I have been working on this project for a few years now and it’s time to give it some attention. The GTR is a 12 volt desktop herbal roaster with an 18mm (male or female) glass connection. A heavy hitting go to unit that can be left on 24/7, so it’s always ready to use.
My first vaporizer was a plastic version of the vapor brothers design which used a steel rod heater inside an 18mm male glass tube. I preferred using it inverted above the glass bowl connected to a water filter, but it was cumbersome, so I discarded all but the glass, heater, and power cord to build a wand style unit. The heater was powered by 120v and the roasting temperature was controlled by a dimmer switch. A perforated aluminum body was used to dissipate the excess heat generated, which kept it cool enough to handle and protected from touching the hot glass. The aluminum body allowed it to be light in weight, which was great for water filtration use. An improved design included a detachable power cord for safety and a built in dimmer switch for temperature control. Finding a suitable glass roasting bowl proved to be a challenge and I had been so busy just trying to get through my waiting list of other products, that I left it on the back burner. I was also not comfortable providing a product powered at potentially lethal voltage levels. It was called the GTV. I have now changed to GTR, since I refer to my other products as roasters and roasting tubes.
Transferring heat to air is a matter of temperature and surface area. The greater the surface area, the lower the temperature required to achieve a desired roasting temperature. The heater in the original GTV was a simple steel rod shaped heater, which required a fairly high temperature for roasting. I recently started placing ss screen fins on ss cartridge heaters in HI heater covers for additional heating surface area, so I tried the idea using an 18mm glass fitting. A 12 volt powered ss cartridge heater in an 18mm glass fitting by itself doesn’t get hot enough to sufficiently heat the air with its limited surface area. It does get hot enough to achieve a desired roasting temperature if ss screen fins or silica (glass/ruby/ceramic) balls are added. The ss screen fins work well since the heat conducts quickly through the ss, so recovery / heat up time is faster than using silica balls. There is less air resistance through the ss screen fins than through silica balls. There is too great of risk in having hot silica balls flying everywhere should the glass fitting break. I also cannot guarantee that silica balls will never break and create sharp particles. Therefore, I won’t be using them.
Since the ss screen fins add so much more surface area, the power required to heat the air using the 12 volt ss cartridge w/ ss screen fins within an 18mm glass heater cover is similar to the power required for a ss heater cover HI unit (around 7 watts). This lower power requirement allows me to install an 18mm glass heater cover into a wood body of similar size to the HI and use the same power socket as the HI.
The 18mm glass heater cover can be either male or female depending upon the desired style of roasting and preference of roasting tubes. A 19/26mm female glass heater cover allows the use of any 19/22mm (or shorter) roasting tube. A 19/13mm male glass heater cover can be used injector style in any 19/22mm female fitting containing a 17mm flat screen wedged at the bottom of the taper, or any other injector style roasting bowl.
The GTR is actually safer from a potential burn standpoint than the HI, since the glass that can be touched doesn’t get hot enough to cause a burn like the ss heater cover of the HI can. It is way safer than “cowboy style” using a branding iron. A 16mm ID paper roasting tube is my favorite way to use the female version, since it holds a lot of material and has great air flow.
The cost of the GTR will be comparable to the HI, with similar variations in material and shape. Those on my waiting list will now have the option for the GTR. Will try to have some bamboo and heavy duty cardboard units available for a lower cost.
Here is how the female version looks in sumac wood.
My first vaporizer was a plastic version of the vapor brothers design which used a steel rod heater inside an 18mm male glass tube. I preferred using it inverted above the glass bowl connected to a water filter, but it was cumbersome, so I discarded all but the glass, heater, and power cord to build a wand style unit. The heater was powered by 120v and the roasting temperature was controlled by a dimmer switch. A perforated aluminum body was used to dissipate the excess heat generated, which kept it cool enough to handle and protected from touching the hot glass. The aluminum body allowed it to be light in weight, which was great for water filtration use. An improved design included a detachable power cord for safety and a built in dimmer switch for temperature control. Finding a suitable glass roasting bowl proved to be a challenge and I had been so busy just trying to get through my waiting list of other products, that I left it on the back burner. I was also not comfortable providing a product powered at potentially lethal voltage levels. It was called the GTV. I have now changed to GTR, since I refer to my other products as roasters and roasting tubes.
Transferring heat to air is a matter of temperature and surface area. The greater the surface area, the lower the temperature required to achieve a desired roasting temperature. The heater in the original GTV was a simple steel rod shaped heater, which required a fairly high temperature for roasting. I recently started placing ss screen fins on ss cartridge heaters in HI heater covers for additional heating surface area, so I tried the idea using an 18mm glass fitting. A 12 volt powered ss cartridge heater in an 18mm glass fitting by itself doesn’t get hot enough to sufficiently heat the air with its limited surface area. It does get hot enough to achieve a desired roasting temperature if ss screen fins or silica (glass/ruby/ceramic) balls are added. The ss screen fins work well since the heat conducts quickly through the ss, so recovery / heat up time is faster than using silica balls. There is less air resistance through the ss screen fins than through silica balls. There is too great of risk in having hot silica balls flying everywhere should the glass fitting break. I also cannot guarantee that silica balls will never break and create sharp particles. Therefore, I won’t be using them.
Since the ss screen fins add so much more surface area, the power required to heat the air using the 12 volt ss cartridge w/ ss screen fins within an 18mm glass heater cover is similar to the power required for a ss heater cover HI unit (around 7 watts). This lower power requirement allows me to install an 18mm glass heater cover into a wood body of similar size to the HI and use the same power socket as the HI.
The 18mm glass heater cover can be either male or female depending upon the desired style of roasting and preference of roasting tubes. A 19/26mm female glass heater cover allows the use of any 19/22mm (or shorter) roasting tube. A 19/13mm male glass heater cover can be used injector style in any 19/22mm female fitting containing a 17mm flat screen wedged at the bottom of the taper, or any other injector style roasting bowl.
The GTR is actually safer from a potential burn standpoint than the HI, since the glass that can be touched doesn’t get hot enough to cause a burn like the ss heater cover of the HI can. It is way safer than “cowboy style” using a branding iron. A 16mm ID paper roasting tube is my favorite way to use the female version, since it holds a lot of material and has great air flow.
The cost of the GTR will be comparable to the HI, with similar variations in material and shape. Those on my waiting list will now have the option for the GTR. Will try to have some bamboo and heavy duty cardboard units available for a lower cost.
Here is how the female version looks in sumac wood.
This hit is on 10.2 volts
.
