So I'm preparing to do my first extraction using Vovin's tek as my main guide. Now can I use 500g of Mimosa and the same amount of lye, acid, and naptha? I ask because scaling them would be a large amount c ompared to other teks it seems. Also I'mnot sure if I should defat or not. Any help on the matter would be great!

if its your first go at a new tek (let alone first extraction) why not keep it small, 100 g should yield something very nice.. and wont be disastrous if it goes to hell

but to answer your question, yes, I would scale the acid pulls, for any amount larger than whats suggested, accordingly.. just reduce later to a workable amount and carry on as stated

cheers

skip defats, adjust all amounts proportionately.

If you dont have much experience, DONT extract 500g, extract 100 or 200g or 250g..... Leave bigger amounts for when you have your technique well established.

I've decided to start with 100g using Lextek steps 1-4 with an overnight decant and Vovin's steps 7-9. Should keep it a pure and hopefully high yield. I watched the needed MIT vids and ordered a good amount chem equipment including a Buchner Funnel and Pump. Some questions I still have however:

When it comes to a water bath can I just boil a pot of water and hold the beaker in the hot water? Off the stove of course...or should I invest in a few hot plates?

Evaporation or Freeze Seperation it? If quality spice can be produced with Evap then I'd rather just use a rubber tub and blow a fan over it...

When cleaning my lab equipment is there anything special I should do to prevent contamination? Or is that not an issue?

Lastly (for now anyway ^^) can I use the Buchner as a seperatory funnel in all steps?

Thanks so much for the help, you are an amazing group of people...one I look forward to growing in to!

STB - 50g = good first try!
(but totally up to you)

I've got a good amount of powdered hmrb so I was going to do a STB extract first so I have some right away. Should I still wash it?

You can shortcut doing a STB and then doing a wash to get it clean afterwards, actually that's how I do it.

If you have no problem affording hotplates for heating definitly go with one of those. Then you can keep your water warm without having to take your flask out, reboil water on the stove, and put flask back.

Freeze precip gives way better product than evap. Pure stuff precips first leaving behind impurities, where evap leaves impurities in final product usually.

Just clean glassware with soap and water. To dry glassware quicker for collecting only nonpolar layer, you can dry it by shaking around alittle acetone in it and then blow it dry.

If your Buchner doesnt get clogged you can use it for any step, though it will probably clog. Can filter coarse material with cloth and squeeze out (with gloves on ofcourse), filter again through cloth with gravity no squeezing, then after your buchner should have no problem filtering the fine sediment.

by wash do you mean a sodium carbonate wash of the solvent?

do you re-x after collecting the crystals?

@Vovin Right on, thanks for the imput! A STB will save me a ton of effort it seems. I plan on evaping a bit of it so Ive got some sice right off the bat then freezing the rest for 3 days.

@Kash You have been a huge help my friend! I will indeed invest in at least one pad.

Now for the hard part. Waiting 2 weeks to get my MHRB!