SWIM had some leftover batches in several jars with little amounts of unclean spice (mostly plant material sucked up during last pull with previous extractions). Yesterday he decided to collect it all and try to clean it.
See pic..
1) All spice was collected and found to be a total of .5 gram. 100ml of naptha was put in an erlenmeyer flask and the spice was added. 50ml naptha should be plenty but SWIM added double to have more liquid to fiddle with to try the impurities out. The erlenmeyer with the naptha was slowly heated in a pan of just off boiling water and the spice was dissolved.
2) After a number of rigorous shaking and letting settle for a few minutes, an orange/brownish goo was settling on the bottom of the erlenmeyer flask and stuck together eventually.
3) The colorless naptha was then poored into a wide neck Pyrex can which was placed on a small heating element on 25% power. The naptha was closely monitored all the time and after about an hour, there was little naptha left. The pyrex can was left overnight on top of a monitor covered with a piece of paper to protect from dust, to dry out completely.
4) The next day, the spice was scraped of with a picket knife and collected. Not 100% pure but close enough
Whenever SWIM does a new extraction, he will not go the freeze/precipitation route but probably go this way from the start.
See pic..
1) All spice was collected and found to be a total of .5 gram. 100ml of naptha was put in an erlenmeyer flask and the spice was added. 50ml naptha should be plenty but SWIM added double to have more liquid to fiddle with to try the impurities out. The erlenmeyer with the naptha was slowly heated in a pan of just off boiling water and the spice was dissolved.
2) After a number of rigorous shaking and letting settle for a few minutes, an orange/brownish goo was settling on the bottom of the erlenmeyer flask and stuck together eventually.
3) The colorless naptha was then poored into a wide neck Pyrex can which was placed on a small heating element on 25% power. The naptha was closely monitored all the time and after about an hour, there was little naptha left. The pyrex can was left overnight on top of a monitor covered with a piece of paper to protect from dust, to dry out completely.
4) The next day, the spice was scraped of with a picket knife and collected. Not 100% pure but close enough

Whenever SWIM does a new extraction, he will not go the freeze/precipitation route but probably go this way from the start.