Swif just went thru a lengthy extraction of his pseudo - did a TCE/JD extract, ended up a gooey mess wouldn't dry after 2 days, followed Wareami's instructions and tone washed, LT washed w/several steps to remove oily gakk, tone washed X2 to remove remaining blue, ended up with 5.5g E after starting with possible 14.4g (but Swif spilled about 1/3 due to ghetto-funnel-holder-failure
).
Followed the SOP for a Short/Dry rxn verbatim and mixed:
5.5g pseudo
4.4g RP
6.6 I2
1.5ml DH20
Mixed pseudo and rp first then added DH2o then added I2 (chopped this up with a razor first, small amount melted and stuck to razor? but tiny amt).
Swirled/mixed then put in ice bath, chili melted a bit, then after 10min took out and left for 15min at room temp, chili got a little more muddy but no smoke.
Put flask in sand and oil bath at 150f, chili melted and started to bubble slowly, chili seemed a bit thick (but then Swif has added too much H2o in his 2 previous attempts) balloon filled to about fist-size, still no cloud, smoke nada. Continued heating for 30min raising temp to 180f, balloon expanded a bit more, bubbles still going, but never had big initial event, and no swirling cloud as in previous trys.
Swif should mention that at one point the tip of the thermometer got moved and was not stuck into the sand - never used sand before so didn't think much of it but then he noticed that the temps were dropping. Swif turned up the heat but after 10 min when temps seemed low raised it again. Few minutes later wondering if there was a temp differential he pushed the tip to the bottom of the sand and the temp shot up from 190f to 275f!!! The flask/chili had probably been in the higher temps for about 12 min Swif guesses and he hopes this didn't burn up his goods.
But now Swif began to suspect insufficient/weak rp as a possible culprit???
So after another 20min of this he decided to add 1g of rp. He held the rubber surgical hose clamped in his teeth
to maintain balloon pressure, opened flask and tossed in rp then closed it up.
The chili seemed to dry up immediately and bubbling stopped, but returned to oil bath. After maybe 10min like this chili was still dry and nothing was happening and Swif figured maybe needed more DH2o and since no rxn also decided to add more rp and I2
. Repeated above procedure, added the remaining .7g rp (total 1.7 extra rp), 2g I2 and 1ml DH20.
Back in the bath chili liquified and Swif thought he saw the slightest puff of smoke for a second, but then chili started to just make small bubbles again??? Seemed a bit too liquid now (shit again!), balloon expanded a bit more (about grapefruit sized), lots of redish sweat trickling down sides of flask.
Over the next hour raised temps to 225f then upped it to 250f. cuz Swif figured he's now got too much h2o and so maybe ought to run this more like a long wet rxn (maybe medium semi-wet rxn). He's read somewhere where temps should be about 115-120c so that's why (he wasn't absolutely sure about this). The entire time Swif can see lots of little bubbles comming up outta the chili so he hopes this meant something was happening.
After 3hrs of this shit, and not having a clue as to when this will end, that is IF anything is actually happening and he's not actually just been watching steam boiling out of a dead batch of chili, Swif decided to leave the kitchen and head to his den and ask for some input. Swif didn't find any answers that nite and, having to work in the a.m., he decided to sleep for 4 hrs. and then ck to see what happened.
SO, any ideas as to WTF went wrong and what, if anything, is actually happening at the moment? Swif would sure appreciate some insight to what went south on his rxn. Thanks in advance for any help!
P.S. Is it ok to leave the stuff cooking unattended for a few hours? Swif left temps dialed in at about 115-120c, and fire saftey measures are in place
EDIT: Swif took a nap and woke up 4 hrs later and went back to the kitchen. The chili was now slowly making big bubbles, red sweat was replaced by clear condensation, liquid in chili looked clear to just slightly yellowish.
After removing from heat and cooling, opened and smelled some kind of chemical, petro oil smell, not at all like fish??? After adding DH2o and rinsing rp Swif found lots of little round white globs that had a hard rubbery texture like plastic, ?WTF? mixed in with the rp!!! Don't see how that's possible but it resembled the white plastic tubing he uses, tho the plastic didn't look like it had melted. Is this some kind of gakk that cooked out or is Swif crazy and it is plastic?
After filtering x3 the liquid is almost clear like water, only slight tint of yellow but very faint. Doesn't look Swif thinks - he wonders if he should go ahead with the rest of the process or is he right in thinking that, without the proper signs this is just a fucked batch and he should just start over? Thanks for any help, it's appreciated