'The Misty Log' - DIY wooden Log Vaporizer

blokenoname

DIY Log Dabbler 😁🪵💪💨💨💨
Making the body was probably the most time consuming part. The rest is relatively easy going now.

HEATER COVER & CORK BASE

Like the HI, Woodscents and Nano, my 'Mitsty Pine' log has an open core. Meaning, it uses a short piece of stainless steel tubing to set the heater into as a core, which is insulated only by a small air gap of about 1-1,5 cm width an all sides from the surrounding wood. This results in a fast heat up time of < 10 minutes, while the heated up steel tubing and wood (once it gets heat saturated), still provide enough thermal mass, to make for great heat retention and fast recovery by means of a thermal flywheel effect, which allows for consecutive heavy hitting without cooling out the core too much.

So, get out the tube cutter and cut some steel from your 10 mm OD ss tubing. As the upper core boring is about 6 cm deep, you'll need a piece of roughly the same length. As your core boring will be most likely not exactly 6 cm deep (when you work handheld, that is), but more along the lines of 5,5 or 5,8 or even 6,2 cm, you've to feel out the exact length of your cover a bit by trial and error. The tip of the ss heater tube should end just a few mm below the rim of the body, to prevent you from accidental burning when reaching for the log.

Then take your readily cut piece of ss tubing and make a dimple with the tube cutter, about 2 cm from its top end. This is forming the heater port. To do that, just fixate the tube cutter 2 cm from the upper end of the tube and turn it round a few times, until a dimple forms in the steel. Stop when it seems deep enough without actually cutting the steel through. This will form a ledge on the inside of the tube, which will later on serve as a stop for your stems and ss tips. Most tube cutters neatly round off the edges of a fresh cut automatically. While this is great for making ss tips, you'll probably need to (re)widen the top edge of the heater cover (where you made the dimple), to make your 9 mm OD ss tips fit into the cover again. To do that, simply use the nose of your needle nose pliers, stick it into the top end of your heater cover and give it a few twists, while pressing down forcefully. Be careful not to widen too much, as otherwise your tips will rattle around in the heater port. And also don't make it too snug, as otherwise you'll have problems getting tips in and out, when the steel expands from the heat. Take a piece of your 9 mm OD ss tubing and check frequently after a few twists, for an easy going fit.

You can also build the heater cover in two different ways. For what I call the 'basic air-path', your work on the heater cover is more or less done now. It will be set into the upper core boring of your log and ambient air will enter the heater cover through its bottom opening through a 10 mm hole in the bottom of the log, that later gets secured by a ss debris screen, to protect you from dust and dirt particles. This will result in nice, dense & fat clouds with virtually no danger of accidentally combusting, apart from having a clogged screen or overstuffed bowl, or otherwise blocking airflow and so cause overheating. I've no way of measuring, but as an informed guess, I'd say the log reaches ~210-220°C here.

The other way is using @Alan s 'Heat Island Technology', which utilizes a shorter air path in combination with already preheated ambient air, sucked in through sits in the sides of the ss heater cover itself, while the bottom of the unit gets sealed up. To do that, you simply cut three slits around the sides of the heater cover with your steel saw, about 2 cm from its bottom end. This will result in a log, running a few degrees hotter (220-230°C, I'd say) and may be more ideal for use through glass/water. For dry use, you'll probably have to work a bit on your technique first, to avoid accidental combustion, which can happen more easily here, as with the basic air path. So start with inserting your tip only a quarter or half way and go for a faster draw speed at first, ready for pulling the tip back a bit ir even out of the port, when you notice the vapor getting too hot. Then reinsert and work your way deeper with consecutive hits. You'll get it eventually.

