Question The cheapest way to make meth has only been successful once

[Grubby]

Ask the chemistry experts! Because I have only succeeded with this method once! Is it the cheapest way to make amphetamine hydrochloride? Are there any important ring connections that are missed that prevent amphetamine crystals from being produced?
1. Mix 40 grams of phenylacetone, 20 grams of methylamine hydrochloride and 200 ml of methanol, add a trace amount of sodium hydroxide to neutralize it to weak alkalinity, and react at 80 degrees for 2 hours to generate an imine intermediate.
2. Add 10 grams of sodium borohydride to the imine intermediate and react at room temperature for 6 hours to generate amphetamine.
3. Add 100 ml of water to the reaction solution, separate the organic layer, and repeat washing three times. After using 100 ml of water each time, add an appropriate amount of hydrochloric acid to neutralize to pH 5.
4. Evaporate all water and stop heating when the temperature is above 100 degrees. What you get is still a liquid...and there are no crystals until it is dried! I really don't know what went wrong

 

[Osmosis Vanderwaal]

The right amount of NaOH, to neutralize 20 grams of methylammonium chloride I calculate 0.5g, which is more than a trace. Did you way it?

 

[Grubby]

Yes, I intentionally used an excess amount of NaOH to ensure the pH value was between 8 and 9.
In this experiment, the reaction mixture consisted of 20 ml of methylammonium chloride, 200 ml of methanol, and 40 ml of phenylacetone. The reaction was carried out with magnetic stirring at a temperature of 80°C for 2 hours.

 

[Grubby]

After the formation of the imine intermediate, my reaction mixture (RM) remained in an anhydrous state. Upon cooling to room temperature, 10 mg of sodium borohydride was slowly added. The reaction was allowed to proceed for 6 hours. Up to this point, I am unsure where the issue may have arisen.

 

[Osmosis Vanderwaal]

im not a chemist so correct me if im wrong but I was tought that one needs to swing the ph from 2 points lower than the pKa to 2 points higher than the pKb, meaning 12'1 and 4.6 For every point less than that you go, you leave 3% of the product in the wrong form, so you lost 9% when you stopped between 8 and 9 and 1.2% on the other end. Methylammonium chloride is a solid, but you are using ml to express how much. Theres a part of the equation missing, what is the mol density of this liquid? is it water or...?

 

[Grubby]

Uh... I did not accurately measure the amount of material, but please help me check if there are any more serious errors in my experimental process that would lead to failure? For example, during the extraction stage, I directly added water for separation without using additional solvents. I'm not sure. I just thought that the stratification of rm was already obvious, so I did this.