

The methods I've tired:

Turkey baster - too big, hard to handle, difficult to get thin layer of naphtha

Syringe - naphtha eats the rubber stopper, cannot be used for toluene. Works well, but stopper jams quickly and rubber is dissolved in the naphtha (safety concern)

pipette - hard to get thin layer off. only works for larger amounts, very slow, not effective

Eye dropper - takes too long, even for a small amount of solvent. Very effective, but very slow

plastic fish tank hose - ineffective for small amounts of solvent, possible naphtha contamination (safety concern)

Nasal aspirator - large bulb means large amounts can be moved with only a few pulls, small hole and long neck means thin layers can be pulled quickly and efficiently. Allows for easy removal of basified mimosa water that got pulled with the naphtha. Most are naphtha resistant, meaning that your naphtha will not dissolve the aspirator. But the largest one you can, it will be as easy to use as the smallest one you can find, but you will be able to move a larger volume of naphtha quickly.

On the topic of syringes,
My buddy found that two syringes glued on top of each other
minimizes direct exposure of the rubber to the naphtha

Not a bad idea!

I've got a pic, just can't figure out how to attach it

check it out:

Nice pic, thats a good idea.
SWIM has his naptha/base mix in a 5l plastic water bottle with the top cut off, so when the naptha seperates and is on top, he can just ladle it off. Works like a charm.

I do my extractions in an old 2000ml volumetric flask, very convenient. With a plastic pipette: http://lisareb.com/images/pipette.jpg I can extract the top layer. The thin column of the volumetric flask allows for very easy removal of the NP solvent.

whats wrong with flavor injector

I was going to buy a flavour injector exactly like that one, but wasn't sure if it was any good to use. Since the 3 syringes i have used in the past have broken cuz of the rubber getting stuck when pulling, i was hesitant to get it for that reason.

Thanks LLB! I think i will stick to using my glass turkey baster... I have mastered the techneque now. Peace

SWIM uses a big syringue (50 ml) with a plastic tube. Yes the naphta affect the rubber, but it's just because it makes the rubber 'inflate' from solvent vapors. After few hours the rubber return to it's original size once the solvent evaporate. No big deal here.

SWIM do not fully fill the syringue with naphta (35 ml on 50), then he put the syringue in a jar full of plain water. Then he fill the remaining space with water so the small possible particles of lye get into the bottom water layer.
Then he push the water layer and few 'security' drops of naphta in the working jar. That way he get very clean naphta quite easily. So far it is the best method SWIM experimented.

For those without syringe/baster/sep-funnel, or for ease with large volumes of solvent, you can 'jack the ripper' it; decant total solution into as many milk jugs as you need, stand the jug in a bowl and stab a hole just above the solvent line. The solvent will drain into the bowl for collection, wear gloves of course because you need to plug the hole to remove the bottle of basified solution. Don't forget to have unpunctured jugs to pour the base solution into when you're done.