I personally like the ones with the basic air path better, as I prefer dry use and so can insert my tip fully from the beginning and take deep & slow easy hits, without having to think too much about technique. But to each his/her own and so you've to experiment, what you personally like better :)

Cork base is easy. Take one of your nearly fitting corks and cut a disk of about 1-1,5 cm hight. File/sand down until its diameter is fitting for your 2,5 cm core boring. You want the cork base sitting really snug, but again not too snug (too snug is, when the cork starts buckling and warping while pressing down). Drill a 8 mm hole into the centre of the base and see, that it is aligned with the 10 mm hole at the bottom of your core boring in the body. Now work your 10 mm ss heater cover into the slightly smaller 8 mm centre hole of the cork base for a good interference fit. The bottom end of the heater cover should be snug with the bottom of the cork base and not touch the wood (but you and the log will survive and not going straight to hell, if it accidentally reaches down into the wooden hole a few mm nevertheless), then set the base into the core boring of the body and push it down to its bottom. I use a piece of old 15 mm aluminum tubing for that, so that the protruding heater cover can slip into the tube and then carefully push base and cover down into the core boring with the rim of the tube.
If you are not afraid of silicone and want to secure the heater cover even more and also protect the cork a bit more from the heat, you can make the hole in the cork base a bit larger and put a 1 cm ring of high temp med grade silicone tubing around the base of the heater cover before fitting it in.
In both cases, see that you get it right the first time, as there's no good way to get the cork base out again without breaking it. So you will have to cut a new one, but even that takes only a few minutes.

RESISTOR & CIRCUIT

The electricity part...

If you can really call it that, that is :p

What you're building here, isn't more complicated than soldering a tiny light bulb (resistor) with two wires (leads) to a 4,5 lantern battery as a power source (in our case only to the DC jack, of course), building makeshift torches as kids.

Take the resistor, grab one lead, bent it down and wind it around the resistor core till its end is parallel to the other lead. Cut two 5 cm pieces of your chosen wire, take a splice and crimp it to the shorter lead, you've just bent down and then put one of the cut wire pieces into the other end of the splice and crimp it down too. Repeat with the other lead (though this might not be necessary, depending on the actual hight of the body, you made). You can leave it that way, or additionally solder splices and leads with some lead free high temp tin/copper or tin/copper/silver solder. Or you forgo the splices altogether and just solder the leads. PD's Tom shows you how this is done in an old vid, a page before this one <<<

Now thread your DC jack into the hole at the side of the log body's bottom end and heat up your soldering iron.
Turn the log body on its head and stuff the ready assembled heater into the heating cover/tube, the extended leads pointing towards you. The tip of the heater should just reach up until below the ledge/ridge you've cut into the top end of the heater cover, leaving about 1,5-2 cm of free space in the tube, which then forms the heater port, that will take in your ss tips.
After finding the correct hight for the heater to be set in, now mark that hight at the level of the DC jack on the leads. Pull out the heater and bent the leads in a 90° angle with your pliers on that mark. Cut the bent ends, but make sure they are still long enough, to reach from the heating tube in the centre to the leads of the DC jack, sitting in the wall of the body. Now put the heater back into the cover again and solder it to the jack.

I usually have the originally longer and unbent lead of the resistor soldered to + (that's the round pin in the middle of the jack) and make sure, it nowhere touches the other lead or the steel of the heater cover itself. The bent lead may touch the heater cover (as long, as the other one doesn't) but must never touch the other lead, otherwise it'll short out. No big deal with 12V, but it'll result in a non functional unit or your log starts 'singing' even. So be careful nevertheless.
I solder the bent lead to the - (that is the flat pin at the side of the jack), because that pin is more flexible and can be bent with the pliers to adjust, if a lead causes a short out. Usually a quick check with a magnifying glass against the light is enough to make sure, nothing touches where it isn't supposed to touch. Then I double check with a PS, that indicates short outs with a blinking LED.

Ok. All that remains is taking one of the 15 mm ss screens and form a kind of bucket screen out of it for the debris screen. I form it around a piece of 9 mm tubing and rework with the pliers and then insert it into the heater port, wiggling it downwards towards the resistor, with the flat bottom of the bucket towards me, until the folded rim of the bucket encloses the tip of the resistor from all sides. Like ~2 cm deep in, where the ledge is.

Then you'll need to close up the bottom by cutting and sanding a fitting cork disk, and plugging the bottom with it. Remember to cut a hole into the cork for air intake and to set a screen into it, when you go for the 'basic air path' option with the heater cover. I usually cover up the cork and wood with a piece of black felt with an adhesive backing then (remember the air intake), that can be easily removed and reapplied, if need be.

