Greetings all and thanks for having me. Been reading stuff on the forums here on and off for a while and finally joined. Got a question about a rue extraction swim is working on atm. Swim is at step 5 on the Tao of rue extraction tek and is unsure if he has goofed. Everything was going according to plan (only unground seeds and lots of filtering done) and lye was added, turned nice milky colour and left overnight to find the sediment resting at the bottom of the jar with liquid on top as expected. Decanted the liquid and then added hot water/vinegar solution to sediment and then run through coffee filter but it is running through really super slow and a huge load of thick sludge has accrued in the filter. Did swim fail to add enough vinegar and dissolve the alks properly or is this normal and just the unwanted crap being collected in the filter?

Normal, filtering rue can be a bit of a pain in the ass, lots of crap clogging filters.. You can always add some more vinegar right there, if you want to make sure its all dissolved, if you're worried it wasn't enough, since too much vinegar wont hurt..

Indeed, what you encounter is normal hear plucking rage when filtering rue, right up to the very step you are in now, being filtering re-acidified sediment.

I've even tried vacuum filtering this kind of stuff to no avail.

Be sure all alks are re-dissolved, get a pH paper or pen and get pH down to 4 to 3.
Warming, time and shaking can help to re dissolve all, I give it 24 hrs, a nice overkill.

Then I let settle again, 24h or so, decant the liquid.
Poring off as decanting will disturb bottom layer and make a fuzz, so let the jar stand like settled. Then I skim off [***] the top liquid layer instead of poring tilt wise. This liquid will be re-basified again, re-acidified again, decanted as said, ... I do this until I can coffee filter my acidified liquid fast & easy. Only then I move to manske salt precipitation.

[***] https://www.dmt-nexus.me...spx?g=posts&m=838037
Look at the avi, that right jar was quite un-filterable.

What to do with the very wet sediments: swirling in some rest liquid they get tossed in a half bowl strainer in which is placed paper kitchen towel(s). The liquid will go trough given due time. If I want it faster then a second identical strainer is ready to receive the wet sediment and poor one strainer into the other. After dripping most, he paper towels and the near dry sediment can get fist squeezed slooowly to not rip the paper, do it above an empty pot, not above your dear liquid you worked hard for getting clean.
There's something about paper kitchen towels that coffee filters can't do. It's like the paper towels are sucking out the sediment (capillary effect of the fibres structure?)

Some people follow slightly different flow, whatever works. I change mine all the time LOL. Now I work pressure pot on whole seeds which is very favourable to avoid filter probs.

Ok so swim has performed the first manske and now only time will tell now if everything has been done right thus far. Swim has kept the sludge accrued from the previous filter after the attempt to dissolve with the hot vinegar solution just in case it failed to dissolve and all the goodies are now trapped in the mucky coffee filters, if so then hopefully it can be used to try again. Swim was actually quite enjoying the process but is now filled with a sense of trepidation. Swim is hoping ze will wake up tomorrow to find some nice crystals have formed at the bottom of the jar.

Ok so almost 24 hours later and no sign of any crystals whatsoever

What to do now?

Finally woke up to find what he wanted to see

Not sure why it failed on the first manske attempt... maybe not enough salt. Boiled up a good amount of pure rock salt this time round and back on track again.