Hi All,

Over last four years I have experimented with many designs for homemade pipes including a number that are detailed here on the Nexus. All of these work, but seem very hard to get right every time. My goal for this pipe has been to make an easy 'sure fire' 'works every time' and one that doesn't have a learning curve.

I'd like to share this latest design with you, and I'm calling it 'The Gandalf'
(it works like magic - and making a 'Sherlock' shape was too hard for me )


This design is working quite nicely and I have measured the vaping efficiency at 100% for single breath launches. (I weigh the copper spice wick/holder before and after using a milligram scale to validate that all spice is consumed in a single toke)

The design principles I've used are as follows:
- Low thermal mass (the less there is to heat in the vaporization chamber the better)
- High surface area for the spice (wick is way better than kitchen scrub)
- Convection only, no conduction or radiation
- Glass leading away from the main chamber so vapor can be viewed
- Nothing purchased that is not readily available at the local shops


Components: (see attached images)

A - LHS: Stainless steel screen RHS: The large steel pin I used to form the 'basket' shape so it neatly fits into the glass tube
B - A short glass tube (inside diameter should be at least 10mm)
C - LHS: Stainless steel scrub, RHS: Copper pipe adapter (non threaded solder type)
D - LHS: Solder wick (electronic supplies), RHS: a short length of it cut and coiled up to use as a spice pad
E - Aluminum tube (hardware shop or head shop if you want a nice color)
F - LHS: Teflon tape, RHS: Cloth tape


Assembly:

Wind some cloth tape around both ends of the glass tube until they loosely fit the brass adapter and the aluminum tube, then 'finish' the fit by adding a few winds of teflon tape until it is just 'snug'. (Heat from running the pipe isn't high enough to melt either of the tapes and since you will be disassembling for loading and cleaning, teflon makes a nice re-usable seal)

Make up a stainless steel cylindrical 'cage' that fits snugly down the center of the glass tube - I used steel mesh from a broken french press coffee maker and pressed it over the end of a steel pin to get it into the right 'basket' shape, (a 'silver screen' from a smoke shop works fine also). Place the cage over the top of a chop stick and insert it into the glass tube from the end you will breath from. Slide it almost to the end, the closed end of the mesh cage forms a 'floor' for your vaporization chamber. You can easily adjust the size of this chamber if required.

Now we have an 'all glass chamber' with a stainless steel floor. Most pipes and vaporizers use a metal chamber. We are using a glass chamber which is very fast to heat up and doesn't radiate or conduct heat into the spice. The only way it can heat is by the air passing through the chamber.

Finally we can make up our spice pad by cutting a short length of the copper 'solder wick' and coiling it up as shown. Make sure you blast it with a torch until it glows red before using the first time, as new solder wick has some 'resin' on it you want to burn away.


Usage:

Now we can add spice to the wick using your preferred method (I use an IPA or Acetone tincture so I can measure exact amounts by number of drops) I also like to weigh with milligram scales so I know exactly what I'm getting.

Finally load the wick into the chamber so air can easily pass through it, attach the brass pipe fitting stuffed full of stainless steel scrub (it will fit over the chamber) and you are ready to launch.

Since there is a right angle in the brass fitting it is fine to get the scrub red hot with a torch before we begin to draw air through it. You might also like to pre-heat the glass tube (carefully) to reduce condensation of your spice.

I hope this is useful to someone or helps to inspire new designs.

Stillness,
Graeme.

Kudos:

Thanks to the following trailblazers for inspirational designs:

1) OpeningPandorasBox for 'The Key' (pipe fittings are awesome)
2) amor_fati for 'The Inspirator' (shaping baskets and using glass tubes)
3) ???? for 'The Machine' (for proving how much we can do with so little)

your idea is good...Ive also been working on something similar to your pipe but havent solved what heating method to use yet..

I didnt see in your post..how you are heating the pipe?... Are you using flame to heat up the pipe?


If you use a flame that transfers ..[heat]..hot air].. farther down the line to the spice that can be called convection/... but if you continue to hold the flame on it..its not clean convection..

The burning of liquid fuel.. [butane] .. in the lighter may send unhealthy gasses along with the hot air that will be inhaled...

