Dudes, I have a bad case of the First-World-Problem Blues right now, and I need a shoulder.
I don't even know where to start, but I will give you the quick and dirty TLDR up front: The male joint on my brand new Grav Labs Diffusion Pump is broken. And I'm sad.
Here's the long story for anyone who cares:
The enail thing has never been a big draw to me. I'm one man, I don't dab a ton, why would I ever need an enail? Then my friend buys one and brings it over. And I was like this is pretty rad.
So I start nerding out on stuff, as I tend to do, and I end up here. You guys have been awesome, and dangerous to my wallet.
Anyway, start looking up enails and find the Auber RDK-200. I realize that these can be bought from Amazon, and realize I have like $250 in Amazon gift cards from christmas, and I've been looking for something dumb to blow them on.
At the same time I'm spending a goddam month reading all the threads relating to enails, and then nails specifically. I'm coming from using a cheap quartz banger, on a test rig my glass blowing friend made for me.
So I'm like I want a D-Nail SiC Dish. Might as well go nuts and buy a sweet nail, since I'm getting the enail for free right? So I order a SiC Dish after hemming and hawing about it for a couple weeks. Trying to figure my bang for the buck, see how much I feel like I should be blowing on shit I don't need right now.
Decide to go for it and the next day I go to order it, but they're out of bases and carb caps. And they stay out for a month...
So I have this sick ass SiC dish sitting there staring at me, and an RDK-200 in a box, and no way to actually use any of it. For a month.
So I cave and order a knockoff infiniti nail from Thickass Glass. Hoped the threads would match to the dish retainer, but didn't really figure they would. It comes, and they don't match, but its enough to be useable. Here's the foreshadowing part. The infiniti nail. It broke my joint. I guess this isn't really foreshadowing.
So, holy crap, I finally have a useable enail! And its awesome. I never thought it would be a big deal, but it makes such a big difference to me. No torch, push a button, ready to go, etc. They're really cool. Read the settings for the Auber, changed some (thanks Monsoon), and got it working great.
But I didn't have a carb cap so I was using a shot glass which wasn't that fun.
So anyway, in the meantime I find the chinese glass threads. And I'm like this is pretty sweet. The FC710 caught my eye and I started looking around. Seeing they were a Bates knockoff, and then seeing that Grav Labs had a cheaper version as well. $150 is still a bit much for me, so I intended on ordering a chinese one at some point. Tried to talk myself out of it, as it's a crap shoot, and its still $40 that I didn't feel like throwing away.
I did mention that I have a glass blowing friend. He has a real job, and a family, and is a bit burnt out with the glass blowing scene, so he's not gung ho to make anything for me. I've been wanting him to make me a rig for months, but it's just not happening. The rig I currently have was a test trial run of his, as he's never made anything for oil before. It's totally functional, and I like it, but it's sloppy. I've been wanting something new.
So anyway, I go to the local head shop, like I mentioned yesterday above in this thread, and they have a Grav Labs Diffusion Pump that they offer to sell me for $65 because it's been there for a while. I had no intention of getting a new rig, and wasn't thrilled to spend the money on it after piecing together this ridiculous D-Nail stuff. But, I bought it anyway as it was too good to pass up.
I was stoked. It was my first real new piece in over a decade, and it was potentially something new for flavor, and teamed up with my new SiC dish, I was ready!
So I get home and use it with my knockoff infiniti and my SiC Dish. And it's pretty sweet. I totally dig it and I happen to have just pressed some fresh Harletsu rosin which is crazy full of flavor.
Today I'm like an idiot kid on christmas, as D-Nail finally got their shit back in stock and I blow way to much money on a carb cap and slim series base.
I'm literally waiting by the mailbox as they drive up, and I run into the house to hook this shit up.
Ah look, my female infiniti nail is stuck to my male joint rig. No big deal, I'll just crank up the enail and let it heat up and take it off. Like I've done a ton of times on my old rig, and a couple times on this brand new one. I literally bought it yesterday.
And it doesn't come off.
And I'm like that's kinda strange but no big deal. Don't panic, just heat that shit up like you've seen people say how to. Look up some videos on youtube about stuck joints, this is no problem.
Heat it up crazy, and it doesn't BUDGE. At all. Cool it down, clean it with alcohol, heat it up again and nothing. Now I'm getting worried. And pissed. I haven't had good luck with Thickass Glass in the past, and this isn't helping.
Meanwhile, I'm taking care of my son today as the wife is at work. So we leave the house, and I'm thinking the whole time how I'm gonna figure this out.
Get home, put him to bed, now it's on. I'm gonna put this in the freezer and then heat the nail up super hot super quick, so it will expand quick before the glass has a chance to heat up.
So I do it. And I'm like gently but firmly trying to get this nail off. And I hear a pop and for second I thought I got it. Until I realized the joint broke.
And then I look up and see that I set my running torch down next to the wall where I always set it, but I didn't turn it quite enough to not hit the wall. So I have a quite large black burn mark in the wall, which I will be hiding from the wife.
WTF. My months of research and waiting were literally coming down to today. New unexpected awesome rig, sweet new fancy d-nail setup. Even my own rosin, which is totally new and exciting to me.
I'm going to forget that I ever bought a new rig. I'm going to put this sweet e-nail on my old rig, and forget that I even experienced the diffusion pump.
And I'm going to email Thickass Glass and tell them they suck.
Thanks for letting me bitch. I might cross post this to the enail thread too, since I would like maximum pity for my sad state of affairs.
I'm going to go do another dab and maybe cry a little.
