Hi, I'm a newby to the forum and not really used to forums in general but here's some info if you're still looking for cheap clean solvent. Naptha is sold as X55 by Shell in NSW and probably all of Oz. It evaps quickly, leaves absolutely no residue (in my tests & experience so far) and it's sold at $50-$60 for 20 litres in most depots I called. BP sells another equivalent called solvent 1425 but the prices were around $85 per 20 litres and the MSDS made me a bit suspicious of the additives that might be in it, although poeple I spoke to say it burns clean. Hope this is of some use.

Great information. I will need to check into this, X55? Are you sure its Naphtha, and not another brand of Shellite? Either way, I would not mind trying this one out. I think I read Naphtha is better at growing crystals to boot, where as Shellite is not so good at growing crystals.

I am also pretty sure Naphtha and shellite are two different (yet the same) solvents?

As far as I know Shellite should, or used to be, straight naphtha (which is a mix of volatiles from a certain range of the fractioning process anyway) but the industry loves to dump their less usefull crap wherever they can so who knows what ends up in it nowadays. The X55 is mostly naphtha (Material Formal Name : Naphtha (petroleum), hydrotreated light) with some n-Hexane and trace amounts of toluene. Either way I've tested it quite a bit and never a trace of anything remained after an evap and blowing air into the vessel for 10-20 seconds. Another plus is it's probably aimed at/made for primary producers or related industry so they probably have to keep it clean - probably why they don't sell less than 20 litres also.

I haven't tried growing crystals 'cos I only did my first succesful extraction last week (at least I'm hopefull!! ...lots of small white crystals forming in the freezer out of now cloudy naphtha). I'm really looking forward to trying the spice! First time for me. This is my second attempt with acacia (longifolia this time I think). My first attempt was with 200g Baileyana bark and all I got was a few golden oily smudges left after an evap (nothing happened in the freezer overnight and I was impatient ). Tried vapourising it and sucking back but just got a real peacefull feeling out of it, nothing more.

I can send the MSDS for the X55 if your interested?

i was just admiring your crystals and the second pic i believe solves the riddle as to why you had blue crystals.is that blue fabric what you used to strain your solvent/crystals with?if so i believ that some of the blue dye from that fabric may have been what caused your blue crystals,can't believe noone else noticed that.maybe some of the dye got washed off the fabric and into you crystals,maybe if you used the same fabric to filter later and you got no blue transfer then all the blue is through coming off the fabric.

just an observation.


or the spice is just in a clear bowl setting on top of that blue fabric?

CAPTAIN HYPERSPACE,

SWIM tried a couple of teks and wound up with garbage, even after she washed and recrystalized (all this did was reduce the apparent yield, quality was still crap). Some of her crap was (as her bro said) "windex blue." She wound up disposing of these failed attempts.

She would respectfully suggest that you try Noman's "DMT for the Masses" tek. It uses naptha and freeze precipitation. SWIM has used this to great effect with Coleman fuel. It is hard for her not to peek in the freezer overnight. Also, she tends to give it at least 12 hours (rather than in the freezer.

Sorry, but SWIM does not currently have a digital camera to attach a photo. She is routinely getting snowy white, light flaky crystals that have been treating her VERY nicely in hyperspace . . .

SWIM's bro indicated that her and some folks' on this forum might have a heavy, expensive habit. . . The truth is after an initial $100 investment in equipment and materials, SWIM's cost to produce 3200 mg of spice is $60! The main expense is time - it takes her many, many hours to properly separate; and sweat - she wears the full protective outfit of long sleeves/pants, socks/shoes, respirator, goggles, thick gloves, etc. She lives in a hot area and has nothing but fan-cooled air in her kitchen. So, she sweats and sweats and sweats. At the end, when the jars go in the freezer she is nearly in an altered state from the artificial "sweat lodge" experience. She tends to shower and drink an electrolyte drink at this point . . .

Best of luck to you. It is worth re-doing and waiting until you have a clean product that you are anxious to vaporize without wondering if it is safe . . .

Peace & Love,
Pandora

SWIM has evap tested Colemans before. A turquoise blue residue was the result.

Perhaps your evap test was of too small a quantity of Colemans, so the residue didn't show up enough for you to notice. SWIM evaporated half a coffee cup which resulted in a very obvious sticky blue residue. Rumour has it it's an anti-rust additive, but who knows what it really is. SWIM isn't the only one who has said that Colemans is dirty.

Or maybe there was only a little of this additive in the fuel so you didn't notice it on evap test, but maybe what little there was in there was attracted to the crystals. (I'm no chemist)