Help with making my own Vaporizer + Ideas

Hey all.

So I wanted to get a Vaporizer, but I've always been a person with interest in making stuff.

And since I don't have a budget of $150+ for a vaporizer I started looking into my own.

I am just going to use it for Smoking weed. maybe CBD Oil would be nice too.

So looking into ideas and others projects, I've been thinking a bit:

1) Making a vaporizer with bluetooth temp controlling through App on smartphone.
Problem is I can't make an App, but I can do some Arduino programming and I've a few Nano's + HC05 laying around.
So have anyone made an app for this purpose yet that I can use?


2) Make a vaporizer with display to change the temp.

3) Make a vaporizer which has around 25-30W which I can read is good.

4) Buy a cheap vaporizer like a Hebe Titan ll and use the parts from it and try and improve it otherwise.

Heating source:
Ceramic heating
Laser Beam? Have somebody been successfully with this method?
Coils with nichrome wire

Housing:
Use the aluminum housing from a Laser pointer, would be cool.
or a flashlight.
Make my own with 3D printing

My budget would be nice to be under $50

Can someone give some hints for best approach if I want to control the temperature?

I'll update this with more information as I carry on.

I think it would be very difficult to build a vape with the features you require for less than $50.

I think the cheapest way to build your own vape is to build a log vape. You probably dont have a lathe but you could still build a square log vape with a drill press or even a handheld drill.

Then you can use a cheap voltage buck/boost from ebay or amazon to control the temperature by changing the voltage.

The materials are pretty cheap, mostly consisting of a small $3~ resistor and some 3/8" stainless steel tubing and washers.

I would stay away from 3d printing for the most part. Aside from ceramic most 3d printed materials are not food safe and arent rated for the temperatures your vape gets to. Definitely a subject to approach with caution.



EDIT: Just to dump some more info on making a log:

The "classic" log vape heater is an ohmite 25J20RE. Slide it into the 3/8" tubing and add a formed screen on top. Put a glass bead over one of the wires to prevent a short. I find that glass "capillary tubes" can work for this but YMMV.

You can weld the tube to a large (1"~) washer and then screw that washer into a hole in the wood. You might be able to find a non-welding way to secure it, maybe with stainless steel retaining rings.

Check out popular log vapes like the HI, UD Air core, and E-nano to get an idea of what it looks like. (Though do note the E-nano uses a ceramic 110v heater and the UD uses a custom SS heater.)

The resistor typically reaches good vaping temps at around 12v, but a small voltage buck from amazon is like $10 and will allow more fine temperature adjustment. You just don't want to go above 13v for the most part, as that can damage the resistor.

If you want your log to be compatible with accessories for other logs, add a 2.1mm jack. Though if you want you can wire the whole thing directly and have no plugs to deal with.

for bluetooth control on arduino:

https://learn.adafruit.com/getting-started-with-the-nrf8001-bluefruit-le-breakout

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.adafruit.bluefruit.le.connect&hl=en

I don't think you have the budget for all that - it is $20. This will let you have an app without writing one though.

@ZC any idea what the SS heater cartridge used in most logs now is?

Thanks for the idea of a log vape. I never knew about "this type of vaporizer" I love the simplicity.

I'm thinking about just making the head pipe that can hold the weed/CBD oil and then mount it onto a "hot air solder tool" like this one:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/220V-For-...hash=item51dc62d5c4:m:ml2Jd4JjwqHe6qOhonEOpVA

It fits my budget and I think it will make a pretty good vaporizer.

What do you guys think?

@srama21

I'm not sure. Underdog claims that they have them custom made, so that's not an off-the-shelf solution. I beieve they claim to still pull 0.6A though, so that suggests they have the same 20ohm resistance as the ohmite resistor.

No idea which cartridge @Ed's TnT uses in his vapor bomb, and I can't blame him if he doesn't want that info to be public.

The E-nano uses a ceramic heater similar to the LSV and runs at 110v instead of 12.

@HitecPrimate

That sounds like it'll certainly heat your stuff up, but I'd advise caution about cheap soldering tools as heating elements unless you're going to isolate that hot air from your material. These aren't designed to be inhaled from, they likely aren't lead free, and there's no way of knowing what other manufacturing chemicals are present and you might not want to inhale those.

Do what feels right for you but IMO unknown, possibly dangerous materials in the airpath is never worth saving a few bucks.

Whatever you do at the very least run the heater for a while to hopefully burn off some contaminates before inhaling from the thing.

That's a good point. I actually just assumed it couldn't be dangerous to inhale the air from it.

Back to the drawing board then I guess. I would like to do it right, I'm not trying to be cool, but smart.

14" of Nichrome 80 ribbon makes a nifty heater coil, wrapped around the outside of a 15mm diameter borosilicate test tube ... about 0.35 ohms, so draws 18 amps with 6.6 volt battery power, for >100 watts of power ... room temperature to 400F in about 10 seconds ... and use computer temperature control to handle that much power.

At least that's the way i do it, but it cost more than $50 ... link to my thread in my signature ... may give you some ideas.