Salutations PlainLazy,
...quite excited to try bags. ... ...trying to convert them.
Hummm... For conversion of a former smoker i'd administer the last shot using a pipe just like mine. IMO that should do it, because the respective rituals share little in common, so... That would fill the gap if all else failed. In other words have a "Plan-B", with "B" as in "Butane" - which for smokers will feel just like at home since they're likely to be familiar with the power of fire after all.
Bags have great advantages, this hardly makes them perfect substitutes though. When one switches to vaporisation the hands still need to get a role to play into this ritual game, while using bags we're simply sucking each at our own individual conveniences... Not much action happens there as that's nothing like a smoker habit using a pipe, which appears quite appropriate to me for this particular function: "Plan-B"...
The thing is i need a "Plan-A" and i used to have one until i started to increasingly need self-humidification, a feature only my pipe will provide, so far.
Anyway be ready if you must convert those sinners! North American missionaries used to finish above a fire only a couple centuries ago!...
Ah, and about aroma/taste. I distinctively recall the very 1st time i was almost in panick thinking it would be so yucky each next time! Not knowing though that my fresh PVC tubing would no longer affect me after it went through enough sessions. But it sure triggered my imagination and hence i searched for simpler paths and eventually found mine, but the one below pleases me best, to be honnest:
First of all the young persons would probably comment it has a "ghetto" look, i tend to agree but there's much more to it than meets the eye: NO PUMP and NO EXCESS TUBING... I chose a negative pressure system that still relied on my pump to serve the same purpose, e.g. to remove that (temporarily) yucky hardware, as i was afraid it would taste this bad forever - which it did not, lucky me.
Nonetheless i'm in admiration relatively to The Amazing Vapor Lung because its beauty lies in its most affordable simplicity and convenient solution. So please, PLEASE, promise me your next conversion party makes room for something like it!!
The sinners may find it amusing if not amazing...
I would like to show them a cloudy bag...
Have you realized that half the airflow should also imply a reduction of volume as well? In other words, when experimenting with a pinched tube did you remember to make your bag smaller by pinching (it near the end) as well?...
Additionally, denser (and hence more opaque) bags can be expected to render dosage more variable, which somewhat defeats the main advantage obtained from a balloon system: each person can inhale at their own pace ideally. But if there's a black cloud inside then every cannabic party consumer is likely to loose such a rare ability that's featured with real-time feedback, so to speak... But all participants will choke anyway.
It can be fun once in a while but there's much better to seek, aroma & taste for example - and that's when proper humidification can make a difference. My present "Plan-B" gave me plenty of it after my HA was decommissioned... Not to mention pipes and smokers seems a natural association to make.
Ill start the HA on 375 and work towards 400 then see what happens.
Perhaps you may want to start & end a few degrees lower during the initial phase.
Then why not consider glass accessories as this unit ain't going anywhere soon IMHO...
...do you drop the loaded crucible in once up to heat and then put the mouthpiece on?
That's a question that evokes little echoes because Arizer's Solo Glass Stems are what i came to prefer after a while...
...next step would your dimmer plug for the pump...
If you try something such as this then it's important to include a resistive load in parallel, because the pump is built around a large inductance coil essentially, and switching it on or off would generate voltage spikes otherwise. So i'd suggest isolation of the pump + dimmer setup using a separate A.C. "filtered" power bar, not shown on my illustration below:
This particular installation supported many levels and it worked by touch...
...let it heat and then put the crucible in...
Lets take a good look at Herbal-Aire's Heat Exchanger (in a v2.1):
Such a metal oven configuration suggests it's not operating in convection mode only so i used to pre-heat my HA and then i plugged my modded glass handle inside once ready.
It should prove stimulating to experiement with a few things, as long as you don't risk over-sensitizing yourself and/or whatnot, etc.
Good day, have fun!