Birch Baby

[maple_honey]

So if the predissolved, solvated electrons are slowly added to the suzy/solvent mix, with strong stirring, are there any batch size limits? It would seem to me that as long as the stirring is adequate, there will always be suzy throughout the reaction until the additions are done. So, no or little over-reduction should take place. Right?

Fester sets his batch size limits at around 55 grams of freebase but his recipe calls for dripping the suzy into the predissolved Li and not the other way around. I would speculate that a fair bit of overreducing would occur during the additions with his version as the molar ratio of Li to Suzy would be much higher than 2-1 until the additions were complete. I have noticed over the years that much of what Fester publishes is complete bovine scatology.

I particularly like the chapter on "Ice" where he states that all one has to do is add dry ice to the freebase and it will crystalize as meth carbonate. Yeah Right. Maybe he should actually try it before he publishes it. I have. Doesn't work.

[Steamer]

After studying and preparing for a month Swim,(who has about 30 RP/I runs under his belt) completed first Nh3/Li today. Swim will never consider doing RP/I push/pull again ! I would like to say it's way too easy but this may encourage too many newbees to fool heartedly rush in. It has tremendous risk of injury and should only be attempted by those with some degree of chem process knowledge and comtetence. Do it sober, do it straight !
 SWIM ran it out doors in the country and was a windy day. No respirator but one wasn't needed, just stay the fuck upwind. It was about 5 degrees C  started out with ice bath (forgot to pack salt) but found that it's not really needed, it stays plnty cold itself. Threw in about 12 gr. of pseudo from equate brand, (just 3 methanol pulls no wash, to A/B) into 350 ml of agricultural anny. Tossed in Li from 1 AA and part of another ( messed up the first battery so bunch got oxidised) Probably 1 1/2 gr Li. It was a damp day too. Swim trew in gradually expecting a strong reaction but it just foams up and froths, first put pseudo in 2 gr at a time, then Li pieces in over a period of about 5 minutes.Swirled around in the one liter erlemeyer flask every 5 minutes or so till the blue went away, that took about 1/2 an hour.Swim even was walking around swirling it while playing frisbee wit the dog, it was a windy day though. Then swim took a beer case, stuck the flask in it , cut a hole in the side and ran swims truck engine exhaust in it to boil off anny. That took an hour. Took a sniff and got a good wake up ! Looked dry but still a very good ammonia stench, that was probably the worst exposure during the whole procedure.
Back home,Threw in some water, NaOH and dripped (no gas generator yet) Initial product dried out nice long needles. Forgot to do a wash on the NP for the GoddamnIneedahhootIhopeitWorked! The ammonia smell still strong in the freebase/NaOh solution and the NP had strong smell too but washes should clear this right? Returns look spectacular compared to the push/pull where'd it go routine.
63,000 liters of anny just 10 miutes from home, life is good! Has anyone tried putting vacuum on the flask when driving of the anny.Swim was waiting for it to boil away and while walking around the bush found an old freezer and was contemplating pulling the compressor out. I have a feeling that vacuum may be too violent unless one could control the pressure rather closely. Swim will build a sealed compartment at home to do this. Kinda like those sandblasting units with ventilation up the sewer vent, mount anny tank outside, run a line in. Bada-Bing,Bada-Boom.
 The Li bothered Swim more than the anny. Anny is just like walking in a chicken barn on a hot day. But once again, use your noodle if your going to do this, and have a plan in place at each stage to recover from something going sideways on you. Lots of water, gloves, long sleeves, boots. Cover your skin, protect your eyes and be aware of the pressure in your tank at the temp your working in. Swim feels the biggest hazard is getting the anny into the flask safely. Swim was using a 1/2 ball valve which was ok but a little bump and some anny went flying. Swim was ok but will be looking to install a needle valve downstream of the ball valve(using 20lb propane tank) and use the ball valve as a quick shut off.  Probably didn't say anything new here, but Swims just so damn happy he could...you know.

