Transformer Tubes (Formerly Steele Concept)

[Steele Concept]

I spoke with High Times and the ad is in next weeks December High Times (comes out 1st week of October). Please look for it and tell your friends. I've been waiting for this as my product will finally be exposed to a national audience. Basically October is national launch month and hopefully I can begin increasing economy of scale slowly and steadily.

Starting a business from scratch is very hard. From all the mentors I've had and books I've read, basically you bust your ass day and night designing a great product and then the other half of the battle is getting it to market and selling.

High Times will also be doing a product review in their February edition (comes out in December).

...if you build it, they will come, hehehe. Thanks for your support everyone.

 

[mscm888]

Good watching a home grown business take off.

Keep up the hard work and you are sure to reap your rewards.

 

[Steele Concept]

Good watching a home grown business take off.

Keep up the hard work and you are sure to reap your rewards.

Thanks mscm888, I find with life in general...

“If one advances confidently in the direction of one's dreams, and endeavors to live the life which one has imagined, one will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”

Man I love Thoreau, what a cool dude. He was the original bad ass... Intelligent, rebellious and motivated. Definitely one of my personal heros and favorite authors. He's amoungst the ranks of Ken Kesey, Hunter S. Thompson, Steve Jobs etc.

I'm off to read a bit of Walden

 

[StickyShisha2]

this might be right up your alley.
in a bubbler i recently modified, i affixed a SS coffee filter at the water line. OMG! you wouldn't believe the bubble stacking

i used the SS filter made for my AeroPress

 

[Steele Concept]

Excellent suggestion Sticky, as a matter of fact, my machinist and I are already on the research and development. Basically with filters that fine and perforated stainless steel, the material has the possibility to morph under the intense heat of the weld.

We are experimenting with a ~50 hole thick percolated plate we designed. Thus far, results have been fantastic. They key is to get enough bubbles to stack through the column of frozen steel without going over. We are nearly at the sweet spot between thicker percolation and froth.

Please note more holes don't always equal better smoothness, there are other factors at hand and that's if all the holes even fire! This is especially true with my design as there is an ideal area where we want the percolation occurring

Stay tuned guys, we are working on it and I'm sure you will be impressed soon enough.

 

[BigDaddyVapor]

Damn... You're starting to make me want one... and I don't really need an indestructible water pipe!

 

[Steele Concept]

Damn... You're starting to make me want one... and I don't really need an indestructible water pipe!

You will if my minions come in the middle of the night to drop your glass on the floor! Muwhahahahaha.

I'm just kidding but basically some people use the Steele Concept as their "safe" piece for friends/family, drunk nights etc. More as a compliment to their existing glass line. I know some late nights I was very hesitant to pass around my WildroK tube... We all hate that glass "ching" sounds when clumsy people start banging glass around!

I'm a minimalist and that's partially why I created this piece. I wanted a simple single piece for vapor, combustion, concentrates etc. That lasts forever.

I should look into glass breaking minions though... Would certainly help the Steele Concept cause lol

 

[Slightly Medicated]

I went back to the head shop and I have not been around other people handling glass for a long time. When I put my glass down I gently rest it down. You usually cant heat any noise as I set it down. At the shop people were just banging the glass down. I kept cringing every time I hear a piece go CLUNK down on the counter top. I kept thinking about your piece and how if they were at my house they would never touch my glass and I would be letting them use the Steele.

 

[Steele Concept]

Heheh that's nice to hear Slightly. Along the same note, when I'm at headshops I am real careful when I handle glass they show me and I don't even like touching >$500 pieces lol. I go to a good amount of shops to sell my product and there's some fragile looking >$1,000 pieces that i'm scared to even look at... Let alone those $3-4k pieces where I don't even want to breath around them lol.

At one shop with a $3-$5k piece the shop worker said "The owner says I'm only allowed to take this bad boy down if the interested party has the cash on the table." I don't blame him.

I'm particularly careful when I set my unit down on their glass display cases! An accidental drop and I'd owe them a few units, hehehe.

Glass is beautiful but it breaks. I really dig some of the newer slyme glass they got going on, it's gorgeous. I may want to explore that for future bowls...

 

[BigDaddyVapor]

That's the thing. I'm usually the only one around my glass. I'll take a piece over to a buddy's house from time to time, but they're all really careful with my glass and they know I'm packing.

Seriously though, they know I control my glass and its cool with them. They just want to experience the toys and the vapor (and I am really packing. lol).

 

[Steele Concept]

Packing is an understatement! Lol by the looks of your sig, even if you were SUPER clumsy you'd still be set for life BigDaddyVape

 

[Slightly Medicated]

Well well well... what do I have here.

