An Idea For Artificial Coals.

[Geiseric]

This idea is no where near fruitition yet, just the brainstorm for a potential artificial heat source, so I didn't bother putting it in the how-to board. I'm just looking for input and advisement. To begin, the idea was inspired by a few things, in order. 1. Getting pissed off waiting for coals. 2. Punching a bad foil, and having the smoke ruined. 3. A background fooling around with conventional tools, and small repairs for friends and family (my step-dad is an electrician, as well as two of my uncles, so I spent a good part of my childhood stealing their tools and disassembling electronics, eventually leading to running a illegitimate modding business with a friend for a few years, ending with around 50-60 xbox1s modded, and around 15-20 pcs) 4. Steath's brilliant prototype heat source.

That done, now I can focus on the idea. The basic model involves a variable temp. soldering iron, a home-made bowl (this is the big issue), a small, thin, ventilated metal plate, some kind of hinging mechanism, and two copper leads. The general plan would be to remove the heating element from the soldering iron, and extend it quite a distance up through to two copper leads, around which I would form the homemade bowl (of, at this point, unknown origins). At the top, the heating element would be attached via the hinging mechanism, and the tip would be the thin vented plate (think something like the cover on the back of air-conditioners) used to diffuse the heat, while allowing air to be pulled through. Appropriately balanced, the extended element would swing down over the shisha and act as a partially removed coal. The variable knob would adjust the heat to a acceptable level.

Big issues:
1. Finding a material that I could use to make a bowl (having no access to a kiln) that would not crack with intense heat near to it.
2. The dangers of removing the heating element from a soldering iron, and finding a way to make the exposed leads idiot proof (for my sake, I do not enjoy the jolt from a wall outlet, back when I was making custom cases while modifying the PSUs to fit, I got more than my share of that, and it SUCKS)
3. Finding a heat diffuser that works as described. Attaching it would not be an issue, there are lots of custom universal solder tips for sale at electronics stores, fitting one to a disk and insuring proper flow of heat shouldn't be too difficult.
4. Making everything fit and work.
5. Not dying while constructing it.

So: Comments, ideas? Obviously it has a long way to go, and a lot of safety factors to overcome, but I think it has potential.

[shisha fan]

it`s been done, somebody on this forum tried it with the heat coil from a hairdryer. others have tried different methods, but nothing was really succesful.

[Geiseric]

I have seem some of those efforts, and that is what I hope to resolve by using a much higher heat, and with a variable temp. When I get my Christmas bonus, I will invest in a spare variable temp iron (they run 30-50$ and I am BROKE) and whatever material I choose to make the bowl with. I also chose the soldering iron as a base to avoid a lot of the heat loss that comes with other methods, as well as keeping the element close to the shisha for control purposes. I have no illusions that the idea is new, just that it is a new method, and hopefully one that will have some semblance of success.