Growing large, rock-like DMT crystals

[illa]

Thats awesome if you see I just posted in this section about giant rocks I got a long time ago. I was a few steps into developing this same process as I have given up on freeze precip and always let my crystals crash out at room temp. I crashed them out last week at a higher temp (78F) but after reading this am going to try your instructions. TY. When I have created small diamond size rocks in the past they have been the strongest thing ever so am hoping to get this right and make some large rocks.

If anyone cares I have seen a MJ tutorial on using heptane and they claimed solvent can become trapped in crystal. I imagine a jelly donut. I had a bad experience once when I knew I got some solvent in me while smoking and the catalyst of the deem made it a very horrible experience. As beautiful as crystals (and rocks) are I highly recommend breaking them up into powder to fully dry before enjoying.

 

[illa]

And as far as how big you can get them... I obtained rocks up to 20G in size if you read my story about 101%. I would like to add that I theorize that the pressure from the solvent at warm temperatures and sealed in a vessel add to crystal forming. This is true in Jar Tek when extracting THC and using butane. You allow a jar to sit at similar temperatures for up to two weeks with a concentrated THC/Butane solution that slowly grows crystals and separates terpines.

 

[ThresholdExplorer]

@chr0nic this is absolutely awesome!

After playing around with this recently, I have totally given up on freeze precipitated crystals. I found a bit lower temps to work best for me, but thats probably due to environmental factors, saturation etc..

It's also quite game changing as there is no need for a freezer.

A trick I found for working with some acacias that can produce a fair bit of goop / polymers is to let the solvent sit at 5-7c below the temp you dissolve for 24h or so, nothing will crystallise but any polymerised stuff will drop to the bottom, when decanted in to a new vessel you get instant crystals starting to form. From there you can whack it in and out of the water bath to dissolve all but one crystal if you are super careful, manipulate the tempts so that only that one crystal keeps forming and woah!

I also followed someones suggestion of repeatedly heating up a little bit at certain stages to dissolve any smaller crystals that would form / any small tips that would try to come off the larger ones. Very cool!

Awesome work man!

 

[Icon]

I've been studying the pdf and happened to come across this video that seems to summarize the Trillium tek.

 

[chr0nic]

Hello friends

I am quite humbled to find this post didn't get buried, and that people are still engaging with the thread. I have been a stranger to the forum for a while, but popped back to do some research. It was a lovely suprise to find some new responses here (though my natural anxiety also has me feeling quite guilty for not checking and responding sooner)! I will respond to each reply personally, thank you for taking the time.

One of the reasons the project of large crystals consumed me was that I wanted to make myself a pendant utilising some of the DMT as a gemstone. A silly idea, perhaps... but the molecule has given me so much that I felt it would be beautiful to wear it in tribute. To this day the crystal has survived. I don't wear the necklace in water, but had it around my neck day-to-day for over a year. It has discoloured a bit, and I only wear it on special occasions now (it seems to be eroding slightly, likely due to occasionally rubbing on my shirt), but it has withstood the test of (some) time.

Anyways, slightly off topic, so will leave it there. Thanks again for stopping by, and hopefully one day this thread will have examples of other chunky crystals people have grown!

 

[chr0nic]

chr0nic - very nice work there in your pdf.

An additional method worth following up is called 'Ostwald ripening'. Essentially, by gently and repeatedly cycling the temperature up and back down, this will cause the small crystals to dissolve and the large crystals to grow. Small crystals have a higher surface area:volume ratio so they dissolve more quickly. Eventually the smallest crystals will disappear and only larger crystals will remain.

If you've already covered this in your text, I offer pre-emptive apologies for skimming badly. Actually, looking once more, I see that this is going to be occurring with in a sous-vide anyhow, since the thermostat will not be holding the temperature completely steady. This ripple in the temperature helps contribute to the successful growth of larger crystals - lovely! :thumb_up:

Howdy downwardsfromzero,

That's really cool, I'll have to read up on that... I did try something similar, but didn't know the practice by name- and didn't really have the right equipment to automate the process, so it wasn't a great success. Thanks a lot mentioning it, and my apologies for taking quite a while to respond!

