Bamboo Ripper - A Blast From The Past

[DiscoBiscuit]

Pandemic, looks like you do good work with the miter saw. Wow, 20 minutes. You indeed work fast. Even though you got the stem hole a little bigger than you needed, you aced the hard part by salvaging the project with a successful glue. I hate those twist bits. I botched my share of works if and when the bit snatches through. In most cases, a glue joint will eliminate the appearance of any imperfections with the stem hole. I like them stem "trim" there, very original.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

I invite anyone and everyone interested in posting their hand crafted piece, whatever the material. I like the biggest and best, high technology, big bucks smoking tools out there. But I love then innovation and imagination of hand crafted smokers.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Hey Disco, we would seal the entire thing in resin, not just the inside. It keeps em real nice. We would also put a nice leaf on the bong before we put the resin on and seal/preserve it. You guys are gonna make me chase down a stand of bamboo lol.

 

[catman]

Awesome stuff! Does it sound cool when it bubbles? Never had any bamboo around these parts as kid, but all you needed to smoke was a 12 oz can and a something to poke holes in it

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

Carl, great tips about inside/outside coating and the leaf decor. Now that to me sounds more attractive than the painted plastic wood stuff. I once thought about using marine varnish but have not checked to see what all is added to the otherwise natural base. I'd love to see what you can DO with the bamBOO!

Catman, thanks for the kind word. I've got about 7 fl. oz. of water in this thing. You can hear it bubble across the room. Bamboo has excellent acoustics, lol. The stem is small ~12mm id and a very small toke expands in my lungs as good as a medium to medium large glass bong. I know what you mean about bamboo availability. For years I only had access to the small stuff suitable for fishing poles. Now I'm a short drive from more than enough to get a few pieces without doing damage to the patch.

Yep, I remember the Coke can, possibly the most used smoking apparatus on Earth, next to the toilet paper roll bowl. You've got me thinking about the scores, maybe hundreds of items we used over the years to smoke with. Hell, it was as fun smoking out of a raw vegetable bubbler (we made in the produce dept. of the grocer we worked for as teens) as it was/is smoking glass on glass. I'll spare readers from what may seem boring, especially if you've got the good stuff but I have to describe the one pipe that brought more joy to mo folks than anything I've ever seen.

Back in the early 80s I was at an apartment party at UNC, I think it was OLDWELL APTS. This dude broke out "THE FAN CAN", purchased from George's Cheap Joint head shop. It was a cheap tin peanut can with a dc fan inside and a 9v battery. Push the button on the can and the fan blows you an auto shotgun through the stem better than the best (people) shotgun blowers in town! I watched as every stoner in the 300 plus party whip out their bags to pack this thing over and over. It was glorious to witness the sheer joy of folks not even inhaling the blue smoke boiling out of this thing for what seemed like hours on end. All these crazy fuckers did was hold the can high in the air and rebel yell their approval of this self smoking, $5 piece of art. We found it the next morning, battery dead and wooden bowl torched. Somebody should have got a new battery and a new bowl cause I'd never see another. I'd make one but pot is too expensive now and all my rowdy friends have become tight wads with their stash including me.

 

[FRANKENBLUNT420]

yo, OMG!!! i am so making one of these!!!!

DIY and organic to boot?!?!!? men you older cats should just toss together a "WE SMOKED OUT OF __________ BACK IN MY DAY" thread, and jsut really show is younger cats how all those land race classic strains were smoked and what made the hits so powerful!!

i would so love a thread like that, give this place a lil. . . uh . . "character", eh? lol



EDIT: and i think some of these homemade bongs just dont have any imagination to them. we went from powertools/handtools to boxcutters and tape. . .. just sad transition

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

Hey FRANKENBLUNT420, please post the pic(s) if any. I'd like to get some good examples. I also invite any discussions of nostalgic paraphernalia.
Yea, my bong is pretty ordinary. It does what it is designed to do pretty well. Onward through the fog!

yo, OMG!!! i am so making one of these!!!!

DIY and organic to boot?!?!!? men you older cats should just toss together a "WE SMOKED OUT OF __________ BACK IN MY DAY" thread, and jsut really show is younger cats how all those land race classic strains were smoked and what made the hits so powerful!!

i would so love a thread like that, give this place a lil. . . uh . . "character", eh? lol



EDIT: and i think some of these homemade bongs just dont have any imagination to them. we went from powertools/handtools to boxcutters and tape. . .. just sad transition

 

[Pandemic]

2.0

2.0

I made the elongated hole this time. Hand twisted a drill bit in and and whittled out the middle.
I then took some 100 grit and wrapped it around a Bic pen and sanded the hole to a near air-tight fit.


Stained her blue and have a few coats of poly on now. I will keep layering it on until this piece is smooth and the finish is deep.





