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Well, it looks like it took me a total of just under 6 months to achieve my first one Georgep, so you still might be more ahead of the game than me! I will say that the past two weeks before this I had started using affirmations about OBEing, and I'm thinking they ended up having a major effect.
For months I seriously was at a stand still with everything. No progress whatsoever despite spending 1.5-3 hours everyday, 7 days a week working on it.
Even with 3 months of that I had never experienced any vibrations/auditory effects, or physical effects other than heaviness/numbness so that is why I took a break. During the break I started thinking about why some people have them, and others who do everything "right" don't have them and I decided the only thing holding them back (and me) is fear, either conscious or unconscious. So I decided to stop trying so hard at the technique of it, and just try dissolving my fears.
So I started affirmations. I started saying in my head (a few hundred times a day) "I release all fear about having conscious out of body experiences". Then the next week I switched to "I easily have conscious out of body experiences." Then this OBE happened without me even trying, so I would suggest trying affirmations for 2-3 weeks and see if it makes a difference for you too.

So far I have had a very close attempt, and a real one. Both times it was in the morning when I wasn't rushed to wake up and when I was letting myself go back to sleep. I really was just letting myself fall asleep, and I am thinking that is the key. Both times I started to fall asleep and would see some very real-like visual images (just like when you start to dream, but these were a bit more vivid) and that would bring my consciousness into awareness of what was happening because I would sort of perk up wondering why they appeared so real.
I always feared if I just tried to go to sleep I would "miss my chance", because I would literally just fall asleep. But I think being relaxed about it is the key. I think if you have a deep desire for it somehow a part of your consciousness will always be looking for it's opportunity and it won't let it slip by without trying to get your attention.
I will see if this approach continues to work for me! I hope it can help you Georgep!

Sorry this is long. But I was pretty excited by this.

I had been trying pretty diligently (once or twice a day) for about 3 months with no results really and nothing to make me think I was progressing in any way other than developing the talent to stay conscious on the edge of sleep. I got pretty discouraged and decided to take a break. Weeks went by. Then about a month later I almost had an OBE, but got scared and broke concentration and it ended. In that one an interesting thing happened right before I was about to separate - I saw this flock of birds and I followed it with my eyes and it started to "pull" me out - but that is when I got scared and stopped it.

So anyway - jump ahead to today (2 months later from that last almost OBE). Woke up this morning around 6:30, went back to sleep. Sort of tossing and turning, not really thinking about having an OBE at all.
Then probably about 6:55 I was starting to dream but things were extremely clear and visually real, like I could touch them. I recognized this from the previous unsuccessful attempt 2 months earlier. Things (the flock of birds and other things) were very very clear right beforehand. So I think I thought about how it was similar to that experience for maybe two seconds and that flock of birds (it looked a little different but I immediately recognized it for what it was) showed up and I thought "I am going to do it this time!!" and I just thought of forcing myself through the fear and then like a rocket I just sort of flew out. It was SO fast. From the moment I started thinking how things "seemed really clear", to the moment I shot out, was maybe 3-4 seconds. I don't even remember technically leaving my body it was so fast.

So - I sort of shot out of my body and then all of the sudden I half realized I was in the corner of my room and I realized I had actually done it! And I thought to myself I have to get outside and see what it looks like! I had read how the environment can look different astrally then it's physical counterpart so I was thinking how much I needed to get outside quickly because this could end at any second and I didn't want to lose my chance. And then things just sped up. I tried not to even look over to where my body was (because I thought I would get sucked back in, but also I couldnt actually see much at this point) and I just zoooomed out of the bedroom, and out into the hallway, and past the kitchen, and out the front door, and down the stairs to the front outer door of my apartment building so damn fast. I guess my focus to get outside so quickly was what made that happen? But I was floating the whole way which was awesome. I floated through the doors, but I was going so fast I don't remember what they felt like.
I do remember while I was zooming out of my apartment everything looked REALLY murky - like dark, and super hazy. I couldn't see well at all, but I remembered to yell "clarity now!" over and over again from reading books about OBE's. So I was sort of yelling that as I zoomed out of my apartment and things finally started to clear up about the 5th time I yelled it. Then I was outside and my vision was totally clear (and it was very bright out) and I ran (probably floated really fast) to see what was out there. There was a building where an apartment building normally stood, but this one looked totally different, almost bravarian in style which was odd. Also, there is a little lake in front of the building normally, and astrally there also was one, but it was different somehow. Smaller and different - I can't remember. But anyway..

