A couple Q's

[TruthSeeker11]

Can you add too much lye/water for STB?

Can you add too much naphtha?

 

[inextweekelorp]

You can't over basify with lye but a 1:1 bark:lye ratio is probably overkill. Basifying till the mixture is black (> pH 15) plus adding some non-iodized salt seems to work plently. Also with naptha you'll want to have an idea of how much you expect to pull so your solution isn't too under-saturated. 70-100 ml naphtha/g of spice is what I've heard.

 

[TruthSeeker11]

Awesome thanks man much appreciated!

 

[cyb]

You CAN have too much water and dilute your mix too much.

You CAN over base (pH 12 is sufficient) too much lye/heat can cause micro particles in the NPS giving brown product.

You CAN add too much naphtha. 30-40 ml is plenty for each pull, regardless of the amount of water.

 

[inextweekelorp]

Damn someone had told me you can't use too much lye. But isn't the amount of naphtha depandant on what you expect to get? You wouldn't use the same amount of naphtha to pull spice from 100 g of bark that you would for 300 g right?

 

[cyb]

You wouldn't use the same amount of naphtha to pull spice from 100 g of bark that you would for 300 g right?

YES you would...
You see 1g of spice will sit nicely saturated in 30ml of warm naphtha, as happens when you Re-X.
So no matter how large your bark is...you are only pulling out approx 1g at a time.

If you pull with large amounts of naphtha...you are diluting it far too much and have to evap down before freezing.

A common myth/mistake is that you just keep doubling up the ingredient amounts with more bark. This is not right.

 

[inextweekelorp]

So if you were pulling from bark that you knew to have 2+ gs itd be better to use 30 ml twice as opposed to 60 ml once?