Homemade Vaporizers

[snappys]

Well thanks mate! You are a part of it too, I've been working time ago on it and you contribution was important. My worry came when I wansnt able to clean the accumulating tar in MFLB so I wanted something I could clean it, and that's it. I't wont be my first vape but now I have an ace up my sleeve.

 

[budballer]

Hi all, i haven't been on here for a long time cause i've been happily vaping away with my DIY vape based on the Hakko 556 se. I took the best of what i liked in simple DIY builds and made my own so here it is!

The frame and heater

For those of you interested on its construction its made of hardwood (i believe i used maple) from Lowes and simply wood screws. Since i was paranoid about possible harmful substance coming off of the ceramic heating element i covered it with stainless steel tube that was sanded and washed with detergent and pinched off at one end to prevent direct air contact with the heating element. It is held on by stainless steel wire that i wrapped around and over it. I run the temp dial at around 7 a lot and that's enough to get the steel cherry red and perfect for massive rips. I secured and centered the soldering iron with copper pipe hangers that i cut to size. then i dremeled out notches in the plastic grip of the soldering iron to have to pipe hangers clamp into. i also used a wooden square with a hole in the center to keep it from sliding around. I found it was still slightly off center so i added a screw to one side on the bottom to fine tune to center of the heating element. The last thing i want is the steel heater cover to touch the glass wall and shatter.

The glass

The glass heater cover is held in firmly by the woodblock it sits in. It's the same heater cover used on the extreme q vape actually! I ran 2 thin pieces of stainless steel wire through the wood where the glass heater cover sits to keep it at the ideal height. Its plenty secure and wont fall out when turned upside down due to tight tolerances in the wood hole it sits in, and the outwardly flared glass that Arizer so cleverly incorporated on the bottom of it. Also i changed out the stock heater cover screen that came with it to use the extreme q elbow screen as the bowl instead. It works wonderfully too. The whip is just a cheap one made for any box whip vape that i got off of ebay for about $12, it has a screen so i dont suck herb through and works perfectly for this application. For a little while i set an LED light over the bowl to watch the vapor swirl and milk before a good pull.

Modifications

After a while i took the wood top off because it simply got in the way of taking the whip off and putting it on, and when the glass is hot you dont want to be fiddling around with it.

Overall the build took me a while i must give credit to 2clicker (i believe that's his name, haven't been here in a while) for giving me the idea to use the hakko 556. It really is an ideal heater for vaporizers with more than enough wattage to keep the bowl hot in the strongest pulls. Never once have i burned herb in it, although im sure i could. Most times im left with that crispy brown goodness we all like to use for edibles.

Well that's it for now here are the pics! don't know how often i'll be checking back so sorry if i don't answer some questions if you have them! i just felt like i owed it to the community here for giving me the idea to make this because it riiiiips so nicely. I was pleasantly surprised by its performance. Thanks again and hope you like it! Don't be too harsh i went for function over form!

Pics sorry for the cell phone quality.

You can seeing the steel heater cover glowing red in this one a bit

And in its current form with the top removed, hope you like it!

 

[WatTyler]

Nice work buddy.

I do think though that there's more chance of harmful substances coming off of that red hot metal than there is off comparatively inert ceramic. I'd definitely stick with the ceramic.

 

[JustOnCloud9]

Out of curiosity how much did it cost in total to make this? I've made my own bowls, bongs, etc but never a vape.

 

[Abysmal Vapor]

Hey Guys I found these Awesome steampunk looking DIY in the vain of MFLB and a very nice DIY MFLB Bubbler( which i will share in the MFLB thread stand + adaptor).. Check this out.. (originally posted by zicopera from vutra.org - a real handy man

 

[robert denby]

jeez that thing doesnt look safe. almost looks like a bomb or something haha

 

[VWFringe]

copper coated pipe hangers in the US at Home Depot in plumbing
chagrinned to admit, but, bitch to bend
(it was just for personal use!)

 

[Pipes]

copper coated pipe hangers in the US at Home Depot in plumbing
chagrinned to admit, but, bitch to bend
(it was just for personal use!)

Yep. and good for the memory effect. When shaping around the battery for ground connection it will keep the squeeze happening.
Cool thread here. Never saw it before.
I'm going to have to pull out my MFLB clone I made last year. Got it up to the point of attaching the 400 ss mesh and gave up. Think you need a "battery tab arc welder" to do it right. Something like this one here. I actually started to make a capacitive arc welder too but on the back burner for now.
I did figured out a fairly easy way to get up to that point. I used the core of a very thick RF coax cable which the core is made up of iron/copper mix to give the same characteristics of the hangers from Home Depot. And used a piece of oak hand rail for the body.
Was an interesting experiment.

