"...I have always wondered what fb eph looks like when distilled. Is it oil like with meth? If you put it in the freezer will the crystals form in the water as it cools?..."
From Swix's experience, the fb eph comes over undetectable to the eye (in a lieberg); and condenses into a clear solution with a slight oily tinge on the top (but the fb oil is dispersed throughout the entire solution). Hence, the water cannot be separated; which is annoying. I have put the pH6 distillate in the fridge for storage for a little while; but never to near freezing. It would bee so good if the pH6 distillate could just cooled to near freezing and the salts collected via filtration; but alas, my guess is it wont work like that.
This is unlike meth-fb that is thick fatty oil (mmm) that is visible and sits on top of the distillate water.
From https://www.thevespiary.org/rhodium/Rhodium/chemistry/meth.ephedrine.steam.html (https://www.thevespiary.org/rhodium/Rhodium/chemistry/meth.ephedrine.steam.html)
"...A separation of ephedrine from the amphetamines seems possible if a steam distillation as mild as possible is used to isolate the amphetamines. Then a forced steam distillation can be used to separately collect the ephedrine. ..."
Post reaction, Swix distills his meth by adding some clean sand and gently boiling (bringing over meth-fb/water).
When Swix steam distills eph/pseudo he uses a 'steam-dream' unit that directs steam into the bottom of the flask and causes rigorous agitation (and the liberation of fb eph). Yields have been lower when boiling it over on its own.
Care needs to be taken with foaming as small increase in temp and/or agitation causes the whole caboodle to foam into the recieving flask. Thats not cool...