SWIM recognizes that this is not an ideal situation, but it is what it is. While she was still tinkering around with her GVG after she first got it, she tried a few different things with the amount of spice & metal mesh. A few times her experiments weren't successful, such as when (1) too little mesh was used or (2) too much spice (like a ton) was used & a giant trail of goop leaked down the neck. SWIM has yet to clean her GVG because she doesn't have the right chemicals, but she was wondering, since there is so much straight-up, dankly thick liquid spice (not just recrystallized spice) in the neck, so you think she could try heating it with a lighter (from far away) to try to vaporize some of that? Or would that probably crack the glass? SWIM requires a lot to break through, but even so, there should be enough spice in there for several journeys. If not, would soaking it in acetone possibly allow for some of that to be recouped, along with the nitrous or whatever else usually accumulates?

On a separate note, SWIM is a little confused about people cleaning their GVGs every two or so journeys. Doesn't that take up a lot of acetone or whatever else is used? Is the whole thing immersed and left to sit until everything clears out?

I (who am just curious) & SWIM appreciate your advice!

I have some idea about the damage risk...

But, I had allot of spice drip down and collect while I was learning how to use it properly. I let a friend borrow the gvg so he could go at it in his own home with some friends.

When they ran out of spice that I gave him, they totally put the torch to the neck and vaped/burned the accumulated spice.

The gvg is fine today, I learned not to ever lend out my tools.

But, it seemed pretty easy to burn the contents, I'd run cheap vodka through it or everclear (better idea) filter and evap.

Thanks for the advice! My friend isn't sure where she'd find everclear, but do you think cheap vodka is preferable to acetone or rubbing alcohol?

SWIM did used alcohol (ethanol) to gather the dark honey in his GVG and evaped it on some herbs. Nice changa to smoke in the GVG he said.
Of course it can be smoked from the neck but warning to not hurt yourself as the amount of heat to put on the glass will make it hot for a while (much longer than a lightbubl because of the glass thickness).

Does SWIM just mix some in with the ethanol and let it dry? How much ratio of herbs to ethanol? Did SWIM just let it soak completely immersed for a while?

I imagine that heating the neck isn't most efficient way to do it, since it seems it would be easy to burn and/or run all over the place/away from the flame... But my friend has not tried evaping and doesn't feel too confident about the process, despite reading around here.

to clean your gvg

optional: remove screens

set lid aside

remove brillo plug or oil pad

hold gvg over sink and use your thumb or a finger to plug the mouthpiece

pour solvent into top of bowl until it almost fills entire neck

place thumb over bowl so that now, both ends are plugged

shake the hell out of it until everything that will dissolve does so

drain the gvg through a filter onto dish to evaporate

If there was anything that didn't dissolve left in the gvg, repeat.

Your solvent could be iso, methanol, ethanol, acetone, naphtha ...etc. Anything that dissolves spice will do.

everclear is available in both 151 proof and 190 proof ethanol

vodka is less, so it has more water and therefore will take more time to evaporate

acetone is the fastest evap time, but they all will get the job done

Wow, thanks so much for those simple instructions! That's so helpful!