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What the ---- is going on?? Dead Lye?

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KUSHMASTER

KUSHMASTER

Rising Star
Hello all! My friend is getting mad with his extraction.

Nomans
500 G's of mimosa (Split into 10 jars. 50 G's per jar...There may be a little more in some jars.)
750 ML's of distilled water (per jar)
50 G's of Lye (per jar)
50 ML naptha per jar

After 3 pulls on all the jars he says he's got a total of 600 mg's of spice AFTER recrystalization. He reused the naptha from each pull.

The only difference he says he noticed when doing the process was the lye and water step, when mixed it didn't heat up as it normally does. Hmmmm...

Is there such thing as dead lye?

He was thinking of making a highly concentrated lye water solution and putting another 20 mL or so in each of the jars.

I told him to wait until I asked you guys. The bark quality couldn't be that bad right? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
 
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Wow,

I've never quite heard of someone doing a STB quite like that. You know, milk jugs are pretty cheap, and will never break. You can also put quite a bit more in them too. Lye won't etch the glass and be prone to shatter everywhere either.

I would combine everything and keep pulling doing naphtha pulls. Heat it up in a hot water bath if necessary.
 
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Well I guess i could use milk jugs. I've been warned about using plastic with solvents, but if your using 'em without any problems then I think i'll give it a try.

Anyway thanks for your help guys. I'll let you know how it goes.
 
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KUSHMASTER said:
Well I guess i could use milk jugs. I've been warned about using plastic with solvents, but if your using 'em without any problems then I think i'll give it a try.

Anyway thanks for your help guys. I'll let you know how it goes.
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HDPE should be stamped somewhere ont he bottom of the jug. This is quite safe to use with Naphtha/Heptane/Hexane, but not safe to use with toulene and xylene. The problem with a strongly basic solution in glass is that the lye will quickly weaken the glass and you could end up with a giant mess if one of those shattered (which ain't hard to do with etched glass). a pH of 14 can cause some pretty serious burns, destroy wood, and the stuff will stain everything reddish black!

Also 600mg/lb Bark is a pretty bad yeild. You can find a lot of info on how to increase your yields on this site. A really good place to start would be the extraction sticky.

1 quick tip I can give you is to take all of your naphtha and evap it down to about 100mL or to when the naphtha becomes cloudy at room temperature and stick it back into the freezer.
 
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OW MUSH. Parrot spot accidentally your thread and told to ILPT because it is very sad story indeed.


YEAHHH!!! ILPT heard about it and also saw DEATH LYE. it occur when hydroxid (lye ) lying on the shelf for long time in opened or non sealed containers. High Humidity or eventual moisture plus carbon dioxide turning lye to carbonate and as we know carbonate cannot basify enough to perform STB technology on bark. Once ILPT saw approx. 40 years old lye contained container with damaged lid. Lye absorbed plenty of moisture and dissolved completely, while sodium carbonate formed massive ring from inside out around the lid and the neck of bottle.
would not by useful for STB :(
ILPT perform same tek as you mentioned on 60 grams fresh lye (sold as caustic soda ) dissolved in 850ml of distilled water (~ 20 degrees C) and it significantly heat up the solution (up to ~60). Lye has also specific unpleasant smell and crude spice out of STB always smell a bit like that, bleeaah :x

BUT MAN you didn`t answer acolon-5`s question. DID HE KEEP THE MIXTURE HOT during extraction ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Because chance to get DEATH LYE is very low. ILPT only seen it in abandoned chem. warehouses
 
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You squeeze them till the NP layer goes to the neck, it's easier to siphon it from there and you can get most of it out. It works pretty well actually. SWIM's using 2L plastic water bottles that have been tested in the past for their ability to endure corrosion from NP solvents.
 
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kemist said:
OW MUSH. Parrot spot accidentally your thread and told to ILPT because it is very sad story indeed.


YEAHHH!!! ILPT heard about it and also saw DEATH LYE. it occur when hydroxid (lye ) lying on the shelf for long time in opened or non sealed containers. High Humidity or eventual moisture plus carbon dioxide turning lye to carbonate and as we know carbonate cannot basify enough to perform STB technology on bark. Once ILPT saw approx. 40 years old lye contained container with damaged lid. Lye absorbed plenty of moisture and dissolved completely, while sodium carbonate formed massive ring from inside out around the lid and the neck of bottle.
would not by useful for STB :(
ILPT perform same tek as you mentioned on 60 grams fresh lye (sold as caustic soda ) dissolved in 850ml of distilled water (~ 20 degrees C) and it significantly heat up the solution (up to ~60). Lye has also specific unpleasant smell and crude spice out of STB always smell a bit like that, bleeaah :x

BUT MAN you didn`t answer acolon-5`s question. DID HE KEEP THE MIXTURE HOT during extraction ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Because chance to get DEATH LYE is very low. ILPT only seen it in abandoned chem. warehouses
Click to expand...


He did not keep it hot. He's never had to do that before.

But I really do believe dead lye to be the case cuz He's done this extraction process 10+ times. He always does it the exact same way with no problems.

Now this lye he got was the very last one on the shelf, who knows how long it was there. The seal wasn't broken and he did use it as a draincleaner before he started the extraction and it worked fine for that, it heated up and bubbled and steamed out of the drain. For some reason it didn't heat the water up in the jars at all

So what now?

Should he just throw it in a hot water bath for a bit during his next pull?

Or just increase the PH of the mix?

Maybe both?

Like i said, he's done many an extraction before, the only difference he noticed was the lye not reacting with the water. So it's gotta be somethin to do with that.
 
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Now this lye he got was the very last one on the shelf, who knows how long it was there. The seal wasn't broken and he did use it as a draincleaner before he started the extraction and it worked fine for that, it heated up and bubbled and steamed out of the drain. For some reason it didn't heat the water up in the jars at all
Click to expand...

Sounds like live lye to me.

Should he just throw it in a hot water bath for a bit during his next pull?

Or just increase the PH of the mix?
Click to expand...

Yes, stick it in a hot water bath until the contents of the jug/jar are pretty warm. Add a very concentrated solution of lye water (5 tablespoons to 250mL). Between the two your jug should be almost too hot to handle. Pour in your NP solvent and shake for a few.
 
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