Hi guys, thanks for the responses... sorry it took me so long to get back here, been busy!
Anyway, first off, I would like to defend the lab technique, and criticise my posting - I was in a rush, left out a few details... the work up was exactly like that outlined in the article, with the exception of the final chloroform evaporation, with gassing being done instead.
However, since then, research has shown a new and interesting way of making ammonium formate, which may be attempted... of course ammonium chloride is just laying around, and there's enough oxime available for a few trials, so hopefully a working procedure can be devised! It was also found somewhere on the Hive that MDA.HCl is soluble (at least to a degree) in DCM, and therefore it would be reasonable to assume that it would be similarly soluble in chloroform - therefore, xylene or acetone will be attempted in the future. Also, came across a snazzy microscale distillation apparatus, which may come in handy.
Presently time is unavaliable for labwork. However, the project is at the top of the list, and the suggestions given here will certainly be taken into account!! Again, thank you!!