Let's grow a crystal. How to proceed?

[steppa]

Hey Nexus!

I'm currently trying to grow a nice solid dmt xtal from 500mg of yellowish dmt. What I've done till now:

I re-xed by dissolving it in about 30ml of hot heptane. Waited for the sediment to settle down. Then I transferred it to another vessel, reheated it and waited again till some sediment settled down. Transferred to another vessel, and reheated a bit.

In the meantime I preheated two pieces of chamotte stone and put them in an isolated box made of styropor.

The I placed the still hot glass with heptane/dmt on the chamotte stone, covered it with aluminium foil and closed the box.

So...that's where I am now. Pics attatched.

How would you proceed?

 

[Du57mi73]

Your pictures are not showing up for me..

I don't know what that stone is. What does it do and how is it facilitating your crystalization?

You seem like you know what you're doing, I would have suggested maybe one more re-x before you tried to crystallize it. Also, cooler temperatures allow for better crystalization, so if you can keep it cool that's good. And air dry.

 

[steppa]

What I like to do is just to grow one nice crystal. From what I've learned here, this can be archived by using heptane and a cool down time as long and slow as possible.

The chamotte stone holds its temperature very well, once it's heated. This, in combination with the isolated box should ensure a long cooling time.

What to to when it's at room tepemperature? How long should I leave it alone?

 

[alert]

Ok, there seems to be something strange with the attatchment. I'll fix this soon.

What I like to do is just to grow one nice crystal. From what I've learned here, this can be archived by using heptane and a cool down time as long and slow as possible.

The chamotte stone holds its temperature very well, once it's heated. This, in combination with the isolated box should ensure a long cooling time.

What to to when it's at room tepemperature? How long should I leave it alone?

Whenever I've grown large crystals I've just dumped my saturated solvent after re-x into my evaporation vessel, covered it in cheese cloth so nothing could contaminate it, and left it to sit off in the closet at room temperature until all the solvent was evaporated (over a week). End results were large, very solid, and clear crystalline structures that broke down into white powder when you chopped them up.

I've read elsewhere that if you already have a nice DMT crystal you can drop it into the saturated solvent to start crystallization on top of that but I have never tried that method myself.

 

[Du57mi73]

^^^ What he said. Drop in a seed crystal.

And you don't want it heated, you want it cooled. Room temperature is fine, especially since ambient room temperatures drop during winter. Lol.

 

[steppa]

Du57mi73,

what I'm aiming for is this.

i just disolved some freeze precipped spice in hot heptane then let it cool very slowly over a day or so.

No word from evapping anything here. I've also read a lot about how people use to alternate between fridge and freezer to support the growth of larger xtals.

So...after cooling down a night in the box I put the whole box carefully into the fridge this morning.

How long should I keep it there before putting it into the freezer? Does it even hve to go in the freezer, as it's heptane and I could imagine xtals crashing out even at fridge temperatures.

Attatchment should be fixed now.

 

[cyb]

A few hours in the fridge will cool it as far as it will go.
Then carefully, without disturbing the crystals, into the freezer to precipitate the rest out of solution.
I would then leave it in the freezer for a long time. A few days to a week. This will give them chance to grow on top of each other and coalesce into one lump.
The smaller the vessel the better so they won't spread out.
Test tube size would be my choice.
Or
A small square glass held on an angle so it drops and grows in the corner.

 

[steppa]

A few hours in the fridge will cool it as far as it will go.
Then carefully, without disturbing the crystals, into the freezer to precipitate the rest out of solution.
I would then leave it in the freezer for a long time. A few days to a week. This will give them chance to grow on top of each other and coalesce into one lump.
The smaller the vessel the better so they won't spread out.
Test tube size would be my choice.
Or
A small square glass held on an angle so it drops and grows in the corner.

Thanks cyb! :thumb_up:

I'll see how this attempt goes and maybe give it a second try if I'm not happy with the result. I used a shot glas here.

 

[Du57mi73]

Freezer isn't necessary, but fridge will help. I've gotten crystals that looked even purer than that just by having a super saturated naptha solution and had it sitting and temperatures dropped(winter) and pure clear crystals formed without any evaporation at all. But I think you want something a little more concrete...

Letting it air dry in a shot glass is your best bet.

 

[steppa]

But I think you want something a little more concrete...

Exactly.

Letting it air dry in a shot glass is your best bet.

I'm not really a fan of evap teks, cause of possible contaminants which would remain in the glas instead of beeing poured off. I mean I have a msds for the heptane, which clearly says it's only heptane...but...nah.

But thank you also, Du57mi73!

I said it somewhere else before, but I guess it couldn't hurt to say it again, since it wasn't so easy to get a hold of heptane where I live in Europe, since bestine isn't available here. I got BETACLEAN 3350 instead. The MSDS says it's pure heptane.

 

[dooby]

I said it somewhere else before, but I guess it couldn't hurt to say it again, since it wasn't so easy to get a hold of heptane where I live in Europe, since bestine isn't available here. I got BETACLEAN 3350 instead. The MSDS says it's pure heptane.

Thanks for the tip, will look into it...

 

[Du57mi73]

If you're looking to do it without evaporating then I would super saturate your heptane, then let it cool to RT. After that I would put it in the fridge for a day or so. Then bring it back out and let it cool to RT and repeat that process. This allows the dmt to slowly build up into sharp extremely pure crystals. My camera isn't the best but ill try and show you what it turns into by doing this.

