Herb goes infront of the cotton screen. You just drop the herb into the metal tip, connect the two halves and you're ready to go.
The screen is very easy to replace, just unwind the string, place a new piece of cotton fabric over the airway, leaving lots of excess to hold the fabric tight. Then tie it on with new thread, the thread presses the fabric down into a tiny groove, so that it wont slip off in use. then cut away the excess with a razor blade.
It seems complicated when i type it out, but its really not that hard, ill be posting detailed intructions.
You could also use the same method to tie on a metal screen, but its much more difficult to manage.
I only like using a device if its convenient, i don't want to fiddle around with stuff when I'm in the vape mood... so we will see how long this cotton filter lasts in use.
The problem I encountered with the metal screen is that it had to be fit into the inside diameter of the tube, this meant the walls of the tube had to be thicker to accomodate the groove for the screen, and so the airway was smaller....and the screens surface area was smaller. This small screen clogged when used with finely ground herbs. I switched it out for a metal screen that was the same diameter as the internal walls of the metal chamber, and the clogging issue was completely gone, and the airflow was increased. But in that design, I had to remove and then re-insert the metal screen into the chamber with each load, very annoying.
With the fabric design, the fabric is so thin that I dont need to cut a deep groove on the outside diameter, I could make the airway larger, and taper it out to the filter to acheive maximum surface area.
The increased airway, and the "feel" of a very fine fabric filter felt better to me.
It will eventually clog with oil, I imagine, but the most important part is that it doesnt clog in use, and so far it doesnt seem to.
Also, i like the idea of it being replaced with just about any thin cotton fabric you have on hand, or even coffee filter, tea bag material, silk fabrics, etc...
You could even pinch the fabric up into a point, so you have a sort of inverted cone filter... and dab concentrates on the pointed tip..maybe... I dont know if that would work, but in my head it does.
Anyhow, still a learning experience, so far I like this design the best, but we will see how it changes.. Always moving forward! By the time this gets to market it will already be version 4.0, hahah.
Edit:
@stickstones , The glass chamber idea was abandoned long ago. I like the concept, but I went with a metal chamber for various reasons that I am sure made a lot of sense at the time, haha.
Edit2: For those a bit confused about how the chamber works, here is an image of the metal screen at the tip of the chamber. This screen remains stationary pretty much all the time, unless you want to move it further away from the ember for lower temperature vaporizing. When you press the two halves of the vaporizer together, the herbs are sandwiched between this metal screen and the cotton filter. The further you push the stem into the chamber, the tighter you will pack your herbs. So you could make the chamber size 1mm deep if you wanted to, to sandwich a thin puck of powdered herbs.
