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Using less water and lye

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OpeningPandorasBox

OpeningPandorasBox

Rising Star
Many teks including Nomans call for a lot of water and a lot of lye. Why is this? Couldnt you just make sure the bark is soaking and the PH is right? I ask because I threw together a STB using 500g mimosa powder in a 1 gallon jug. I filled it half with distilled water and the added a lye solution until it turned black then 25% more for good measure. This is no where near the 1g bark:1g lye ratio found in the tek but I dont see why it wont work.
 
Getting solvent in/around/out of thick liquid isn't as easy as it can be with a thinner mix.

But, you may have better luck. Keep us posted.
 
soulfood said:
Too little water and you get bad separation.

Too little lye and you get an emulsion.

In short, it's best to overdo it than to underdo it.
Click to expand...


When you say bad separation what are you referring to? Separation of what?



As of now I have no emulsion and it all fits in a gallon jug instead of a 5 gallon bucket. I will post my results with this setup.
 
When you add your NP solvent to the MHRB/ lye water solution, it will float on top of the water. Too little water, and the NP might be sitting inside of the MHRB, and would be very difficult to retrieve.

IME, its better to have your jug filled almost completely with lye water leaving enough room at the top for 150-250mL of NP solvent. Also, it makes removing the solvent much easier (being closer to the top, less room for contamination).
 
The solvent is a good 4 inches above the bark sludge (I hate working with powder). No emulsion and first pull is growing more crystals (so far - 18 hours in freezer) than an A/B I am running at the same time using the same amount of bark.
 
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