That was it. Enjoy your DIY log :) :clap:
 
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blokenoname

DIY Log Dabbler 😁🪵💪💨💨💨
Another one in the making, with an 11 mm OD/ 10 mm ID heater cover, fitting for Vapcap tips.

f236gh.jpg


10sdo1y.jpg
 
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Abysmal Vapor

Supersniffer 2000 - robot fart detection device
Nice pics. Btw you should clean resistors with alcohol, it gets you rid of the white letters ;).
Do you solder or you use just the splices ? Have you opened a unit after some operation to check on the resistor ?
 
Abysmal Vapor,

blokenoname

DIY Log Dabbler 😁🪵💪💨💨💨
Juuust took the resistor out of its package and laid it out. Have still to clean it ;)

Checked on the resistors in different units several times, as the heater cover is relatively easy to remove and to refasten, when you have to repair or check up on something. All fine. You see a bit of darkening on the upper splice occasionally, though I'm considering to forego the splices altogether and simply solder the heater anyway. SnCu is SnCu, if soldered or as a splice :p

ETA: And another one nearly ready :clap:

15mbmg7.jpg
 
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blokenoname

DIY Log Dabbler 😁🪵💪💨💨💨
Simple approach for a mate, who wanted an all glass air-path. Though I can do 10 mm glass heater covers HI style, I still lack compatible glass tubing for stems. And for making the Arizer Solo stems fit, it'll need an 11 mm ss bushing around the tip of the glass cover, which is a bit counterproductive, to an all glass design (all glass, sans heater & ss screens, that is) :D

So I took an old 18 mm female/ 14 mm male adapter as heater cover and a glass stem with an 18 mm male joint + an EQ bucket screen. Have to see, if the resistor is up for that. Otherwise I've to wait for the 24V/30W ss/ceramic heater cartridges to arrive next week, that @RastaVapa recommended or try a halogen heater again :)
Heater cover is fastened by a cork ring, holding it in place from the top.

zn64qv.jpg
 

blokenoname

DIY Log Dabbler 😁🪵💪💨💨💨
Turns out, the classic log resistor is not up to the task, heating up ~four times the air volume, passing through the large glass adapter. It's what I more or less expected. I'll get a blast of hot air with a taste, but that is about it. Not even 180°C, I'd guess.

As the new heater cartridges will only arrive later this week, I'll go for the 35W halogen heater next. Then we'll have a real all glass air path (sans the screens), with a glass encased heater and as the heater cover is itself encased by wood from three sides in this body design, this could also prove as a solution for making the glare of the bulb more manageable.

So, where are me friggin' shades!? :cool:
 

blokenoname

DIY Log Dabbler 😁🪵💪💨💨💨
One of the new 24V/30W heater cartridges arrived... out of a pack of five, I ordered :rofl:

Will test it in a pine body today and get some readouts on wattage and so on, when running it with 12,4V. And then, I've to complete the oversized all glass one above, installing the halogen heater.
 
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Abysmal Vapor

Supersniffer 2000 - robot fart detection device
@blokenoname Could post pics of that heater ? I actually found a local based company that produces cartridge and coil heaters in custom sizes and specs. They even told me they got some technology that allows them to seal the bottom of the heater with SS cap,making it fully encapsulated in SS of choice. I am trying to figure out a custom heater cartridge design which comes with a heater cover attached,something like an extra tube with holes brazed/threaded to the cartridge itself.Also i asked if it is possible to position the heater only in the forwardsection of the cartridge and then add some kind of insulation for the rest of the body like glass beads ,so heat doesnt spread to the bottom :). . It still may need an extra heatshield for the wood,but this way there can be a true SS only path provided.. :))
Wouldnt those 24v heaters also require a 24v PSU or they can run at 12 v and be hot enough ?
 
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blokenoname

DIY Log Dabbler 😁🪵💪💨💨💨
@Abysmal Vapor

Take a pic later, but it looks exactly the same as the other, 12V/40W cartridge heaters for 3D printers, that I used before. Should be a pic a few pages back, where I compared one to the broken Herborizer heater.

