Hi everyone, I'm a newbie here in need of some advice. The root of my problem is really that for the time being I plan on tripping by myself, so I need to be as safe as possible so I don't burn myself or burn my house down.

I have met Dimitri twice thus far, the first time through insufflation and the second time by vaporizing in my very own self-constructed machine.

The first trip I railed about 50-60 mg and achieved a nice, fairly extended dreamlike and relaxed state, but nothing earth-shattering at all.

By my second time, I had completed construction of my machine, but I still had no idea how to properly load it or how far to hold the butane torch, etc. I loaded about 60 mg because I was planning on breaking through, but I got too freaked out about dropping the torch so I turned it off as soon as I felt the effects coming on. It was intense, but I did not break through! I had to lie down and I started seeing colors and fractals, mostly with eyes open but I also closed my eyes for a few seconds and got even more intense visuals.

I would love to have another go at it and break through this time, but I'm really very concerned about the torch. Would it be acceptable to use a standard Clipper or BIC lighter with my machine? It is of conventional design, with the bed of steel wool to hold the Dimitri in place and transfer the heat evenly, etc. How far away would I have to hold the standard lighter? I know the flame should never touch the Dimitri.

I use a cheapo click torch lighter rather than an actual torch.

They are a bit hit and miss, but when you find a good one it will last for years.

For that style of device I would use a standard flame instead of a torch. Try to draw the heat from the flame but not the flame itself. Imagine pulling a channel of hot air slowly and consistently over the mesh or steel/copper wool, heating it up but never burning it.

I can relate to your experience. Machine can be confusing device.
For me and my friends torch works the best with machine. You preheat mesh but be careful not to overheat. You can check for overheating by dropping a bit first. If it vaporizes then wait 5 seconds more. Then you drop it on the mesh. If you have shaky hands, don't worry just drop everything on top. If there is unmelted looking crystal remaining, blow at it with torch starting from 30-40 cm distance and approach slowly, it should all melt into the mesh fast.
Then when you hold it, please make sure you are holding it nose slightly down. Reason is that melted spice escapes flame, having bottle nose tipped down helps gravity pull melted spice down and evaporize efficiently.
With torch lighter i prefer to blow it sideways slowly approaching bottle nose. It's like imagine that bottle and flame of torch form T. You carefully approach tip of the flame to the mesh and start pulling slowly, sucking flame towards mesh. On the first pull you do it like this. On 2nd and consequential pull you can point flame directly onto the mesh but from distance. It is because someof spice will inevitably escape into the bottle neck.

Why did I write all of this? Because it looks like you are vaping inefficiently, or your spice is subpar. 50mg should be enough to send mike tyson to the alpha centauri, if administered efficiently.

Please start low and work up your dose together with smoking technique. I suggest start with 15-20 since you already have some xp and see if you can achieve similar result to your previous 50.

Also don't chase breakthrough too much, it's just a word.

I can definitely seeing it working well with other people around, but I am undergoing at least my first several trips by myself. I've read stories of people blasting off while still holding the lit torch in their hands. I just don't want to burn myself or my house down, so I plan on using a basic BIC lighter when it's just me.


That's actually a very good idea.


Okay, that sounds good. I was actually going off of the Erowid recommended dose, but I see that on this site people are able to achieve more with less.

Thanks for your help!

I did it this way for my third time. I plan on using a standard lighter whenever I'm tripping alone, just to be on the safe side.

Visualizing the column of hot air really helps. Thanks!

What I meant is a torch lighter. It also requires finger press to keep burning, so it is almost as safe as bic or clipper.

Ah, I see. Yeah I think that would actually be really good. Thanks.