Homemade Hookah

[Wubby]

Hey guys, I'm going to be building a hookah pretty soon and im trying to think of the mechanics, i seen plenty of vids on how hookahs are used, and i was wondering, when you put the coal ontop, and inhale, do you open a valve or a carb or anything to make inhalation go quicker? or are the only 2 openings from the initial inhale hose and from the stem? Heres a small pic

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Hookah-lookthrough.svg

See where the valve is? What exactly is it for? Is it to open and close the hookah for easy inhalation?

Thanks everyone

[Johnny_D]

IT's a purge valve.

If you blow back through the hose it will blow all the smoke from the vase and stem. The purge valve allows this to happen. Otherwise you would push the water up through the stem and into the tobacco bowl.

It's normally just got a ball barring inside that seals the hole during sucking. When blowing the ball barring moves from the hole and allows the smoke to blow out.

JD

[Dr. Atkins]

just 2 quick things...
1: shouldnt this be in the how-to funhouse?
2: he mentioned sue of a carb, more frequently found on devices used for smoking illegal substances, possibly hinting at maluse of the hookah...

In a nitpicky mood, are we?

[KillZedKill]

When we made our own hookahs a while back, we would take the cap off of a large pen, or a laser pointer, and put a bb in it, and fine a way to attatch it to the hookah.

[RayVer]

btw not all hookahs have the valve.

[mushrat]

moved, edited, and bumped.