Rastavapa said, their ohmage varies a bit between 18, 20 and 22 Ohm, depending on the batch you'll get, but the general idea seems to be, that when running them with 12V, heat output would be generally equaling the ones of the 20 OHM Ohmite resistors. Bit hotter maybe, but with better heat retention and recovery.

Prepared one of the pine bodies for the new cartridge this morning and will set it in after I had something to eat and then see, what readings the VVPS puts out.

ETA:

https://www.amazon.com/Ceramic-Heater-Cartridge-Hotends-24V/dp/B00VITS34C

That's the cartridge.

And that are me heaters now, so far:
m8o32q.jpg


From left to right: 24V/30W ceramic/ss cartridge; 20 Ohm/5W Ohmite resistor; 35W Osram halogen bulb
 
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Abysmal Vapor

Supersniffer 2000 - robot fart detection device
@blokenoname Looking good, you just need to clean the numbers/letters with Alcohol,it is some kind of ink used. Btw there are SS304 butt splices made in Germany. Brand is Klauke,might worth looking into them ,as a ready made solution:)).. As a DIY solution I have cut some 316L capillary tubing which i planned to use as a sockets for the bulb instead of the spirals,but i guess i got a size a bit too wide for the purpose :).
Do u have any information on what is the material of the lead wires of the cartridge heater ?
 

blokenoname

DIY Log Dabbler 😁🪵💪💨💨💨
NiCr, I guess, like in the 40w ones too. Same type of heater for the same kind of 3D printer. No reson why it should have different leads.

Will look into the Klauke ss splices. Sounds surley interesting. Thanks :)

Readout of the new heater at 12V is just perfect, and matches with minimal differences the Ohmite output, just as @RastaVapa said. Big thanks, man :D
Running it directly from the wall ward now, which is a wee bit hotter (about 7,9W at 12,4V), but still ok, when you're careful.

As for better heat retention and recovery, guess I've to maybe test in one of the maple wood bodies, with the wider 4 cm centre bore, as so far, I've no real issues in that area with the Ohmite, set into the recent pine wood bodies.


1zwbvxx.jpg
 
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Abysmal Vapor

Supersniffer 2000 - robot fart detection device
They exist: https://katalog.klauke.com/de/79r-stossverbinder-edelstahl/

But I can't find any outlet, that actually stocks them so far. The few shops that had them listed, list them as 'sold out' only.
I also find one local place that has them listed but sold out. Wrote them if they could order me some.Please let me know if you locate a source :).
Do you have a gauge meter or something that to measure the diameter of the pins of the osram halopin ? I think it is around 1mm maybe 1,2mm.
I so i wonder if i should look into the 0,5-1 size or the 1-1.5 size .
Oh by the way it say it is also available in V4A which is 316 L :clap:

  • Also available as featured article in stainless steel V4A (X5CrNiMo17-12-2)


    Edited: Btw what size are the butt splices from your pic with the heaters ?
 
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Abysmal Vapor,
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blokenoname

DIY Log Dabbler 😁🪵💪💨💨💨
Good question. Could have told you, when I ordered them, but the label on the bag doesn't say. Something between 0,5-1,5, I'd guess. Have to sort through my mails, finding that order.
 
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blokenoname

DIY Log Dabbler 😁🪵💪💨💨💨
New, tidy little buck, already coming in a plexi glass casing.

2vdffva.jpg


On another note:

Finished the oversized all glass one. Halogen heater was to long for the glass adapter and would stick up into the joint, blocking the stem. Installed one of the old (too hot) 40W cartridges, and running it around 5-6 V. Slipped an ELB screen over the cartridge, increasing hot surface area of the heater, to maybe distribute the heat a bit more evenly across the wide bowl. We'll see. Heats up nicely without starting to glow at this low voltage but not really in the mood testing something with a bowl of this size, with the damned heat and humidity and all outside :p
 

blokenoname

DIY Log Dabbler 😁🪵💪💨💨💨
Reducing diameter of the heater cover/tube even further (from 10 mm) to 9 mm OD/ 8 mm ID and using 8 mm OD / 6 mm ID stainless tips now (need to get 0,5 mm walled 8 mm ss tubing). Set one into a nylon stem and one into a NonG.
Reduced tip size should do well in the conservation and micro dosing department.

