After observing SWIMS Mesc tek, I agree with Olympus Mon. Resin deserves great respect for many reasons. First, it's food grade by definition. Second, it's not so much werk. Third, it insures all the plant's teaching essence is used and nothing is wasted. Fourth, it stores well. Fifth, it's not that hard to consume. Pure mesc seems good for curiousity purposes or precise dosing, but resin sure can make it a great day to be alive.
As far as "a very strong batch of lye", SWIM noticed the solubility limit of lye is about 1 gram per ml of water. Some teks add even double that amount to the cactus soup. The mesc molecule seems stable in the presence of an excess of OH- ions.
It appears mescaline freebase is pretty soluble in both water and solvent. SWIM thinks this would suggest that using a maximum amount of solvent would extract the fastest. SWIM used ~100ml because that's the size of his labware but a larger volume might allow fewer extractions to capture all the goods.
Anyway, I'm just a noob....cker
Want a good reason to xtract? The smell of extract reminds SWIM of strong peyote tea. SWIM loves the smell of mescaline in the morning. mmmmmm