I have in front of me my last 100g of acacia, its already in ~1L of water with lye mixed in. I let it sit and soak for a couple days before adding ~150ml of naptha. Normally I would use a lot less solvent, shake it up pretty good 2-5 times a day for 4-5 days. Now I am reading that shaking it is bad and am wondering how much time have I wasted. This time I have added what looks like way too much solvent and I grab the container and rock it side to side, sometimes I try to get it to swirl, sometimes I shake it pretty good, and a couple times I have slowly poured it out into a different container and back for no real reason really. I even debated setting up a pump to constantly circulate the solvent through the water. Of course the pump idea was just me thinking about a way to let it sit and forget about it for a few days, but as this is the last of my acacia it would just be a waste of time. Anyway, what is the ideal way? Is there any harm in giving it a good shake, or is that just because you have to let it sit for a long time to separate after?

Have you considered trying a vaccuum pump...? Just a thought... It removes the air also, so the bubbles that would create an emulsion might not become an issue. I honestly haven't read about anyone else really doing it, but your question got me thinking about it as an option...

hey

this has worked for a friend recently.... finish all your shaking and get to a point where u are ready to drain all your naphtha.

add a little more lye say a table spoon and shake it up (it will get hot / warm so be careful about gas buildup, be ready to unscrew the cap to allow gas release), then get a bucket and fill the bucket with hot water, boil a few kettles, but try not let it go above about 80c, leave your bottle in this hot bath for 24 hours replacing the water when it cools down, but don’t shake your bottle... Any emulsions will break down, it may take a while but they will break down, then drain of your naphtha and your will be ready to freeze out your product.

i have also heard of people putting vibrators into the mix and let it gently vibrate the mix breaking down the emulsion.

i might be wrong on the exact procedure, but this worked for a friend.

best of luck

Well I have no problem waiting for everything to settle, I really am in no rush. I have read about adding more lye, but I feel like I am already pretty generous with it with ~80g in 1L of water. I also read about heating it up so that the naptha would absorb more, but in my head it worked out that I could just add more naptha. I will try throwing my container in the crock pot with some water and let it sit for a day, wont hurt anything.

i like to stir my material with the solvent very vigorously.

adding more naphtha will allow more product to absorb

but it wont break an emulsion, breaking down an emulsion can be done with heat, a more basic solution (more lye) and vibration, a cheep ladies device in a sealed bag in the bottom of the bottle would work well.

best of luck