EDIT:
OK, took a couple pictures. An incomplete project but shows how a couple well drilled holes and a couple saw cuts can be the basis of the product. And of course lots of sanding.

Maybe some day if I get my DIY arc welder working.....

Was making it in case I needed it for the Bulli mod or future mods. Can't justify the coin for buying a retail unit.

In case anyone has an interest in the Arc Welder information, this guy was my inspiration here.


Pipes

 

[yayvape]

@Pipes
Did you get that capacitive discharge welder working? I was looking at this the other day, tempted to try it to weld nichrome wire to copper wire for my "bud toaster" clone.

That MFB clone of yours looks pretty good, any success? without a good connection It would be pretty unreliable eh? what sort of resistance is required for the mesh?
I guess the better question is how much power is required for a given heating area with the magic flight design, anyone got data from a retail box to base a design on?

 

[Pipes]

That charger is the basic idea alright. Now I'm just stating the way I see it from doing some web searching and discussing the project with a well know member from FC here, so I might not be 100% correct but have the general idea. I think?
So FWIW, what you need to consider is the generated heat needed to perform the weld verses the time the heat needs to be applied. Since it will be the same amount of energy, a higher voltage for a shorter time will produce a cosmetically cleaner weld. (less scorch marks) The reason for a lower voltage is it gives the two materials time to mix as well as safety concerns. As far as I can see anyway. You will find most battery tab type welders seem to be around the 24 or so volt mark. I never got that far in my experimental unit. I have a rheostat supply hooked up and 6ea 220 MFD capacitors in parallel rated at 250 Volts. The caps should be power supply type. The ones that the leads are flat or riveted on. Generally not the normal wire type leads.
So I was at the point of playing with the input voltage with the caps been at a set value to determine weld integrity. Add or take away caps as needed to control the "heat on" time of the energy transfer. But has still been on the back burner till next time I think I need one.
So for energy control you need to either vary the voltage OR have the capacitance selectable.
As for welding resistive wire. My guess would be very hard as the melting point of the wire will be so much lower then the copper. This would be a prime case were a very quick (higher voltage) would be needed with very small capacitance. And that is if even possible. Also, a pen type electrode would likely be needed to perform precision welding like that.
The clone I made was way back before I even knew the solution to the connection was welding and never determined best mesh to use or other characteristics. Was going to be a hit and miss approach at best. Which can be fruitful...
Hope this helps,
Pipes

 

[yayvape]

Cool. I have a nice 400V 3,300uF cap which makes some mighty sparks. I'm not sure if it is suitable for welding though. Voltage isn't so important as current, although I don't doubt this capacitors current delivery capabilities (it has bolts and nuts for terminals haha.)
Alternatively I have a bank of about 800,000uF at 40V, made up of 24 capacitors total.
Need some way of switching though. don't have any SCR's lying around, do have a 20A x4phase electrical contactor (basically a big relay) although something tells me it will simply weld its self together hah.
I also have a variac, that plus some diodes and a globe to limit current and I'll have a variable voltage charger. Should be interesting at least.
Otherwise I have a few microwave oven transformers around (spot welder? hehe)

 

[Pipes]

Sounds like you have a good grasp of it. You definitely need an scr. I have found many different circuits for the trigger end of it. Here are the main pointers of what needs to happen.

SCR- triggers to "on" state when voltage on trigger pin raises .7 volts over the input (ground) pin. It will remain on until current flow through it stops. (caps discharge through electrode)
Wiring- any wiring from capacitors throught the SCR and to the output must be a hefty gauge. (main current path)

Trigger Circuit- I have seen it done with small relays, or tranasistors even direct switch to SCR. However, when the SCR is activated there are 2 things that must happen at the same time.