Ive been trying to find a way to heat up a heat absorbing ..[metal or stone.. in pipe bowl..[just ahead of the spice].. to the point of glowing red hot that will hold the heat [LONG ENOUGH] to vape the spice after taking the lighter away..

That way.... you are pulling cleaner hot air only through the spice making convection vapor...

Ive noticed on several trys that after heating a meterial red hot in bowl ..after removing the flame...the material it cools imeadiatly..so fast it looses heat way too fast?

Thats why using electronicly heated stainless mesh [using mod] works better delivering more clean hot air through the [spice].. you can control how long the heating mesh stays hot also by wattage...

So the basic pipe method will work if using flame to heat the material... but ..you get unknown airborn gasses from fossel fuel... to many people .. thats no big deal...but to others.... cleaner vapor is prefered..
So if you can find a way to heat up some heat absorbing material...hot enough to..[make it glow]...[make the stainless scrub] stay hot longer...and quickly remove the flame before taking a hit ..you should have cleaner convection vapor...without inhaling fossel fuel gasses...

just my opinion...

Clean air sounds good. I'm using a butane torch, I pre-heat before inhaling, then move it away during inhalation, but yes, some torch gasses are still inhaled. Not ideal but realistically it is probably only as much pollution as you would inhale crossing the road in busy traffic.

For your new pipe project, I'm attaching another little creation which might give you some ideas. The end of this pipe is a cylinder of stainless steel (part of a telescoping antenna off an old radio, but you could also use a metal drinking straw) the center of it is filled with steel scrub as densely as possible (you want lots of thermal mass for this)

The idea is you point a torch (shown) at the outside of the metal tube and get it nice and hot, then draw clean air through the tube. The steel scrub, hot from the torch then heats the air (and you can keep the torch applied while you draw through it so it doesn't cool down)

The metal is joined to the glass tube with a short length of silicone tube so it can withstand the heat.

Hope this helps,
Graeme.

you say you are pre heating then moving torch away right before vaping..?


That sounds good!..are you preheating steel foil [scrubber?]or some other metal?

the fact that you are using copper braid to hold material is good because copper absorbs heat quite well.. [it heats up faster than steel? .. also coppers melting temperature is very high...much higher than you will need to vaporize [sp]...so when vaping [sp] you will ..never!.. melt the copper if using hot air only... is going through it...resulting in no risk of metal emitting any airborn polution..


Doing it this way the ,,product has to be fairly close to the heat source..[just under it]..[without touching the heat source] to vaporize..

another safety factor should be considered...when heating with a flame..one could drop the hot pipe on himself and get a burn...unless you know ahead of time to put it down on a plate for saftey...

an incased heating chamber..[heated from the bottom [up] might prevent the chance of getting burned or worse,,

I remember an early version of a [flame heated vaporizer].. years back .. ..that was heated from the top of bowl..when taking a draw... it pulled the heat downward through the herbal material..in [seperate chamber]... below it..this pipe might have been the first vapor geni? but
not shure?

This was for dry herbs...using it for the molecule would take much less time.. and less heat.. to work..

The ..inner chamber.. under the heating bowl .. kept the heat concintrated within the chamber..and was more safer because the concintrated heat was sealed inside the steel bowl...
the outer surface of the bowl assembly may have felt a little hot.. or warm to the touch..but was not a real danger in case it was dropped..

If i remember right.. the steel bowl had inner threads inside it..and the seperate herb chamber ..also steel]...threaded into the bowl below it...

heating the very top of the bowl structure with a flame ..prevented any flame from touching the herb below..but the inner bowl heated up like a little oven...and sorta vaporized the herbs..

but this sounds a little conduction... ]...doesnt it? ..[but not really].. because...applying heat with a flame to top of bowl will heat all the metal below and air in the chamber /. [it cant burn the product because it wont be glowing red hot...[the only place that might get red hot just very breifly will be on top of the pipe where you are applying the flame.. just hot to the touch...and the hot air inside the heating chamber will rise very quickly within seconds of aplying the torch flame..


quote..... because... [although the air is heated]..the herb is still touching the heated metal inside the lower chamber/.


