Homemade Vaporizers

Hey dudes, first thread and I was wondering if any of you have made your own vaporizers? I want make my own but I'll get into that further down. What I want to know first is, have any of you guys made your own vaporizers either electrically heated or indirectly heated like the dynavaps. I remember a long time ago i read some guide where you used a light bulb, some foil, and a straw to make a crack pipe like thing that you just heated your weed up in. So if you have any stories about people making their own vapes feel free to share.

On to my vape. Here's the idea and I'm doing research now to see if its even viable, but i want to find one of those emergency hand powered radios or flashlights and hook the power output up to an oven where your material to be vaped goes. I'm going to add a vapor path and stuff but lets make sure the electronics work. I was going to add a digital thermometer to the oven and hook that up to an LED strip on the side and put temperatures going up the side. A hand powered on demand vape. Crank it until it reaches the temp that you want, slurp your vapors out of the oven and enjoy.

I realize that there are some problems with this and I'm doing a bit of the math in my head as i write this. So my first question is, does anyone know the specific heat capacity of plant matter particularly the medicinal kind? I just used 2263 J/Kg*C cause I found that for mango leaves in some random academic paper (Thermophysical Properties of Plant Leaves and Their Influence on the Environment Temperature) which means we'd need about 110 J of change to raise 0.25g up by about 350F.

Most of the hand powered this and thats "say" they can do 10 watts, which would mean in a perfect world you could crank it up in about 11 seconds to get well above 450F, but we gotta think about powering the LEDs and the thermometer and also about all the different kinds of efficiency loss. Even if we lost half of our juice to things that aren't straight heat, you could pump yourself out a vape hit in about 20 seconds.

So, what do you guys think? I know my math is running on some very simple principles, but that is what I have so far. Cheers
 

Stu

Maconheiro
Staff member
Welcome to FC, Vapey. :wave:

It's an interesting idea. I assume this would be an unregulated design? It seems to me like it might be kinda tricky to crank at the right pace to control the temp, but I'm just guessing.:shrug:

I'd love to hear what @OF thinks about the idea. He's also our official FC math guy so he might be able to give some advice on that front. Don't believe what people tell you about him though, he's actually an ok guy. ;)

:peace:
 

Hippie Dickie

The Herbal Cube
Manufacturer
hand powered radios or flashlights and hook the power output up to an oven

to get a "properly" performing vape takes about 50 watts … that would be a LOT of hand pumping.

to answer your first question, yes i have designed and built my own vape. i went the: all glass vapor path, computer controlled heater, digital temp display, battery powered, and with a carrying case - type of vape. The heater pulls 21 amps @ 7vdc, so around 147 watts on demand. A PID algorithm keeps the temperature stable +/- 1 degree F during a toke.

A link to the FC thread is in my signature. Also a link to a video on YouTube from several years ago.

Making my own vape has become an addiction.
 

OF

Well-Known Member
Here's the idea and I'm doing research now to see if its even viable, but i want to find one of those emergency hand powered radios or flashlights and hook the power output up to an oven where your material to be vaped goes.

Most of the hand powered this and thats "say" they can do 10 watts, which would mean in a perfect world you could crank it up in about 11 seconds to get well above 450F

First off, howdy! Welcome to the Forum. Lots of good folks around, as you'll no doubt find.

Fun idea, one that's come up a few times. I think you'll come up shy on power. I've tried two of the 'usb chargers', not easy to make it to 500 mA, let alone hold it. A couple Watts? IIRC a healthy guy on a bike can do 15 Watts for a while, 30 for a minute or two on demand? Of course by that time you'd be winded.....

'Pen vapes' (for concentrates) can run OK at five Watts, but you might not be happy with that for long. Typical vapes (like say Solo, or Fury 2 which I've been playing with lately) run maybe 20 Watts (Solo runs 2.5 Amps at 9 Volts for instance), and a bit less average maintaining it.

Sorry, I don't know the specific heat of herb, might be fun to know. More important I think is the latent heat of THC. How much energy does making vapor cost? Sorry, I don't know that one, either, not for lack of looking a bit for in a time or two.

For reference the fellow that makes VapMan (a personal favorite) once sold a friction powered vape. Which would, in theory, be more efficient than generating current to heat a resistor. In use you attach it to the door knob, stand like a guy hitting a golf ball and haul left to right (or right to left) for all you're worth a time or two. It spins a spindle inside with an adjustable brake on it. You earn one hit each time you crank it up as I understand. A bit fiddly as well. They didn't sell well. The VM thread had a guy get one a year or so back, check them out if you're interested.

Anyway, fun idea, hang around some and enjoy the folks.

OF
 
Thanks for all the responses guys. @Hippie Dickie that box looks cool as shit. I should probably go about making a more conventional vape like that one before i start going off the rails. @OF thanks for the info on that friction vape and makes me wonder if there is a better way to get man power into heat without turning it into electricity first. @lazylathe I can't believe that forum subsection doesn't come up when i typed DIY into the search bar. Shame on me for not exploring the site better.
 

Flower of empathy

Sometimes to stupid to become a fool
Accessory Maker
@OF if u could do only 30w with a bicycle, no one could go up a mountain - it's more 300-500w, i grab 6w alone with dynamo to charge stuff on trips...
There are a lot of nice projects in the DIY section...
 

OF

Well-Known Member
@OF if u could do only 30w with a bicycle, no one could go up a mountain - it's more 300-500w, i grab 6w alone with dynamo to charge stuff on trips...
There are a lot of nice projects in the DIY section...
Understood, but we're talking an average Joe using his, not a trained athlete under ideal conditions? IIRC guys casually touring on flat ground (not racing) average a small fraction of the 400 Watts you cite? And that's using 'the best' muscles available for an hour or so? Human powered flight calls for something like twice that power (a few HP), but only for a few minutes?

Several guys can do a mile in four minutes. Most of us need 15? Or more. Besides I need to be 'not winded' to enjoy a hit.........

The hand and wrist energy available is only a few Watts, realistically. Just not a practical source of energy for a vape IMO.

OF
 

Flower of empathy

Sometimes to stupid to become a fool
Accessory Maker
Well guess as travel cycler i look with other standards - but powering a vape for a few min with eg a home trainer should be doable even for average joe...
The elevape is imo the best hand powered engineering solution, it gets to higher velocity than a hand and skipps conversion losses - somehow it's like a 'lazy' bow drill with a feather to push it down. Now in theory even a 'hand drill' should work - handpowered is def not practical, but more rewarding than pushing a button to some?
 

OF

Well-Known Member
my mistake, guess most got which one i meant - but it's not the elevape it's from element medical:

http://fuckcombustion.com/threads/element-hand-powered-pocket-vaporizer.435/

Yep, that's the one I cited in my first post here. Made by the guy that now makes VapMan (a personal favorite that's powered by a small Butane torch). IMO, VM is worth considering......a very fine vape indeed.

It's not really hand powered, you tie it to something solid (like a door knob) and use your upper body strength against the resistance to generate a single hit using much much more strength than you could ever generate by hand power. I brought it up as an example of why 'hand crank' vapes aren't possible, energy wise. At least not a practical one. Like trying to make a hand cart pull a loaded car of freight 'at speed' down a railroad track?

Fun device, but not practical enough to survive in the market?

OF
 
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