1/SCR discharges capacitors via electrodes
2/Capacitor charging voltage must be dis-ingaged to ensure current flow stops when caps discharge and remain off till the SCR resets to on "off" state. (or SCR will never turn off and you will be shorting out the supply)
So timing is such that whenever the cap is discharging the supply must be turned off and the trigger voltage must be brought back to zero. This is an important point as just letting it "float" free by removing voltage is an equation for a shocking lesson. Some units actually use a negative supply to drive it into the negative. Another approach is to use a small transformer (audio?) to ensure only a pulse makes it to the gate. Since it's a transformer output the DC potential will stay at zero unless a pulse happens on the input to the transformer.
To ensure the supply to the capacitors get cut out at the appropriate time it seems a small double pull relay works to 1- open the power from the supply to the caps and 2-provide a pulse to the trigger transformer mentioned above. Also, you need some feedback or delay to keep the charging circuit from activating until caps have discharged and SCR is off.
With this criteria in mind it should give you an idea of what the circuits you come across on the web are trying to accomplish.

Since this is off topic for this thread could you PM me if you need more help with this.

Cheers,
Pipes

 

[doggies ftw]

Just a question from a noob that has never smoked a vaporizer before...

Well so as I said I have never smoked a vaporizer before and I'm looking into buying one (probably the MFLB) but I want to make sure I like the high of it first and I just want to give it a go. What would be the best homemade vaporizer to make just to try out and see if I like it?

 

[Pipes]

I started out by trying to mimic the Vapor Genie. Just used pieces from those cheap modular metal pipes. Instead of using the screw on top part which normally goes last with hole for lighting would go, I used another part from a similar pipe, which is normally part of the mid section, and put 4 - 5 screens in to diffuse the flame. And learned the VG technique and worked OK with practice. Also, twisted my arm to buy my first vape, which was a VG.
Good and cheap to see if you like.

And welcome to FC doggie..lots of fun.

Pipes

 

[Vessel]

I found that I could use the original mouth piece to the SSV as a oil burner. Its pretty thick - well made glass and retains its heat mostly in the wide area of the bulb where heat is applied. The bottom stem part where the tubing would go actually stays cool to the touch for the most part; though I would still suggest to treat it as though it where hot.​

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I take the tubing from the eq (3/4" ?) and use that to connect the SSV mouth piece and the EQ mouth piece (short straight glass tube)- Then I have bit longer tubing running from that into a water pipe or one could hit it like a pipe.​

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The glass middle piece is probably unnecessary especially if you heat the bulb just enough to vape, the tube end of the piece will stay cool, degassing shouldn't be a issue.. I've tried it with oil but no flowers yet(probably never will), I suppose it would blacken any herb pretty easily, but could still work. I don't even like oil so I wouldn't use this often but it is convenient and could even be set up for on the go, though its sketchiness really isn't good in style. With the power of oil and practicality of this piece it would probably serve well at a festival.​

I would rate this 3.5 out of 5 overall​

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​

This got me thinking about the SSV standard wand. IF I lay some ground herb down and put a few ceramic discs, would I essentially have a vaporizer chillum of sorts ? I know there's a very similar vape made by someone else. If anyone is willing to try this and report back I would be really interested to know. I don't suspect anything spectacular, but if it actually vapes the herb fair enough, then that alone would be awesome and another option for a non-electric device. I think this idea could actually be somewhat promising; I should pick up some ceramic discs as well.​

​

For 10 $ I bought this SSV wand/mouth piece and I don't even have a SSV, I was thinking of getting one and thought I buy this try to get an idea.​

 

[lazylathe]

Okay, i will also jump in here with what i have been up to lately!
Halogen bulb vapes have my interest and i am working on a design.

So far i am using a 20 Watt 12 Volt Halogen desk light from Wal-Mart, cost was $5.
I am going to be looking for a higher wattage bulb, 50 Watts seems to be standard in these designs.
Heat up time with the 20 watt bulb is around a minute, so not bad at all!

This was the test set up for the past few days

The light in an aluminum holder, this will not be used in the final design

The transformer and on/off switch

The very basic set up. The steel sheeting is stainless steel shimstock

And the final test of the vape is the ABV, a nice golden brown color with zero THC heads left on the stalks. Also note the quantity used, got me blasted for a few hours!!
I am thinking that the higher wattage bulb will give a better roast and be able to handle larger loads.

I will be fabricating aluminum parts and stainless parts on my lathe and mill over the next few weeks to make the housing for the halogen bulb.
A wooden box to house all the components will also be made.

At the moment i am using a stem from my E-Nano, may turn up some stainless steel ones with exotic wood stems, similar to Ed's.

Will be updating as i make any progress with this idea!

 

[lazylathe]

Okay so stage 2 went well until i applied the power...
Actually that went really well for the first 10 minutes until it turned into a mini oven!!!