The crystals are actually completely clear with no yellowing at all despite being formed inside of naptha that has been reused for multiple extractions. No evaporation was done. Just kept it sealed and it repeatedly and gradually kept cooling and returning to RT.

 

[steppa]

Nice Du57mi73!

I think I'll take this route too. This morning I couldn't resist the urge to have a look in the shotglass. I was more or less disappointed as the xtals crashed out as usual. I'll transfer it all to a test tube today and then try alternating between fridge and RT.

Thanks so far.

 

[a.lurker]

I got a crystal formation which looked exactly like the one in Phlux's pics. It was an accident, too.

I had to leave town for the weekend in the middle of an extraction, and I left a sealed jar with DMT laden Naptha, at room temperature.

3 days later there was a beautiful structure at the bottom of the jar. I thought it was just disintegrate when I poured off the naptha, but I said "what the heck" and tried to recover it.

It stayed intact and weighed about a gram.


Im really interested in how to grow a more solid crystal dmt, similar to a quartz crystal

 

[Orion]

Im really interested in how to grow a more solid crystal dmt, similar to a quartz crystal

Although a picture has circulated with a crystal which looks very similar to quartz, I am positive this is simply fake (the crystal is probably just quartz, renamed to impress people.). The crystal habit of DMT would have to completely change at some point for that to happen.

So far as I can tell the most common formation of DMT is quite flat and fragile, increasing in size in 2 dimensions faster than the third.

And steppa, I believe you are trying to grow one singular large crystal or crystal cluster? Because DMT tends to form many crystals in many places at once, this might be difficult. Unwanted crystals are sometimes referred to as 'parasite' crystals. These absorb more molecules onto themselves, dividing the amount of material which will form a crystal between themselves and more parasites. You need to remove these as you go to ensure one single crystal keeps acquiring new molecules. The slower you cool it, the easier it is to check for and remove these.

 

[steppa]

Thank you, Orion. Does this basically mean I have to purify it more? Or does it mean, that I was wrong thinking those crystals were the only ones in phlux's dish?

If the second was the case, I'd quit my trys right here as I don't have enough spice for this.

Or does this really mean, that I should scrape out crytals that grow were I don't want them to?

 

[Du57mi73]

A.lurker, that's how I got my crystals in the picture. Except it was a lot longer period than 3 days(2-3 weeks).

I am pretty sure phlux just pictured his biggest crystal.

If you're looking to get one large crystal then you're going to need to start with a seed crystal, and you're going to need more than a gram. Its not necesarry to have more than a gram, but if you want a decent crystal more is better, I would suggest atleast 3 re-x/freezes to clean your spice before crystalization.

Here's my final input on what you should do for the entire process...
Get atleast 4g of the cleanest spice you can from multiple freezes and then saturate it into your NPS. Once you have this, use the repeated fridge to RT method I explained above inside of a shot glass. I would allow the NPS to evaporate slowly during this process so that you can keep adding more saturated naptha to the shot glass. Eventually you'll have all of your 4g in the shotglass crystallized into one crystal. I heard that using heptane makes the crystal form more solid(doesn't fall apart on touch). It should be beautiful, large, and clear.

 

[Orion]

Thank you, Orion. Does this basically mean I have to purify it more? Or does it mean, that I was wrong thinking those crystals were the only ones in phlux's dish?

If the second was the case, I'd quit my trys right here as I don't have enough spice for this.

Or does this really mean, that I should scrape out crytals that grow were I don't want them to?

You only want one crystal or crystal cluster growing at a time, or at least that's what I've gathered your intention is. Phlux may have very likely have had more growing in there, but I don't know the volume and amount of spice to be able to guess. You can get very few parasites crystals if you cool or evap very very slowly.

Here's my final input on what you should do for the entire process...
Get at least 4g of the cleanest spice you can from multiple freezes and then saturate it into your NPS. Once you have this, use the repeated fridge to RT method I explained above inside of a shot glass. I would allow the NPS to evaporate slowly during this process so that you can keep adding more saturated naphtha to the shot glass. Eventually you'll have all of your 4g in the shot glass crystallized into one crystal. I heard that using heptane makes the crystal form more solid(doesn't fall apart on touch). It should be beautiful, large, and clear.

4g really could make some huge crystals in a heavily controlled environment but I think steppa's 500mg could easily make a very impressive cluster or even single shard if the temperature and saturation is very controlled.

Steppa, if you also try just evaporating the solution extremely slowly it would be a lot easier. So long as the stuff you are using is crystal to begin with and not a wax or oil. If you dissolve all 500mg into naphtha, hexane or heptane (speaking from experience I don't believe the heptane hype) in a jar, and try leaving the lid resting on top, slightly off-centre, in a cupboard, it should evap slowly. Too bad I don't have a pic from when I did this in the summer, I got some pretty impressive large shards of glassy spice. If you're concerned about dust, put some tissue under the lid.

Another way is wraping the opening with cling film (saran wrap?) and piercing it. More holes = faster evap. The longer it takes, the bigger and purer crystals will be. Just depends how long you are willing to wait. It might make for a nice competition here...

 

[Du57mi73]

I know. I'm almost tempted to take a challenge...

 

[downwardsfromzero]

[...]

Although a picture has circulated with a crystal which looks very similar to quartz, I am positive this is simply fake (the crystal is probably just quartz, renamed to impress people.). The crystal habit of DMT would have to completely change at some point for that to happen.

So far as I can tell the most common formation of DMT is quite flat and fragile, increasing in size in 2 dimensions faster than the third.

[...]

This fake photo... ?

from Erowid (of all places!!)