SWIM is attempting the extraction process for the first time and is using Noman's tek. While waiting for his supplies to come in SWIM would like some clarificaiton on a few of the steps. Also SWIM relizes he may sound like an idiot but just wants to make sure he's crystal clear (pun fully intended) on the steps and doesn't screw anything up. Ok here goes:
1. Step 4 says to add 1ml of naptha per gram of bark in the mixing jar. Step 7 says to repeat steps 4-6 three more times. SWIM is assuming this means to add the 1ml of naptha per 1 gram bark each time SWIM does the agitation process described in steps 4-6? (resulting in four collection jars all with the same amount of naptha.)

2. Step 5 says to separate the two layers. Can SWIM accomplish this by pouring the entire mixture into a separatory funnel?

3. Step 9 says to save the filtered naptha as it can be "evaporated down producing a residue which can be further refined." SWIM is confused here; should he try to evaporate the filtered naptha? (and if so can someone provide a link showing how this is done) OR should SWIM use this filtered naptha in the recrystallization process?

4. SWIM wishes to skip the ammonia wash because he read that he may lose a good deal of the spice. Can the lye be eliminated by recrystallizing from hot solvent and adding the crushed activated charcoal?

5. In the recrystallization process the tek says "you will end up with DMT crystals of varying purity atop a pellet of slag..filter the solvent and separate the crystals from the slag." How does SWIM "filter the solvent and seperate the crystals from the slag? SWIM thinks it's done by pouring the whole mixture thru a coffee filter but is not sure.

6. And finally, the tek says "the slag can be further refined" can someone explain or maybe provide a link on how this is done?

SWIM thanks you in advance for your patience and advice. (finding hyperspace is more complicated than SWIM had orginally thought.)

Hello thehumantorch I'll give you my 2 pence on 4 of those points, for what it's worth...
1: Personally, I'd use 2 thirds that ammount of naphtha per pull; will make freeze precip. a lot easier without extra evap. of horrid smelling solvent.
2: Sep funnel will be useless at that stage of a STB- will clog stright away- but can be very useful for 4.
3: Once you've freeze precipped, let the solvent evap down to a half or quarter of original volume and freeze again; if your bark is good you may be surprised at how much slightly dirtier product falls out.
4: A wash of your solvent before freezing with sodium carbonate (washing soda) should remove any lye you've mechanically got in there from your pulls.

After another naphta wash + evaporation SWIM got some yellow oil that smelled plastic. SWIM found that it should be possible to dissolve yellow oil in naphta again and get crystals in freezer. And indeed - it dissolved easily in small amount of naphta and it created quickly some white, solid spots on the bootm of jar in freezer. BUT after pouring away whole naphta, these white solid clumps easily dissolved into oil in room temperature. So maybe I am using wrong kind of naphta after all?

read this thread

maybe it helps you

Thank you. It looks OK, but it didn't really help. Seems my "extraction benzine" is no good for extracting. It is impossible that the spice evaporated with my solvent, right?

There's an online pH calculator: http://www.sensorex.com/...ation/pH_calculator.html

According to this, to get water to pH 13,51 I need 13 g NaOH for 1l of water. To my surprise almost every tek tells to use 100 g NaOH per 1l (!!!) and that gives pH 14.4. So does it really mater what is the pH of the base? Are these teks wrong? Or is it just safe to overbasify and it doesn't matter?

Hey...would like to know if anyone has used this company here for mimosa before or has heard anything regarding their reputation. Pointing me in the direction of any other nice cheap sources would be much appreciated.

Sorry if this is the wrong place or if its not cool to ask openly about sources on here.

I haven't heard of that particular vendor, but you can find a lot of vendor feedback in the Suppliers thread.

Hi all, first post though I've been reading/lurking for about a year now.

Didn't want to make a new post but hoping someone here can give me an answer on my situation.

I am positive its been asked before, but I admit i am a novice at extracting and I'm not sure what to look for to even "find" the answer to this question.
I am using Vortex's quick extraction guide because I need to do my extracts very fast, regardless of the sacrifices I might have to make.


My question: After evaporating the solvent from my recently brewed mimosa, I usually receive half fluffy crystals (very nicely colored, very happy with them), and half "gooey" highly-condensed n,n-DMT "blobs" that aren't really crystalline and they stick to everything. Very hard to work with.

Here is a picture of my vat with those goo's (the crystal has been taken out already):
they are very much more orange and more condensed than my whiter fluffy crystals:






Basically, I'm wondering the best way to go about turning this goo into efficient crystals that I can more easily work with.
I believe the potency and content is 100% "in there", it's just not too hard to work with.

