cellux said:
Here is the process as I imagine it, expressed as a list of steps. Please correct/advise if I'm wrong somewhere or I'm missing something.
Act I - Acid
1. put powdered MHRB, vinegar and water into pot
2. boil for 30 minutes
3. leave it there until MHRB falls to the bottom of pot (7-8 hours)
4. decant the acidic solution into another container
5. reduce (boil) the acidic solution until ca. 600 ml remains
So far so good. Just one extra step: after boiling do a first simple decant (some particles may go through, no problem) and add a little more water to wash the mimosa mush. You can heat that up a bit and let it decant throughly. When both liquids have precipitated, do a careful decanting and join them together. Finally you can boil the clear liquid until reaching 600 ml
cellux said:
Act II - Base
1. mix water with lye in Erlenmeyer flask
2. pour the result of Act I into the flask, mix
3. check ph, if above 14, it's good
Perfect. That's it!
cellux said:
Act III - Pull
1. heat flask
2. pour 30 ml of naphtha into flask, shake for 10 mins
3. wait until naphtha layer separates
4. remove naphtha layer, put into fridge
That's it. Do at least 3 pulls with Naphtha
cellux said:
Questions:
I/1. The bottled, food grade vinegar I can buy at the store is a 5% solution (water+vinegar). Are we talking about that here? Or a 10% solution? Or 100% vinegar?
5% is fine. Choose the clearest vinegar you can find, as close as possible to water in color. This is often the worst quality vinegar, sold in discount department stores (plastic bottle, unbranded,... you get the picture). The vinegar used was 5.5% acidic
cellux said:
I/4. How do you decant? Just by tilting the pot and pouring off the liquid to the other container (ensuring that all of the bark remains in the original pot)?
Basically that's it. After a through precipitation the mush will be on the bottm, and if done carefully
very few bark will pass through. For security you can use a used T-shirt as a filter, but that's not really necessary. Also even if a little bit of bark goes into the final mix, it really does not matter
cellux said:
III/1. What do you use to heat the flask? A Bunsen lighter?
no. A electric boiler plate! if set on ultra low, it will get just the exact amount oh heat you need. They are dirt cheap if bought on discount kitchen equipment stores (15 USD/EUR/GBP...)
cellux said:
III/4. How do you remove the naphtha layer from the flask?
A syringe has been used to very good results. Use a 10 ml one - it is quite big, and you can buy one at a pharmacy without raising suspicions, as these are used mainly for antibiotics. A 10 ml syringe holds enough naphtha to do it in a half a dozen times and also gives you a fair amount of control over what you are picking. Also if some lye solution falls into your container that goes into the freezer, you can pick it up very easily!
Hope this helps!
[By the way. On the next extraction, my friends are going to use lime. you can get pH of about 14 easily, and I see no reason why it cannot work]