How much time should I wait between "shaking" the NPS+mix soup?

[DesertWasabi]

I'm a bit confused with all the teks mentions of this step. They all say that after adding the hot NPS the mix will take 30-60min to form the clear NPS layer, however I get this layer in around 5min with no bubbles nor any weird colloid layer inbetween.

Should I just shake the bottle as soon as I get this clear layer, or I have to wait those 30-60min anyways? (which I really don't see the sense of, since the 50ml of NPS I added are supposedly already in the top layer, so there is nothing else reacting with the rest of the mix?)

Also another question: how high should be the NPS layer I will be placing in the freezer? are 0.5-1cm good?

 

[fink]

I am by no means experienced in this arcane magic but from the little I have discovered; the quantity of NaOH used makes a big difference to the time it takes to break emulsions.

I usually shake for 5 mins with warm naphtha, let to settle which takes no more than 10 mins and repeat 3 or 4 times. On the last shake I then let it settle completely for up to an hour.

Sometimes the layer looks very clean after a few minutes. If you pull right there you will often find that a new layer of NPS has separated even further by the next day.

 

[DesertWasabi]

I actually checked today with the 24hrs rest to see if anymore NPS formed a layer after a "quick" pull. And there was one, but VERY thin. I even think that the layer is just what remained from the last layer and was mixed by the pulling process into a colloid that I wasn't sure about trying to get.

 

[fink]

Another thing I've learned here is to leave those thin layers out of the pulls and at some point collect them up and add them into your master soup container, over time they become enough to cleanly pull again.

Certainly would seem better to get 90% without any chance of caustic contamination than that extra 10% and ruin the whole pull.