So I kept thinking how this could end at any moment and I thought I better try and fly real quick. So I tried and nothing happened and then I focused on flying and I yelled "I am flying!" over and over and then I did! So that was great, but brief. Haha - so at this point I remember flying and thinking how grateful I was that I had actually finally had an OBE and I was just yelling thank you to everyone or anything that was there, lol..and I looked around and there was someone looking at me like I was an idiot which was funny.

But at this point I sort of feel like I wasn't sure if it changed from being an OBE to a dream? Things looked different - like I thought I saw an angel - but it looked like an angel from an old renissance painting, like literally taken out of the painting, just painted there, which seemed odd to me. And then I landed from flying and I had this sense (or someone told me?) that I was going to have my first fear to face. There was a guy/person/something that was basically human looking standing about 30 feet in front of me and I suddenly realized he was going to attack me and I braced myself and started thinking what I could do to get out of this. But I got scared, and suddenly he had 5 other friends coming at me. I tried to fly away but they kept pulling me back down to them somehow. And then I remember having a split second thought that I hope they aren't zombies (I just watched the last episode of The Walking Dead) and as soon as I thought that he started trying to bite my arm. So that made me remember my thoughts were in control so I tried to calm down and force myself to think differently - so I started thinking that they were really my friends and I sent them loving thoughts and then all the sudden they stopped coming at me and just acted normal. As soon as that happened I started to back away slowly so I could get away from them even though they were just standing there not being threatening anymore and I turned around and boom, my eyes shot open and I had woken up.

So, I guess the first part felt like it could def. have been an OBE, but once I was in flight and I saw what looked like an angel painted right there into the environment I wonder if it had changed. Things still felt real to me then, but not as real as when I first got out of my body and got outside my apartment building.
Also - if it wasn't a dream and it really was an OBE (the first part at least) wouldn't my apartment look brighter, like the outside did? My vision was very hazy at first, but I could tell things were dark in the apartment, and even in the hallway leading outside - just like it was nighttime. I guess I figured it would have at least have matched the time of day it was (7am) even it it was hazy.

Yes, I agree that fear is the biggest inhibitor. I was becoming frustrated with my lack of progress so one day during meditation I asked for a reason, or some guidance about why I wasn't getting anywhere. Nothing happened during the meditation but that night I had quite the dream.
I was sitting in a room on a bed (I always practice in my bed) somewhere with the door closed. I was scared. I knew something was coming up the stairs to get me. I sat there frightened as I could sense it coming closer, and realized it was coming to posess me. It busted through the door, it was just sort of a vague hazy energy, and went straight for me. It took over my body and I was vibrating like crazy in the dream from it "posessing me". Then in the dream I became aware and realized that the vibrating wasn't anything possessing me, it was an OBE about to happen. Then I woke up and the vibrations faded. But it became clear to me that I was blocking it from happening (the door being closed in the dream) because of my fear of the unknown and the fear of how it would effect me. I also realized I could have some unadressed fears of possession happening when I'm out of the body, but it might not have been that literal.
Either way it became clear that the dream was telling me that fear is the key issue for me. So I am now I am working on adressing the fears and accepting them and trying more.

Interesting, so it starts happening all the time then? I started to wonder about this myself actually. Good to know.