For the next I have made a pullout stem.




Neat.

We would also put a nice leaf on the bong before we put the resin on and seal/preserve it.

Very cool idea. I was thinking about wood burning a pot leaf into some nice green bamboo.
This will make a cool contrast; a brown with a green pot leaf and a green with a chared one.

The Bong shop is open!

 

[ScrubNinja]

I invite anyone and everyone interested in posting their hand crafted piece, whatever the material. I like the biggest and best, high technology, big bucks smoking tools out there. But I love then innovation and imagination of hand crafted smokers.

Great thread as already stated. It's so not worthy amongst these pieces of art, but since I took a pic of it already, here is a vaporizer I made with help of some internet instructions. I never vaped anything before and it's pretty incredible.



I really wish I knew that about sealing the inside of the bamboo when I was a kid!

Weirdest stuff I ever made a piece out of is....dirt. Mud. I needed a smoke at work one day and I had nothing. So I just wet some dirt to stiff clay consistency and fashioned a crude pipe out of it. Bloody drug addicts eh.

 

[Pandemic]

So this is what happens when you take too many rips in a row...waiting on pics to upload.



I yanked the old one out of Jessie and sanded the hole to accept the pull out.




It's not totally airtight but it still gives you a good hit.
If I had matched up the pieces better it would be tight. I will keep playing with it.
No adhesives on this one, just holes in wood.

 

[K.J]

Wow, awesome! I've got to make me one of these. Can anyone tell me if these things would be carve-able after they dried to brown?

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

Pandemic, great tips about the drilling and sanding technique. The translucent finish keeps the natural aspect better than regular paint. The pull out stem will add long life, excellent!

ScrubNinja, the vape is cool as hell. I may get around to trying one some time. The dirt pipe?!? I'd love to see that thing. I bet it tasted earthy. Very innovative.

K.J, there's not much difference when working wet or dry bamboo. Some varieties are brown when growing. It doesn't have to be green. Live or dead doesn't really matter as long as the dead stuff hasn't peaked. I'm no expert but I believe dry stuff lasts longer than wet. I've never did much comparison. Without sealant of some sort these things don't last long either way. Post a pic if you're game.

 

[catman]

Haha DiscoDuck.

I liked the story about the smoking fan and I gotta think that was a pretty unique ordeal.

I really want to try a bamboo one right now!

My dad always wondered where sockets kept disappearing because I used them as bowls hehe. 100% tin foil pipe. Or make a dug out of a pen. Never done anything organic though!

 

[ogatec]

instead of the fancy pullout(which is actually better once perfected), why not make a old school carb hole?

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

catman, yea that fan can was cool. I also lifted a few items for smokes that were needed down the road. The smelly film on stuff was pretty hard to explain sometimes. Get a pic if you make a bong please.

ogatec, what's up? A carb hole will work. I've yet to put one in mine but I believe Pandemic mentioned he put one in his I believe. Thanks for the tip.

 

[Pandemic]

Yeah, the blue one has a carb hole down low and a sealed stem

The brown one, I put a hole up high. When I burnt my stem out I just put in the pull out to try it. I'm double-carbing.



I am probably 5 more bongs away from the one I will be satisfied with.
Might see some multi-chamber ones. Defiantly some multi-color ones.
Keep all ideas flowing! If you can't make one but have an idea post it. Someone will put it into action.

Keep an eye out for more of the band.

 

[magiccannabus]

Don't angle the top too much or it will become a punji stick! You'd end up impaled and on World's Dumbest Criminals

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

Don't angle the top too much or it will become a punji stick! You'd end up impaled and on World's Dumbest Criminals

Oh really? Glad I'm baked then.

 

[smurfin'herb]

I hate to be dirty minded, but seriously, what does that look like to u...?

Nice bong tho man, im jealous... Heres a simple tip, instead of just drilling a hole on the bottom of the slide/shaft where the smoke hits the water, just drill multiple smaller holes around the sides so that the smoke has more contact area with the water. This design, as well as ice catchers, and perculators, will improve your smoking experience! nice thread fellas.

 

[Gr8StonedDragon]

I was searching for something non-toxic to seal it with.

It looks like there are a few options:

mineral oil

tung oil

shellac flakes

soy based sealants

beeswax



I dont know which is the best though.



Edit:

So i searched some more. Tung Oil looks really good and here's a site that talks all about how to use it. It takes a really long time to cure though.

http://www.woodcentral.com/russ/finish6.shtml


Also I guess you can use most any sealer that is designed for cutting boards / butcher blocks. Here is a site talking about that and other options. ALso includes beeswax discussion.

http://www.ayais.com/en/finechem/cuttingboardoil.htm

They recommend food grade mineral oil to get into the wood then a beeswax coating over that.