First two attempts at dmt solution creation and extractions ( one bad, one good)

[DoorSeeker]

SWIM did his first solution and extraction. He followed Noman's tek with 50 grams of mimosa. He took the advice to add 1.5X - 2X water since he used powdered root bark. He added 1300ml of water. This seems to have ended up being a mistake. Swim also did not do the sodium carbonate wash but was very careful not to get any lye/bark solution in the extract. When he sucked up any lye/bark, it went into a mccartney bottle and the naphtha was extracted off the top with an eye dropper. This technique seem to work well. End result after 4 extractions, he barely got anything. About 40 mg. He got nothing out of his last 2 extractions. He then added about 50g more lye and got a bit more out of it. He did not measure it though. I still have the solution and will probably work with it a bit more later.

SWIM then went to his second attempt and created a brand new solution. He took the advice by Kerberos in the "remarks" of Noman's tek and for his second solution he did his advised ratio. 100g bark: 1500ml water: 150g lye. He also kept the solution at between 110 and 120 degrees F between agitations. Again, no sodium carbonate wash but used the mccartney bottle. After 4 extractions he got just under 1 gram including the reducing down and reprecipitating the poured off naphtha! Crystals had a slight yellow color.

Moral of the story, do not water down the solution like Noman says! It is unnecessary and doesn't work well at all! Use Kerberos' ratio!

A trip report will be posted in a separate thread.

 

[AlchemicalGnostic]

mmmm I always had low yeild extractions until I tried nomans water increase to the solution and after that my yields have increased by almost 300%

How long did you let the bark sit In the basified soup before adding the naphtha?
I know nomans tek says to wait 1 or 2 hours but I find ot helps it to sit 24 hours to a week.

I'm a beginner at extractions as well, hopefully someone with more experience can chime in.

Safe and Happy Travels!

 

[DoorSeeker]

You added more water and got bigger yields? I don't understand how that is possible unless the solution was so thick that it wouldn't mix. I thought that was really the only reason to increase water. Adding water should lower the ph and hence lower the yield, assuming it is already mixing properly.


SWIM followed Noman's instructions on the wait time between making the solution and adding naphtha and waited about an hour and a half before adding the naphtha. He has since made a 3rd solution. This time he waited the same amount of time to add the naphtha but did the agitation over a 24 hour period before doing the first extraction. He did not notice a significant difference in yield, though he did not measure the difference. SWIM also did a sodium carbonate wash this time so he may have lost some spice from it. On a different note, he did his 6th extraction from the old second solution that was now about a week old and he got a bigger yield than he did from the 5th extraction so there seems to be something to waiting a long time. I don't know for sure either way. I too would be curious to hear more about this. There seems to be mixed opinions on this on Nexus but I don't know if it has a clear answer either way.

 

[AlchemicalGnostic]

Maybe there were some other factors besides water increase that improved my yields. But before I started adding more water my extractions by the 3rd pull and after I had really bad emulsions. After adding 1.5x water I haven't gotten emulsions since.

But did you add more lye to compensate for the extra water?

and I'd honestly wait longer before adding the naphtha. The longer you let it sit the more it breaks down the cell walls and releases Spice into the solution.

Good luck!

 

[Threeyes]

Is nomans tek straight to base? I am not familiar with it but on quick read thru it appears so and that may have something to do with why a much longer time than an hour is necessary for pulls.

Hard to say since you did deviate slightly then much further with subsequent pulls, I try to follow the teks to the t as close as possible for best outcome but I am also doing A/B teks.

Glad you came out with something though as it is truley disappointing to put in the effort for a total let down

 

[Threeyes]

Hey bud just wanted to chime back in after I did a little further reading and saw a couple post by no man himself I think the issues you encountered stem primarily from the fact that you did deviate from the technique because the suggestion to add more water than the initial technique describes was not made by no man and another post I saw by him on someone's extraction thread they were using specifically powdered root bark and no man said the same amount of water was to be used along with 1 hour wait no problem

I became intrigued and will be trying a run thru of the tek myself I'll report back soon hopefully

 

[DoorSeeker]

How did SWIM deviate from the tek in a way that would result in lower yields? You mean because SWIM added more water? It's right in the tek. I have seen his original post also where he addressed this. He said to use 1.5X to 2.0x the water if you are using powdered root bark and specifically he said do not add more lye, so SWIM didn't. SWIM later added more lye to the solution when he stopped getting any spice and he started getting much more spice out it again.

 

[DoorSeeker]

Maybe there were some other factors besides water increase that improved my yields. But before I started adding more water my extractions by the 3rd pull and after I had really bad emulsions. After adding 1.5x water I haven't gotten emulsions since.

My understanding is that adding water should not get rid of emulsions. Adding lye can get rid of emulsions. Adding heat or letting it sit also can get rid of them. I don't see how additional water would break down an emulsion. Are you sure it was an emulsion and not just thick foam collecting on top?