Here’s what I do:

Remove top piece, heat mesh lightly and directly with a torch, immediately pour a pre-measured dose onto mesh. Replace top piece. Ready to go! (Try to avoid getting DMT on the glass sidewalls. What ends up on the sidewalls will probably not vaporize.)

Air flow may be an issue for the liquid pad – there may be regions that are so tight that hot air flows around them rather than through them. If that happens, there would be cool spots where DMT would migrate and be less likely to vaporize.

A screen on top doesn’t seem like it would accomplish anything. Your mesh would have to be VERY loose for DMT to fall through, and if it’s that loose, you probably wouldn’t have enough mesh to hold a dose – you’d get leakage.

If the flame from the arc is directed right at the filter I see no reason for it to crack the glass. Some serious flaming is needed to crack it. The only 1 time that ive heard of this happening is by a member in another thread. Im still not sure weather it was caused by the flame or faulty glass piece.
I will even go so far as to say (please dont go burning yourselves and always excercise caution) that when I use my GVG and Arc im able to pull the diffuser off the pipe to clear the pipe of any vapor(hence i never grown them xtals in the GVG like ive seen posted) at the end of my hit with no discomfort whatsoever.

Chronic, what type of butane are you using? And are both the vector and arc filled up with the same butane? I ask because endless brought up a good question about butane, and im puzzled as to why you tasted gas. This has never happened to me, although ive never just used the GVG and arc with nothing in it.

endless, I use "Newport, extra purified butane lighter gas", would be nice if we could get MSDS for the butane and compare.

With the 90° yellow flame lighter i light it directly above tho the bowl & suck the flame onto the ceramic filter so it's just about touching it, it's harder than the arc to get a steady flame on the ceramic filter but it's much more visual as you can see the flame dipping in. I've only just seen the red glow, which is also a good visual point to know when to back off. I get the glow with both lighters so they are just as good as each other really, but they both have different advantages, like the 90° piper lighter has more light but the arc is more consistent in its contact with the ceramic filter.



The way you described using the arc & moving it closer while already inhaling slowly sounds good, i can see how that would work well, its not too complicated as it's vital to get this right i feel, i'm going to try both lighters again, i just tried the arc with some cannabis right now & it worked a treat!



The butane in both my lighters is the same, 'Ronson universal gas lighter refill ultra refined' i can definitely taste/smell the arc a little bit more than the 90° yellow flame pipe lighter, maybe it's more of 'heat' taste/smell & not actually gas, i can't taste anything when i actually vape something though, only when it's empty.

After using the arc a fair bit just now i can see how it is safe to use with the GVG, the diffuser loses the heat quite rapidly. I'm also getting the red glowing now a lot, watching for the red glow is a good reference point to start backing off with the lighter.

Right now both lighters seem to be as good as each other, the arc maybe feels a bit more of an elborate ceremony which is always a plus with the spice in my book, i'd say for the rare occassions i use DMT i will use the arc but for more everyday use i'll use the 90° pipe lighter, cannabis also tastes great in the GVG, send me some of your hash plz endlessness that sounds delicious

OK thanks. I suppose one has to be careful not to heat the mesh too much, or it will start flaking?

What would be your guideline for heating? I would guess couple seconds with torch lighter 1-2 cm away from the mesh would be sufficient?

I understand it has to be only warm enough to melt the spice, just asking not to ruin the mesh filter...

It takes very little heat to melt the spice. If you’ve applied enough heat to oxidize the mesh, then you’ve applied way too much heat.

OK, how far do you keep the torch flame tip from the mesh while heating?
I was thinking something like 1-2 cm for about 5 seconds would be sufficient, but when I tested at that distance, the mesh didn't feel even warm to the touch after removing the flame.
At least I suppose the mesh shouldn't be touching with the flame?

This is exactly how I use the Arc with my GVG

Anyone who ever reads back through this thread & has trouble using the GVG, this description is fool proof, it even worked for me

The GVG is great, i tried my first bit of changa in it the other day, very very smooth, on the first toke i didn't even realize i took anything until i started feeling the rug being swept from underneath me...

I also trimmed/fitted a volcano liquid pad yesterday, very easy to trim with scissors, i trimmed the edges to a small circle to fit in the bowl & ended up with about half the original pad, then pushed it down into the GVG bowl. It fits snugly as it's very malleable, i can't see any reason why it would leak DMT apart from if while inhaling you heated it to melting point & not vaporization point, although i have yet to try it....

Just received my GVG today and it seems like it's a very good quality piece! I'm going to try stainless steel mesh first... I'm pretty much set, even ordered an arc from the UK.
One thing I'm not quite sure about yet is that when pre-heating the mesh before placing dmt on it, should the flame actually touch the mesh, or is it enough to keep the flames tip 1-2cm away from it?

