Apologies to the veterans for this, but I didn't want to hijack another user's thread.

I too made a Dream Machine for my MHRB extract and loaded 35mg. I got virtually nothing using a barbecue lighter held under the well and never touching it: no vapor, no effects.

The foil has what looks like a burnt area where the spice had been. Please see attached photo.

Ergo my questions:

- Did I inadvertently burn it instead of vaping it? If so I'm confused about how to do this; in his instruction video Gordo used a butane lighter with what I would assume is a far hotter flame held the same distance away. But I expect there's much to this I don't understand (an understatement)

- Is the Dream Machine inherently either inferior or very tricky to get right?

- Should I instead try using a concentrate pad with my herb vape, or is that too inadequate?

Thanks, everyone!

If you burnt it, you'd smell it. I dunno what a dream machine is but based on the fact that it involves tinfoil and a torch lighter, my advice is such:
Get a new pipe.

I built "the machine" when I first tried DMT and it worked pretty well. Just a steel scrubber placed in the neck of a bottle and a hole on the other end. It's better because it draws hot air over the spice rather than frying it like a hotplate, and this makes it vaporize a lot more efficiently. Any time you're placing DMT directly on a heated surface is a shortcut to a coughing fit in my experience.

Thanks, bismillah. A Dream Machine is a Mason jar with a drilled hole - like its more famous cousin - but that uses the aluminum foil as a base with heat applied from below. I really appreciate your "hotplate" reference and do indeed realize that it's different from the scrubber of the typical Machine.

As for the burning issue... well, having never done this before I'm not sure I'd be able to discern burning from mere vaping! I found that the smell as well as the taste were just like the unheated version - new sneakers/fresh flowers. There just wasn't very much of it.

Clearly I need to find another method. I'll look forward to hearing any opinions about the vape/concentrate pad from those who may have tried it.

Much appreciated.

Build the machine and follow the instructions you will not be disappointed. Glass mini liquor bottles are hard to find now, if you cant track a good one down small hot sauce bottles are good.

https://wiki.dmt-nexus.me/The_Machine

love and respect

Thank you, Kyngwhatt. I may well do that. At the moment I'm leaning toward an atomizer and have read good things about the Apex Volt. Appreciate your input!