So here are some pictures of the first version

Turned an aluminum housing for the bulb

And a top with a spout for a stem

Took about a minute to heat up and produce vapor.
Then it just kept on getting hotter and hotter!
Note to self: These vapes are not meant to be left on for extended periods of time!
Turn on, load, wait and then vape and turn off again.

Busy working on the next prototype!
This one has brass parts enclosed in a ceramic light fixture and all the spaces were filled in with fireplace mortar, good to 2000 degrees F!
It has been curing all night and should be ready for a test drive tonight!

Also looking into housing the bulb in a ceramic crucible, similar to the Herbalizer design.
Think this one is going to be a work in progress for quite some time!

 

[vaporonly]

very very sweet lazylathe! i think Halogen vapes have so much potential.

 

[lazylathe]

I think so too, I mean have a look at the herbalizer!
Just wish I had an electronics degree!!!

I think it needs a larger volume of air and a cooling fan.
Lots to think about!

 

[CentiZen]

Okay so stage 2 went well until i applied the power...
Actually that went really well for the first 10 minutes until it turned into a mini oven!!!

So here are some pictures of the first version

Turned an aluminum housing for the bulb

And a top with a spout for a stem

Took about a minute to heat up and produce vapor.
Then it just kept on getting hotter and hotter!
Note to self: These vapes are not meant to be left on for extended periods of time!
Turn on, load, wait and then vape and turn off again.

Busy working on the next prototype!
This one has brass parts enclosed in a ceramic light fixture and all the spaces were filled in with fireplace mortar, good to 2000 degrees F!
It has been curing all night and should be ready for a test drive tonight!

Also looking into housing the bulb in a ceramic crucible, similar to the Herbalizer design.
Think this one is going to be a work in progress for quite some time!

Hey there Lazylathe! Great work on your project thus far. Quick question though, how are you applying power to your lamp? Is it just a power brick? I am assuming so, based on how it heated up and kept heating up.

I think that as long as you are running the element at a constant voltage all of the time, you are going to have thermal issues as the heat builds up constantly. The same would be true with even a simply nicrome coil vape. It would be essentially running a vaporizer as hot as it could possibly go.

Most vaporizers, including Hippie Dickies open source vape, use a technique called Pulse Width Modulation to control the heating element temperature. This basically just switches the power to the coil on and off many times a second, and how fast the switching takes place alters the amount of power going into the coil from 0 - 100%. The Bud Toaster couples this technique with a PID controller to keep temperatures precisely. I know they both seem like total rocket science at first (like what the hell is this supposed to mean), but they are both fairly simply concepts that form the heart of every digitally controlled vaporizer on the market.

Take a look at these video's if you are interested, and Hippie Dickies thread is a treasure trove

This video covers general PID control, in this case we would have a reference temperature set by the user and a temperature sensor providing the position.

This is on PWM, and shows just how useful it is for controlling things like heating elements, motors or lights.

 

[lazylathe]

Hey there Lazylathe! Great work on your project thus far. Quick question though, how are you applying power to your lamp? Is it just a power brick? I am assuming so, based on how it heated up and kept heating up.

I think that as long as you are running the element at a constant voltage all of the time, you are going to have thermal issues as the heat builds up constantly. The same would be true with even a simply nicrome coil vape. It would be essentially running a vaporizer as hot as it could possibly go.

Most vaporizers, including Hippie Dickies open source vape, use a technique called Pulse Width Modulation to control the heating element temperature. This basically just switches the power to the coil on and off many times a second, and how fast the switching takes place alters the amount of power going into the coil from 0 - 100%. The Bud Toaster couples this technique with a PID controller to keep temperatures precisely. I know they both seem like total rocket science at first (like what the hell is this supposed to mean), but they are both fairly simply concepts that form the heart of every digitally controlled vaporizer on the market.

Take a look at these video's if you are interested, and Hippie Dickies thread is a treasure trove

This video covers general PID control, in this case we would have a reference temperature set by the user and a temperature sensor providing the position.


This is on PWM, and shows just how useful it is for controlling things like heating elements, motors or lights.

Thanks CentiZen!!!
I will be watching those videos tonight to try and learn about these options.
Hopefully it is something simple i can build using a bread board(?) and some parts, used to play with them when i was a kid. I see there is also something called Arduino and raspberry Pi, thinking i can integrate/design them to do what i need. Here are some links:
http://www.arduino.cc
http://www.raspberrypi.org


I totally forgot to mention how it is powered...
It runs from the mains to a dimmer switch to a transformer and the output is 12 Volts.

