junctionalfunkie said:
OK, SWIM is pretty new to all this, but his technique is improving. He's using STB with MHRB, H2O, food-grade NaOH, and VM&P naphtha.
Couple questions:
1. When do you know that the sludge is depleted of DMT? Is that yellow goop just fats/tannins?
2. Putting jars of DMT-laden naphtha in the freezer to precipitate crystals -- Lid the jars or no?
3. Has anyone used the method of defatting MHRB powder with naphtha (no H2O) before adding filtered powder to the basified water (in Lazyman's Tek)? Results?
4. Can someone explain how to clean up the yellow sludge? Recrystallization or whatever?
Thanks.
1) for STB, after naphtha pulls are not getting anything else out I will add some toulene and let it sit for a few weeks. Pull and evap, you'll be suprised at how much is left.
2) I always put a lid on my jars before sticking them in the freezer. I don't want my freezer smelling like naphtha and I don't want my spice to smell like a freezer! Plus it limits the amount of spills that can happen. Spilling naphtha in the freezer is a real mess.
3) not with a STB. One of the great things about an A/B extraction is the ability to defat during the acidic stage. Some people have tried soaking the bark with naphtha/xylene/toulene before adding lye and water in an attempt to defat, I have not, but they say they have some success with that method.
4) ok, sure, you need to check out threads on recrystalization. One of my issues with STB is the amount of yellow oils that come over. This does not happen as much with A/B extractions. A quick recrystalization:
Get your yellow spice, dry it.
Heat up naphtha (or bestine) until it is almost boiling
Pour 50mL or so into a mason jar that contains your spice. Notice that as the spice dissolves some yellow oily goop is left at the bottom of the jar and won't dissolve...good
Pour your naphtha containing the dissolved spice into another mason jar.
Keep the yellow goop at the bottom, you can pull more spice out of it, but more yellows will come out as well, but it is highly active.
I do not freeze precipitate my recrystalizations, I will put my mason jar in a dark place with the lid 1/2 on 1/2 off.
After 3-4 days your naphtha will be almost completely gone, and you will find that you have grown amazing clusters of glass shard spice.
Don't toss any naphtha that is still in the jar...either evap it all the way down to nothing, or pour off the remaining naphtha into yet another mason jar and stick in the freezer...the last bit of spice will fall out of the naphtha and can be easily collected.
This is my way of cleaning up the spice.
Also something you can do BEFORE you do your first freeze preciptation:
Take some sodium carbonate (baking soda stuck in the oven for a couple of hours on 350/400degrees) and mix as much as you possibly can in luke warm water. Pour off the water and leave any excess sodium carbonate in the container, you only want the water.
Now mix the water and the naphtha, shake, shake, shake. It will seperate easily. Remove the water and discard. It does not contain any spice, only waste products you don't want in your spice.
This is called washing your spice. It will remove any stray lye molecules that happened to come over with the DMT. It also will remove a SMALL portion of the yellow... Your end product will be just a little bit cleaner.
Using both of these methods I have detailed above you should be able to take the yellowest of spice and turn it into shimmering crystaline needles. Remember though, save that yellow goop. I will keep mine in a jar and add more and more everytime I recrystalize. When I have a good amount I will do another recrystalization on it and pull out a good amount of spice...and the leftovers provide a very different experience...but you can still breakthrough using the yellow goop.
good luck and PM me if you have any indepth questions.
