so i just made the switch from lye to CaOH but i am noticing an emultion layer that is sitting on top of the naptha. i added more water and that seemed to help a little but the layer is still pretty thick and i cant keep adding water forever. any ideas, folks?

On top of the naptha??? SWIM has had this problem but it was a typical emulsion position right between the two layers.

if the lime is not mixed in to the bark thoroughly it will form a nasty gooey suspension.

What step are you at? You may just have to decant off the naptha that is visible then evaporate all of it down to a paste.
Adding water will definately not help like with lye, only .173g of lime dissolves in 100ml of water.

Sorry about that, but if you can tell me what step caused this then I could update my tek to make sure no one else has to go through the hassle. (Whether it was q21q21's tek or another limetek you follow, either way.)

Good luck

my friend asked me to post the following for him:
i'm sorry but i followed my own tek that worked flawlessly with lye but i guess not so much now... its pretty simple though

fill a jar with ~40oz water
add 4 tablespoons lye
add 5 heaping tablespoons bark
add 1 1/2 oz naptha for each pull
do 4 pulls, frezze precip

it worked great for lye i was thinking it could be called moga's mimosa extraction for dummies. but i noticed that when i put the CaOH in the jar it looked milky white and i kept stiring because i thought it would get clear like lye does but it diidnt so it looked exactly like milk when i added the bark

i dont want to simply decant the naptha because there is reddish emulsion on top of the naptha layer. i dont understand why it makes no sense to me at all. it doesnt look like the emulsion layer i have seen before from shaking the jar instead of rolling it, this one is different... kind of like the foam on the top of a beer.

edit: just checked out your tek... the main difference in what i did vs what you did is that i had A LOT more water in the solution i prefer to work with liquids as opposed to solids but do you think that could be it?

Although lime will work just as well as lye, you simply cannot substitute lime for lye because lye is very water soluble and lime is barely soluble at all.

5 tbsp of bark is probably only 75-100g bark, SWIM would recommend scrapping it if you have more bark, it will take a lot of time and work to fix the extraction which may or may not work.

Maybe try doing a proper lime-tek while you are waiting. (SWIM hears q21q21's tek work well... haha)

While doing a fresh tek take the mush and leave it sitting out in a baking tray or something for a week or so until it no longer smells of naptha (DON'T put naptha in the OVEN!) then you can put the tray in the oven at LOW until it becomes like mud. Then begin your work.


You can post any question you have about the tek, though please look through the tek and don't ask questions that are clearly stated in the tek.


Cheers

okay ill give it a whirl thanks.

what appears to be trapped in the emulsion layer on top of the np?
black basified material or something else?

any idea what your ph is at?