Vapman

Yesterday after some cleaning I noticed that one of the tubes on my Vapman is loose on the bowl side and the whole pan wiggles a bit as it's not held by all three. There's something I can do to fix this issue? Maybe unscrewing that tube screw and try to push it back into the bowl hole? It functions as well as ever but I'd prefer to have it steady.

Try loosening all the clamps and adjusting it with the middle section in place to assure a good seal. When I reassembled mine I did so without the middle section in and found I left it just the slightest bit off kilter introducing a lot of cool air!

If your tube is actually loose from the pan you may have to send it to René or @M0J0 for repairs unfortunately.
 

The Beagle

Bubbles & Bags
Try loosening all the clamps and adjusting it with the middle section in place to assure a good seal. When I reassembled mine I did so without the middle section in and found I left it just the slightest bit off kilter introducing a lot of cool air!

I'll try to disassemble and put it back together, thank you for the heads up. BTW it doesn't feel like my vapor is thinner so I don't think a noticeable amount of air is coming in.
 

Philreal187

Well-Known Member
I found that a slight tightening of the clamps on the tubes helped with the wiggle of my pan.

I was trying to two tone my vapman and thought taking off the tubes to reach everything evenly was best. I found out quickly like others that the tubes don't come out they just can be moved. I was a bit shy with the heat but over all the darkened underside of my walnut vapman looks great!! After a nice coat of under butter it was certainly looking sharp!!

I also took @OF advice and picked up two cheap torches as back up. They definitely do the trick and work pretty good for back ups, but not comparison to quality of the vapman signature lighter.
 

vapman

Well-Known Member
Manufacturer
Excellent point, however around here we burn Oak and sometimes Walnut in the winter. There's a yard not far from where I live that's easily 100 by 500 yards (or meters) piled quite high. They fill it in the summer as the trees are cut and sell it off when the weather changes. They cut to length and split and stack cords (4 by 4 by 8 feet) for sale. I'm sure they'd be happy to sell you as many cords of 'rounds' (branches and trunks 8 or so inches, 18 to 24 inches long) as you want. Back when I used to burn cord wood I'd get half rounds and half splits (which burn hotter/faster), sometimes smalls (branches over four inches but less than 8).

Last I heard it was $275 delivered for a cord. That was a few years back.

Of course freighting them to Switzerland is going to be steep. Maybe you should just move here?

OF

Yes, I agree, but oak is not suited to make tubes with thin walls. The same with beech, not very expensive here but that wood deforms far more with the heat than the pear tree for instance and pear tree is quite expensive.
Five precise machined pieces of wood are needed to build a station, I am sure it would look good. Using and mixing different woods is also a possibility, the sky is the limit...

Of course, the main costs are not caused by the price of the wood unless I would be crazy enough to make stations of ebony or something and I swear that I'm not crazy.:lol:

Cheers,

vapman
 

OF

Well-Known Member
Yes, I agree, but oak is not suited to make tubes with thin walls.

Using and mixing different woods is also a possibility, the sky is the limit...

Of course, the main costs are not caused by the price of the wood unless I would be crazy enough to make stations of ebony or something and I swear that I'm not crazy.:lol:

True, but they could easily make thicker walls without detracting from the Station?

Indeed. "Manufactured Wood", fine laminations like is used in some gunstocks, might be fun. Or composites, like a section of Carbon Fiber tube.

I've no idea how crazy you really are, but it can't be all that far advanced.......I sure don't remember you from any of the Group Sessions.....

OF
 

VapeKnight

Day Tripper
yesterday was my birthday and I found myself trying to decide which of my current vapes to use. being that it was a weekday and I didn't want to go crazy and use them all, I had a tough decision to make. But ultimately I chose my Vapman. I love all of my current vapes for various reasons, I try to have some variety in my collection. Each of them fills a particular need or situation. However, being that my Birthday was more personal, I realized that my connection to VM is much different than the others. It's more than just an instrument, it's something I can admire for it's beauty and craftsmanship as well as function and that separates it from the others... thanks, Rene
 

vapman

Well-Known Member
Manufacturer
All the best for your birthday @VapeKnight! :)

Vapman seems to inspire a lot of folks, here are two more examples.

2wp2ih3.jpg


2j1o35s.jpg



vapman
 

Seren

Away with the fairies
@Seren You are on the list and also on my mind sometimes!:)

Making a station completely of wood is possible but not something I am planing to do soon.....Never say never but may be.;)

Wonderful! Thank you so much Rene ....... oh, and maybe's are good! :)

Now I'm getting really excited - I can't wait to get my hands on my first black, I mean ebony Vapman:

:D

:peace:
 

OF

Well-Known Member
can someone explain the top photo

A clever fellow has built a minimalist VM by removing the stuff not necessary to the prime task. Kind of a VM hot rod if you will.

