Hi folks. I asked myself the question recently: what features make a really good homemade handheld vaping device? I concluded it should have the following features:

1: It should be cheap to make with minimal parts.
2: Any heated parts should be glass only.
3: Can be used with any lighter.
4: Should not have the flame in the airflow. Spice should be able to vaporize but not burn easily, but somehow still have an airflow.

I came up with this design. It's a tubeless lightbulb type, almost completely glass with a simpler (and straighter) airflow. It's just a very cheap (a few pounds) steamroller or shotgun pipe and a light bulb. I removed the top parts. You heat it from the bottom, no soot from a bic flame can get into the air as it comes in through a hole burned in the side (I used a propane torch and pushed in with a needle, I tried to cut a hole using a tungsten carbide drill bit but it just shattered the bulbs). I can see all of the spice melt and vaporize very clearly, and it's difficult to burn. Just drop in the spice through the hole and prepare for soul incineration.

One other way to make this without burning through the glass to make the hole would be to have a tube from the bottom of the inside of the bowl coming up through the joint and out to the end of the pipe (or the carb hole) then the remaining gap covered up.
I used some parts from a light bulb fitting to make it look a little bit more pretty instead of using heated tape to make a joint. Either way it's exactly the same. All in all this thing is just brilliant, there is no soot in the flow, no hot air (spice is much cooler to inhale), no heating up of metal, it's clear to see what you're doing and how much you're vaporizing, nothing drips anywhere and it looks real pretty to see it circulating in the bulb. If the bulb breaks (it needs to be thin glass for this to work properly) who cares? They cost coppers. I got 4 from the pound shop.

Nice design and funky looking! Out of curiosity, what would be the advantage of this over a meth pipe (which, incidentally has never worked for me with spice), other than the carb?

Even though I am a firm believer in my GVG now, I still hold my Machine in high esteem. Glass beer bottle, got some clear hose, got a glass cutting drill bit of the same size and worked it through the hole. Steel wool in the bottom and voila!

Even though its been retired, I cant part ways with it, it did take me to my first breakthrough.

This works. . I see this as an improvement to the short bulb and meth pipe design for a few reasons I mentioned. With the meth pipe the travel of the air is shorter and the draw is hotter, The glass is thinner so it heats up faster. Here the biggger bulb allows for circulation, cooling the smoalk moar than most pipes. Also the fact that the bulb is suspended below the stem means you can better see the spice melt and vaporize and adjust your flame distance accordingly, but with a meth pipe i find the straight design and reflection in the glass from the flame at that angle obscures the nice view. It does not work with the bulb suspended to the side either, only below allows you to be able to see it properly, or the reflections obscure it. I suppose having a very cheap removable and widely available working part is also plus.

The thing is with bulbs too much heat applied unevenly will result in the bulb shattering, blasting your gross physical body.

Have you experienced this? Even blasting through this thing with a propane torch, pushing the glass through with a needle, letting it cool, hitting it again with a Bic flame, letting it cool, hitting it in different areas, has not caused so much as a crack.

Hmmm, I guess it depends on the bulb itself, still better safe than sorry.

I'm also wondering if the added materials is allowing the heat to be successfully spread throughout your device hindering it from explosion, or either you must have a mighty bulb there.