Not that I ever have or ever would since its illegal and what not but I would think that if I ever made MDMA*HCl from something like a reductive amination, even being the crystal growing fool that I am(I love growing any crystals regarless of what it is) I don't think I would ever see anything but maybe 1mm at best of crystals from MDMA salt. I would expect to see a slightly glittery dust settle after gassing a non polar extract of post reaction mix. I would also expect to see that even after recrystalization of that "dust" and an extremely slow cool down period from a mixture of H2O, MeOH, and Acetone that it would still not crystalize into anything of importance.

Its all theory but if I ever did decide to make MDMA that would be what I would expect a post reaction purification to look like.

Slow reX from methanol will make rice grain sized crystals at best.  Resolving with tartaric acid is more complex then forming the hcl salt, you have to take into account the different solubilities and crash one of them out then either use it as a tartaric salt or re freebase.  I agree with atara, even tho literature says that one isomer tends to be biologically inactive shulgin says you need both for the real magic, even tho one produces a much smaller effect.  You can make huge racemic shards by doing an h2o/acetone reX, theres some pics on the WD eye candy thread.

Sedit: I understand in theory you should not be able to produce large shards out of racemic mdx but as you know theory and practice are two totally different things.  And you're right, some of those pictures are simple compounds like sodium sulfate but nothing on that thread is mislabelled.  Are you denying there are pictures of large mdx shards crystalized from acetone/h2o on that thread, because last I checked there are two very similar sets of pictures from two different authors using the same technique.

yes have seen what meme states over at the old wd board. also seen as a big clear blob like glue. Maybe java can tune in here.

not sure about mdma, but when working with amph/meth it is possible to generate non transparent single block of the salt.
you do this by placing your salt in a flexible silicone mold, place mold+salt in the oven, and set oven temp to just above the melting point of the salt. Be careful since these tend to start to vaporize quite closely to the melting point. Once all the salt is melted you turn off the oven and let it cool down to room temp.
When it has cooled down you can push the newly formed "cast" out of the flexible silicone mold and have in your hands a single block of the salt.
You can either make your own mold, or buy ready made molds from the cooking store. With (distilled) alkylated amphetamine hcl salt, this makes pure white, non transparent, single blocks of the whole amount.
Not sure how this would classify as a crystal. In essence you melt the tiny crystals that make up the powdery salt and then resolidify all together.
I believe that since heat transfer of the salts is not so good, once it starts to cool, like ice cubes, the extremities cool down faster and solidify faster. This probably makes for the actual solidification rather then crystallization.  (<- not sure this last sentence represents good science, i need to brush up on my solid phase physics and not be stoned to decide)
It is possible I believe to generate clear rocks of this type. But, probably would require some equipment and capabilities (eliminating all trapped air inside the salt, cooling down to room temp very slowly at a fixed gradient, possibly doing a few cycles of melting/solidifying with different temp gradients, and most importantly keeping the height of the molten salt to a minimum so as to have a large surface area relative to the volume).
If you make your own molds you can have a small imprint on the bottom of the mold to add a signature to the block.
Dont know how this would work for mdma, the fragile dioxymethylene ring might not like that heating too much.

The more potent isomer of mdma is the S isomer:

http://www.erowid.org/library/books_online/pihkal/pihkal109.shtml

and those large crystals were probably produced via resolution of the racemic isomer:

http://www.erowid.org/archive/rhodium/chemistry/amphetamine.resolution.html

these links were found rather easily by using terms found in this thread, it seems like it was a waste of our time to make all that information available since so many can't be bothered to do their own research    The end results from the effort applied 

The (S) isomer is the more potent one, that can't be achieved by fusion    This paper describes the structure of mdma crystals:

http://www.erowid.org/archive/rhodium/pdf/mdma.crystal.structure.pdf  

 

i was mostly bullshitting with you lugh... The S isomer is the more potent one but shulgin states that the magic is lost when you separate the two...

"For anyone interested in the process I use:
100g powder and 500ml acetone in a flask/beaker with a stirbar
Heat and stir until acetone begins boiling
Add H2O a few mls at a time until everything dissolves
1ml of H2O will dissolve several times it's weight so give it plenty of time to stir and dissolve in between additions
When only a small amount of powder remains undissolved distill off about 100mls of liquid pour into a pyrex baking dish and let it evap slowly for a few days
In the end there will be crystals covered in a layer of syrupy acetone/oil
Discard the acetone syrup and wash the crystals with fresh acetone"


Courtesy of 'Please Stop It Now' from pnaut

Drip wise H20, the more water the more the xtals dissolve

Add H2O a few mls at a time until everything dissolves
1ml of H2O will dissolve several times it's weight so give it plenty of time to stir and dissolve in between additions