Hey all this is my first post I have been trying to "perfect: a cheap homemade vaporizer I would be comfortable giving to friends and such. I am using a conductive method. The parts include a Valve, PVC pipe, A jar, Soldering Iron, Brass Cap, Lamp Dimmer, and Vinyl Tubing. I have a few concerns and questions. My first concern is whether the clear vinyl tubing would breakdown under high heat. It doesn't contact anything that gets extremely hot but I am still concerned. Next, I use a two part epoxy to glue the soldering iron and lid of the jar in place. Any toxic concerns here? It also avoids any major heat elements. The biggest problem I seem to be having is that the bowl tops out at about 185 degrees Celsius. The soldering iron without a lamp dimmer wired up gets much hotter than this. I assume: the lamp dimmer is not designed for such an application, I am a horrible electrician, or this is just the nature of dimmers. I would really like for it to at least be able to reach temperatures of 200C. Anyone have any suggestions here? Moreover, if any electrically inclined people know how where I can find information on wiring up a custom heating element, or a cheaper way to emulate the effects of a lamp dimmer. I've been having trouble coming up with the right technical terms to search for to yield better results. Thanks in advance for any help. Here are some pics! http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/613/img1816f.jpg http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/1875/img1817p.jpg
Damn. That is some fancy work you have there my friend. I tip my hat to that! Just wish i knew anything about wiring...
Thanks for the kind words. I actually was wanting to sell them, but I wasn't sure if there were rules against posting about selling anything on these forums.
Looks sick, id buy one if they were fair priced and worked But about the epoxy, most likely toxins are in it and will probably heat up and result in you smoking the fumes. It depends on where you used the glue but if its anywhere around where you put in the weed then warning. On all perifineelya (lol @ spelling im baked) youll see that glue is never used, rather, fitting parts
It's no where near the heating elements. I actually kept it entirely outside the jar. I'll provide a "milk" shot later today. I am concerned with how efficient it is. I put half a gram to a gram in the vaporizer and don't get me wrong I get high, but it doesn't seem to last long or be as potent. I then pack my pieces with the same amount and subjectively get significantly higher. Am I just used to the dopey lazy feeling you get with smoke (I read the Carbon Monoxide has to do with this)? This is part of the reason I'm concerned with the device topping out at 185C. Perhaps it is not vaporizing everything it could at those slightly higher temperatures.
Ok, so it does actually get up to 200C. My friends and I did a test. We packed it with some regs. Then packed a steamroller with some regs. The high from the vaporizer was extremely subtle. The high from the steamroller was typical and came on significantly stronger. We theorize that the THC in our local weed might be extremely low. Perhaps the "high" we are accustomed to comes from other substances in smoke. The vapor was smooth, easy to inhale, tasted pleasant, but did not seem to get us very high. Everything I read says that vaporization takes less weed and gives you a more potent high. Is it the nature of conduction vs convection? Ive never used a convection vaporizer. Can anyone shed any light on this matter?
i think you might need a higher temp. i think it vaporizes at 300 somethin degrees but i dont remember the exact temp
I used a cheap convection vape last night for the first time and got more blazed then I have in years. I think you are at too low of a temp. YOu need at LEAST 365F or higher. Last night we started at around 380F and moved up slowly. From what I have heard the hogher temp you go the more of a heavy buzz you will have.
This is a really ingenious idea. I hope you get it working, cause that would be amazing. I made a lightbulb vape heated by a lighter... looked like a crackpipe. Didn't get me as high as the pipes.
To make the absolute best homemade vape you just get a light bulb and completely empty it out besides the metal part and the bulb (this takes a lil while) and you pour salt in it and shake it to get rid of the white powder. Then it's best t cut off the very top of a soda bottle and electric tape it to the top of the light bulb. You then cut a hole in the bottle cap and put a tube or a pen in it and poke another one for air to get back in while you're inhaling (so 2 holes total probably around the same size). Just take the bottle cap off, fill it with herbs, light it for a few seconds till vapor swirls in the light bulb and inhale! I hooked one up to a homemade bubbler cuz it looked all scientific . p.s. when you inhale the vapor instead of smoke it takes about 5 minutes to kick in so you wont feel it right away but it's healthier and uses less herbs. just don't vape too much cuz it works better than you think
yeah but he's gonna start a fire and my way is easier and works a lot better. when glue heats up you get toxins and when you use random shit like pvc pipe and a tubing that will probably melt, he'll wish he just made a lightbulb one.
yeaa....the components i used are probably less hazardous than the possible breakdown from a lightbulb. What risk of fire is there? The temperature is perfectly stationary and well below the combustion point of even paper. Theres no glue on any component in the housing. The only materials connected to any heat source are Brass and whatever metal the iron is made of. The brass cap has a hole for it to rest on the soldering iron. Its not connected it just sits securely on it. PVC is just the stand the assembly sits on. The lid to the jar is metal as well. If those grade of components break down under "high" temperatures like 200C then you would already have seen many problems in your heating/cooling/water systems in your house which primarily use brass and PVC. Furthermore the housing doesn't even get that hot. The lid of the jar iis definitely a poor conductor as it doesnt even get hot to the touch after 10 minutes of being on. I am not concerned about the safety or the design anymore (unless someone has some real insight). I appreciate the response but I really need some electrical advice! I mostly abandoned this project till a later time because of financial constraints. I've been tossing around the idea of a butane torch or just finding the perfect soldering iron. I have not forgot about my forum friends at grasscity. I will be posting a working version soon Just to remind everyone of where I'm at heres a real simple breakdown of my problems: Doesn't get hot enough due to the way the lamp dimmer reacts with the polarized soldering iron. Although I feel like this should be hot enough theres a possibility it could need to be 10ish degrees higher for optimum functionality (tops out at 200C = 392F) Vapor is released and a "high" is achieved but it is not as intense as just smoking the same amount. Thanks to all who have replied!
Sup n00b. I'll be working on a vap here in the next couple weeks. I'll make sure to post when I'm done. Your soldering iron should get hotter than 200c, so the heat is most likely not transferring properly from iron to brass piece. You might want to start from scratch with the heating element. I'm thinking the components shouldn't be more than a few bucks if ordered online. Maybe even a local electronics parts store. I'm thinking of using glass as the reservoir..
The soldering iron does get way hotter than that, including the brass element. The problem is the method of resistance to tone the heat down. I've been teaching myself electricity slowly over the last few weeks lol! Hopefully I can just do an equation to figure out how many ohms of resistance I can stick in there to get it to the perfect temp. I am very interested to see how yours goes plz keep me updated
The only thing i could think of is maybe trying to stir the bowl a few times before dumping it, you may just not be using all of the THC that is stored in it as you would by torching it.
That's a good idea. I'm going to start over and build a new one in the coming days. I'll see what I can do.