 

[chr0nic]

hey @chr0nic

super easy to follow, and makes a lot of sense considering the principles of freeze-precip. BUT, i'm confused why you seal the NPS container. is your hope that you only lower the temp to cause crystallization? even though the pressure should (?) reduce while temps drop, aren't you concerned about pressure the pressure and volatility of the NPS causing issue with the glass? as i understand it the glass isn't stronger in that sense, just in temperature shifts. i bring this up because i read a story about a guy who shook a warm vessel of NPS and it exploded on him (with NaOH soup in it) and caused lacerations as well as chemical burns.

also.. wouldn't letting the supersaturated solution evaporate through a coffee filter type-lid help keep the solution super saturated and further encourage crystallization over time?

thanks for the writeup and pictorial! i plan on doing this pretty soon with some highly contaminated stock.

Hi Matty,

I had concerns initially over the pressure rupturing the vessel, but the drop in temps (from boiling to warm) didn't seem to pressurise the Borosilicate container much- a minor release when the cap is opened, but not enough that I was concerned. I tried MANY variations over the years, and if I'm being honest I'm not a good enough chemist to know whether an unpressurised container would yield the same results. I believe the most important factors are overall purity, and keeping the mixture heated, but otherwise it is entirely possible that it doesn't need to be airtight... I may play around with this again on my next run.

I have also read accounts of people being covered by basic liquid- even one of someone badly burned by the caustic soup. During an extraction I burp my vessels way more than is probably necessary, but after seeing the horror stories it is hard not to be overly cautious!

 

[chr0nic]

Thank you for putting this together, eager to try it out!

Are there any effects of the form and size of the glass vial that is used for precipitation? Intuitively a more compact glass container will grow bigger crystals, but I'm not sure. Any thoughts?

Hi aarcaanee,

I don't believe so. I did this using a 50ml Borosilicate glass jar, and also a 200ml glass jar... but only because these fit in my water bath. Someone I know had success doing it in a MUCH larger container (they were extracting a huge batch) and the crystals they produced were as large as the ones I formed.

The base of the container may affect the shape of the crystal, as the ones they showed me ended up looking like chunks of round gravel, but the sizing was similar. I would love to test it myself, perhaps I'll try doing it in a test tube in the near future and report back!

 

[chr0nic]

Thats awesome if you see I just posted in this section about giant rocks I got a long time ago. I was a few steps into developing this same process as I have given up on freeze precip and always let my crystals crash out at room temp. I crashed them out last week at a higher temp (78F) but after reading this am going to try your instructions. TY. When I have created small diamond size rocks in the past they have been the strongest thing ever so am hoping to get this right and make some large rocks.

If anyone cares I have seen a MJ tutorial on using heptane and they claimed solvent can become trapped in crystal. I imagine a jelly donut. I had a bad experience once when I knew I got some solvent in me while smoking and the catalyst of the deem made it a very horrible experience. As beautiful as crystals (and rocks) are I highly recommend breaking them up into powder to fully dry before enjoying.

Hi illa,

Good luck with your recrystallisation! Yes, I've often heard people discuss the possibility of solvent becoming trapped in the crystal lattice. I usually keep a more powdery (fine crystal) on hand for my frequent journeys... but on special occasions (2-3 times per year) I have weighed myself out one of the larger crystals for a session. I will always crush it first, and wait around 15-20 minutes in case there was any lingering solvent. There is nothing worse than blasting off with a feeling of paranoia (or worse, knowing you have ingested something toxic)- the experience is terrifying

 

[chr0nic]

@chr0nic this is absolutely awesome!

After playing around with this recently, I have totally given up on freeze precipitated crystals. I found a bit lower temps to work best for me, but thats probably due to environmental factors, saturation etc..

It's also quite game changing as there is no need for a freezer.

A trick I found for working with some acacias that can produce a fair bit of goop / polymers is to let the solvent sit at 5-7c below the temp you dissolve for 24h or so, nothing will crystallise but any polymerised stuff will drop to the bottom, when decanted in to a new vessel you get instant crystals starting to form. From there you can whack it in and out of the water bath to dissolve all but one crystal if you are super careful, manipulate the tempts so that only that one crystal keeps forming and woah!

