I am a newer smoker, less than a year, but I feel like I have a good bit of experience. I, being a very resourceful art student, decided to make my own bong. The first was not so great and I eventually replaced it. The newer bong has worked much better than the first. It is better built, and more advanced, with an internal percolator, but it too needs to be one uped. Pics of the old bong and the new one will be attached, as well as plans for the future bong soon. I do post all this with a few questions. I want to know if there is anything noticeably improvable that I should know about. I am going to use a similar design, unless I change my mind, except just improved on. Like a larger bottom half (the thermos i'm using now can't hold much water), as well as a larger chamber (again, to hold more water and to allow a larger chamber for smoke to gather. I've had a few complaints about it not hitting hard enough, which is what I want to improve, but boy is it smooth ) I also want to implement some sort of one way valve so you don't have to worry about covering it with your finger. Anyone who has made a bong like this probably knows why that valve is there. One thing though, something I see a lot on homemade stuff, is I NEVER use a tinfoil contraption as a carb. Mine, as you can see, is a nice all metal made from a stainless steel pen tube, a steel cake decorating tip (the star shaped ones with a few bent in to create a filter of sorts) and metal tape all on the outside (so as to not burn any adhesive, can't breath that!)
Also, I would not be against making plans on how to make the newer one, or the newer newer one, if anyone's interested.
The biggest thing you can do to improve you homemade is make the downstem diffused. Add holes or slits. If that too hard go to a smoke shop and pick up a glass diffused downstem for you homemade (unless that defeats the purpose) and add it to your current design. Other than that the less plastic you use the better. My homemades use glass VOSS water bottles but a glass cutter may be needed for that unless you get really cleaver.
(I dont use a glass cutter though, you can just put everything through the top of the voss bottle if you want, especially with a mouthpiece contraption like in your old one)
I really don't like using glass, at least when making things, not that I wouldn't mind a glass bong. The diffused down stem is something I haven't thought of though. What I failed to show in the pics, is that there is a permanent down stem that you can only see on the outside in the pics. It has a very large hole, it's just a plastic pen tube. Since the carb is metal, and thus won't melt, nothing else gets hot enough to melt, so plastic is not a problem. Should I, in the new design, Use something with several smaller holes instead of one large hole? Also, the gluing and whatnot looks kind of rough because it was just to get the job done. The final version will be nice and neat.
I thought about Using the usual pen tube approach, but something at the end of the down stem, "like" a ping pong ball or something (but not a ping pong! Have you ever caught one on fire! I don't want to smoke through that) and then putting little holes in that. And for anyone going to tell me to just buy a bong or something, i'm a full blooded artist! I don't buy art, I make it, and I sure as hell don't buy a bong, I make them! If I can make this out of wood, with no woodworking skills prior and designed solely by myself, I think I can make a bong.
Well you could heat up a thick needle or something like that and put wholes in the pen? Diffusion is the best way to make your hits smoother. Regardless cant wait to see the final version!
Unless you have been blowing glass for a few years and have access to the complicated equipment required to create a masterpiece (thousands of dollars worth of equipment) you still have plenty of reason to buy a bong. Don't get me wrong, I would love to blow my own glass, and intend to in the future, but right now dropping a couple hundred bucks on a nice piece of glass would be a sound investment. Sure, i can paint a nice painting, but that doesn't equip me with the years of experience required to make functional smoking equipment. Building a bong out of anything other than full glass will never compare, i'm afraid.
All the posting I've done to prevent this has been useless. Again, I'm looking for advise on how to make a "homemade" bong, albeit a nice one. Not advise on how I need to buy one.
I hope you realize that the part of the GC community that doesn't buy nickle and dime bags daily to keep their fiend at bay is utterly perplexed that anyone would want to create a fake bong when you can simply lighten your wallet one or two day's work for a bong thick enough to last till the apocalypse. want a homemade bong? get creative, if you're an artist. I don't know about anyone who considers themselves an artist that can't think of their own ideas. it isn't all that difficult, you just need to know the basic parts of a bong, and find pieces that mimic those parts, albeit their inferiority to glass on glass. And if you want your bong to look pretty, going to the hardware store for the optimal DIY bong parts is out of the question, build-a-bongs are commonly ugly as shit.
I don't buy nickle and dime bags daily, and I am not perplexed in any way. Yes, I admire glass bongs, but I in no way need one. I also do have my own ideas, and I do know the basic parts. It is the "advanced" parts I am looking for advise on. Like I said before, I didn't know of a diffused downstem, not because I don't have my own ideas, but because I had little to no knowledge of this "advanced" part. It's the little things like this that I'm looking for.
I made a homemade once that was pretty nice. It was a pickle jar with a glass test tube downstem with a homemade shower head perc on the bottom with 20 or so holes. It stacked so nice and gave a really smooth hit. Unfortunately I lost it somehow and haven't seen it or heard anything about it since.
I think you should spend sometime google searching the anatomy of glass bongs (even if you are not building a glass bong) to get a better feel for what you are making. hell, i've even seen DIY carbon filters, ashcatchers, percs, and i even saw a buildabong with an icecatcher. i wish you luck in building your bong, and hope that it compares somehow to a fully functional glass piece
That's what I'm looking to make. Something with the functionality close to that of a nice glass bong, except without the form and beauty, and I'm willing to admit, superior function. I know it will not look as nice a glass, but I can still but some creative talent into making it look better than the majority of homemade bongs out there. I may look into how the shape of a bong can alter how it performs, and try to mimic that.
for lack of pics of my current homemade, ill post this one showerhead diffuser on SS stem with a SS slider bowl if you want me to send you some plans, i have various models that i feel are among the top homemades. not a single bit of glue besides alittle on the outside of the bowl as far as yours goes, more diffusion would help, cleaner design...
That one looks good except for the mouth piece. It may just be the picture, but it looks jagged. Glue I'm fine with, and the last two have just been prototypes, so I haven't cared if it looked messy. The final model I plan to use caulk over all the glue. Then I'll smooth it out before it dries so it's nice and clean. I also plan to use the rubber you can buy to dip tool handles and such in to dip the mouthpiece. One question I do have for you Got Homemade, is the makings of the bowl and stem. It looks very clean and I was wondering how it was made.
Ive even seen some percs made of plastic online, but Im not sure how you would go around making one. Check out youtube videos for some ideas on it!
I'd spend the $30 you would have to spend on parts and go buy a cheap glass bong. I can get a diffused GonG for $25.
the bowl is a 1/2" 6 point 1/4" drive socket with a SS pen tube (zebra F-301) pressed in. stem is a KS engineering 5/16" SS tube, then rubber groumets i drill the square bottom out to 5/16" then hammer the tube in then jb weld the outside, stem fits inside the pen tube snug. simple, safe, and long lasting, ive been using the same bowl for years my best hitting piece... broken down
