Hey everyone

SWIM performed his first extraction following the Lazy tek with MHRB (approx 50g) and Shellite as solvent. As the solvent has taken a long time to evaporate, he decided to freeze the solvent in a glass jar (first pull, of course). After a few hours he could see a few "snow cones" forming at the bottom of the jar. He waited another 6 hours or so and the number or size of the "snow cones" didn't seem to change.

So at this point he really did'nt understand what to do next. So he scrapped the snow cones off using a knife. The snowcones were just running free in the solvent. Then he filtered (using 100% cotton tshirt) the solvent into another glass jar. The remaining "snow cones" really looked more like ice or crystals. After a few minutes THEY DISSAPPEARED! They melted or something...

What happened? Please help! What could he do to successfully extract the spice? What could those crystals be? SWIM thought the spice would only melt at high temperatures. The whole thing was done at average room temperature.

Cheers

Usually I let my jars freeze precip for at least 24 hrs, but it sounds like you may not have drained off all of the solvent efficiently. I recommend pouring off the solvent from the jar without taking the crystals with if possible. Scrape out the crystals and throw them onto a pyrex slab. After you get most of the crystals onto the slab, use a razor to thin out and separate the crystals so that they have maximum surface space for evaporation. If you still don't get crystals, you should just put the pyrex dish into the freezer. Once you get crystals again you can decide whether you want to heptane recrystallize.

Hope this helps! Remain strong, you'll get product successfully very soon.

(Note: I have never used shellite as a solvent personally)

The FAQ is your friend

tell us if it you managed to get it to work! good luck!

SWIM said THANKS!!!!

http://img.villagephotos...434/verypretty_small.jpg