I also followed someones suggestion of repeatedly heating up a little bit at certain stages to dissolve any smaller crystals that would form / any small tips that would try to come off the larger ones. Very cool!

Awesome work man!

I generally don't go a total evap because I spend a little extra on lab grade heptane and try reusing these costly materials where possible... but yes, for sure! Your suggestion to remove the waxy / gooey polymorph is great advice!

I have used this to great effect with MHRB as well. It's not as much of an issue there, due to the lower fat content, but I would still occasionally crystalise and notice a small amount of tackiness when collecting the yield. 90% would come out nicely, but that last 10% requires a blade scrape.

One time, using MHRB, I grouped my pulls into a Pyrex dish and decided I had a touch too much NPS. I used a fan to evap a small amount of solvent- perhaps 10ml- and then transferred into a clean precipitation dish I like.

In the small amount of time a tacky layer had formed on the bottom of the original Pyrex dish. I kept it aside (to relaim), and placed the precip dish in my freezer. The crystals that it produced were bone dry, and scraped off super cleanly. I was very impressed and would be recommending this to anyone keen on getting fluffy dry product. Using the method you descibe for Acacia would 100% be advantageous! So much fat in there, I generally do a Xylene pull first... but I don't love the smell.

Thanks for commenting!

 

[Icon]

Hello friends

I am quite humbled to find this post didn't get buried, and that people are still engaging with the thread. I have been a stranger to the forum for a while, but popped back to do some research. It was a lovely suprise to find some new responses here (though my natural anxiety also has me feeling quite guilty for not checking and responding sooner)! I will respond to each reply personally, thank you for taking the time.

One of the reasons the project of large crystals consumed me was that I wanted to make myself a pendant utilising some of the DMT as a gemstone. A silly idea, perhaps... but the molecule has given me so much that I felt it would be beautiful to wear it in tribute. To this day the crystal has survived. I don't wear the necklace in water, but had it around my neck day-to-day for over a year. It has discoloured a bit, and I only wear it on special occasions now (it seems to be eroding slightly, likely due to occasionally rubbing on my shirt), but it has withstood the test of (some) time.

Anyways, slightly off topic, so will leave it there. Thanks again for stopping by, and hopefully one day this thread will have examples of other chunky crystals people have grown!

That's awesome dude, inspiring stone setting. I'd say that's on topic. It's the goal that gets it done. This thread was motivation for me and I grew some gems that I'm very proud of. Not as large as yours; that might be my final goal: to grow one big enough to set in a ring.

I'm finally getting pure prisms with vitreous faces. They're still growing, haven't pulled them out of the solvent yet. But when looking through the glass the faces reflect all sorts of colors, I suppose from light refracting through it. Looks like rainbow glitter in there.

Might be interesting to take a crystal solution and suspend a ring with a seed crystal in a prong setting and see what happens.

 

[EmeraldAtomiser]

Hello friends

I am quite humbled to find this post didn't get buried, and that people are still engaging with the thread. I have been a stranger to the forum for a while, but popped back to do some research. It was a lovely suprise to find some new responses here (though my natural anxiety also has me feeling quite guilty for not checking and responding sooner)! I will respond to each reply personally, thank you for taking the time.

One of the reasons the project of large crystals consumed me was that I wanted to make myself a pendant utilising some of the DMT as a gemstone. A silly idea, perhaps... but the molecule has given me so much that I felt it would be beautiful to wear it in tribute. To this day the crystal has survived. I don't wear the necklace in water, but had it around my neck day-to-day for over a year. It has discoloured a bit, and I only wear it on special occasions now (it seems to be eroding slightly, likely due to occasionally rubbing on my shirt), but it has withstood the test of (some) time.

Anyways, slightly off topic, so will leave it there. Thanks again for stopping by, and hopefully one day this thread will have examples of other chunky crystals people have grown!

Amazing work all round, chr0nic. The pendant is fantastic, and it's great to see a tec worthy of the name, and not just a rehashing and rebranding of others.