I am new here, but I felt like sharing what I think was my first close experience with an OBE. I have been working on it fairly diligently, i'd say 1-2 times everyday for 2.5 months with what seemed like no progress. I never really get the "vibrations" people talk about. I get a mild tingling feeling fairly easily and I have learned to sort of pulse that through my body from my head to toes - but it still doesn't seem like those are the "vibrations" everyone talks about. Either way, I finally had a fairly close OBE - but it was not through the techniques I usually work at to achieve one. After reading a lot of posts on here I finally figured out it would be called "phasing".

It was in the morning, I had woken up and figured I would make my 1st attempt for the day since I hear it's a great time to do it. I just laid there in bed and let myself sort of fall back to sleep while keeping my mind aware as possible. Fairly quickly I saw a flash of a squiggly orange ball in my minds eye - it was very vivid. So I was like "oh, how interesting". Because of that I stayed even more aware because I was excited to see if more things like that would pop up.
I continued watching the blackness and saw some floaty colors for a while. I didn't realize it but I had lost most of my connection with my body at this point because I was so involved in watching for things in my minds eye...which I just discovered from reading about phasing that this would be called the "noticing technique".
A short time past and suddenly the floaty colors very distinctly turned into faces. And then the faces sort of zoomed into their eyes and I sort of went through their eyes -- if that makes sense.
This happened for a what I would guess was maybe a minute or two. The interesting thing was the faces were very much not human. I have a hard time describing them, they had bigger eyes and just alien looking faces, and I just kept seeing them. I remember laying there thinking "hmmm..that is interesting. I wonder who these guys are, they look kind of scary. Should I be scared of this?" but I wasn't scared and just went with it. Eventually the faces and eyes stopped and suddenly sort of out of nowhere their was a flock of birds. The most vivid flock of birds EVER. They were flying right in front of me and it was to say the least, fascinating. I would be hard pressed to say the were not "real". They certainly looked like they were literally right in front of me.
At this point I realized what was happening, or at least that something important was happening. I decided to check in with my body because I had become so completely unaware of it. I wanted to see if anything was going on with me physically that matched what other people said happen before an OBE (vibrations, etc).
When I checked in I immediately felt some pressure on my 3rd eye, which I had read happens sometimes. Then I checked in with my hearing (I really had to focus and check in with it because for some reason I was totally unaware of it) because people say they hear things and in all of my attempts over the months I have never had any sort of auditory disturbances or heard anything (which contributed to feeling like I was making no progress). Almost everytime I attempt an OBE I hear ringing in my ears, fairly intensely. I can hear frequency changes too. It gets a little louder sometimes, or sometimes a little quieter. But beyond that nothing more auditorily happens with me. But when I checked in this time, volia - I did hear something! It was like a muffled popping or bubbling in my ears. It wasn't scary, quite pleasant actually. But I was like "Yes!! Something REALLY is happening this time!" I do remember thinking it was strange how the bubbling/soft popping was occurring the whole time but I didn't actually hear it until I tried focus in on it. As soon as I changed my focus I lost touch with it again.
So after having these sort of physical validations that an OBE was in progress, I went straight back to focusing in my mind - back to the birds. They were still flying around and I had this feeling I was supposed to follow them with my eyes. So I did, and they suddenly flew upwards (towards where my third eye would be located I remember noticing) and I could feel a sort of sucking up feeling, don't know how else to describe it....aaaanddd then I half-panicked, lol. I had the thought "okay - this is really happening now, you can do this don't be scared!" and as soon as I thought that it all faded and I was very clearly back in my body...er, still in my body.

So just thought I would share. I haven't been able to achieve anything since, and that was 8 days ago. But only last night did I come across info about phasing (thanks to Xanth) and feel like it is something I sort of  am more naturally inclined to do. I am going to stop my attempts at climbing that rope obsessively and just follow what I always want to do - which is just to notice. I tend to get to focus 12 pretty quickly in my attempts, and then shortly after jump to focus 21 without much fuss, but usually stop "noticing" in my mind at that point because I am trying to get out of my body and I start doing something like the rope technique. Phasing seems like it worked for me once, so i'm going to keep at and see what happens..