Reduced size of the heater cover now allows me to make glass stems and GonGs from a 14 mm male ground glass stem, I can get for maybe €3-4,- at any lab glass outlet. All I need is a glass tube cutter, to make a stem from one end and a GonG from the ground joint end.
Inner diameter of that 14 mm male gG stem is nominally 10 mm +/- tollerance, but will actually fit quite snugly over the 9 mm heater tube now.

Can also make 10 mm stainless tips, that will slide over the cover now, for bigger loads.

Shitload more possibilities, this opens up :). Nice.


264oq9u.jpg
 
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KeroZen

Chronic vapaholic
That last pic down the corner shows quite uneven ABV with green and black bits though...
 
KeroZen,

blokenoname

DIY Log Dabbler 😁🪵💪💨💨💨
That last pic down the corner shows quite uneven ABV with green and black bits though...
I'd rather call that: "Not bad at all, considering this was the very first try with the new heater cover and new ss tips, made from much thicker walled ss tubing (> 1 mm), than I usually like for me tips (< 0,5mm)" :D

Still some fine tuning to be done ;)
 

Alan

Master JedHI
Manufacturer
@Alan Hey,Bro!Could please tell us which kind of silver solder is safe to use ? I looked them up and there are different grades.. ,i know i need solid core,but from there i am lost. Do you use any extra chemistry in the soldering i see people use some kind of paste,is it possible to do it without it ?
@blokenoname How do you made the Metal tube narrow/dome-like at the end ?
Here is a list of various types. https://www.lucasmilhaupt.com/en-US/products/fillermetals/silverbasedcadmiumfreefillermetals/8/
LM 721 Gr1 No Zinc and 1435F melting

What do we want ? No Zinc,High Melting point, More silver to copper ratio ?
Or can we use pure silver ?
SILVALOY® 999 (BRAZE™ 999)

A VTG alloy for brazing ceramics to be used as semiconductors.

Just be sure that the solder is ROHS compliant. Lead is the big concern in solder. Be sure that the solder is lead free. 3% silver is added to some solder improve electrical conductance. The oxide surface layer must be broken for the solder to fully adhere. Flux core solder is the best way I have found to get a good electrical connection.

@blokenoname - Looks like you are still having fun with different heaters and tube sizes/materials. Great name for your units. Using the cork to support the heater cover is the only way that pine wood can be used for log style vaporizers. It only allows radiant heat energy to reach the wood, which isn't enough to char it. I have good luck with the glass heater cover tubes staying put in the cork ring, but not so much with the ss heater cover in the cork ring. It started loosening up over time and I was afraid it would start spinning in the cork ring which could twist and short the wires. The slots in the ss heater cover prevent a lot of the heat from migrating down the tube to heat the cork ring. SS screws hold the ss heater cover to the cork ring so it can't become loose.
I would say that the ABV looks like you are getting complete extraction which is what you want. I have found that the amount of material loaded into the stem/screen has a lot to do with how even of a roast you get. A dirty screen can also cause more of the hot air to go through the center.
The ability to roast with vapcap stems is also a nice feature. I bet that your unit will work with the 18mm roasting tubes used in so many vaporizers today.
Keep up the nice work.
 

Abysmal Vapor

Supersniffer 2000 - robot fart detection device
@Alan Thx for your reply ! Well i know the cadmium is a concern ,but from what i read Sn is also a potential hazard. I will try to do things with a solder that is just Ag and Cu and see if it is going to work any good :).
I also thought flux is a concenrn but i read it can be cleaned in the end.
Is it easy to clean the flux out of the connection ? Do you use borax powder or something similar ?
 
