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Question for those familier with FASA/Fumarates

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jason_

jason_

Rising Star
Not sure if this is so much of a question, but more of an observation from a current extraction:

This is my first time working with FASA and Fumarates- I am working with 1000g bark, divided into two jars: standard STB, and 200ml xylene pulls on each jar.

I have my two jars, and collect the first three pulls from both jars: Nice and yellow and stinky. Just like it should be. Add in the FASA and it starts clouding like crazy. Great. Next day, beautiful precipitated snowflakes just like in my day dreams (this was a scene from a night-time dream). I vacuum filter and collect the snowflakes, and lay them on a pan to dry and proceed to collect the next three pulls:

So, here's where it gets strange: I added FASA to the collected xylene from pulls 4-6 and here's what happened: NOTHING. No clouding, no precipitation. After a few hours I've got just a thin layer on the bottom of the jar- maybe less than a gram. Is it possible that I pulled all the goodies from 1000g of bark in three pulls? Does not seem very likely to me, EXCEPT:

I've weighed to collected crystal from the first FASA salting, and it comes to 35.76g. Is this even possible? Or, is there perhaps crashed out fumaric acid mixed in as well? Granted, it's still drying and I expect to lose a bit of weight as it fully dries. Still, that yield seems way too good to be true...

Any thoughts or suggestions? Did I just pull everything in the first pulls?

Thanks,
Jason
 
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37 g's! shit thats a pretty good haul! i've never used the FASA method, just the limo/FASW teks, but i am definately going to now. ya its only going to be 27-28 but thats good a yeild. gotta see for myself
 
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Okay- 27.94g after cleanup and fully dried. Another 2-3g collected from pulls 3-6 which is drying after cleanup now. Next time with xylene, I will just stick to 3-4 pulls. Back in the days of Naptha and freeze precip, I found that 6 pulls really was necessary go get all the goodies- And still I was getting only around 1.3% with good bark. Happy to say those days are over- long live FASA.

Very pleased with this! Much love and thanks to those who had a hand in developing the Fumarate TEKS!!

-Jason
 
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I just tried FASA but my xylene didn't turn very yellow. I've only used it for pulling jungle up til now and that usually turns it a nasty orange, but i used fresh xylene on my second pull(had complications with the first pull that are posted on the general help board, long story but it didn't get very dark and the spice that came out was light yellow...) anyway the second pull isbarely yellow at all? It was only a 50g STB and I don't know how much the first pull yielded, but no matter how much I shake it won't get darker. Did I get shitty bark? Should it not still be grabbing some jungle? WHATS GOING ON!!?? I guess i will try another extraction and see how it goes now that I know what I'm doing a little better.
 
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Aha! I knew it wasnt my bark. I started another STB last night, this time 100g instead of 50. I didn't use as much lye as in my 50g, testing the water attempt, and bingo, nasty yellow xylene. That leads me to believe, despite contrary claims that it is possible to use to much lye. I think that it polarized my slurry to the pointy that the xylene couldn't make much contact with the spice. Does that sound like a reasonable assumption? It is getting more yellow now after 2 or 3 days of shaking 10-20 times a day but last nights attempt, using less lye, got the coloring almost immediately, so regardless of the possibility of making an ass of my self, overbasification is my assumption. I'll report my yield in a few days. I'm waiting on the fumarates to settle out of my first pull now.
 
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My first pull just netted me a HUGE yeild. Not sure how huge as it hasn't dried or been cleaned yet, but its alot and its ORANGE!!! Anyway, I started washing my xylene and by the 3rd time I poured water through the xylene got really cloudy. Has anybod had this problem before? I want to reuse it so I can't start my 2nd pull til I figure this out.
 
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