Ok I've seem to have read conflicting results as to how to make sodium carbonate.

I know you take basically a small box of baking soda & cook it in the oven as this stuff seems to go a long way.

But I've seen 1-2 hours and between 200*-400*

So what is the exact procedure/time & heat & how do I know when its "done"?

Then I just take 100ml of distilled water & mix it with 5g's of this sodium carbonate right?

How much naptha can that wash because I have a few pint mason jars worth of solvent & spice

Whats the easiest way to separate these new layers? Just pull with a syringe/turkey baster again (if one doesnt have an upside down funnel with valve)

How long will the sodium carbonate keep for in a little plastic bag?

Check this link, hope it helps https://wiki.dmt-nexus.m...te_into_Sodium_Carbonate

you can put in the max temperature of your oven, it should be perfectly fine. The speed of conversion will depend on how spread apart will be your sodium carbonate (so better have it more spread appart in a wider dish). If you leave for longer it wont hurt the sodium carbonate in any way, so you can leave it for longer.. If it doesnt stay for long enough there might be some sodium bicarbonate still unconverted

The way to check it best is by weight, it should lose a third of the weight which will have evaped as water and carbon dioxide. So if it has a third of the original weight, its good.

even though thats not the best way to check (the weight check is more accurate), but they also look a bit different.. Sodium carbonate looks like dry pellets while sodium bicarb looks more fluffy, here's them two together (bicarb on the right)

http://img594.imageshack.../img594/3792/1000180.jpg

5g for 100ml distilled water is even too much (wont hurt but its not necessary).. a gram would be plenty already, but do as you please

you can wash plenty of naphtha with that.. SWIM used to wash a pull of 100ml with 50ml water but you can wash more naphtha with less water too I guess... So wash it, throw water out, and add fresh sodium carb solution washing it again if you desire, though thats not really necessary, once should be enough.

sodium carb should keep forever in a plastic bag in a dry place.

as for separating layers, each one has their own trick.. SWIM uses pipette, but yeah the separatory funnel would for sure make it easier

Yeah perfect thanks.

Now once I have the SC, how much of it do I mix with 100ml distilled water to then pour into a pint mason jar with about 75cc's of naptha & spice?

What kind of consistency do I want? like a slurry or a thick paste?

The only thing I'm confused is that wiki you sent me to said:

one simple test to ensure that sodium carbonate has been rendered is to submerge in water so that the solution is overstaurated and the material settles to the bottom; sodium bicarbonate will remain powdery, but sodium carbonate will rock up.

So if it rocks up, how does it ever make a slurry to wash the solvent with?

(I've got 4 pint mason jars, each with 75cc's of solvent & spice)

So do I want to add 100ml to each of the jars, or split the 100ml between all 4?

no man you dont want slurry neither thick paste, it should be a DILUTE solution of sodium carbonate.. a pinch of sodium carbonate is enough

forget that 'simple test' of sodium carbonate, go by the weight, or just leave for long in the oven to make sure

Ive only had the need to do a wash a few times, but check out step 7 of vovins tek, its nice and clear what to do https://wiki.dmt-nexus.m...%27s_tek#Step_7:_Washing

Ok so I have 300cc's broken up into 4 pint mason jars, I will combine all in one big jar for the purpose of the wash.

If you have 300 ml of naphtha then you want to put around 25 ml of the sodium carbonated water. Mix the 2 together and then place them in a seperatory funnel.

I dont have a seperatory funnel - so I just have to use the syringe again? (its really a pain in the ass, I've got a big plastic 60cc which sucks cause its so hard to pull & a 20cc glass one which is a little easier to pull but still sucks & is only 20cc's)

I am going to use a glass baking dish to do this - is it going to ruin the glass dish at all? (its not my dish & I dont want to ruin it)

Glass is fine to use.

Its always a good idea to get your own dishes/trays.

Yeah I hear you.

I bought a new little box, I guess cooking the entire thing is a bit overkill, but I do have a lot of MHRB to go through.

Can I cook a bunch of sodium carbonate up a head of time & keep it in a baggy or does it degrade right away?

The keyword there is "oversaturated." The point of the test is that if you're not sure that conversion has occurred, simply pour some water (not enough to dissolve it, hence, oversaturated) on a bit to see how it behaves, and that will show beyond the shadow of a doubt that what you have is a different substance than what you started with. The test is designed for the purpose that SWIM used it for, to gauge the consistency of the material when converting for the first time. SWIM wouldn't have to perform the test again, because he knows what it looks like and feels like. Anyway, it was the only way SWIM could visually demonstrate the difference between the two.

Ok so once I add a nice pinch to 100ml of water, I'll take 25ml of that water & shake it up with my 300cc's of solvent - but for how long do I do this & then remove the carbonate wash? Do I need to let it sit for any amount of time?

So for 300cc's of solvent, I literally use less than a 1/4 cup of this carbonate wash?

SWIM decided that testing was unnecessary and edited the procedure to avoid confusion:

The sodium carbonate will last for a long time in a sealed baggy.

how thick of a layer of baking soda should I make it in the oven?

Its maybe 1/4 inch or less right now...

ok do I really need to do more than 1 wash? (I'm 99.999% sure no lye/MHRB mixed in with my pulls of the naptha, so its not dirty by any means, I just wanted to be 100% I had a great product.

So I just add the wash & shake it up for a few minutes, let it separate again & remove the solvent all with in a few minutes of adding it?

sounds good, one wash is enough imo if you were careful with the pulls

Ok so the SC is done, I think.

It does seem a little grainer than the original baking soda (which felt a little silkier)

But its not a dramatic change, I actually had to do a comparison test twice, but I can feel the grainer aspect of this... but is it done or should it be really grainy?

did you weigh the beginning and final product?

you can leave a while longer on the oven if you wanna make sure but sounds like you got it.. did you look at the pic I posted, see if it looks like that?

hmm. No I did weight it before or after.

I seem to have more of a clumpy sludge than anything?

When i added my 12th tablespoon to about a 1/4 of water, before it really started to clump up & was more of just a slurry before that

Should I make some more & cook it longer?