Hi everyone and THANK YOU so much for this site and the enormously helpful information!
I'm coming from a engineering background, so the prospect of learning some organic chemistry was appealing, in addition to other obvious reasons.
I got 500g of ACRB and divided into 5 batches of 100g each since I didn't want to mess up everything at the same time. These are the results:
1. Used a freeze precipitation tek with shredded bark, but I either didn't have enough alkaloids in the naphta or too much naphta for crystals to form. I ended up evaporating and got about 0.3 grams of paste, which looks quite smokable, no weird colors or anything. Being an idiot, I tossed out all the bark infused lye and naphta from this batch.
2. I used lazyman's tek this time, which has the crystals precipitate at cool room temperature and is using less naphta than most other methods. This worked out great and I ended up with 1.1 grams off-white crystals.
3. Same as 2 but with ground up bark instead of shredded. This was a lot messier to work and it gucked up my separation funnel. Yield was about the same, 1.2 grams.
4 and 5 where variations of 2 and 3 where I experimented with temperatures and times. What worked great for me was to saturate the naphta (through adding less of it or through evaporation) to the point of milkiness at room temp. Left in 60 degree temp for 16 hours and full of crystals. Next batch I popped in the fridge after 4 hours and left for another 12, and it worked even better.
I had saved the last four batches so I combined all the leftovers to make a final extraction, and to my surprise got another 0.8 grams out of it. Total yield 5.7 grams from 500 grams ACRB, which I think is quite respectable.
My personal lessons learned, your mileage may vary.
a. Grinding make things a lot messier, but does improve yield. Considering how cheap this is to make, I'm sticking with shredded from now on. No point is saving a few bucks to deal with the extra mess.
b. Shaking the jar with re-used naphta (after batch 2) caused stubborn emulsions. From batch 3 onward I used a magnetic stirrer ($20 on Amazon) for 30 minutes and then wrapped the jar in a heat blanket for another 30 minutes. Nicely separated!
c. Do not use too much naphta. You will not get any crystals, even in the freezer, so evaporate until the point of milkiness if it's not saturated enough at room temperature.
d. Using a dropper/pipette is time consuming and hard. I kept grabbing lye and had to squirt in back, further upsetting the layers. In the final batch I tried decanting instead. Pour the naphta layer into a new container, leaving the lye behind (This work well with Erlenmeyer flasks, due to their shape.) You will get some lye and particles in the new container, but just wait for it to separate out and then pour into a second container. I find that the oils/particles stick to the bottom so it gets cleaner and cleaner each decanting. After about 4 rounds, it was crystal (haha) clear.
e. Temperature is crucial. Keep the jar/flask warm during the mixing and separation steps.
TRIP REPORT: After all this, it was finally ready to try. I had never tried before, so last night was my virgin journey. I put a ceramic disk in the VaporGenie, added 15 mg of my off-white crystals from batch 2, hit it with a lighter, held the smoke for 30 seconds and NOTHING. No effect whatsoever. Disappointing and afraid that all the work had been for nothing, I packed another 15 mg in there and hit it harder this time. HOLY CRAP! The colors starting pulsating, space was warping and my input was totally overloaded, so had to cover my eyes and was greeted by swirling blocky spirals. Everything got dark and I felt like I was being pulled out of my seat. I remember thinking: Oh, here comes the space journey. A few moments later, I receded back into my normal body, and I didn't achieve a proper breakthrough. I just peeked through the window. Next time I'll go 50 mg and see where that leads. The trip took maybe 10 minutes, but I could feel it the rest of the night. I felt awesome, full of love and empathy, enjoyed amazing "family time" and all my worries disappeared (I worry a lot). DMT seems to be a great fit for me. I have no fear of death, no ego to protect and a curious mind. This is something I would recommend to both my friends and my enemies!
Again, thank you all for leading me to this amazing experience! I love you all.
PS I also made some Ayahuasca. I got a Caapi, chacruna, chaliponga leaf mix online. I used the method from the FAQ with NON-acidulated water, boiled for 2 hours 3 times, strained and combined and reduced. Then I boiled the herb again with a the addition of distilled vinegar for another 2 hours, strained and extracted the alkaloids and stirred them back into the reduced brew. This is currently sitting in the fridge ready to be used.
