Yeah, I see what you're saying, Rhod. My idea was to dissolve some acetaldehyde in toluene, add the MeAm*HCl, chill it down to 0°C, then basify the solution with some aqueous NaOH, which has also been chilled to 0°C. Then stir the mix for a minute or two, and draw off the water layer, and add a drying agent, and let it sit in the freezer for a little bit. I guess if the NaOH solution was conc., then it would make all of the acetaldehyde and MeAm harder to keep dissolved in the aqueous layer, which would help to get them into the toluene layer to react.
I guess one could just bubble MeAm gas into the toluene, but how soluble in toluene would MeAm be?