textfiles/drugs/MARYJANE/vap_bong

Subject: pot vapor

On vaporizers...

   I've made a couple.  They DO give the best high when used correctly.
The problem is 'correct use', since they generally require more presence
of mind to operate than a bong or a pipe.  

High heat DOES destory most of the THC in smoked pot (estimates vary). 
Vaporizers heat pot gently; the THC molexules decarboxylate and evaporate in
a whitish smoke that feels like (aaaah) water-mist going down your lungs!  

A problem with vaporizers is that only leaves in contact with the heating
element get hot.  Most users, in an effort to heat-up curled leaf edges and
higher layers of leaf, tend to overheat and consequently burn the stuff. This
is not disasterous since you are now 'smoking' not 'vaporizing' the pot, 
releasing just as many carcinogenic tars as when you light up a bowl.

Vaporizers sometimes fail to satisfy longtime smokers who associate burning
lungs with getting high. They distrust the _incredibly_ smooth taste of the 
vapors, and they don't like waiting 20 seconds to 1 minute for each hit.  

ANECDOTE ON:

   My first vaporizer died after almost 4 hours of constant use at a party. 
After I explained the theory and operation of the device, people loved it!
They were standing in line (!!) in the kitchen to use this thing. I sat in
the corner of the room watching them, stoned out of my gourd and filled 
with happy engineering pride at my creation.

ANECDOTE OFF...


RECENT QUESTIONS
>
>a)  must the heat source be electrical, or is it possible to
>use a butane lighter or other flame source as the heat source?

A butane lighter should work fine... Just build an enclosure around
it that allows air-flow for the flame, and keeps the 'bowl' high enuf
above the flame so that you don't begin burning the pot. The 'above-bowl'
compartment should be sealed-off from the 'flame' compartment.
A piezo-butane lighter vaporizer would be portable, and heat-up quicker
than the car-lighter/electric devices. You could even conceal one inside
a soda-pop can!  Imagine pantomiming drinking in public while actually
inhaling vaporized killer hydrobud!  Would some Mech. E. major please
try to pull this one off?

>
>b)  will vaporization really work with leafy material directly
>or must some oil preparation be prepared first.

It works, but it is very difficult to heat all of the leaf parts;
those that don't directly touch the heating element don't release
their THC.  Powdering the pot helps, but in the process, breaks the
resin glands on the leaves, accelerating the oxidative degredation of
the cannabinoids. (anyone know how quickly they decompose?)

>
>c)  a previous poster suggested that it was MORE efficient than
>combustion.  if this is true, why would anyone still be smoking?

Because A:  Most homebuilt vaporizers are a pain to use when you're high.
        B:  Vaporizers are less portable and concealable than pipes.
	C:  You have to be MOTIVATED enough to build your own.
	D:  Poorly designed vaporizers fail to heat 1/5 to 1/3 of the 
	    pot leaves, and lose even more to spillage. 

I believe that vaporizers are a tremendous business opportunity,
and that they will explode in popularity as soon as they are com-
mercially available.


PLANS:

   I'd refer you to the High Times article "Dr. Lunglife Builds a Better
Vaporizer", but your local library probably doesn't stock it. :-)
Designing vaporizers is a lot of fun. It's a great exercise in dealing
with basic design problems, and solving them with whatever materials are
available.  I'm working on my third device now, and if it works well, I
will 'publish' plans.  As for now, here are some tips you might find 
helpful in your quest. 

Typical Supply List:
	120VAC to 12V(AC or DC) transformer rated at 1.5-2.0 amps
	spring-loaded push-on switch
	sealable plastic box (I used ones for displaying gemstone rocks)
	plastic/rubber tube (to inhale through)
	small alligator clips
	car-lighter element
	something on which to mount the car-lighter element 

Design principle:

	You want to heat pot/hash to a temperature where the cannabinoids
evaporate, but where larger 'tar' molecules don't.  This is well below the
temp at which grass burns. You then want to trap those vapors and let them
accumulate into a nice big hit before you inhale from your device.
The car-lighter is mounted so that pot can be placed on it.  The enclosure
should be airtight except for two openings, a mouthpiece (or tube) and a 
'carb' to let air in when you hoover-up the vapors through the mouthpiece.
The device should be rugged, and easy to use.  It is amazing how much of
a buzzkill it is to have to re-connect shoddy wiring, or scrape-up bits of
precious fallen pot due to shoddy design!  Do it right! 

Design problems:

**	You have to connect wires to a heating element that gets hot enough
to melt solder (which you should NEVER use in a vaporizer (lead poisoning)).
One solution is to use alligator clips to attach wires to the element, but
this looks bad and makes for a flaky, breakable design.
Another is to bend strips of metal to form a 'docking bay' for the lighter
element that you slide it into.  The metal strips should contact the + and -
parts (sides and bottom) of the element and hold it tightly.  Try salvaging
a flashlight bulb-mount (slide in type) for gripping the sides of the lighter
element.
Another solution might be to braze wires directly to the heating element, 
but this makes for difficult replacement when the heating coil burns out.

**	Heat from the element can travel far down the mounting base and 
connecting wires.  Be sure that plastic parts that contact thest (like 
the enclosure) are adequately insulated.

**	The top layers/sides of pot on the heating element often don't
heat-up enough.  A possible solution would be a spring-loaded metal or
ceramic piece that presses the pot down against the  hot element. I am
building a plunger-type press into my next design.   