[just re thinking]
[but the steel walls inside the chamber below [are not glowing red hot]] just hot to the touch.. ...it should not burn anything..it will be very hot and quickly melt the product.. !... and the vacume caused by pulling hot air into the chamber should reach vaporizing temperature

If the heat in chamber will reach a high enough temp .[and it should very quickly using a torch lighter].. .the product should vaporize very quickly not burning anything...and producing convection vapor...


this is worth a try..

the electronic ..i think convection e mesh... is still superior... but using a lighter and a simple pipe is more compact ..cheaper...if the system works...

oh.. your idea using the peice of metal antenna is good...[similar to my thinking].. but it depends on how long the metal will hold enough heat to vaporize ... after removing lighter....

also.. in picture..it looks like your product is 2/3 of an inch away from heat source..try adjusting the product closer to heat source about 1/4 of an inch or less from it.. you should get faster and better vaping effect.. [plus your hollow metal antenna is probibly letting too much outside air in ..when taking a draw]..lowering the temperature to much to vape product right...try blocking the air flow in ..hollow antenna some].. with some mesh and check results..


many metals ..[will cool extreemly fast!] after removing the flame....

but you dont need red glowing metal to vaporize...the proper temp is just before the metal glows..

so heat it up till it glows..then the fraction of a second after removing flame...may be hot enough to vaporize product..if quick enough..

note..
using the convection E MESH.. i got the mesh glowing very red hot... at about 50 watts...but as i take a hit.. and the hot and outside air. ..travels less than 1/4 of an inch below the heater and through the product.. it seems to adjust to a lower but still effective temp to vaporize the light without burning it..

Yes, firstly I pre-heat the steel scrub until it is glowing red, then move the torch back 10cm (just enough heat to maintain the glow), then draw air through.



Yes, it has very low thermal mass, and as you say, it heats up fast. In my pipe design it is sitting inside a glass chamber, only touching the glass and the top of the mesh basket which means that it is well insulated from losing any of the heat it gains, so i'm seeing vapor as soon as I draw air, and I can get the entire hit in one breath.



Very true. Since this is a 'single breath design' its important to set it down somewhere safe before going into hyperspace



Interesting, yeah, its worth thinking about other modifications that could be made to make it safer.



Yeah, this is where you need to stuff as much scrub into it as possible. So long as air still goes through, the scrub will hold the heat for you and transfer it to the air passing through.



It works fine if you draw air slowly and keep the flame running. The fumes and pollution wont go into the end of the metal tube since you are aiming it at 90 degrees to the intake direction.

quote..starway7 wrote:

you say you are pre heating then moving torch away right before vaping..?
That sounds good!..are you preheating steel foil [scrubber?]or some other metal?


Yes, firstly I pre-heat the steel scrub until it is glowing red, then move the torch back 10cm (just enough heat to maintain the glow), then draw air through.



..Ahh.. .. the difference here is that you keep the flame trained on the pipe only move it farther back...[not compleatly remove it]!!

What im tyrying to do.. is heat up the scrub or whatever im using in the bowl till red hot.. then COMPLEATLY! remove the flame..then quickly..[take a hit].. try to pull the remaining heat...... [only heated air].. [if still hot enough] through the molecule to produce convection vapor..

My problem is [using flame]..[after removing the flame]..the heated material cools off .. too quickly!.. that its hard to make it work right..

you wont have that problem with electronic E Mesh .. you can keep the power on the mesh as long as needed by holding the button down in wattage mode..

[example]...Ever see a glowing coal in a camp fire that glows red hot for quite some time?

I need to find a metal or stone material that once heated red hot will maintain a higher temperature [long enough].. to vape the product.. and using a blue flame torch lighter i dont want to add any fumes in my pull..

to vaporize the molecule you dont need a glowing red heat source..the second it looses its red glow its still hot enough to vaporize the molecule without burning it...

The reason i get the heat source red hot.. is because ..[when i compleatly remove the flame]. ..it cools extreemly fast...often too fast to vaporize properly//

And the heated air must travel 1/4 inch or less through the molecule vaporizing it..

And... the cooling effect of pulling air through the product is also very important as [more or less air] can work with or against the vaping process..

the amount of expelled gasses starway7 wrote:

you say you are pre heating then moving torch away right before vaping..?
That sounds good!..are you preheating steel foil [scrubber?]or some other metal?


