Adjustable heating elements

Been browsing the forum for a little while and have read a lot of threads. I finally decided to register as I want to set out to make my first diy vape and I just found this subforum. I had been mostly in the reviews part so far doing r/d.

I have a hot box (no affiliation) and it works great for home use but its also just that - it is very specifically a home unit. Above all else, I really like the whips & have a few of them around. My idea was to convert one of them into a semi-portable device. So I have the standard hands free whip - 2 pieces and the screen. My idea is find a heat source to draw from or drop down into the glass towards the bowl.. there is some room in there and those whips can handle a lot of heat.

So, I am looking for my heater. I am not sure where to go here or even which materials would be best. The ceramic heaters sound very interesting and I see many going with them. I also had an idea to try and rework a USB lighter and see if I can use those coils. I am posting hoping there is some suggestions there. Then, once I have a heat source.. how do I make it adjustable?

From there, I will figure out how to capture and deliver the heat.. but I am going step by step right now and this is the part I am definitely stuck on.

i started my quest with the cigarette lighter from my CRX (i don't smoke) ... hooked it to a 12v camping battery with a push button for on/off control. result: too hard to control, always got too hot, scorched the herb and the glass. Sidebar: even in the beginning it was all glass.

i ended up using a coil of nichrome wire as the heating element with pulse width modulation for power. details in my thread, link in my signature. last couple of years of the thread are most relevant to what works best for me.

I think using a torch lighter might be your best bet.



if this is what your bowl looks like, a torch lighter could convert that to a vape with a little or no modification. check out the gnome vape, basically the same concept:

Hippie Dickie said:

i started my quest with the cigarette lighter from my CRX (i don't smoke) ... hooked it to a 12v camping battery with a push button for on/off control. result: too hard to control, always got too hot, scorched the herb and the glass. Sidebar: even in the beginning it was all glass.

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Ok, I had not thought of a car lighter. Another possible heat source to review. More so I meant the smaller form usb rechargable lighters. The have a coil on them similar to most of the pens I am seeing but cost around $10. I saw that as kind of cheaper way to get started than buying a pen just to hack on it.

Soldering irons - Thought of using these. I have not found one yet with a variable temp control. I supposed these are all made for industrial use which makes me worry about the paint, plastic & other materials that are heated that these devices are built with. Maybe stripping one down works ( is there a particular model people prefer?) Even if these 'work' as a base, how safe are the soldering style heating elements?

Hippie Dickie said:

i ended up using a coil of nichrome wire as the heating element with pulse width modulation for power. details in my thread, link in my signature. last couple of years of the thread are most relevant to what works best for me.

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I read up on nichrome. I guess this is the standard wire in most heating elements ( according to the wikipedia ). Is nichrome is the main type of wiring in usb lighters / pen vape coils? Are there any known drawbacks of using this heat source?

Bouldorado said:

I think using a torch lighter might be your best bet.

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Torches are functional however its just not a good fit in relation to this mods intended use - more of in a car or office setting near electronics or couch. The goal is a light hitting mod more on the level where its just enough to produce vapor.. the home unit can handle the rest when the time comes.

So my goal is to wire an electric heating element of some type to a dial / control of some type to adjust the output. Nichrome wire seems to be the first main consideration. I am going to keep looking around. Thanks for the info so far. I can't wait to get started!

vapethirty said:

Soldering irons - Thought of using these. I have not found one yet with a variable temp control.

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Look for Soldering station.

I was looking at getting the hakko fx-888d before I bought the LSV.

vapethirty said:

I read up on nichrome. I guess this is the standard wire in most heating elements ( according to the wikipedia ). Is nichrome is the main type of wiring in usb lighters / pen vape coils? Are there any known drawbacks of using this heat source?

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don't know about usb lighters ... from what i read on FC about pen-ish type units, other type resistance wires are used ... no draw backs with 16 awg Nichrome 80 that i can see - no degradation after YEARS of constant use, and anyway, my heater is out of the vapor path, as is everything else except ambient air and herb.

I'm using a nichrome heating element in my vape and it's even coiled like a cigarette lighter!

http://fuckcombustion.com/threads/diy-510-compatible-rebuildable-dry-herb-atomizer.17187/

Tweak said:

Look for Soldering station. I was looking at getting the hakko fx-888d before I bought the LSV.

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Thank you! I will look into this one.

rat949 said:

I'm using a nichrome heating element in my vape and it's even coiled like a cigarette lighter!

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Very cool. That is a pretty cool looking creation you have there. I read in the thread and as best I could follow, your heating element is a Lancia rebuildable E-Cig atomizer. That or a similar device looks like a nice option to start with as well.

Hippie Dickie said:

don't know about usb lighters ... from what i read on FC about pen-ish type units, other type resistance wires are used

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Ok, well I am going to try and identify what types of wires. I have seen a lot of mention of other heaters, such as ceramic. From what I am saw in other threads, ceramic is porous and there is still metal wire running inside of it... or are there different types of ceramic elements? From what I saw there was lots of types when I searched for them. I also pulled up a bunch of the usb lighter descriptions and nothing said anything in detail. I found sites online selling the wiring in bulk for making them but no mention of specific materials either..

Hippie Dickie said:

no draw backs with 16 awg Nichrome 80 that i can see - no degradation after YEARS of constant use, and anyway, my heater is out of the vapor path, as is everything else except ambient air and herb.

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I was checking out your design and couldnt tell but I thought that is what you were doing. essentially heating the glass and that heats the air... I actually was going to ask about that in the last post I bet that does a great job of delivering flavor.

Has anyone tried using IR heating bulbs or do they offgas? I figure there is a reason there is little mention of them. What about a small halogen bulb? They seem to get pretty hot.

vapethirty said:

What about a small halogen bulb? They seem to get pretty hot.

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That's the Herbalizer - check the Plug-In section of FC.

Doesn't the AroMed 4.0 also use a halogen?

Love the Demo video:

They should ship it with a macro web cam so you can watch that glow on a big monitor, .

Thanks. I had not really analyzed those. It seems halogen lights can work as a heat source

Herbalizer - Some of the sites mention that this uses a 300 watt halogen light bulb. Going to look into that more. Anyone know what specific type of bulb they are using? I am going to stop by radio shack and try and pick a few up.

The AroMed looks very cool as well... I liked the detail in the video. I may look at that design more closely, although I think I have a good idea of what I want to try and do.

Also with halogen, its still a metal wire inside of it all. I wonder what type of wire that is... and how much different it would be without the glass / just using the tightly bound wiring.

vapethirty said:

I wonder what type of wire that is.

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tungsten filament encased inside a much smaller quartz envelope

Cool! tungsten & quartz.. time to learn more about those materials. Halogen is starting to look like an interesting heat source.

Btw - read up and the AroMed seems to use a 50w UV free bulb. Thats what I saw on their site as a replacement at least.

vapethirty said:

Also with halogen, its still a metal wire inside of it all. I wonder what type of wire that is... and how much different it would be without the glass / just using the tightly bound wiring.

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halogen bulbs have a gas inside that keeps the filament from boiling away [1] at the lamps higher (than regular incandescent)) temperature. even regular bulbs have the oxygen removed. exposed filaments would have to be derated to get a good life. when i thought about using these i found ceramic holders for them (and the bulbs themselves) at amazon.

cheers

[1] roughly speaking.