**	Most car lighter elements don't have a rim around the coils high
enough to keep pot leaves from sliding-off.  
To prevent this, you could bend a strip of metal into a rim for the element,
but you'd need a brazing torch (0, radio shack) or something similar to
attach it. Remember, solder is poisonous and won't hold. (a little bonus if
you buy the brazing torch is that you can use it to dispense nitrous oxide
canisters :->)
The easiest solution is to simply search for a lighter element with enough 
of a rim built-in.  I know some auto stores sell a type with a 1-2 mm rim, 
which is just enough.
Another solution is to take the metal cap from those tiny testors model-
paint jars (1/2in diameter), clean it, and use it as a bowl which contains 
the pot and sits on top of the lighting element.  I tried this but got poor 
results because the cap dispersed too much heat.

**	Vapors displace air, therefore as they begin to fill your enclosure,
they begin to creep out of cracks in box-hinges, etc.  This wastes pot :-(
The only solution I can think of is to make your enclosure air-tight, and to
keep your mouth on the tube or mouthpiece as you let vapors build. Seal the
box by lining the edge of your box-cover with rubber.  Thin rubber tubing
that has been slit open along its length makes a wonderful liner.


That should be enough info for any creative, intelligent, self-motivated 
pothead to work from.  I hope to see postings from people who read this
and build their own lung-saving vaporizers!  It's not that hard; Just DO it!


D. S. L.  

=============================================================================

From: simon@lsupoz.apana.org.au (Simon Rumble)
Newsgroups: alt.drugs
Subject: Vapouriser: How I did it!
Date: 8 Nov 1993 01:41:46 +1000
Message-ID: <2bj4vq$d3@lsupoz.apana.org.au>

Well I've been talking about it for ages but always put it off as
'too much hassle'.  You know what procrastination did for Hamlet
so I finally got off my bum and did something.  I made my
Vapouriser Mark 1.  It's quite primitive but has shown me very
dramatic results.

First of all, I find a vapouriser hit is perfectly smooth - it's
almost as if you're taking a toke of nothing - but not quite.  The
smell is very pine-ish, not as dope normally is, that heady, sweet
smell.  The vapour is a pure white smoke that rises up.

A vapouriser hit is also MUCH more efficient than a normal hit from
a bong, I found.  Out of the dope I normally smoke in one session,
I have had 4 sessions - which is great!  More potent, no lung
burn and no carcinogens.  Just good, clean fun :)

So where did I start?  Okay - the first thing I did was steal the
standard cigarette lighter from my Mum's car.  This looks like 
this <excuse ascii art>:

  ----
 |    |
 |    |
--------
   ||
  /__\

You push the little bit on the bottom to push it up and a little
element pokes out.  This is the standard lighter as fitted to most
non-Volvo cars (in Australia at least).  The Volvo ones have a
slightly different design.

Okay so the next thing I did was work out how to power the thing.
I got a 12 Volt transformer which was used for my train set in
my younger days.  This is great because it has a variable power
slider but you could always buy/use a normal transformer and
attach some sort of knob to regulate.  At 12 Volts it's quite
safe to play around with.

Okay now here is a picture of what it looks like with wires
attached.  I used 4 core telephone cable and just spun two
pairs together so I had two outputs.

      /------  + or - 12V
  ----   
   ||
  ----
 |    |
 | ---|------  + or - 12V
--------
   ||
  /__\
  
Note how the element bit is poking out.  I did this by taping it
poking out on the handle.  + or - doesn't matter, just so long as
you have one of each <derr :)>.  The metal 'skirt' around the
bottom must touch the wire down there.  The element prong should
be bent down and placed as close to the edge of the element as
possible - with it still sticking it.  Because you can't use
solder or anything, this can be tricky.  Make sure the wire is
twisted and ready to insert.  Push the elements (they're flexible)
aside and stick it in.  When the go back into place, they trap
the wire inside.  I used 4 core wire so I was able to put one
wire on each side of the element - for greater reliabilty.

Now we have to make an enclosure so those precious vapours don't
go sailing away for the insects to enjoy (ever noticed mozzies
always come around when you're smoking? :).

I used a "Mount Franklin" mineral water bottle which turned out
perfect.  It has a mouth-piece where the lighter fitted in
perfectly.  You tape it into place. with the wires dangling
down through the mouthpiece (can be tricky because it's such
a snug fit.

I then cut the top section from where the bottle starts to
have straight sides.  Next trim the edges so that the
bottom (mouth end) fits inside the top.  Ascii art time
again.

     __
    |  |
   /    \
  |      |   Now the mouthpiece of a Mount Franklin water
  |      |   bottle is exactly the same size as that on a
  |      |   normal 1.25 Litre bottle of soft drink - this
  |      |   is important for a snug fit of the lighter.
  |______|

Okay so you cut off the top bit which leaves you with:

     /---------- hole to suck through
 --- ---
|       |
|       |
|       |
|\_ _ _/|
   |-|    
    | <----- lighter with wires dangling down to transformer
    -

Okay so there you have it.  You place your pot (only a small mount,
finely chopped so that ALL the pot is in contact with the element)
and turn on the voltage.  You know it's hot enough when a pure
white smoke comes out of the pot in a thin stream.  If it starts
burning, wait 'till it goes out and try again.

Oh yeah, you see the top is detachable so you can put the pot in :)

Okay so as I said, this is only the Mark 1 so in future I will
make it more air-tight (possibly through use of kitchen plastic
ware) and get hold of a decent thermometer to calibrate it to
the precise temperature required (someone said 97 degrees C?).

Another advantage of this type of setup is it doesn't stink
out the entire place.  The smell is very localised and doesn't
spread much.  It isn't even really an unpleasant smell as
stale smoke can be.

Okay students: questions?

Well I'll see you all in vapouriser102 - coming soon to a newsgroup
near you :)

L	E	G	A	L	I	S	E

-- 
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/ ___| H E R M             simon@lsupoz.apana.org.au                         /
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