Quick question - has anyone dissolved the powders in PEG? I am using a large glass bowl full of water that I have heated to near boiling in the microwave to heat the bottles and I am shaking them...but it is taking a lot longer than I expected. I keep getting flakes that quickly settle on the bottom and won't dissolve. I have a feeling it is just a matter of persistence, but obviously want to be sure I am not doing anything wrong.
I dissolve to about 50% in benzyl alcohol, then add peg to finish it. I use a ventillated garage for all of this, wife says it looks like a methlab lol.
Have a dose of your raws in a glass petri dish. Pour a few ounces of benzyl alcohol into a stainless steel cup, and heat. If you have pure benzyl alcohol, you only need to heat it to around 120-150F. Otherwise, weaker concentrations can be heated to 215F to reduce the volume. This is optional, but minimizes the total amount of liquid needed so fully dissolve the raws.
*Be careful, start small, and practice this in a ventilated area until you get a feel for doing it. The sense of accomplishment isn't worth losing consciousness or setting you house on fire, especially when Salvo honestly works better.*
Take your cup of alcohol off of the hot plate. If you had to heat to 215, wait for the temperature to fall into the 120-150 range. 120 is more than hot enough to help dissolve the raws. You don't want 3rd degree liquid burns caused by alcohol, so be careful and patient.
Use a metered glass dropper to add one drop of alcohol to one dose of raws. Count the drops until you reach what looks like its 50% dissolved. This part isn't exact and won't ruin anything. If you're lucky, you'll even get a leveled metered amount that does it, like .25 ml. Otherwise, math out how many ml your amount of drops make. Multiply that by how many doses you want to dissolve. (One less, removing the one from the petri dish. You could add into the vial later.) Measure out your solution of alcohol to the volume you just determined into a metered glass container, beakers are great of you have them. Slowly add your raws while stirring if possible, otherwise shaking the finished product should work.
Now you add your peg, how much is dependent on the raws, so start lower than you think, and work your way up. You now have the finished product. Total volume ÷ total doses = 1 dose. Smells like vodka and burns the piss out of bacne. If you plan on doing this more than once, write all of your measurements down so you can just work through the motions next time.
Again, let me stress how important being careful is with this method. Alcohol's flash point is EXPONENTIALLY lower than the temperatures you're working with. If you can't ensure the vapors are being moved away from you and toward open air, don't do it. If you don't have a newer hot plate (steambath is better) don't do it. If your only option is your kitchen, don't do it.
I say all of this knowing that buying a good carrier is honestly the better option on all aspects other than long-term cost. I enjoyed making my own TDs but grew past the novelty of it because of the stress:reward ratio. There are simpler, safer ways to make carriers, but my goal was minimal volume with maximum absorption with what I could reasonably source.
If at any point you need to reheat the vials, open the top enough to allow expansion, turn on your range fan, and put a small shallow container upside down in a pot of water, and place the vial on top with the cap loosely sitting on it and bring to a near boil.
