cptbjorn

I've been to Mayan ruins and their stone doorways top out below my shoulder. If there is one thing I have learned it's never to trust a midget. I'll be hanging out smoking hookah and shorting the stock market

I see a lot of people saying "glad its not shisha getting the axe". IMO we can't be selective about which freedoms can be taken away otherwise we have no leg to stand on if (when) down the line the government decides to pick on something WE like to do. Here in Seattle all the hookah bars were shut down in 2006/2007 when more restrictive smoking laws were passed and what could we do? NOTHING. The majority of people had no interest in hookah bars and no interest in the interests of the minority so hookah bars went away. Its kinda like a snake tightening its grip, every time the rat exhales the snake can go a little tighter. Anybody remember the last time they got a brand new freedom? I don't. They are just being taken away little by little "for our own good."

I machined mine out of a couple pieces of aluminum (the main part being 3" diameter) and it has a 3/8" hole down the center and isn't restrictive at all. I suggest just buying the vase and machining everything yourself though, a 36" solid stainless hookah is going to be crazy heavy with lots of leverage against that little base. Impossible to say how sturdy that base is though without seeing and feeling it. I was able to think of a couple ways of machining the base it and the first one I tried worked really well, and my machine shop consists of a mini lathe and a drill press so I'm guessing you have better equipment Also good luck if you are planning on doing decorative curves on a big long chunk of stainless, I get a sinking feeling in my stomach just thinking about it lol. I would rather do ANYTHING but that. Especially if the bar won't fit through the lathe headstock, that's what weekday afternoons in hell would be for me at least. Here's a pic of mine, I still haven't gotten around to anodizing it and its due for a full breakdown and cleaning but it smokes like a beast. Zero leakage and feels more solid/sturdy than any other hookah I've ever seen/touched in person. Yeah I know it doesn't look like most hookahs but the differences are mostly superficial.

If it ends up missing the peach flavor I might try mixing with nectarine for a bowl or two since I have like 200g or so that is just kinda gathering dust. It wasn't my thing but might complement the kashmir nicely.

Wow thanks for all the responses. I ended up recombining like half of the juice with the shisha last night and set it next to a fan so it could get some airflow. This morning it resembled really juicy shisha instead of shisha in a puddle so I stirred in the rest, put it back in the jar and have it in the toaster oven in my shop on warm for an hour as Sonthert recommended. Also I ended up smoking some late last night before I added any of the juice back (so I'll know if my attempts to save it are doing anything) and while it took more time and heat to get going (presumably to drive off the excess water) I ended up getting decent clouds and flavor. Not 100% by any means but not bad either. I'll have to order another pack of it with my next order though to find out of its the *right* flavor though. Thanks again!

Nah I got all the sheets and everything off and in the washer right away and threw towels on top and then jumped on the bed to get as much absorbed as possible. It doesn't look like I shit the bed I don' think. But if anyone asks I'll just tell them that what I like to do in the privacy of my own home is none of their damn business It still smells fine and looks normal, which is interesting because the New Raspberry I got smells like hardcore bbq sauce right now.

So I just got 4 packs of tangiers today and the one I was most stoked to try was the kashmir peach. It smelled great right from the start so I just put it in one of my glass jars, taped on the label etc at around noon today. Just now I took the top off the jar to let it sit for a half hour or so before I smoke a session and then filled my base with water. I set the base and the jar of kashmir peach down on my bed, then I noticed my phunnel was about to roll down the crack between my mattress and the wall so i put my knee on the bed and semi dove for it AND I KNOCKED MY BASE FULL OF WATER INTO MY JAR OF TANGIERS AND THEY BOTH COMBINED AND SPILLED ALL OVER MY DAMN BED. There was brown water and chunks everywhere and I was able to save most of it but now everything smells like nag champa on steroids, my sheets/mattress/blankets are soaked and I'm way too worked up to enjoy any flavor of shisha I basically ended up with a jar full of shisha that was also half full of water so I poured the water onto foil, poured the shisha on separate foil and now I have come to hookah forum so you can all laugh at my misfortune. Here's the damage: What would you do? I'm not a heavy smoker but when I do smoke I like it to be the best possible, even if I get this dried out and acclimated all over again is it still going to be shitty? The water that I used in the base was from my RO/DI purifier that I have for my fish tanks so it was basically pure water that won't leave anything behind when it evaporates... DAMMIT I DIDN'T EVEN GET TO TRY IT FIRST

I've tested these kinds of stoves pretty extensively while backpacking and the best/hottest/easiest one I made used a guinness can and a regular pepsi can. It can boil a little pot of water at 8,000 feet and below freezing and I'm sure it could light a couple coals with the right screen to hold them in the hot part of the flames. The website has gone down since i built mine a couple years ago but I found it archived here.

You probably won't find resistence ratings for the heating elements because the resistence increases greatly as the wire gets hotter. I just ran the numbers and assuming hookah charcoal has about the same BTU density as grilling charcoal (only info I could find), a charcoal weight of 8 grams, and a burn time of 1 hour, the charcoal is putting out an average of 72 watts over the hour. For 12v batteries, this comes to a capacity of around 6 amp/hours per charcoal. This would get crazy expensive with lithium ion batteries, and with sealed lead acid batteries you are looking at carrying a 2x6x4" brick weighing 3.1 pounds per charcoal you want to replace. Didn't check to see how big of a solar panel that would be, but I can tell you for certain that you wouldn't enjoy carrying it on your back. I'd look into ways of keeping the charcoal spillproof instead of replacing the charcoal.

QUOTE (jthorpe @ Aug 8 2008, 10:46 AM) I put charcoal in the bowl with tin foil over the top to "cup" the tobacco. When I smoked it, it seemed like I just couldn't get the smoke to travel far or in large quantities. I also used foil to try to seal any air gaps between the stem and the base and other places, but that didn't help either. Wait so you put charcoal in the bowl, aluminum over the top of the bowl and then tobacco on top of the foil? Or is that just worded wrong?

I just came across this thread, it seems like it is dead but just in case someone comes across this and decides to try it... I didn't read all 7 pages but if this hasn't been said yet: If built as OP instructed THE COIL WILL BE AT LIVE WALL VOLTAGE when turned up high, and depending on the potentiometer and if wired correctly THE SHAFT OF THE POTENTIOMETER COULD ALSO BE AT LINE VOLTAGE. This will most likely flip your circuit breaker or burn out the wire, but still requires warning. For SEVERAL REASONS the plan given is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS and I hope nobody without electronics knowledge has tried to build this thing. At the very least you would need a series resistor to keep the maximum power reasonable, but to keep this from burning your house down PLEASE use a fuse and a transformer/power supply to isolate this thing from the plug. If you do not know how to do that please stick to coals. Sorry I'm new to the forum and normally lurk but I had to say something when I read this. If a mod reads this could they possibly put a disclaimer or something on the thread? This kind of stuff kills people. -Christian