Hi guys - so, I used my Pan Head last night.
Now, this is important (well, at least to me haha). I have only used the Pan Head for
three each, approx .15 gr loads, so this not a mature opinion and is really only
very first impressions, which I find are very often wrong with the passing of time.
Also, I recently retired from a lifetime of being a project/program manager of technical projects. I have sat on proposal evaluation boards, proposal prep teams, design reviews, test reviews teams, did flight test planning and conduction for a while, etc, etc, etc. What I'm saying is that by profession I'm trained to be critical. Not critical as in putting someone down, but critical as in looking at all of the details, large and small. In my professional world, we didn't huzzah for things that met the spec....the damn thing was supposed to meet the spec, our interest was in ferreting out discrepancies. I'm just saying this because I do tend to highlight the negative and not accentuate the positive but I also don't want anyone to think that any individual criticism constitutes an overall impression of the device. That and I must come off as very negative because I'm the only one to whom Edwyn feels he needs to tell that unused items are returnable! HAHAHAHA
Alright, a lot of preface now on to my impressions:
Nothing stuck into the glass at all during any of these three sessions. No sticking whatsoever. That was the intent and the goal was accomplished as far as I can tell
First load was with the 14 mm stem in a stevenlmz70, FC-188, Mobius Ion knockoff (14 mm dewar type joint in the middle of the top of the can with a sidecar MP). I used a drop down that I recently got and posted about some pages back. I got them off of Amazon and the quality is total shit. Also, although I do like my FC-188, I'm not sure how accurately the joint was made as I do have some adapters that are a bit loose in there (or the adapters are crap...either way). Further, I don't think the FC-188 type joint is good for the Pan Head as I think the stem will drop down too far (below the level of the can) before engaging the joint.
I mention all of this because when I ran my first load at my normal, capped, 620-625 F, the vapor was very respectable but definitely thinner, more watered down, than with my OG SH.
IMO, this 'thinner' vapor comes from a number of source; 1) small bit of 'air leakage'...contributed by the FC-188, the shitty drop down, AND the gap between the outside wall of the stem and the inside wall of the bowl (there is one, certainly). Now, the bottom of the bowl does indeed sit flat on the top of the joint, but not all joints are perfectly flat, I don't think that would be air tight even if the joint was perfect, and I do think a bit of air was getting in there from that source and; 2) the bowl is 2.5 mm deeper than my OG SH which I think was a contributor to the change in vapor.
I switched from the FC-188 to my C2, 65 mm stemless can with an 18 mm joint and fuck the drop down. I put the Pan Head right on the joint as I had no sticking before....meaning no expansion, so I took the chance. No problem with that, it turns out.
I also bumped my temp up to 645 F from 620 F to to compensate for the deeper bowl.
Much, much better. Very satisfactory. Still not sure its quite as thick as my OG at same temp, but I think this is bowl depth again...but very respectable performance and NO STICKING!! :-)
Ran two loads this way while drinking a Tito's Martini and at that point it was bed time. HA
I think, with the Pan Head, I will try to bump my temp up yet a bit again and see what that does.
But I'm also thinking about asking
@NewVape710 (Edwyn) if he would, as a custom job, either mill the bowl on my current Pan Head back down to the SH OG depth or perhaps just ask if he would make me another with the shallower bowl.
Guys, I'm a lightweight compared to many. But even when I do consume more than normal, I do like that around .15 g bowl and just do multiple sessions if I want more. I understand that the bowl as made deeper (like the OG FP) by popular demand and I concede that my desires may not be the majority (and who the F can satisfy everybody..yeah?). But it would seem to be a very easy customization to just mill the top of the bowl down a bit and put the bevel back on. I'm going to think about it.
So, I'm still very happy with my OG SH and now my Pan Head but there is more to explore.
Best regards
