hey guys,

Just got a cheap indescript pocket ph meter in them mail, but with no buffers.
Is it possible for me to make up a sodium hydroxide solution and calibrate it to 14?
At the moment I am getting 12.8 for two separate teks where I am up to the freebase stage.
If this is possible, would someone give me a simple recipe for such a solution, i.e how much water/lye to use?

Would be really appreciated.

Also, at the moment I am in a remote location without access to grinding appliances. I have two ten liter buckets in the sun (for warmth) with approx 800-1000g of Acacia Acuminata bark in both with 8 liters of extremely strong hydrochloric acid solution. I used a highly concentrated solution to break down the bark which previously had only been cut to 2 inch chunks. They have been soaking for maybe 4-5 days now and it has worked, and most of the bark is stringy and sloppy by now. I am worried by using such a high concentrate i may have somehow destroyed my dmt, or chances of extracting it. Could someone help me with this? At the moment by uncalibrated ph meter is giving a reading of 0.8 for the HCL solution.

Hi,

You don't want to calibrate a meter with very basic or acidic solutions, these are known to warp calibrations simply by testing them. This is why most people afaik calibrate @ pH 7, thus sodium hydroxide wouldn't be needed or effective for this.

Some good news though, you don't need a meter for what you are doing. As long as your bark/naptha layer separate immediately, it is sufficiently based. Also the pH of a solution can lower after subsequent pulls so if an emulsion occurs just add some more base.

Basic solutions do not destroy DMT.

No, this is not how you'd go for the calibration. You need to get the standardised buffered solutions, that will give and hold an accurate pH.

Please follow the manufacturer's instructions for calibrating the pH meter. Note that the pH values the pH meter can calibrate on determine the accuracy of your reading. The most frequent calibration points are pH=4, pH=7 and pH=10. If your pH meter calibrates at only 2 points (e.g pH 4 and 7) then that's good for measuring acidic solutions but useless for measuring basic solutions accurately. If your pH meter can calibrate to pH values of 4, 7 and 10 then it's good for measuring both acidic and basic solution.

Please be careful and as anal as possible with pH calibration. It is the one thing most often overlooked by amateurs, which throws pH readings way off - but it is the most important thing if you're really concerned about reading pH. It is the equivalent of using a ruler to measure length and not knowing that you need to start measuring from the zero marking and place the ruler accordingly.

Hmm, okay. It only has one of those small flathead screws to calibrate with, the instructions say to simply put it in the PH4 or PH7 Buffer while running and adjust until it shows the correct value.
I'm assuming there are no accurate household liquids to use as said buffers?

Nope - you could make then if you had access to a good, very expensive pH meter to use as a reference for the buffer calibration.

Also, since as you say your pH meter calibrates to only pH 4 and 7, it'll be useless for basic solutions, (or in practice anything above 10-11).

Thanks guys, I better stop fucking around and get the real deal.

Can someone recommend/link me a good meter?

I have a hanna meter, I think they have entry level decent meters for good price. I bought pH buffer solutions from local supplier, im sure you can find on the net.

In any case for extracting mimosa, add till its black and you should be fine, as said before, if layers dont separate well, add some more.