Looks to me like the new Steele Concept with the crazy drilled ice catch! I took some quick photos and a video:

This things is stacking bubbles wonderfully. It really is an improvement over the previous one. I can't wait to get the real video done for this thing.... SOON!

 

[HighlyEducatedScholar]

wow, that looks great. definitely stacking bubbles very well. i can't wait to see your next video with it.

 

[Steele Concept]

Yeah we are looking forward to it! The final to market design will have some slight tweaks, but pretty much what you see is the new perc plate model in all her glory.

I like to have everything perfect before launching improvements to market, so it's design, test, modify, design, test, modify, design, test, smile. With enough design, modification and testing great things happen.

 

[StickyShisha2]

lol, thats quick work on MY coffee filter idea from yesterday.

is it possible to drill the holes at angles to make it spiral? (i'm not a machinist)

now make a shorty tube and a removable top shaped with a mouthpiece, so it can be turned for left/right handed dabbing.

 

[Steele Concept]

Lol I stole your idea! Nawww it was in the works.

The holes will be made from jet blasting water through the plate in the future, making them at an angle isn't an option. Trust me, the existing plate perc works well


Dabbing is done easily with a 45 adapter If only Dab Essentials would get back to me, I wanted to sample their 14 mm domeless. I know a local manufacturer of Ti nails, we might be teaming up in the future.

 

[Frederick McGuire]

Re cutting the holes at an angle, here's a little tidbit I found interesting when talking to someone I know who works as a rep for a steel company (they do laser and water cutting of steel):
They had a client who needed a cut at an angle, but their laser cutting machine was vertical only, they could get the parts to upgrade the machine to cut at an angle, but it was gonna cost way too much money to be practical...
So they came up with a mount for the steel, that was at an angle, Problem solved

I just thought it was funny that they basically MacGuyvered it

 

[Steele Concept]

That sounds genius. I remember at the brewery I used to work at, there were all sorts of frugal and creative solutions to old machinery... I remember a makeshift oxygen purging solution for bottles they rigged up . It was fun.

 

[BigDaddyVapor]

Re cutting the holes at an angle, here's a little tidbit I found interesting when talking to someone I know who works as a rep for a steel company (they do laser and water cutting of steel):
They had a client who needed a cut at an angle, but their laser cutting machine was vertical only, they could get the parts to upgrade the machine to cut at an angle, but it was gonna cost way too much money to be practical...
So they came up with a mount for the steel, that was at an angle, Problem solved

I just thought it was funny that they basically MacGuyvered it

I would have just cut one of the legs shorter, on the laser.

Problem solved!

 

[Steele Concept]

Lasers are cool. I believe my machinist said we go with the water jet as the cut is a bit smoother. I found it fascinating solid steel could be cut with pressurized water. It's fun to just watch the machinist work his magic sometimes... 25+ years of experience and the guy does a hell of a job.

 

[BigDaddyVapor]

Lasers are cool. I believe my machinist said we go with the water jet as the cut is a bit smoother. I found it fascinating solid steel could be cut with pressurized water. It's fun to just watch the machinist work his magic sometimes... 25+ years of experience and the guy does a hell of a job.

Eh... take a look at the Grand Canyon (water cutting things).

 

[Steele Concept]

Lol, yeah Grand Canyon, no big deal right, hehehehe. But pressurized water can be nuts, I know I learned my lesson blasting a composite deck with a pressure washer too closely, it ate right into the composite!

 

[GOATPUSSY]

Just walking around NYC doing some window glass porn shopping and saw the Steele concept at the smoKING shop on Christopher street. It looks pretty badass. Nice work Steele!

Nice to see it in one of my favorite shops!

 

[mmenzie]

Just walking around NYC doing some window glass porn shopping and saw the Steele concept at the smoKING shop on Christopher street. It looks pretty badass. Nice work Steele!

Nice to see it in one of my favorite shops!

i live about 60 miles north of you... i hope it makes it to one of my local HS for me to view up close. although NYC is not that far of a drive and i am familiar with christopher street so if i get bored a road trip may be in order

 

[Steele Concept]

Damn that was quick! I just started calling New York this week. In New York so far it's at The Smoking Shop, Blue Nile, Terrapin Station, Burn (next week). More coming soon, I'll update the dealer section of my website to reflect this.

Nice to hear that it's up front and center for display, it's important for spreading the word.

mmenzie, name me your local HS, I'll ring em up and see if they wanna carry the product.

Thanks for the support guys.