I've tried extracting three times based on Earthwalker's ACRB Extraction. This is based on my latest attempt with all new plant material from a more reputable source.

Notable Tools:
1.78L Plastic Bottle
Turkey Baster

Materials:
100g ACRB
50ml Distilled White Vinegar (5%)
80g of Kosher Salt
50g Lye (NaOH)
VM&P Naptha (Evaps Clear)
Distilled Water

Note: All Heat Baths were boiled then reboiled when they hit 50°C or lower.

ACRB Prep (Fail 1):
ACRB put into coffee grinder. Not completely powdered. Quite a bit more "shredded"

Fail 2:
Planned to start extraction right after work. ACRB put into Bottle and added 400ml water. Too tired to go on. Postponed about 24hrs.

Acid/Defat:
50ml Vinegar added to ACRB - Water solution. 1.5 Hr Heat Bath.
800ml Saline prepared per Tek.

Base:
50g Lye into 300ml Water Added to soup. 2 Hr Heat Bath.

Pulling:
Naptha in Heat Bath. No specific temp established when used to pull. Usually 40 - 60°C.
All pulls made with 50ml. I failed to count pulls as they were all clear. Not white like I’ve heard of. There was no “crashing out” as stated in the Tek. Ended up with a bunch of black/red gunk in pulls.

Mini A/B:
500ml Water + 50ml Vinegar
10mins to gently mixing
200ml Water + 50g Lye
Pulls done the same way. Much more clear. Placed into Pyrex Pie Dish, covered, and put into freezer.

Results:
Pie Dish (Image 1)
Scrape 1 (Image 2)
I let the pie dish sit overnight to allow the brown goo to relieve itself of Naptha.
Scrape 2 (Image 3)

Hindsight/Questions:
I should use Vovin's Tek strategy for powerdering ACRB.
EW's extraction was done with HCl. Suggested 50-60ml of any acid. Do I need more vinegar?
Was my Naptha not hot enough?
I know I need a new pulling tool, any other equipment improvements?
What’s the biggest hang up here?



Vaping Issues:
Tools:
GVG Bat
TurboFlame Arc Lighter

The first two times I vaped DMT were from a Pax 2 and a miniature water pipe. Neither were ideal, but they worked and the psychedelia was felt.
I tried several methods of vaping the little DMT I extracted. I tried to vape with Mint. I tried to vape with steel wool. I tried to vape the DMT alone. I originally tried to place it in the chamber. After more research on vaping with the GVG Bat I tried putting the substance directly on the ceramic pad loading the pipe standing up. Doing this forced me to hold the pipe vertically, which wasn’t a problem. Still no vapor. I tried the TurboFlame, a Bic, and hemp wick. None seemed to work properly, but the DMT was going somewhere. Burned away? I’m not sure.
Any insight on this vaping tool and/or my methods would be awesome!

At the end of the attempted sessions (two nights) my pipe looked like Image 4.
Is this normal?

Thank you for looking at this long post. I tried to be as thorough as possible.
Safe Travels,
AASB

Hmm. EW's tek is pretty solid, I've had good results using it. You may want to look into cyb's salt tek, as it's been proven tried and true, and works solid with ACRB.

I'm by no means any kind of authority on extracting, but can toss a couple pennies your way fit at least a couple of your points:


This could be an issue, I've always used the same weight of lye as source material, i.e.: 100gm ACRB for 100gm lye etc.


Don't worry about the last little layer of nps, as you do more pulls and exhaust the spice from solution, you'll retrieve what's there. A good thing to do is to decant your pulls into a primary container (a large shot glass works well) and let impurities settle out, then carefully pour that into your collection vessel to precip as per your preferred method (freeze or evap.).


Vinegar works fine. If you can access a pH meter, aim for 2-3. I'm not clear how much solution you added the 50ml to, but yes maybe you could use more. Again, the vols in cybs tek are good guides.

Peace to you, thanks for posting, and best wishes for future extracts.

Thank you for all the info! I think I will try the same general Tek instructions again with this in mind! Hoping to see much better pull results!

So after re-re-re-reading all of the Teks I have, it looks like I've been doing my pulls completely wrong. Cyb's Tek was the first I ever worked with. I re-downloaded the PDF version and am finding that total pulls should be about 1L of Naphtha. 50ml x 4 x 5 = 1L. I have been pulling at 50ml x4 - 8 not realizing these Teks have 200ml per pull, not 50ml. Some of the wording has been confusing I guess.

I now feel like a completely stupid novice. So much wasted product I have probably lost.

50-100ml per pull is plenty. 200ml per pull is overkill. 50ml of solvent can dissolve roughly a gram of DMT freebase, btw.

Add 50ml to base mix, shake and let separate 4 times. Remove naphtha into collection dish. Add 50ml fresh naphtha to base mix and repeat those steps. There should be roughly 4-6 total pulls of 50ml each which equals 200ml-300ml MAX of total solvent.

You should never end up with 1 liter of solvent. You had it right the first time, man. Sometimes bark is just weak and contains a low amount of alkaloids.

Alright, thank you man. I thought it seemed like too much, but Cyb's Tek says 50ml, mix. Do 4 times. Pull. Do this 5-6 times. Which is where I think my confusion was. I believe I've run into "bad bark" before. This seemed to carry a better smell. We shall see.

Thanks again!