In the instructions they mention don't use torch lighter with the GVG that it might crack, however people have been using the arc etc. without any cracking? As long as the glass isn't heated directly I suppose it's no problem..?

Yes the GVG is amazing, just wait til you try it!

I was worried about using the Arc with the GVG, it just felt wrong at first knowing that GVG's had cracked in the past with torch lighters, but i tested the heat of the ceramicfilter/glass top and the heat leaves it very quickly due to the fact your drawing air through it, and the time needed to vaporize is very short, 1-2 seconds max, so there's no need to heat it to the point it could possibly crack

I wouldn't touch the flame on the mesh as it probably would oxidise & then flake as has been reported a few times, if you want to melt DMT into it i would suggest placing the DMT on the mesh & then heating from far away/moving closer until it melts.

You'll be very happy with the Arc aswell i think, everyone i've handed it to loves it, but now it's locked away in my GVG case only to be used for the sacrament

Yes the arc is great and lights every time.
I consider GVG and the arc as the sacred tools for entering another realm, that's why even before using it I respect them alot, even when they are only "material goods". And the journey begins....

Should the stainless steel mesh give off a metal taste when vaporizing in somewhat high temperature?
The steel mesh even smells like steel a bit and seems to give slight taste of metal when vaporizing, does anyone have this?

Are you using steel wool or stainless steel ribbon or stainless steel wire?
Steel wool will probably produce a metallic flavor, stainless steel ribbon might (it's a low grade of stainless), stainless steel wire (as in a liquid pad) shouldn't produce any flavor.

I use copper ribbon and never get a metallic taste.

I'd imagine anything metal if heated enough will give off taste, i burnt a bit of the volcano liquid pad yesterday & it certainly gave off a taste & smell, but i pointed the torch directly on it by accident.

You shouldn't need to heat it that much really, if you're only slightly heating it & it's doing this then IMO it shouldn't be used for vaporization.

It's stainless steel ribbon... Does anyone else get this side taste?

Does anyone know where I can order copper ribbon from europe? As I can't find it locally and only one's are "chore boys" from US ebay that I can find online(and they are sold in 4-6 piece batch.

Or better, can someone help me out and ship me one package of chore boy copper mesh? I can pay for it with paypal, send PM if you can help.

Id just like to add to this thread that the volcano liquid pad works very well in the GVG, no leakage, no taste, full power!

Perfect setup for vaporizing DMT

Would you mind describing how you use the liquid pad? (A photo would be great.) Some people cut it in half or quarters, some fold it, some use a part of it, some use the whole thing, …

I think you said in a previous post that you cut it into a circular disc to make it fit?

No problem, i just trimmed the edges (not messing with the thickness of the original pad, just the shape) until it fit the size of the GVG bowl, which left me with a small circle/disc around half the material of the original pad

The edges were a bit scruffy but its very malleable so i just shaped it back into a disc (very similar to your picture of the copper mesh) and then i pushed it down into the bowl, i packed it down as tight as i could get it, a finger does it quite well... as soon as i packed it down & looked in the bowl i knew it would work very well, it looked very at home in there like it instantly became part of the pipe

I was going to grab what was left of the pad & put it on top as i thought this would be good to stop leakage but i tried vaping with half the pad & haven't had any leakage as of yet, so i think a trimmed pad is enough if it's packed down tight enough, although i'm sure if you inhaled very slow & didn't heat up to vape temp then no matter what is used it would leak through.

I think 'Melodic Catastrophe' had so much leakage for the reason you stated, way too much liquid pad in there so it was flowing to the cool area on the sides then leaking down, no need for so much pad imo.

I'll try to take a pic of my pad over the weekend some point...

Yeah, I'm still trying to get it just right.

The main reason I was getting so much leakage was because I was using a bic. While a bic works ok for vaping weed, it's horrible for vaping spice.

I finally got the Arc in and have been trying different smoking methods with it.

It doesn't leak nearly as bad as with a bic but I'm still getting some leakage.

I have been hitting it very slowly and that does seem to cause some leakage so I'll try to boost up the speed of inhalation and see how it goes.

I did like you did and cut just one pad down to size and compressed it with some pliers but I compressed it a bit too much.

I haven't tried it again since loosening up the mesh, so maybe I'll give it another shot tonight.

Maybe there's a sweet spot with this & i got lucky, but i think as long as you keep the original thickness of the pad you should be good to go... i should add that i used endlessness' description of how he uses the GVG with a torch lighter, start inhaling slowly, bring lighter close, get ceramic filter red, soon as you see vapor back off & clear the pipe, repeat...