[maple_honey]

If your going to use a vacuum, use an aspirator! That compressor will not likely last long with all that ammonia going through it. But it's not really needed, as a little heat from an aquarium heater will have that stuff boiling like a motherf*cker.

Also, what the hell are you doing without a proper mask on? Do you have a death wish? No, be more afraid of the ammonia than the Li. You will be blind with one accidental spray in the face.

[Jacked]

you better watch out dripping acid with smelly still about. It will convert it to something? ammonium chloride or something I'm not sure but something you could do without I am sure of.. How do ya forget to wash the non-polar? That is unthinkable, forgetting that is..I always want to see just how clean the first wash is so it's like second nature, I don't haft to remember to wash because it is a part of the next step that cant be reached with a wash, that's just me. Other than that, cool man.

[Steamer]

Swim came out with just over 80% recovery. Got some of the longest needles ever seen on the drying plate. About 3 inches long and almost perfectly lined up in sets of 10-15 lines each.Very pretty. Very potent heart pounding, sketchy stuff, tingly senations all over. Possible contaminants or just very pure??. Or just time to layoff and get some sleep.
 While dripping HCL to lower Ph, using red phenol, the Ph would always bounce back up to around maybe 8-9. After putting in 50 % excess of what swim usually drips per gram of expected product, swim dried and a quantity of excess HCL showed up. Does the Nh3 odor present in the NP layer mess up the Red Phenol some how ? Swim ran a couple of H2O washes on NP but had no NaOh left for a wash.
  Aquarium heater !! Clever, simple, cheap, swim likes.. many thanks Maple! This reminds swim Zeolite is used to filter out ammoinia in aquariums.
And Yes Maple I absolutly deserve the reaming over safety.Thank you. Swim had saftey glasses and wet cloth over the mouth during setup. Swim Would have loved a respirator and looked high and low for one to borrow but could not aquire one and funds were absolutley tapped at this point, sad state of affairs-too much grit/no cash ...go figure hey. Swim very much appreciates the concern.  But yes, donations are now coming in for a full face apparatus from the Foundation for Impoverished Meth Cooks, and an enclosed ventilation hood compartment has been constructed indoors to stay away from other peeps land. Wilst swim was Birchin' amongst the birch trees (how ironic) in a secuded farming area with an erlemyer flask in hand , the farmer pulled in. As this spot seemed to be a bit of a personal garbage dump, I told him I was an eviromental consultant checking the soil for contamination as one of the neighbours had complained, and he left very politely. Probably started a rural feud. Flame me if I'm babbling.

[SmelliumII]

maple_honey: the answer is no, but if you go over 8 oz, try my NAILIT modifications.

steamer:  Nice first one, you & jacked are the luckiest motherfuckers on the planet.  I must have run it a dozen times before I had a grasp of what I was doing.  Try some of Jacked's mods, and mine for an even better time.  Oh, and that metal thing... beware!  That shit'll blow up on ya.  It's definitely in your best interest to melt it before the rxn.

Jacked: Your point is one of the most forgotten steps, and one that causes tens of thousands to ingest ammonium chloride each week.  WATER IS ONLY THE ENEMY DURING THE REACTION!  As Jacked said, make it part of your routine & you'll never overlook it.  Once I did, and had to rebase & regass the shit because it was contaminated.  If you don't rinse with water or wait 12-24 hours post reaction to gas/titrate, yours is contaminated too.

Finally, steamer, quick thinking, high marks for thinking on your feet.  That one gift may serve you better than all of the rest of your talents, of that you can take my word.  You have every right to babble, it's exciting to succeed.  Please let this be the only place where you do that, and you'd best not be bragging to all your so-called friends.  Often success has a way of making your friends so envious that they talk about you among themselves, at parties, unknowingly to narcs... I think you get the picture.  GOOD LUCK, AND GOOD WORK!