Do you think the stuff in the links would work if custom designed?

 

[lazylathe]

Do you think something like this would work as a controller?

http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/7...telligent_PID_temperature_controller.html?s=p

Looks like it will do the job, just need a K type probe for temp readings, i think?

 

[CentiZen]

Thanks CentiZen!!!
I will be watching those videos tonight to try and learn about these options.
Hopefully it is something simple i can build using a bread board(?) and some parts, used to play with them when i was a kid. I see there is also something called Arduino and raspberry Pi, thinking i can integrate/design them to do what i need. Here are some links:
http://www.arduino.cc
http://www.raspberrypi.org


I totally forgot to mention how it is powered...
It runs from the mains to a dimmer switch to a transformer and the output is 12 Volts.

Do you think the stuff in the links would work if custom designed?

I am a huge fan of the Arduino project ( think at this point I have like 15 individual chips ) and I love the Raspberry Pi. The arduino is pretty much exactly what you are looking for (the raspi would work, and actually has been used as the heart of a vape, but Arduino's are much easier). The Raspi makes a great home media center or computer because of it's beefy processor, wheras the Arduino has much smaller CPU but consumer far less power.

The best thing about the Arduino for use in this project is that it already has built in PWM features, and has a library made for it already which can be used to create PID controllers very easily. I myself am in the process of breadboarding my own digitally controller heater, but I'm using a wirecoil instead of a lamp for heat. Once I get it all glued together I'm going to make a thread like Hippie Dickies.

The only thing that the Arduino does not already have built in support for that we need is a temperature sensor. Since we are taking temperatures in a very hot place, we need something that can't melt, and most traditional sensor will at these temperatures. But Hippie Dickie and I are using a different kind of temperature sensors called thermocouples, which are the same kind of temperature setting used in an oven. To be able to read these to the arduino, we need an amplifier made for thermocouples. I use this one.

EDIT:

Just saw that last post, I'm not sure if it would work but it seems to me like it should. I'm actually going to look into this solution as well since it's really interesting.

 

[lazylathe]

I am a huge fan of the Arduino project ( think at this point I have like 15 individual chips ) and I love the Raspberry Pi. The arduino is pretty much exactly what you are looking for (the raspi would work, and actually has been used as the heart of a vape, but Arduino's are much easier). The Raspi makes a great home media center or computer because of it's beefy processor, wheras the Arduino has much smaller CPU but consumer far less power.

The best thing about the Arduino for use in this project is that it already has built in PWM features, and has a library made for it already which can be used to create PID controllers very easily. I myself am in the process of breadboarding my own digitally controller heater, but I'm using a wirecoil instead of a lamp for heat. Once I get it all glued together I'm going to make a thread like Hippie Dickies.

The only thing that the Arduino does not already have built in support for that we need is a temperature sensor. Since we are taking temperatures in a very hot place, we need something that can't melt, and most traditional sensor will at these temperatures. But Hippie Dickie and I are using a different kind of temperature sensors called thermocouples, which are the same kind of temperature setting used in an oven. To be able to read these to the arduino, we need an amplifier made for thermocouples. I use this one.

EDIT:

Just saw that last post, I'm not sure if it would work but it seems to me like it should. I'm actually going to look into this solution as well since it's really interesting.

Thanks again CentiZen!!
We should get together and brainstorm!!! LOL!! You would be brainstorming, i would be vaping...!!!

It's all the programming that scares me...
I like the Chinese one i posted because you can connect a K type thermocouple to it and regulate temp through that, as far as i understand.

I may end up e mailing them to see what they recommend!

For me it does not have to be Halogen powered, it is just the avenue i want to take since it is a less traveled path!
Why make it easy when with just a bit more effort i can make it totally impossible!

This is pretty exciting stuff though! Being able to build our own vapes to our requirements.

Will be looking forward to reading your thread when it is ready!

 

[Hippie Dickie]

the MAX6675 (from MaximIntegrated.com), which i started with, is no longer being manufactured but there is a replacement (MAX31855). it reads a thermocouple and can send the reading to a microprocessor. it needs 3 pins: select (start), clock, data. 3 readings per second. you can get free samples from Maxim.

Do a google on MAX6675 and you will get a lot of info about thermocouples, etc.

the MAX6675 is the left most chip in the middle pix in my signature. processor in the middle and voltage converter on the right.