Yes, firstly I pre-heat the steel scrub until it is glowing red, then move the torch back 10cm (just enough heat to maintain the glow), then draw air through

So i guess im trying to do the near imposible by removing the flame from the bowl..and vaping with only the remaining heat generated in the bowl..

i guess the amount of air polution you would get from a hit from the pipe from butane gas isnt any worse than walking across a street full of running cars and trucks emitting gasoline fumes but its a challenge to beat the polution factor..

I still think it could work...but must find the right heat holding material..

Good luck with your design.
Please let us know how it goes.
Graeme.

ill keep trying with flame...but so far..i cant seem to match the ... saftey.. vapor quality.. and eficiancy of.. E Mesh convection ... in thread below...

There is plenty of heat in a torch lighter to do the job...but not as cleanly as E mesh convection..

Let us know if you get any where with your tests.. ...

cheers..

I would be more worrieb about the solder wick than butane? - the "resin" is actually solder flux, which as far as I know is pretty nasty stuff(worse than solder fumes.) I know you ssid heat the crap out of it 1st, hopefully thats enough. And if i haling combusted butane is bad - the gvg must be bad then no? Something I have wondered about. I have used hemp wick with the gvg but it doesn’t put off nearly as much heat as a torch.

Once you heat the copper to 'glowing red' there is nothing left on it, even carbon residue burns away. The temperature when 'red' is around 800°C (which is the same as 1472°F) Compare this to the 150C you need to vape your alks. So this is very safe and clean.

Also burning butane with a 'blue' flame is pretty clean. Much cleaner than a sooty yellow bic flame. This is sooooo much cleaner than smoking by combustion that its not worth worrying about, but if you are still concerned, then I can recommend adding a heated metal tube filled with stainless scrub to your design, this works quite well and is 'clean' hot air. But as starway7 points out, be careful not to burn yourself.

Nice tinkering GraemeCarl!

One can first remove the flux with IPA or acetone before rolling up the desolder copper wick, then dry thoroughly, followed by a short red hot burn-all-off phase. Should be doable.

About fully burned propane/butane products, ain't the restproducts only CO2 + water??
Not much to worry about imho, I've CO2 in my lungs exhaling all day.

What amounts of fb spice can be 1-took vaped with those pipes please?

Thanks.

Thanks! Actually this is exactly how I did it. IPA works really well followed by the burn off.



Absolutely agree!



The Gandalf should have no trouble with 30mg. I've loaded some pretty full wicks into the barrel.
The second one I showed is pretty small scale only, I havent loaded that one with more than 18mg (and it struggled), its more of an experiment to test the 'clean air' adapter.

If this helps any..ive been using an ..infrared wireless thermometer..and a butane lighter with three jets in it..

The fb product.. has to reach atleast 160c /320f..to vaporize properly...

[in my test im trying to find a way to ..[[compleatly remove the flame after pre heat]... and vape the product only from the hot air comming off the heated scrubber pad...

I did a bunch of test heatings on my stainless scrub material and found that if the scrubber is jammed into a copper tube too tightly it will get hot but reaches only about 180F to 205F ...and thats not hot enough to compleatly vaporize right..

If you put the scrubber into a copper tube ..[packed loosley]... it will reach a much hotter temp much faster within seconds..

With a looser pack scrubber..in a steel pipe bowl..within [5 seconds of torch flame].. pointed straight into the steel bowl.. will give you a temp of 260f to 280f...

holding flame 8 seconds.. brings the scrubber up to and beyond 300f [thats very close to vaping temperature] [320F is vaping temperature]

[but the time it takes to put the lighter down .. and take a hit will cool it down to below 320f the temp needed to vape corectly... [with hot air only]

Holding the flame a full 10 to 15 seconds runs the temperature up to 450F or higher... and i found it takes atleast a little over 2 seconds to cool down to 320f or a little below vaping temp...

So thats why i would raise the scrubber temperature up to 400F or higher..because of the fast heat loss .. that happens within a ..short time window ..you have to put down lighter and take a hit...

The more air flow you have heating the steel mesh the faster it will heat up to and above vaping temperature..

if you use the old method... raw flame.. on the scrub pad that has product in it..it will explode into nice thick vaper within a a second ... you will get there..

this idea may be next to imposible.. but still trying..

The only problem with flame is polution ..and heat if you dont use a bubbler....
Ive gotten headaches from vaping that way..i suspect it was lighter gas fumes?