SWIM is in the process of extraction using Noman's Tek.

He used 55g lye, 50g MHRB (prepowdered), and 900ml water. SWIM added 50ml naphtha for the first pull, and 75ml for the second, 50ml for the rest. This is to compensate for the bit he cannot collect safely.

SWIM mixed the jar by gently turning it upsidedown and back trying not to splash. For the first pull the naphtha separated fairly quickly but SWIM noticed many small bubbles mixed in with the naphtha. Eventually these bubbles calmed down and SWIM was left with very clear naphtha layer on the top. SWIM used a turkey baster and pulled most of it into a tall thin jar, and then poured that into the collection jar, careful to avoid the tiny few black spots that he got by accident.

SWIM is now wondering if maybe he did something wrong. The naphtha is coming out exactly as it went in. Perfectly clear with nothing visible floating inside. Should it not have a slight yellow tint? Should he not see small tiny things floating around inside?

SWIM is going to evap a small amount of the collected naphtha before putting it in the freezer overnight. SWIM hopes at least something will be in the jars!

the naptha won't always turn yellow. sounds like swiy is on the right track. the spice won't be visibly floating around in the naptha until it starts to drop out of solution during freeze precipitation. evaporating a bit before swiy puts it in the freezer is a fine idea. swiy will most likely have some "snow globes" waiting in the morning.

SWIM certainly hopes so! SWIM is glad to know, for a while he considered adding more lye. He decided not to because everything seemed to separating so well; he wasn't sure if any DMT was coming up though.

SWIM will let you know how it looks in the morning. SWIM looked at the jars and noticed that jar 1 is much more cloudy than jar 3. He hopes this indicates high concentration of DMT
SWIM noticed they turned cloudy after sitting in the freezer for some time. No longer clear.

Snow globes SWIM is thoroughly pleased with the quality of the DMT, although his eyes aren't quite trained yet.

SWIM used 50g of MHRB and got around 90mg from this procedure. He will probably get alot more after he reuses this naphtha. SWIM found it quite difficult to scrub out the paste from his jar so he figured he will do the following...Reuse the naphtha, shake it around and wait for DMT to dissolved, then try evaping even more naphtha before using his freezer once more.

SWIM is sure he went wrong in his procedure somewhere. Only the first jar yeilded any snow globes. The second jar has a very tiny amount, but it was contaminated with my lye stew (bad aim). Several spots swim is also sure made a negative impact on yield.

1: Turkey baster drips from mixing jar to collection jar, spice lost on the counter. Even a single drop would be a big loss on this scale!
2: Should have added more lye before doing naphtha pulls. SWIM saw bubbles when he agitated the stew.
3: SWIM should have let more naphtha evaporate before freeze precipitating, he was very tired, start earlier in the day.
4: Should scrub jar with some MJ. SWIM sees precious spice stuck to the jar!
5: First attempt, get better over time.

RESULT: ~90mg - more to come
perfectly clean spice, white powder with no visible impurities

SWIM will post in the nursery about his first experience. SWIM thanks all who guided him along the way.

90mg from 50g of MHRB is 1.8% yield. That's some nice bark.

Are you sure? SWIMs math may have been off but he thought 0.5% of 50g would be 250mg.

1.8% yeild would be 900mg would it not?

you are correct jacetea. swiy will probably have a good amount more coming from more pulls.

SWIM got about another 90mg from his re-preciped' naphtha. Still nothing from his other jar pulls. Seems only pull 1 and 2 yielded any DMT. He is going to reuse the naphtha in hopes of salvaging whatever is left.

Second extraction under-way...Collection jar 1 contains 2 naphtha pulls.
SWIM used less naphtha this time, both pulls at 50ml each.
He also let the "lye stew" soak overnight and used a bit more lye in his brew.
He is letting a small layer of naphtha soak through overnight.
SWIM perfected his turkey baster skills
He will leave it in the freezer for much longer

First extraction: 50g = ~180mg
Yield = aprox 0.35%

SWIM will see how well he does with extract 2. He isn't sure whether it's crappy bark or crappy method.

Get rid of that turkey baster. I don't know how anyone can use those. I've lost a lot of spice due to spills because of those damn things.

Get a nasal aspirator (bulb with narrow syringe like tip). You can easily get almost every drop out very quickly with one. Turkey basters work well with massive amounts of naphtha, but we're talking 50mL, 75mL here.

They are also called an ear syringe (make sure it's the bulb type).

They go for $3-8USD. Cannot be used with Xylene or Toluene, but work wonderful for naphtha and heptane.

aha! Thank you. SWIM was desperately looking for a cheap way to extract the naphtha. He will go buy one tomorrow! SWIM noticed turkey basters were probably only meant to work with turkeys

Since I reuse naptha, I tend to use too much. This has yet to cause me problems with yield or quality. Usually in a 1L jar I use 2-3 Baster fulls. No idea how much that is but it's all I need for all my pulls.

SWIM did a few things differently and came up with much better results.

50g bark = aprox 250mg spice
Plus SWIM hasn't scrubbed his jars yet.

SWIM would estimate at least 300mg, he still has one more pull to make on his sludge too, maybe more if it still yields decently.

1: SWIM added 1 more tablespoon of lye (he did math no worries)
2: SWIM didn't spill a single drop of naphtha
3: SWIM let the bark soak overnight instead of a single hour
4: SWIM left the jar in the freezer for more than 24 hours
5: SWIM was less giddy and did the process with more patience and precision
6: Less naphtha was used, he reused naphtha from previous extraction...Less naphtha per collection jar as well (didn't combine).

SWIM believes reusing the naphtha is key to getting better yields. First yield might be a tad low but the rest should be better if any DMT is still remaining in the naphtha.

SWIM's naphtha takes forever to evaporate, so he uses smaller amounts with a few more mixes and sitting instead. No heat was used. Pure white crystals.