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Lye-Substitution

Migrated topic.
Correct me if I'm wrong. I believe lime is only good for dry teks. Which dry teks are as good as any I suppose.
 
benzyme said:
KOH (potassium hydroxide).

I believe lime is great for potting cacti, but is a piss-poor excuse for a base.
weak solubility in water





so by your point,
calcium hydroxide wouldnt be a good subsituite for lye in a dmt tek?
 
onethousandk said:
Did I get my chemicals mixed up? I thought sodium carbonate (soda ash) was a food grade substitute for lye.




yes, i have also heard that, i bought it and was saving it for when i got the rest of the relics.
 
Lime works quite well in a dry tek, maybe its not preferred by veterans, but for a newb like me.
 
HCO3 + H2O → H2CO3 + OH− sodium carbonate generates side products lowering solubility and it uses water to make hydroxide ions. it just doesnt get low enough ph if you cant get your hands on sodium hydroxide you can always just acid extract it with distilled white vinegar and buffer it down with your sodium carbonate and put it in your butt XD. sodium hydroxide isnt to bad to work with i sometimes dont even wear gloves but i cant deny geting the occasional lye burn they are bother some.

an benzyme you said 13 ph what is really necessary good ph? considering i used 12.3 ph last time still evaping but considering the use of accurate scale and stoichiometry i didnt factor in the mhrb content so probably like 12ph maybe a little more. considering the sitting duration do you think it matters?
 
As for lye substitute, depend why.. Is it because you cant find it (so any other would do), or because you dont want something so "dangerous"/caustic (in that case the answer would change)?

KOH would be one, but its also caustic.

Hyperspace Fool showed Trisodium phosphate also works.

Sodium carbonate would probably not work for STB, but it might work for A/B (though there are two issues, first of all add very slowly because it will bubble/foam when you mix sodium carb with the acid solution, and secondly, you might have a lot of emulsions, so stir firmly but gently, no shaking, and add some tablesalt to help separation )

Calcium Hydroxide works but only in a dry tek like Q21 or Amor Fati's tek, because like most calcium salts, it has very poor water solubility.


chemisch said:
sodium hydroxide isnt to bad to work with i sometimes dont even wear gloves but i cant deny geting the occasional lye burn they are bother some.

Not good safety example there ;)
 
would baking soda or soda ash be adequate for a DCM pull since not such high ph levels are needed?

edit: without the help of an acid
 
Hey guys, my first post here hope I'm not starting off with a dumb question but. I live in Northern Canada and can't find Sodium Hydroxide anywhere. I can however find "Ro-Tyme Crystal Drain Cleaner" but it's not pure Lye, it also contains Sodium Carbonate. Would this be a suitable substitute for pure Lye as I'd be using the soda ash to wash my crystals afterwards anyway. Hope that wasn't a dumb question that's already been answered, I did a search but it turned up nothing.
Thanks in advance guys.
 
I have the same question. I dont want to work with something as dangerous as lye and risk going blind if I spill something and it gets in my eye or burns if it gets on my skin. I guess I'll stick to the dry tek if I ever make it, luckily I have friends that have good sources of dmt that I think I trust so I dont have to make it
 
cirquefreak333 said:
I have the same question. I dont want to work with something as dangerous as lye and risk going blind if I spill something and it gets in my eye or burns if it gets on my skin. I guess I'll stick to the dry tek if I ever make it, luckily I have friends that have good sources of dmt that I think I trust so I dont have to make it

I thought the same thing and did a lime tek......it was a huge pain in the base.

I had to finish the project with lye anyway because my yield was sucking.

Anyways in retrospect it was a bad choice..the lye was simple and not really to bad to work with ......Also it took no time at all where as the dry tek was taking forever...

in terms of exposure time the lye is the way to go....

To sum it up I could have saved myself a huge amount of anguish by using lye to begin with and just having a bit more faith in myself to handle chemicals.....

I didn't actually graduate high school but I'm fairly sure they work with bases in high school chemistry class. If high school kids can do it i'm pretty sure I can handle it

-just my view on it-
peace
 
Solved my Lye issues found at Home Hardware a product called Free Flowing Crystal Drain Cleaner it's 100% Sodium Hydroxide. If I can get some Lye way out here the rest of you just aren't looking hard enough.
 
Eliyahu said:
To sum it up I could have saved myself a huge amount of anguish by using lye to begin with and just having a bit more faith in myself to handle chemicals.....
I didn't actually graduate high school but I'm fairly sure they work with bases in high school chemistry class. If high school kids can do it i'm pretty sure I can handle it
-just my view on it-
peace
I concur. The usual source for 100% lye is drain cleaner after all!
Just think, somewhere some overtired housewife is dumping this stuff down a drain in blind hope that it will unclog whatever is clogging it. Not exactly rocket surgery.
A direct warning might be "don't be stupid with this flesh burning chemical." Remember that and you'll be okay.

If you really want to be environmentally friendly, I guess that's another matter.
 
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