Okay, so I posted this earlier in the official extraction question thread but looking at the most recent responses I've decided that I better make something else so I can hopefully obtain the answers to the questions I currently have by tomorrow morning when I get up to go finish the process out. Any advise for future extractions is definitely encouraged as this is my first extraction of any kind. Thank you, and I apologize for the inconvenience of the new thread but I'm going to filter and scrape in the morning and these questions are crucial. Thank you!

Today, I performed my first extraction using the STB method. I used MHRB powder, lye, and water. Made it all the way through the process and am now in the freezing stage. Performed the extraction with a friend but I'm in charge of collecting the spice from the 3 pull containers in the morning and really don't want to bomb the whole thing. My first question is this: We put vent holes in the 3 Pyrex containers we placed in the freezer so the naptha could evaporate out. Are ventilation holes necessary or will this hurt the finished product? From a few threads I've seen so far, it seems like "air-tight" containers are being used efficiently. My second question is: Is anything necessary after the freezing process other than filtration and scraping? (such as any wash?) I'm also going to use coffee filters to filter out the remaining naptha from the spice. Does anyone suggest a better filter? The crystals are setting up very nicely. The first pull jar is completely saturated. I wish I had a camera that could do it justice. My hunch is that pull jar number two will be best. Anyway, My third and final question is after the extraction process is complete and I have the finished spice, will I have to rush to get it back into a cool place, should I put it back in the freezer, or will it be alright at room temperature. The spice has about a 30 minute drive to get home. Do I need to get anything to keep it cool on the way? I'm trying my hardest to make my first extraction a good one and any suggestions anyone has about how I can do that from this stage will be much appreciated. Thank you all so much and I look forward to some encouraging responses when I wake up tomorrow to go filter, scrape, and reap teh spice. Thanks again, and again, all help is appreciated!

I dont know where you got the idea of putting vent holes in your freezing jars. You don't want the naptha to evaporate while freezing and you dont want air getting into your jars at this point. Use aluminium foil to cover your jars and elastic bands to hold it tight. If you have food in your freezer you don't want naptha smells getting into it.

Ive never had to filter as the dmt crystals usually stick to the sides of the jars and you can just pour off the naptha leaving the spice in the jar and reuse your naptha. A sodium carbonate wash is recommended but its quite trcky to do it well without losing too much yield. I think your best bet would be to do a recrystallisation on your spice, it's much easier and cleans your spice up pretty good.

It would be great if you could get some pics up of your results

I'm not sure where the vent hole idea came from, but it seemed like a good one. They've pretty small though. So hopefully they won't be contaminated with water. I'm about to go check and I'll try and get someone to bring a camera. And the crystals are stuck to the sides and I'm not even sure there will be any naptha left in there when I arrive. Instead of a re-crystallization, if there's no water damage and the crystals are still as pure as they were yesterday then could I possibly just filter (if necessary) and set it out for about an hour for air evap? Thank you for the response, no more vent holes in the future. Now I know!

Also, had someone check them this morning and they looked good from what they could tell by looking in the glass. Cross yo fingaz!

Instead of using coffee filters, i like to just pour off the naptha (assuming you don't have any floaties ), then evap/dry the spice in the container you used to freeze precip. Then just strape out the spice, and use a bit of dry alcohol to get the last bit, or just dissolve it in naptha your using for the next precipitation. Alot easier than using coffee filters that the spice melts into alot of times, and is hard to scrape up the spice off of even if it does not melt.

Venting the containers, or not sealing them well always gets water droplets in the naptha i find, and its best to make sure its sealed as well as possible before freezing.

Keep the finished spice as cool as possible, but its not necessary to freeze it. It is if you want it to keep for a long time, but in that case its just easier to salt it and store it as a crystalline solid that wont melt, and is much more stable. Then base it later with lime or sodium carbonate and pull again with warm naptha to freeze precip again.

The spice will melt if you get it too warm, but as long as its under 75F you should be fine.

Alright, thank you for the info. It will definitely come in handy for future extractions. I haven't been able scrape yet. I had some floaters, a lot of them actually. I think I had a water issue, which means I guess there will be a longer dry time than previously anticipated. the first and third pull are drying very well, contrary to what I thought after filtering. When I filtered, I ended up using coffee filters but it didn't melt into them and they've been kept at a steady moderate temperature and look very good. The clumps that formed are crystalyzing and there is no discoloration. Everything in the first and third pull are both pure white spice and have been kept away from moisture and possible contaminants. Also, all three pulls seem to have a pretty good yield. I'll post further updates and possibly pics when I check it in a few hours. Thanks again for the help!

Okay. So. One last question before scraping. What does it mean if there's a sticky film on the glass under the crystals? Is that normal? Or do I need to recrystalize? Any and all information is helpful and appreciated. Thank you!

As posted in the other thread:

https://wiki.dmt-nexus.m..._my_spice_ok_to_smoke.3F

recrystallizing can help yeah.