Hi Cyb (and everyone else),

Apologies if these questions have been asked before, I have researched previous threads using the search function and can't find the answers to them.

When following the steps on your hybrid A/B salt tek, does one need to keep releasing pressure during the acidification and basification stages by unscrewing the lid periodically? I know in the instructions you say to do this once the naphtha is added, but I was just wondering if it also needed to be done in the steps beforehand.

Also, if one is thinking of adding the vinegar and water solution to the bottle and then keeping it warm for as long as possible, but leaving it to sit in the saucepan on the stove overnight (as in another thread I saw you recommend 24hrs as being ideal) - will it matter that the water will cool down and be room temperature by the time the lye is added?

When adding the salt, is there a minimum period of time that needs to elapse before the lye is added?

Finally, can the naphtha that is recovered from being poured off after the freeze precipitation is done be used in future extractions?

Thanks very much for your help and a great tek for a beginner.

1. Pressure can build anytime a reaction takes place and gaseous fumes are released. Just release the lid periodically and you will hear the little 'fft' sound...usually after a shake of the bottle.

2.Yes you can leave it in an acid soak overnight. It doesn't matter if it cools down. DON'T leave it on a lit stove and go to bed, whatever you do.

3.You can add the lye straight after the salt, (Salt can be added at any stage) no problem.

4. Naphtha can be used ad infinitum. Just drain it off your Xtals and store in a jar or put it straight back in your mix.
The solvent can sometimes become yellow and stain the Xtals...this is no problem but if you wish, you can clean the used naphtha with a water/sodium carb wash to reduce the staining.

You can also combine your pulls into one dish for the freeze if you wish...but you will probably have to evaporate some of the nap first to concentrate it further. (a waste of naphtha imo)

Thanks very much for this extra information Cyb.

I am thinking I will use 2 dishes for the pulls rather than 3 due to freezer space. Will I have to evap off the naphtha if using 2 dishes for 5 pulls?

If not, after I have done the first pull, should I cover the dish that it is in while I am waiting for the next amount of naphtha to separate in the jar so that the naphtha doesn't all evaporate? Or is the idea to only put one pull per dish and then put it straight into the freezer to avoid this happening? If so, I am slightly confused because there are 5 pulls to do in the tek but only 3 dishes used.

You can use as many dishes as you please...as long as they have flat bottoms for easy scraping.

If you want to combine pulls...I would leave one open to the air while you are mixing the next one...so the first one evaps a little. Then add them together.

Remember...1g of spice will sit nicely in 30ml of warm naphtha...so 50ml pulls are a little dilute and can be evapped a little till cloudy.

If you only have a couple of dishes...do a few pulls...freeze...scrape and the do more pulls the next day with your, now empty, dishes.
It won't matter that the mix sits overnight.

Cyb - thanks for your advice, it's much appreciated. Although deviating slightly from your original tek, I have started gearing up for my first attempt by doing some freeze-thaws on the acrb during the week, before I start on the weekend...

A couple more questions:

- Is it normal for the solution that is put in the glass baking tray to smell rather like...semen?

- Does it matter if there is the faint smell of the solution noticeable when the freezer door is opened? Will it affect the end result? That is, obviously the trays may not be completely air tight and water tight if there is the smell escaping, but they are however quite well wrapped.

Thanks.

1- it should smell like solvent

2- if your freezer smells of solvent your food might taste of it, the extraction should be fine but you need better fitting lid to stop this.

Thanks 3rdI. I'm not confident tomorrow will yield good results due to such an odd smell then. Oh well, it's a learning process I guess. Slightly disappointing due to the amount of time spent on it but new skills were learnt I suppose.

The glass dishes don't have lids, I think I will have to pay more attention to tighter cling wrap next time or using a piece of foil sandwiched between 2 layers of cling wrap.

I'd look for an 8 inch pyrex baking tray, they come with a good lid and are easy to scrape.

These things are great...

Also solvent may just have the odor of solvent with a hint of new leather {depending how saturated it is}
(My Zippo lighter smells heavily of spice now though)

Those dishes certainly look easier than what I am doing currently. I did remember however I have some huge heavy-duty ziplock bags that will fit the trays in, so I might try that before buying more of the glass trays with lids. Wrap in cling wrap + put inside ziplock bag, could be successful.

I used to put my loaf dish into two 1 gallon ziplocks. Was good enough for me and didn't contaminate any food. Trust me, you do NOT want to bite into a freshly cooked steak and taste naptha. It is very unsettling. Make sure your goods are sealed in the freeze or you remove everything. Because even if your freeze is empty but you have something in your fridge, the fridge uses the cold air of the freezer to cool the fridge so it can contaminate fridge food too.

I already posted about this in another thread, realizing only after I had done so that this thread would have been a more appropriate place for my questions...
So sorry for double-posting everybody...

What would be the best time during the tek to add zinc dust for the dmt-oxides conversion into regular spice?

And in what way would this influence the remaining steps in the tek?
If zinc is added at the end of the acidic stage, should the solution be filtered before the salt and lye are added?
Is a decrease in yield to be expected if the solution is filtered after the acidic stage?

I read somewhere that the zinc can be added at any stage, but I'm just double-checking because I don't know if zinc could act as a reagent in other ways than for the oxides to be converted...

Thank you

PLUR

I forgot the fridge takes cold air from the freezer to cool it down, but the food in the fridge seems to smell okay, luckily.

Cyb - I notice in another thread you state that you can use 100g of ACRB without scaling up anything in the tek except that you might want to "add a little bit more vinegar and lye". You also said somewhere else that those ratios are to go with the amount of water and not plant matter, so does the water content stay the same or change?

I realise this is probably "bucket chemistry" but can you give an indication of how much vinegar and lye this might be if using 100g plant material instead of the original 50g?

The difference in volume between 50 and 100g really makes no odds in a 1litre bottle/vessel.
So water content remains the same.

As stated you can add a touch more acid/alkali if you feel the bark requires it to achieve the desired pH level.
Should be the same though as you are basing the aqueous volume not the the bark volume.

Thanks again for the info Cyb, much appreciated.

Will this be a decent bottle to use for an extraction?

The top appears to be mostly rubber, with the smallest amount of plastic in the centre of the lid. I like this because a mate who did an extraction with a tall 1L juice bottle experienced a fair amount of leaking when rolling the naphtha around, even though he was venting the gasses very often, because the lid seemed to not seal very tight and the vessel itself was not designed to hold much pressure.

The neck of the bottle also lends itself to extractions, no?

There are pros and cons to using a bottle like this. I always use wide-mouth glass vessels for extractions that require the use of lye. The reason for this that when you add lye to water, it produces a substantial amount of heat. Wide-mouth jars allow for vapors to escape more rapidly, whereas the vessel you posted could trap some of the vapors inside, creating pressure.

As far as the cap on that bottle, it is strongly encouraged that people don't use any plastic for their extractions if it is going to come in contact with your nonpolar solvent. Naphtha and similar solvents can degrade the plastic leaving harmful phthalates or other undesired substances in your solution, which can then end up in your final product. When the solution is mixed in the container from your picture, it is likely to comer in contact with the plastic cap.

The upside to using a tapered bottle like this, is that it could be easier to siphon the solvent off the top, because the narrow top part of the bottle will create a thicker solvent layer.

I'd say that bottle looks perfect.
Use some foil or other material to shield the rubber/plastic from the solvent.
Also make sure your pipette or siphon will fit down the neck OK.