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Harmala-lye water eating through coffee filters?

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AluminumFoilRobots

AluminumFoilRobots

gufyg
Hello!

So my harmala extraction has been going smoothly until now. I've decanted the excess lye-water off, but when I try to filter the alkaloids out, the coffee filters just pop. It popped around 6 before I gave up and put it back in tue fridge to settle again. I tried double layering the coffee filters but it would go through. I tried login the top filter and it promptly busted through them both...

What do I do? I mean, I always read in TEKs to filter with a coffee filter... How do yall filter your harmalas?!
 
Decant as much as possibl first, yeah.. Then you can put the coffee filter (or general filter paper) on top of a metal strainer (or a buchner funnel if you want to invest in one) instead of a normal funnel, that way the whole weight is distributed more evenly on the paper and not all in one part, and it more likely wont break.

Also maybe try different brands of coffee filter/filter paper, some are more fragile/crappy than others. If its made of two parts and has a "folding" in the middle, it's usually more fragile than if its all one piece.
 
I bought in the dollar store a few cloth filters mounted in a plastic/metal ring and handle. I fit them on the container mouth, and they don't rip open no matter the weight of the liquid slowly filtering inside. Also, they are easy to squeeze to get the last drops out, and can be easily washed and reused afterwards.
 
I use one of those metal/plastic replacement coffee filters, with a paper filter inside. It is meant to replace the paper filter in a drip coffee maker, but a paper one will fit inside perfectly. The frame and bottom is plastic with metal screen around the side. I put the whole thing inside a big funnel, tilting it in different directions to keep the flow going. It works great for the final filtering and drying.

Another option would be to loosely pack cotton under the paper, inside a funnel. But make sure you wash out most of the base because if it is still very basic it will react with the cotton and clog, but that should only happen with very strong bases such as lye. I use too much lye sometimes.
 
Try decanting off almost all your basic water, then pipette up as much more as possible using a bit of cotton and a glass eye dropper. Once you have as much basic water as possible decanted off, add distilled water to make it pourable and filter.

If your filters are breaking due to the basic water, this should help as the water should be at a much lower ph. You could even do a few base washes like that before filtering using distilled water, and just do one final rinse to get the last little bit of lye rinsed out once its been filtered.

Really though, i'd go for cotton packed in the bottom of a glass/metal funnel if you don't have a buchner. You can find one at most grocery stores, and its leaps and bounds better than using coffee filters, which imho are pretty flimsy and weak for filtering harmala fb out of basic water.
 
Ok I'll decant more off. I just remembered that my wife got some cotton fabric to make a filter-bag for me... That will do the trick I'm sure.
 
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