Heh, acolon_5 is one of the most pro A/B-guys around here!
Yeah, A/B is much better at that, simply because you remove the plant material you (unwillingly) extract O&Fs from. In your acid solution (which you later basify) you only have the salted alkaloids dissolved, so the naphtha can therefore only pull these (freebase) alkaloids. The solution is per se defatted when you reach the extractionstep.

This is interesting. I'm on my 4th extraction. I mixed the naphtha in for about 3hrs very slowly to try to get as much out as i can. Once again, it doesn't want to separate much. It seems its very temperature dependent. At 20c it doesn't separate much. But at about 40c+ it separates quickly. But then it colors to slightly yellow. All though i did de-fat it with naphtha long before i did anything else, It does seem like i'm pulling off some fat. This is all pretty cool cause, i'm learning. Just find it interesting. I'm thinking a A/B may be a better choice. Next time, i may try it out.

The naphtha has separated after heating once again. Ready to do another pull but i'm wondering... There seems to be 3 layers. The NaOH/bark mix, some sort of "fatty" looking stuff, and then the fairly clear naphtha on top. After i pull off the naphtha, should i pull the layer that looks like fat and discard before adding more naphtha and re-mixing? Or should i just leave it in? Gona see if i can take a pic.

Heres a pic.

Ya can see the 3 layers.


And my extremely high tech setup...


Once again, thanx for the advice.

I have followed the general rule so far. 100g bark, 100g Lye, and just 1000-1100ml of water. Ratio of 1g:1g:10ml. Never had separation problems, only difference on my 2nd extraction ever, was the pulled Shellite has a tinge of yellow. Probably because I have given the mixture of lye and Shellite a nice hot bath, before each pull.

If you don't want to pull anything "unwanted" don't heat the mix. My pulled shellite was crystal clear, and went a misty white when I put it in the freezer. I only heated the last two pulls (out of 5, 200ml pulls) with my 1st extraction.

But when I get a S-Funnel, I will probably be doing A/B extractions.

Very well could have been. I left it in. Can all ways try another pull another day. I have what i pulled in the freezer now. See what happens.

K. Done my freeze precip. Wow! Look at what i got!


300mg from what my friend said was 30g of powdered bark. Its not the purest (little yellow) but good enough for me.
Just want to say thanx to all of you that has posted help and have put up with my stupid questions on chat. Thanx again!

2 things:

1) heat + pulling = more shit in your spice, which is why I NEVER EVER use heat. Causes more problems than it solves IMO, and is never required.

2) the quote is "I dont suffer from mental illness, I enjoy every minute of it."

I have the same problem now instead of starting a new thread i wanted to wake this thread. I did what i was doing every time but this time had some problems. So heres what i did:
- 50gr MHRB
- 250ml water
- ~20gr lye
- 100ml naphta

after first shaking the layers seperated but naphta was so cloudy i thought its because i didnt clean the jar before using since i just bought it. Then shaked again this time seperated and it was clear and yellowish which is what i normally get. Then after 3rd time i shake it it didnt seperate. Its been 15 hours and its still totally black, never seen such a thing before. Adding more water might help ? or i should add more basified water ?

Add more water and more lye. For 50g bark you should have 500ml water and 50g lye.

Ha! Ya beat me to it. Pretty much what I was going to say. Fast replys. That's why I love you guys!

ok let me say this in caps so that maybe people stop repeating this same mistake over and over:

DO NOT SHAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

stir firmly and fast in round motions with some stainless steel object, let the layers settle, stir again, let settle again, repeat this several times before pulling out the naphtha.. never, I repeat, never shake!

and check the FAQ

ohh FAQ helped a lot i always forget to check it . Thanks a lot. Never had problem with shaking up to now tho but i will stir next time. now im gonna add ~100ml water and some lye in it and see what happens. i hope it gets fixed coz this i used 2 kinds of different batch dmt and wanna see what will be the result eheheh. Wont be different probably but its still nice to hope you know

I don't like stirring, since the naphta splashes easily this way and the layers won't mix all the way.

Instead I close the jar tightly, then turn it upside down and back several times until the layers are thoroughly mixed.
I've never had to wait more than 30 minutes for them to separate again.

yeah I guess it depends how you do it and what material/container you have... SWIM always starts stiring slow, then gradually starts increasing speed.. Theres absolutely no splashing when he does it, but his container is of course not filled right up to the top.. He uses some long stainless steel object. Once the speed increases, it forms this whirlpool in the middle and the layers mix very well.. He continues for a couple of minutes full speed, and as soon as he stops the layers separate super fast in just a few minutes. He takes all security precautions and uses gloves and glasses just in case but he never had spills this way..

When he used a container with stainless steel screwable top he made stiring and also the turning upside down turning.. He never noticed any change in yield though.. As long as one repeats the stiring/turning-upside-down thing a few times, its enough

Magic 80ml water and 8-9gr lye solved my problem really nice after turning the bottle up and down few times gently..much thx ppl.. I was so worried about this extraction since i mixed 2 batches of rootbark pink and brown im dyin to try the yield eheheh

Shaking creates more surface area of non-polar solvent to the solution. I in fact shake the shit of my solution and solvent, and end over end. With high enough PH, it will separate WITHOUT heat. I know because this is how I do my Rx and it has been great

Heat = plant oils, much more than room temp pulls.

If the layers dont seperate, the PH isnt high enough. usualy adding more lye will fix the problem, ive also heard of salt being added.

I agree that if the the lye mix is high enough, seperating wont be a problem even with shaking.

What i have noticed my my extractions is that over time, it becomes harder for the layers to seperate. over a week and i had noticed that my naptha layer got smaller, i heated the jar and it increased in size by twice.

I never got much emulsion from giving a shake, and what emulsion did form disapeared in half a day.

stick the to teks, they work. improvisation when you dont understand the process cuases problems

Does this mean twice the amount of lye should be used aswell?