Marsofold tek questions

[Antmil8889]

I've went through a kilo of bark using Gordotek and wanted to try something different so I went with this one because it was large batch and I wanted to get it over with.

Its my first time using lye ( I'm aware of all safety precautions) and I just wanted to check a couple things that seemed off, or that I was going to change

1. It Doesn't call for heated(water bath) naptha

2. 50 grams of lye in a pint of water seems like a weird ratio, and also small amount compared to a lot of the reading I've done. Especially for 450 grams of mhrb.

3. After base water is added it doesn't mention waiting any amount of time before adding your solvent.

4. It says to discard mush bark leftover after vinegar bath/ cook. Couldn't I save this for a Xylene pull?

5. It says to shake your solvent bottle after freeze precipitation and to catch the crystals in a filter. Couldn't you just pour off the solvent to use later and keep what's stuck ( vast majority of product in my experience. Seems like a lot would get trapped in the solvent that is absorbed by the filter.

Any and all feed back is appreciated. Thank you in advance.

 

[BobDobbs]

Definitely keep the bark mush for a Xylene pull. I'm only starting to get more familiar with Q21Q21's Vinegar-Lime process but it sounds like the process you're looking at is leaving out quite a lot of pertinent information. I think your instincts are good though - so keep reading through more processes to better understand how these reactions are supposed to work. And be patient - both with the process you settle on and your own acquisition of knowledge. When you better understand the materials you're working with and start getting the results you expect you'll have a nice feather to stick in your cap.

 

[downwardsfromzero]

50 grams of lye in a pint of water seems like a weird ratio, and also small amount compared to a lot of the reading I've done. Especially for 450 grams of mhrb.

Well, the mixed metric and non-metric units are bad form, especially considering pints aren't even the same size on both sides of the Atlantic

Fortunately, the precise amount of NaOH isn't entirely crucial. Because the extraction method begins with acid cooks it's only necessary to add enough base to raise the pH up to about 11, and an excess which would be needed for breaking down the bark is in this case superfluous.