Alright, finally I figured this site out! I found the welcome announcement and now I know how to post.

I am making my second extraction attempt.

I first tried using the Lazy Man's Tek, evaporating a small portion of my solvent and freeze precipitating the rest. I had trouble recovering my solvent. I thought that my solvent was leaving a residue and that nothing came out of my plant material, but after scraping my tray I realized that it was covered with a brownish DMT-scented goo (as well as some random dust and junk from the environment). There were some flat crystalline structures, but not big enough to scrape (just becoming part of the goo).

This time I am trying this TEK: https://www.dmt-nexus.me...px?g=posts&t=39030. I learned a great deal with the first extraction. This time the procedure went smoother, felt safer (cleanup and prevention of spills was more systematic), and was faster. I am leaving my mixture to sit overnight at room temperature before moving on to decanting. I found an ideal decanting vessel: a very tall and skinny beer glass with a little bulb on the bottom, a tube only slightly bigger than my turkey baster, and a funnel shaped opening at the top.

The TEK takes advantage of the exothermic reaction of basification to increase the solubility of the Naphtha. I am wondering if the additional time leaving the mixture will increase yields or if this will not be the case because the Naphtha will lose solubility as it cools. As I understand it the OP in the thread mentioned above was saying that the Naphtha was "super saturated" right after mixing and became less saturated after he decanted it, which caused some crystals to crash out before he put it in the freezer? If I let my mixture cool to room temperature before decanting does that mean that I may have to do more pulls than I would have to do otherwise? I didn't get too vigorous with my agitation of the mixture. There was a fair amount of room in my jar but I was concerned about the mixture splashing up against the lid, which I presumed must be aluminum covered with BPA and not something that should come into contact with chemicals. When the solvent is sitting on top of the aqueous layer does it slowly pull more spice out or does this only happen when the two layers are forced to interact? Last time the solvent that was left in the jar for 24 hours became yellow, whereas the stuff decanted after three hours was clear. Can I put in too much lye or is it better to err on the side of caution? If the PH is not quite optimum would additional time letting the mixture sit compensate for this?

One more question: I have ran out of my better solvent. Most people here seem to think that Ronsonol is clean enough to use. Does anybody reading this have an opinion on the matter? In any case it wouldn't hurt to do a test evaporation of some.

Ronsonol was fine for me in the uk.
Once np has surfaced and it looks the same amount as you put in you can either decant and put straight in the freezer or you can shake again to get that little bit more.
Then add fresh and do it again, if its thick bark sludge it can take days to fully surface.
Re lye; use equal amount as you have bark, excess can be washed out at the end, pH will drop slightly over time as it confronts acid but with bark soup its good for it to be left so it lyses maximum alkaloids.

Couldnt see the tek you were using but cybs max ion is looking like the big yielder at the moment.
Adding salt to bark soup is a must imo..

Use an equal amount of lye by weight as bark? That is more than twice what my TEKs were saying. What is "salt"? I assume you don't mean table salt?

Yes, he does mean table salt. Non-iodized only.

If your solvent cools while it is in the mixing jar, some of the DMT will drop out as it cools. So yes, you would have to do more pulls than if the solvent was warm from the time it is put in the solution to the time it is removed. The solvent will only pick up DMT when it is being mixed with the aqueous solution, hence why most teks recommend mixing the solution and letting it separate many times before removing the solvent. There is really no benefit to letting it sit on top of the aqueous layer overnight. It is really best to mix the solvent very thoroughly several times to ensure it picks up as much as possible. I would recommend putting a piece of tin foil underneath your lid when you screw it on if you are worried about the lid coming in contact with your solvent.

It is absolutely necessary for you to get the pH of the solution high enough, otherwise you run the risk of not converting all the DMT salts to their freebase form. Therefore if the pH is too low, the DMT will not be soluble in your solvent, and it will not be picked up by your non- polar pulls. Letting the solvent sit on top will do nothing to compensate if the pH is too low. A DreaMTripper stated, it is better to add excess lye than to not add enough.

I wish you luck on your project