Fan Blowing Away Precious Spice

[Ashtray770]

Hey all! Now I'm not 100% sure but I think my fan may be blowing away some of my precious DMT furing the drying phase after freeze perception. Has anyone noticed or had this problem before? Or am I likely just imagining things? I could of sworn there was significantly more DMT on this plate when I put it to dry and every time I check on it there seems to be a little less. Am I blowing away my stuff?

 

[Hyper Turtle]

Is it maybe redissolving? Is there still some trapped naphtha present?

Personally i do this:
- Cover the dish with aluminium foil for freeze precipitation. Once that's complete,
- pour off the naphtha carefully but quickly
- put the aluminium foil back on the dish
- place the dish back in the freezer upside down for 30+ minutes
- let the dish acclimate to room temperature, still upside down and with the foil
- take the dish off the foil, place in a way that it's upside down but tilted so air can come in from the sides. Leave it that way until bone dry.
- scrape

I think when using a fan, it's better to blow over the dish than into the dish. Not sure because i don't use one

 

[Ashtray770]

Is it maybe redissolving? Is there still some trapped naphtha present?

Personally i do this:
- Cover the dish with aluminium foil for freeze precipitation. Once that's complete,
- pour off the naphtha carefully but quickly
- put the aluminium foil back on the dish
- place the dish back in the freezer upside down for 30+ minutes
- let the dish acclimate to room temperature, still upside down and with the foil
- take the dish off the foil, place in a way that it's upside down but tilted so air can come in from the sides. Leave it that way until bone dry.
- scrape

I think when using a fan, it's better to blow over the dish than into the dish. Not sure because i don't use one

This is possible, wont it still collect as a goo in that case though? (After evap)
I've been using plastic wrap, pouring put nap quickly after taking from freeze, putting upside down on a towel for a few minutes and then putting infront of the fan.

I think I'll try putting it back in the freezer though cuz I've also been having an issue of the spice floating in the nap/not sticking to the glass when taking out of the freezer. I might try evaporating more of the nap than I have been before freezing as well.

Thanks for the tips! I'll give em a shot.

 

[Voidmatrix]

It'll probably be helpful to also use a smaller fan.

Really though, I'm surprised if it is blowing away because it's usually pretty sticky on the dish after evaporation. I'm wondering if what you initially saw was pockets of ice that formed somehow.

The more you evaporate, the easier it is for the DMT to crash out. You want the DMT to saturate the solvent.

One love

 

[Hyper Turtle]

Yes, it would still collect as a goo, maybe even crumble.

Floaters are not uncommon, you can catch them in a coffee filter. If they melt into the filter, you can later retrieve them with acetone or alcohol.

Your method sounds like it should work well, kinda makes me doubt that my guess was right. Maybe you are blowing your crystals away - it should be reverse

Either way, the advantage of having it upside down in the freezer for a bit is that the trapped naphtha has more time to flow off without having a chance to dissolve the crystals. Then warming with cover on prevents room air humidity condensating on the inside of the dish.

 

[Ashtray770]

Appreciate the replies everyone ^.^

 

[Cosmic Giggle]

May not be what you’re talking about, but this is something I noticed in my last two extractions. My last two attempts, I had floaters in my evap/precip dish. So instead of taking dish out of freezer and pouring off the naphtha, I left the dish in the freezer with the door wide open and used my glass pipette to remove naphtha from the dish. Then removed dish from freezer to evap.

(I had prepped my Büchner funnel and filter paper before work to pour off naphtha after work, but when I got home decided to use the pipette as it seemed like slightly less work overall. It was)

Due to the floaters, was unable to get every last drop of Naptha without also pulling up some of the spice in the pipette. So a little bit of naphtha remained in the dish. Not a puddle or anything, but enough so the spice looks wet. As it sits by the window/small fan to let the naphtha fully evaporate, the spice goes from looking very wet to bone dry, and when this happens it definitely looks like theres a drop in volume of spice in the evap dish.

Sort of like when you dehydrate mushrooms (or any food). It’s so much more pretty (shiny) when it’s wet with naphtha.

If you’re noticing spots on the dish where spice used to be, but is no longer there when you look again later, then you might have a problem. I started using cheesecloth when evaporating over a long period (xylene) to act as a barrier, keeping dust and stuff out. Not sure how well this would work for keeping spice in, as I imagine spice could easily get caught in the cheesecloth like dust does and be hard to see since spice is (ideally) the same color as the cheesecloth.

Perhaps the material used for window screens would work better for keeping spice in the dish. Since it’s black material it would be easy to see and remove any spice that gets stuck in it. You can order rolls fairly cheap at varying screen hole sizes. Cut a piece big enough so there’s some overhang around the dish and wrap a rubber band around it to hold it taut over dish.

Take pics as often as possible and compare them if it’s an ongoing concern.

 

[PedroSanchez]

it's difficult to say without seeing for ourselves, but in general i would say if you feel like it could be blowing away from that much wind then you are safe to lower the fan speed or move the fan away more. i have my fan on low setting and it sits about 6 feet away from the dish and it evaps plenty fast enough.
another thing i do, but more to keep contaminants out, is put the dish inside the leg of a pair of nylon pantyhose. it allows movement of the air while keeping contaminants out (or xtals in). you shouldn't need to do this though, lowering the fan power should be enough.