Funnily, my vape's rather new - I've been making the Classic vape the longest, at about a year and 9 months... there have been several iterations, starting with point handles (bits of scrap glass left after making another blown object - thin and tapered) which is how I first tested the concept. I figured that a smaller tube would stop somewhere in the taper, and the space forward of that could be used as a chamber, followed by the heat exchanging section. None of the ones built on point handles were sold, since they were long, thin, not 100% consistent, and fragile.
In the end I opted for tube-in-a-tube, since all the good boro tubing available (I use primarily Simax lab glass from the Czech Republic) comes to exacting standards of size and chemistry, and cutting lengths of tube would be more consistent and otherwise viable. The first model made similar to the ones I'm making today had 1mm thick walls for the heat exchanger, which heated up faster, yet broke more easily. Coincidentally, I soon changed to 1.5mm thick walls, for a better balance of durability and heat-up time. One strange thing is that the thicker you go with glass, the less well it tolerates being heated to torch temperatures and cooled again - with thin walls, the glass cools evenly and doesn't become stressed with repeated heating and cooling. Another bonus was being able to get tubing for the heat exchangers which allowed me to make the mouthpiece the same size as most glass slides. I think from now on I'll start calling it the Slider vape instead, to reference the fact that it both slides together and turns any glass that uses standard slides into a vape as well.
Of course, one of the main comments many people have had is that they wished it had a friction fit together, like a ground glass joint - thus, the GonG vape came about. It's built on 1.8mm thick glass which is one of the reasons it takes longer to heat up. I only use joints made on quality labglass - Asian ground glass joints cost a lot less, but the glass is more prone to stress from the heating and cooling. Ground glass joints increase the materials cost of the vapes by a great deal, just like they do with everything else, so many people go with the classic - that and it's so incredibly pocketable (especially with the cases I've got in the works).
The oil vape is pretty recent, dating back only 8 or so months. It was borne on a night when some friends had just picked up an Eclipse, and I wondered to myself why it couldn't just be made entirely of glass, without the fragile dram vials, and with an all glass airpath. The version ABV picked up (Mister Dabby) is likely to join the lineup, as long as it continues holding together... I'm sure I'll offer replacement dab globes just in case one breaks. The nice thing is that even if it does wear out after a while, picking up a new globe shouldn't cost an arm and a leg.
I had never even heard of the Vapocane or Glass Vape before making the Slider... I guess I wasn't really looking, since it looks like they've been around a bit longer than I. I still think mine's better, though - I'm happy to leave out the screens, especially with water filtration, and the Slider is just so tiny - I keep mine in my pockets all the time. I'm working on a version with an ABV catcher section, since that is one of the downfalls of the smiley glass screen (unless your herb is fresh or humidified, in which case it serves fine - I opt not to use an herb grinder, instead just lightly crumbling it with fingers).
At any rate, the 'net is serving to be a great medium of distribution. I'm thrilled to have my glass enjoyed on a larger scale... it's cool having things I made get all over the world. A new website, with a bunch of pictures and some video will be coming up soon, and pocket pouches for the GonG and Slider vapes... both of which you can put a hot Gnome into without damage, and without burning yourself. A pouch set with a stash jar is in the works as well, of which I should have some pictures up shortly.
See you all soon!
the Gnome is the thinking man's vape I think!! The classic fits in a 14mm GG female perfectly with a piece of silicon tubing on the end. 7th floor tubing works as well as various other pieces of hose I have kicking around. Why am I posting when I'm so vaked???!!! :-P
.. Also the shotgun method (forced air) is kickin ass.. One of my buddies gave me a unused bag from his old vapir one.. And i managed to fill it will dense vapor under 1 minute 
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