Salutations everyone,
My VaporGenie adventure is about to enter its 4th month soon so there's been a lot of "modding" taking place since March. Lets now recapitulate in picture as i've accumulated a few...
Before the VG Classic pipe i had been making circles around my HerbalAire for nearly 25 months, re-discovering fire solved the dryness problem and portability came as a valuable bonus, but it turns out i needed to replace the genuine VG duck-lips mouthpiece with PVC extension tubing (and HA teflon straws) to actually begin climbing my learning-curve at all:
Additionally, going back to the duck-lips VG mouthpiece became an option for me only very recently and it still required a slight PVC skin to be added in any case (see black pipe in top-left part):
It seems reasonable to think that perhaps the excess heat on my lips is just a consequence of such "modding", so i imagine heat wouldn't be an issue if i manage to acquire sufficient skills to operate a
genuine VG Classic pipe too, eventually - hence i keep hoping!
Nonetheless my need for "Eye Contact" remains or i must face serious trade-offs in my own case.
Anyway, early at 1st i started paying attention to "Hot-Spot" formation and viewed this as the consequence of some "thermal lense" effect caused by the "Ceramic Filter", then i got the idea that inclusion of an air layer between a pair of those would promote turbulence which in turn would cause heat to be scrambled more evenly:
The concept was initially tested using nothing but a simple metal screen, preliminary results made me want to move forward with something more defined structurally:
...so i tried hand-carving aluminium pieces...
...and eventually got better at it, loosing a leg in the process (not mine):
But should my air buffer be located in front or behind of the aluminium shield?... What about thermal properties, what if i could try glass for example? Am i really "de-focussing" at the focal point? Etc.
In the meantime i found that termination of a sphere's base conduit with regular screening will provide a self-cleaning quality (it's so hot next to nothing will get a chance to stick around):
Reliability and cleanliness of my power source kept me searching for a while as well. Canadian Tire's Ronson butane cans were eventually rejected and replaced by Xikar Purofine (300 ml, ≤ 30 ppm "stable non-volatile impurities") that got a good try since then, but i'm now evaluating London's "Near Zero Impurities" 300 ml bottles instead (as that's easier to locate nearby)... So far so good!
I've been through an intolerance episode but i'm now practically convinced it was a result of
"rafale" testing (improperly repeating) alternative tube evaluations (e.g. unusually
frequent intakes) combined to pollen sensitivity in the spring season. My tubing's layout no longer appears to be involved and now that i mention it i recall i haven't seen much water droplets collect inside for quite a long time - since version 2 or so (i'm now near 15 but stopped counting!)...
The Xikar Resource (a Vector KGM Gladius clone) works about right but its pipe tools cost precious fuel tank capacity (frequent refills) so i'd most definitely prefer less goodies and more fuel! I keep a set of Bic miniTronic jetable lighters handy (i alternate to avoid incidents due to excess heating) but this option is reserved for "Plan-C" situations.
...
The bright side of being a newbie with a susceptible nose is that this could be put to good use as it helped me to eliminate non-viable solutions quickly, so to speak. There were days when i was counting up to 12 - 15 while heating, i'm now down to 3 seconds or so and the palette of experiences hardly compares: exposure (if it's an issue at all) has been effectively reduced (to a point my cannabic vapor started feeling "dry" lately: coughing again!)... So, my newbiness was a sort of probing tool i've gradually lost as i became more agile at operating a VG pipe, unfortunately; that's one reason why i don't expect to make much more progress, which prompts me to share my findings i guess.
...
Finally, here comes the last phase:
Metal/Glass hybrid solutions!
More surprizes were waiting for me as the structure from above didn't work as planned in my implementation shown below:
This is my present "winner" instead:
Long-term *viable* Two-Stones Hybrid Shield configuration
...and i yet have to figure out why i like it better than the rest! Maybe the metal shield acts like a "Heat-Sink" to the puck while refractory material "defocalizes" heat before it reaches the last one (?)...
What i can tell is that i no longer have to turn my front "puck" red-hot (most likely it will slow-down "erosion") and it's finally compatible with blue (torch) flames which i find very convenient & reliable in dark/windy environments.
P.S.:
The tetrahedron shaped glass item (pictured above) can most probably be replaced with nothing but a simple, chemically innert/heat-refractory ball (Woops! Maybe a flattened one!...), as long as its diameter will range somewhere around 6 to 10 mm or so, depending on prefered airflow restriction...
Notice the refurbished screen-wrapped "foamy-rock" i hold in front of it (bottom-left side), this 2nd "Ceramic Filter" seems necessary as those metallic shields behave like radiators at some point: it becomes the new focal point for intense heat, defeating its primary purpose as a result!
The aluminium support appears to adds a touch of "Heat Retention" to my modded VG pipe, at 1st it absorbs energy while heating and then it releases some more even after i've stopped heating. So, briefly put i think i'll need to avoid metal bits facing that bowl in future experiments or my precious load will continue to get scorched!...
Aproximative "Ceramic Filter" thicknesses range between 3 to 5 mm for my front puck comparatively to 2 mm for the refurbished one located at the base, hence i'd suggest trying to begin tests with identical units about 3.6 mm (9/64 ") thick. A genuine VG disc is close to 7.5 mm (3/10 ") as i recall...
<<<<<<that's how you feel with it hahaha