Abysmal Vapor,
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blokenoname

DIY Log Dabbler 😁🪵💪💨💨💨
@blokenoname - Looks like you are still having fun with different heaters and tube sizes/materials. Great name for your units. Using the cork to support the heater cover is the only way that pine wood can be used for log style vaporizers. It only allows radiant heat energy to reach the wood, which isn't enough to char it. I have good luck with the glass heater cover tubes staying put in the cork ring, but not so much with the ss heater cover in the cork ring. It started loosening up over time and I was afraid it would start spinning in the cork ring which could twist and short the wires. The slots in the ss heater cover prevent a lot of the heat from migrating down the tube to heat the cork ring. SS screws hold the ss heater cover to the cork ring so it can't become loose.
I would say that the ABV looks like you are getting complete extraction which is what you want. I have found that the amount of material loaded into the stem/screen has a lot to do with how even of a roast you get. A dirty screen can also cause more of the hot air to go through the center.
The ability to roast with vapcap stems is also a nice feature. I bet that your unit will work with the 18mm roasting tubes used in so many vaporizers today.
Keep up the nice work.
Hi @Alan,
Great to hear from you again :)

Aye, it's fascinating, that it worked out so well with the very soft Pine wood.
I already wondered, how long the cork base would hold up, before the ss cover got loose from continued charring and shrinking of the cork. So far, this hasn't happened, but I assume, it eventually will/has to. From what I see right now, after some initial charring where the ss tube is set into the cork, the tube gets more or less 'baked' to the cork base and any attempt to remove or change out an already installed heater cover, uniformly results in either the cover itself plus the whole, snug sitting cork base coming out in one piece, or in having to break up the base, to remove the steel, baked to it. In a variation, I've also slipped an additional small ring of med grade silicone onto the ss cover's base, before setting it into the cork, with more or less the same results.

But... we've yet to see how this arrangement works out after a few weeks & months of use, as I'm also expecting it to become loose and able to spin after a time. That it works in the first place, I think might be due to the fact, that I use very thin walled ss tubing (< 0,5mm) for making the covers, and so mass for conducting heat is greatly reduced. From the pic of a recently removed 10 mm cover below, you can see, that discoloration from the heat stops right below where the resistor sits within the tube (but still above the cork), while it looks still shiny and new below the cork, even without adding conduction breaks/slits to the cover itself. A thicker walled steel (~1,0 mm) will more or less burn the cork immediately here.
Also having problems utilizing slits for conduction breaks properly right now, due to the limits in depth (6 cm) of a given core bore, a Forstner bit puts onto me and therefor the length of the heater cover itself. Slits will come to sit immediately above the cork and below the resistor, always in danger of resulting in a blocked airflow, should the heater cover slide down only an additional few mm for some reason, fastened by interference/friction only, as it is now.

dg1o90.jpg


For a long term solution, I'm also looking for a way to fasten ss washers to the ss heating tubes, like you did with your own, so they'll serve as a flange that can be fastened by screws. But still lacking the 'how to', with the tools at hand. Mate of mine offered to weld the washers to the tubes, when he's back from vacation. Are there any other ways, to mechanically fasten the tube to the washer? How do you do it?

As for the AVB, tips and clogged screens... found very much the same. I also made the new 8 mm ss tips from thicker walled ss tubing (> 1 mm), than I usually use, as I'm still waiting for the thin walled 8 mm ss tubing to arrive, I actually wanted to use here. So their inner diameter/bowl is only 6 mm right now and still seeing some issues with charring and even combustion here, with the resistor set to a 12V straight, from a VVPS. Seems, like the thicker steel absorbs and retains much more heat by way of conduction, than the thinner walled one, I usually use for my ss tips, and so maybe's overheating the load, leading to ignition eventually. Think, this will go away, once I get my preferred ss tubing here.
What's the wall thickness and inner diameter of your own 5/16" ss tips, if I may ask?

Thanks again for the tips and encouragement :)
 
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blokenoname

DIY Log Dabbler 😁🪵💪💨💨💨
10h1yr6.jpg


So... new, thin walled (0,3mm) 8 mm stainless tubing for the new tips arrived and lo and behold... This AVB is soooo friggin' dead, Jim :D

4-5 massive hits with the stem and new tip :tup:
 
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blokenoname,
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blokenoname

DIY Log Dabbler 😁🪵💪💨💨💨
Well... this one came quite unexpected, but 8 mm happens to be also the inner diameter of Dynavap stems and bodies (the NonaWong doesn't even need an o-ring. Seals tight). New way to use your Vapcap with the smaller heater tube :D

eta6b8.jpg
 
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