Hello,
SWIM is in the process of a MHRB extraction using the Lazyman's STB tek. SWIM used 454g powdered MHRB, 200g Sodium Hydroxide, & 2L of water. The Lazyman's tek doesn't use powdered MHRB, so SWIM is wondering if SWIM should add more water???

The current consistency of the MHRB + NaOH aqueous solution is pretty runny, but not still gunkier than just water would be. It is dark dark brown... pretty much black.

There have been a few people complain of naphtha surfacing after mixing using the directions as specified in the tek and using powdered bark. Personally I would go for 1.5–1.7L water per 100g bark ala Noman’s tek and add more NaOH accordingly.

Attempting Lazyman's Tek - naptha not surfacing...

Personally I think Lazyman’s Tek should come with a warning or be rewritten to account for powdered bark.

SWIM did as said below...SWIM pulled the naptha off of the mixed MHRB solution and the naptha was not completely clear. SWIM wanted to know if adding water to the naptha would help with clearing it or would recrystallization be the best technique...

I am in the same position as Mr.Board, I live in Canada so powdered bark is sort of only available to me and since time and materials are limited for me I am doing the lazyman tek.

Any tips are modifactions to this tek that anyone knows that makes this tek work with powdered bark?

Thank you!

I think powdered bark is preferable whatever, just that tek was written with larger bits in mind. Just add more water (and extra NaOH if you need to keep the pH up at a reasonable level) if you are having separation issues.

Regarding naphtha not being clear, what do you mean? Brown, orange, light yellow?

yes a re-x will do the trick after you have precipitated your spice from the solvent.

If you mean should you do a wash with just plain water then i'm not sure about that. Add a pinch of sodium carbonate to the water and then add to the naptha and mix thoroughly and separate and that's a sodium carbonate wash. I would advise this but if you are totally new to chemistry and aren't too sure about the wash then a re-x is just fine

the first pull was orange, the next one was light yellow...

It is quite normal for the naphtha to gain some coloration, I would just freeze precipate and see what the state of it is then. If it looks very dirty just give it a recrystallization.

okay awesome, thank you so much love n light