This wee cosmik minded primate has just received a magical sack full of MHRB and has a few simple questions in regard to Cybs' tek before he embarks on his first success.

I have trawled through other posts and haven't found the answers I need, so I do apologize if they are lurking around somewhere!

1. Is 'purified water' (labelled 'ion-exchange distillation treatment' the same as de-ionised water? The tek says that it is perfectly fine to use tap water, but if purified water is better I would prefer to use that. What difference, if any, would it make?

2. Despite having been looking in every supermarket within this backward city I am yet to find glass baking/brownie trays which are ten-a-penny back home. I have opted to use two metal 'non-stick' baking trays. Now, I know this is *probably* not ideal, but is it going to pose a serious problem? I gather that the only product (if all goes smoothly) which shall be put in there is the naptha and spice mix; will the chemical used to treat the trays react with this? I have managed to get glass for every other receptacle called for in the tek, this is the only stage I may need to revert to an alternative. However, that being said...

3. I can also not find a glass measuring jug, the only option available is plastic. Will the lye react badly with this? If so, I can mark out levels onto a pint glass and use that instead.

4. Vinegar. Not being able to find distilled white vinegar, is it OK to use 'apple vinegar'? Funnily enough I am not an expert on vinegar (beyond knowing its nae a real fish n chips unless its slathered in the stuff) and a wikipedia read has left me none the wiser. Am I using the vinegar solely for its acidic nature, or will the distilled white vinegar have different properties from the apple vinegar (besides being throat burningly strong)?


These may seem like very small details but I want everything to be clear and concise so that I leave the smallest margin for error.

Thank you for your help fellow cosmonauts,

May Daniel Radcliffe Be With You.

LS


Ninja Edit: Have found this post which seems to say using non-stick trays would be OK... https://www.dmt-nexus.me...spx?g=posts&t=34545 but I'd like to hear if anyone has another opinion/more insight. The place I currently live doesn't really go in for baking a lot so the variety of baking trays is severely limited. They obviously won't be heated or scratched so I gather they will be entirely fine.

All imo (just to clarify)..

#1, This kind of water will be fine.
#2, Pyrex Dishes (w/plastic lid) are your friend
#3 I would pour a pint into a glass jar and draw a line to measure, some plastics are ok depending on the BPA code (or similar). Best bet is to use glass.
#4 Vinegar is simply for the acidification process, I cannot see why Apple Cider vinegar would be any problem at a push. I have seen teks calling for citric acid, lime juice and all kinds of acidifiers so I reckon it would be fine.

Hope this helps, I'm sure more knowledge will come along soon...

P.S. If Daniel Radcliffe comes round my way it best be in his "Sin City" get up

Cheers brother, I am holding out for a wizened alchemist to confirm my suspicions!

Having read every post I can on teflon here it seems that the main issue isn't with the mixture reacting with the teflon, it's with the scraping off of the crystals afterwards. I think if I scrape up with something other than metal I can avoid any issue

However, I will wait for further confirmation and failing that will requadruple my efforts to find a glass/perspex container!

Keep it fresh!

LS, Founding Father of the Daniel Radcliffe Microwave Kult.

Aluminum is a powerfull reducing agent and will react with certian chemicas such as sodium hydroxide . This is why it is not reccomended as a vessel for extractions. It would normally only be used if called for as part of your reaction. PTFE is used in laboratory equipment such as stir bars and should cause no issues chemically. You are right however about scraping it off and smoking some, this could be bad (the fumes can kill birds).

If I was dertimined to use a new unscratched baking tray for freeze prcip what I would do is redissolve my xtals in a bit of ISO or naphtha and just pour them out from the baking tray into a glass and evaporate. Save scraping ptfe into the spice.

However this would also work fine in an old jam jar which would not have any issues with aliminium or ptfe so I would prob use that instead.

The dish is only reccomended for ease of retrieval as the shape is easiest to scrape your xtals from. You could use any shaped glass vessel and retrieve your spice from it.

One thing I will heartily recommend.. If your going to re-x get yourself some heptane

i do not think there would be any difference that isn't negligible. de-ionized water would certainly work (as would distilled, or really any relatively clean water)


i do not think chemical reaction is the issue here, but as you mentioned, scraping is.
i honestly don't think a rubber spatula (or any non-metal scraper) would cut it.
razor blades collect a lot more than you would assume.

dmt can also be fairly malleable (especially at warmer temps), making it susceptible to crushing it rather than scraping it.

if i were you, i would try and find some un-painted stainless, so you can scrape it fairly well without getting shavings of teflon and/or paint (would have to scrape pretty hard to get more than a negligible amount of stainless, and there is no need to scrape that hard at all)

if you are using an aliphatic, HDPE2 plastic is fine to use.
if you are using an aromatic (xylene/limonene/toluene) you need glass or stainless.


i have heard success stories using apple cider.
if you wan't to be doubly sure, you can basify some vinegar dilute, and pull that with minimal solvent.

evap it to see if you picked up any impurities from the vinegar. if not then it is probably safe to use.


EDIT:

this is actually a really good idea. i can think of no reason that wouldn't work