@BabyFacedFinster - Thank you for the response. I decided to pick up some 'medical style' rubber tubing to add to my stems to convert them into whips after all. I added about 18 inches of tubing, and this has completely resolved the heat issue when vaping salvia, and made it much easier to just hold the log in my hand upside down like I've always done with my box vape. (The salvinorin-a in salvia needs a pretty hot temp to be activated, and I try to get everything out in one long inhalation, so for this particular usage I probably need to keep the herb pretty close to the heating element.
Now that I've done this, I sort of wish I'd just bought the standard stem instead of the long one, since I don't need the extra glass length...but maybe I'll pick one up later.
The only other 'issue' to resolve at the moment is that the Black Friday kit I bought came with the upgraded cord which has the dial in the wooden box. I thought this would be great, but didn't realize how close the dial box is to the log. So when I pick up the log for use, the dial box is also picked up and is kind of unwieldy, heavy and annoying. Maybe the standard cord would be better in this regard?
I've considered attaching the dial box to the bottom of the log with velcro so that it's just one piece of hardware to pick up and hold, but not sure I want to put an adhesive velcro patches on either.. Also, when I tested it by just holding them together, I found it easy to accidentally move the dial. Any suggestions for this, or could anyone clarify if using the older style cord would be better for this method of use?
Thanks!