He took the pan and removed the tubes and the ring. Then he used a metal clip (through two of the tube holes) to retain the pan in the correct place on the center section. At first I thought he should have pulled the spokes as well since there's no clips for them to mate with but then realized they're what keeps the clip in the right place and holds the lot together.

In use you'd still heat the pan from the outside, just a bit more carefully. And you'll have to be careful setting it down of course. But it should make vapor in a very similar manner to the original since it retains the essential parts.

This opens the door for Ed or someone to make a new center section (longer and more graceful perhaps) and buy the SS screen and a pan from the VM to complete a very compact, discrete portable along the lines of VapCap. Pretty cool, IMO. Not near as elegant as our beloved VM of course, but near as useful and mighty handy.......

OF
 

simpleasthcis

... As a box of ....
All the best for your birthday @VapeKnight! :)

Vapman seems to inspire a lot of folks, here are two more examples.

2wp2ih3.jpg


2j1o35s.jpg



vapman
Wow minimalist or what , I see what @OF means but I'd say that mates with the hollow base to the left in picture. What I'd like to know how the pan is sealed from the flame and if you can open it when hot ;)

Edit .. Did someone say wood station :lol:
NoohKHN.jpg
 
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OF

Well-Known Member
Wow minimalist or what , I see what @OF means but I'd say that mates with the hollow base to the left in picture. What I'd like to know how the pan is sealed from the flame and if you can open it when hot ;)

My guess is it takes some fiddling with the clip to get enough tension to hold the pan in place. It's not all that sealed, really, in the original. I don't think there's much difference this way really, especially in the usual 'heat then hit' mode.

Sure, you can open it up hot if you want, I'd suggest you be very very very quick doing so. I'll wait a bit, it's copper and should cool rapidly (same as it heats rapidly.....).

Fun idea.

OF
 

Vapenvy

Indie vaper
Ok, finally getting around to posting pics of my vapman. It is the basic pear which i picked up in the massdrop last year and inspired by what @Mojo did with his, i went straight to torching it. Enjoy.





And with this last one, since like others i discovered you cannot get the pan out, i had to torch it and move the pan around. If you look closely you can see where a bit of the gold plating has rubbed into the charring.

Hard to see in a photo, but it catches the light beautifully giving a nice charred gold effect. I love it.

 

Gourmet

Well-Known Member
but how does one get the bottom inside cone of the pan clean?
One does not simply clean the VM! :D:lol:
how do you all clean your bowls back to gold without damaging the coating

Maybee it's a idea for all they like to clean the VM with conventional household remedies:
http://fuckcombustion.com/threads/vapman.94/page-176#post-838999

Please keep attention not wetting the mica! Less is more. ;-)

PS: Ooups, I saw only by now, @Nugg already posted the link.. THX!
 

simpleasthcis

... As a box of ....
My guess is it takes some fiddling with the clip to get enough tension to hold the pan in place. It's not all that sealed, really, in the original. I don't think there's much difference this way really, especially in the usual 'heat then hit' mode.

Sure, you can open it up hot if you want, I'd suggest you be very very very quick doing so. I'll wait a bit, it's copper and should cool rapidly (same as it heats rapidly.....).

Fun idea.

OF
My concern is not the seal round the pan, more so the holes where the spring is its a moving part .
I lost a leg of mine (akin to others) I was able to get it back on
Ok! However it's lost a little brass from the flange, if I hold it to a bright light there was a tiny tiny pin hole micro but enough to let flame in and slightly spoil a load. I've overcome this leak with a tiny spring around the offending leg and its sealed fine .
Id like to see inside that bowl how's it sealed, it clips on to a standard base with the pan attached as far as I can see , I wouldn't like to lite it without. :tup:
 

OF

Well-Known Member
Ok! However it's lost a little brass from the flange, if I hold it to a bright light there was a tiny tiny pin hole micro but enough to let flame in and slightly spoil a load. I've overcome this leak with a tiny spring around the offending leg and its sealed fine .
Id like to see inside that bowl how's it sealed, it clips on to a standard base with the pan attached as far as I can see , I wouldn't like to lite it without. :tup:

I think you're worried about something that can't happen. There's no way a small hole can "let flame in", that doesn't happen. First off, when heating there's no draft to 'pull it through'. Too much resistance through the load and midsection/stem for casual air flow. And even if you forced air through (say by sucking on the MP) no fire gets in.