[Steamer]

Ammonium cloride msds states it melts at 384 degrees C and vaporizes up around high 600's as I recall , so if it was present it should show up in the pipe correct, swim prefers glass but worried about others that may introduce the substance via different instruments. Thanks Smellium.
Regarding the bragging Smellium your are very right, this is the only place that one should. The best advice Swim ever read on the Hive, the first time on the Hive was someones signature that said "The only way 2 people can keep a secret is if one of them are dead" At the time swim thought that was pretty harsh, now swim knows its just the truth.That always comes to mind with anything Swim does in the aquisition, procurement and employment of this hobby. swim only started to do this because his wife was finacially draining him with her habit. Swim figured 95% of the problems occuring would be eliminated by some good home cooking. But the kitchen couldn't keep up because the wife decided to add gambling to her list of addictions. As the marriage crumbled like shards she turned into swims biggest narc,talked to the cops when she got pinched, turned in evidence, yapped all over town and stole swims kilo of lab grade RP to sell. So now every spun out gringing lurping tweaker is breaking into swims house looking for the motherload. Next she called swims employer and informed him of swims new skills, told child services swims residence was a meth lab then ran away without a word for 4 months with swims child. Now how much help do you think swim got from police, neighbours and child services. Right, clever cunt. Now the bitch is crying for child support. Of course swim is getting just wonderful references from previous employer. With no more RP, job, wife, child or purpose, swim moved 500 miles away were he noticed 63,000 liter bullets of anny about every 30 miles, well whats a guy ta do? When God hands you lemons, you now what to do.
Just goes to show that you never know whose fucking who in the end. By the way, swim never even did meth until swim made it back then. Oh well,a man makes his own shoes.
Oh ya, another plus for the Birch is fewer precurors, hell they'll deliver a 2000 gallon tank right to your house if ya want with complementary doughnuts and a ball cap! So now I'm whistling the closing song  of Monty Pythons Life of Brian, "Always look on the bright side of life"

[SmelliumII]

Please don't let them deliver the NH3.  As soon as the DEA gets their copy of the bill of lading they'll bring you a new song to sing, "The Jail House Rock".  In these parts, that very thing has brought down quite a few would-be chemists.  Now the shits in such high demand & short supply that one enterprising idiot is trying to sell the shit for $1000 a gallon.  It wouldn't surprise me if some other idiot is willing to pay that price.

You have suffered much and for that I'm truly sorry.  I can certainly empathize.

[dwarfer]

It's not very poisonous, but obnoxious as hell.

It is a system acidifier
and as such lowers the bodies
response to the drug.

It's easily gotten rid of...

[placebo]

Got some of the longest needles ever seen on the drying plate. About 3 inches long and almost perfectly lined up in sets of 10-15 lines each.

Sounds more like eph/pseudo but would depend on crystalisation solvents.

Very potent heart pounding, sketchy stuff, tingly senations all over. Possible contaminants or just very pure??.

Definately sounds more like eph/pseudo, so your method sounds like more fiddling for a lot of unreduced stock.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

[dwarfer]

Now, I like the idea of pre-dissolving the Li seperately first and then slowly pouring it into the FRED freebase but the problem is the rate at which the NH3 wants to boil back into a gas. Pouring this out of the air can cause a big mess to say the least. Some type of chilled pumping mechanism may work well.

it might, but it is not necessary.  With pre-chilled
electrons added to pre-chilled prego, the gas elution
is no biggee.  just have a good fan at your back, blowing by you...

[SmelliumII]

Yes, the description of the buzz certainly sounds like unreacted E or Pseudo.  But No, the size of the crystals, IMHO, are only effected by things like % of solvents, method of reducing solvency (evap/temp change), and speed with which the reduction of solvency is achieved.  It is my opinion that SWISII has often left a birch rxn with a healthy % of Pseudo unreacted.  His attempts at rxtalization left him with the same mixture that he started with, so that the Meth & the Pseudo crystalized together.  Whether he nailed it or not in the reaction, his crystals were ALWAYS effected by the factors above, and not likely the % of Pseudo or E.