Sorry for any ignorance or lack of education I might have in this case, I would love to hear what I am doing incorrectly with this quick extraction method.,

thanks,

HRL2k

definitely recrystalization is the best way to purify it.. Put it all in a small thin container (like a shot glass). Dissolve it all in a minimum amount of hot solvent (in the case of naphtha, for example, about 25ml per g of unpure stuff). Most will be dissolved, but a layer of dark goo will stay at the bottom. So you just pippete out the solvent layer into a new container, leaving the goo behind.. Then stick this new container (close it properly first) with the ´clean´ solvent into the freezer, wait a night and the next morning you have clean crystals precipitated inside of it..

Awesome, thank you very much for the response!

So would a 2nd shot glass (the one that will be put in the freezer to recrystallize) be a sufficient container as well? Or should I get something more flat-grounded?


appreciate it

well you have to think that later the crystals will need to be scrapped off.. For SWIM, the best option is a very flat grounded container such as a petri dish (or any flat glass sort of dish with not so tall sides) with a couple of layers of plastic wrap to close it (though gotta be careful with spilling naphtha hehe). Then what SWIM does after a night in the freezer is take it out of the freezer, with a razor blade quickly scrape crystals off the bottom, and then pour the naphtha with the floating crystals over a funnel with a coffee filter on it.. Then the naphtha passes but the crystals stay nicely on top.. then just let it dry for a while.

There might be still some leftover crystals that were not properly scraped and stayed in the dish after you poured the naphtha off.. what SWIM does is to turn this dish upside down, with some support so its not completely down but has some room for air to come in.. SWIM also puts a fan more or less next to it, so that it really dries quickly these remaning crystals, and the little solvent that was trapped in between them will fall off the container and not inside (which if it did, as it got warm, it could melt the crystals into a goo that does not dry)

Alright, so SWIM just finished extracting his first 2lbs of MHRB using nomans STB Tek, in 50g increments so as to have a greater ability to correct any mistakes and revise the process. A few questions had arisen along the way and I hope these dont sound too naive. First, each 50g seemed to only yeild ~175mg before purification, and SWIM wondered if this was within normal range for month old bark? Second, how long should it take for the freeze precipitation to finish, a day seemed a bit low from rudimentary chem knowledge. Finally, is there a method that is better, in terms of yeild?

175 mg is on the lower end of what would be expected. 250 mg is pretty typical, though potent bark could yield up to 500 mg or more.

Freeze precipitation only takes 6-12 hours typically. If it's taking longer, then evaporate off some of the naphtha so you're working with a more concentrated solution and try it again.

All methods have the capability of achieving the same yield. It's just a matter of technique, making sure you've pulled out as much spice as possible (ie until the naphtha is no longer picking up any more).

Here's a question.

SWIM follows Noman's tek to the letter in terms of measurements for lye/naptha etc, having recently started to wash with the method suggested by Acelon and also recrystallising in the standard way.

SWIM's product is fine and he smokes it with pleasure but --> it's always in the region of 0.5g from 250g of bark which is a lot less than average yields would say yeah? Note; the yields were in this region even before beginning to wash, suggesting that its not a problem with that introduction.

SWIM has tried varying his suppliers but thinks there must be something he's missing in his technique?

Self-diagnosing SWIM has come up with these possibilities:
- Poor bark --> unlikely, plus different suppliers have been tried (the bark is always thoroughly pulverised by SWIM).
- Using room temp naphtha etc --> SWIM thought that warming would only increase yields that were already good (not mentioned in noman's tek).
- Poor naptha --> SWIM has used different types, using Coleman fuel to good effect and for his last extraction completed yesterday used Swan on someone's suggestion and found exactly the same yield as with previous napthas. There are no problems with any other chems used, SWIM uses pretty standard things which have the seal of approval from other members of the site, and anyway the product is yielding so something must be working!
- Problem with the freeze evaporation; The most likely so far? ---> But his freezer get pretty cold and he stacks other frozen things around the jar, the jar actually hurts his fingertips when he takes it out.
- Something else I just thought of --> not doing enough naphtha pulls. SWIM generally does one more than the amount suggested by Noman. Generally freeze evap separately from the bulk (Noman suggests leaving it in the soup for a day) and SWIM notices that the amount of product after this is minimal, the overwhelming bulk of the yield comes from his main naphtha. WHilst SWIM is probably losing a bit by not keeping on until nothing comes out, surely there's no way it can be enough to make up for 700mg of expected yield?


What is SWIM missing? Any input would be appreciated!

SWIM is almost ready to start extracting using Noman's tek. SWIM has some heptane that he plans to use for recrystallization, but he's got enough of it to use it for the separation process as well. Is this advisable, or is using regular naphtha (white spirit) just as suitable or better?

Don't quote me on it, but I think your should do the pulls with the regular naphtha, then use the heptane for the recrystalization.

edit: problem solved

SWIM was wondering if anybody could help him with figuring out how to do marsofold's tek with 1.5lbs powdered material instead of 1lb (with the same equipment if possible). Any help is much appreciated.