Spark Arresters work this same way. Old time miners lamps, that used open flames in mines full of methane and coal dust (explosion waiting on a spark) used fine brass mesh so fresh air (with oxygen) could get in to feed the flame, and the light out, but not let enough heat out in any single place to spark a news story. Spark Arresters on off road vehicles work the same way, keeping sparks (which can include flaming bits of carbon) from setting the world on fire. Spark Arresters on steam locomotives work in a similar but different manner. In many cases the hot gasses and embers are forced into a swirl so they impact cooler metal (which is why so many 'smoke stacks' bell outwards, there's baffles inside that part. The idea is the same, rob the heat and stop the combustion cold (pun intended).

In an ill spent youth I spent some times at sea (doing service, not a Merchant Seaman). This included bulk tankers which carry all manner of cargoes, including raw and refined petroleum products and lampblack (very fine carbon used in dyes, inks and such, very explosive dust). Crews have to do 'bitter work' (washing the tanks down with superheated sea water, hence the name). This means suiting up in 'space suits' with air lines and entering the tanks to hose them down into the coffer dams (3 foot walls in the bottom of the tank to keep the cargo from sloshing about and tipping the ship over in storms and stuff) so it can be pumped out. Imagine a fire hose in a basketball stadium. You use a combination of steam and high pressure salt water to wash the ceiling and walls onto the floor. You need light, right? Enter the air lights. Air lines are run down and a sealed lamp with a turbine, generator and lamp attached. It uses mesh vents for the exhaust in case of a burn out (which happens a lot). A 'blow out' can breech the hull and sink you fast. Won't do the guys working inside a lot of good either. Serious stuff.

Fun device, (compressed) air in, light out. The job itself sucketh mightily. Trust me, you don't want it.

Remember the 'fire triangle'? Fuel, air and heat? The metal of the mesh (or in our case 'leaks' in the pan') simply robs the heat part, no fire gets past, only gasses. All that could ever get through to where the herb is the interrupted products of combustion (mostly the Carbon to CO2 part, the water reaction happen first in the blue part of the inner flame). A modest bit of soot is the most you risk, even if you forced the flame where it didn't want to go. Same as guys that fire up the VM while hitting in on a WT. No combustion. Not to worry.

There is no seal in the normal VM anyway, right? The screen is simply held into the mouth of the pan giving an 'acceptably tight' seal but by no means perfect. Same as we see with VG and the new VapCap for instance. They too have (even more) path for the fire, but the cooler metal stops combustion from reaching the load.

Bottom line proof of the idea is the fellow who made it? He wouldn't have taken the photo if it was a flop?

OF
 

M0J0

I am a leaf on the wind ~ watch how I soar...
My guess is it takes some fiddling with the clip to get enough tension to hold the pan in place. It's not all that sealed, really, in the original. I don't think there's much difference this way really, especially in the usual 'heat then hit' mode.

Sure, you can open it up hot if you want, I'd suggest you be very very very quick doing so. I'll wait a bit, it's copper and should cool rapidly (same as it heats rapidly.....).

Fun idea.

OF
I guess you'd have to hold the contraption with pliers so you can heat it?

and wouldn't the flame go straight through the holes in the pan and burn your material - since there are no air tubes to seal up the holes?

EDIT:

Also about the air tubes coming appart form the crucible:

I have never had this happen to me and I believe that it's because of the way I handle the vapman.

Please look at the video that explains how to handle the vapman so you don't put undue pressure on the air tubes. It's at around the 2:20 mark.

Remember that any pressure on the middle sectionn and mouthpiece will go directly against the air tubes...

 
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OF

Well-Known Member
I guess you'd have to hold the contraption with pliers so you can heat it?

and wouldn't the flame go straight through the holes in the pan and burn your material - since there are no air tubes to seal up the holes?

I suspect you hold it by the wood part and heat the metal part, at an angle as you roll it?

And no, the fire still doesn't go up the holes for the same two reasons I just tried to explain: No draft to force it through and heatsinking of what little does get through so it's just hot gasses when it makes it to the load, not enough heat to start combustion even if you were hitting it, which you're not likely to be doing heating it if you have a beard........

Anymore than fire gets past the heat exchanger in VG to the load. And there you have direct heating, large area (the torch is square onto the opening) and strong draft.

I bet it works just fine. You have spare bits, right? Any legless pans?

OF
 

OF

Well-Known Member
So, I've been having a t-break for 27 days now, and I'm about to do my first session.

Welcome back. Good to know you're fine and taking a break. There was loose talk you were on a month long bender, I won't say who was spreading it, but glad you popped up to set the record straight.

If you're telling us the truth, of course. I still like the 'holed up in a cheap hotel in Brighton' story better. I really liked the part about the black haired woman that looks like Princess Di.........

OF
 
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