I Got Carried Away
I overdid it on edibles last week as I've made some terrible tasting but super potent chocolate from a mix of RSO and D9. In the midst of that high I decided I should order a dab rig online.
Glassware
Many of the dab rigs were quite pricy and some looked so much like they belonged in a science lab that you'd probably need a long white coat and goggles to operate them. I ended up ordering a fairly cheap bong from Holland and some other bits from a shop in Birmingham. So I'm now the proud owner of some low cost but fancy glassware - and a blow torch. Let's pick through it.
I Didn't Need It
I already owned a little wax dab pen which has been brilliant. I have the Utilian 2 with the ceramic donut heating part. It worked well with the original coil type heater but I found it hard to fully clean. The ceramic donut makes that easier.
It's a cheap, basic pen but I use it frequently and it's a great way to puff away at your extracts very simply. Adding some sort of bubbler to it would probably make more sense than buying a dab rig but I'm a pothead so I don't always do the things that make the most sense.
Idiots & Fire
I had no real need to complicate the dabbing process and generally I avoid fire because I'm aware that I'm an idiot. Fire and idiots are a poor mixture. I've avoided the dynovap vape products for exactly this reason. So a dab rig was not really even on my top ten things to buy. Yet here we are. I think that getting the super cheap Piatella (see recent topic) from GC probably triggered the process a bit.
Terminology
Now, upon embarking on my retail journey to buy a dab rig I came across many new words and technical terms that were unfamiliar to me. What some call a bong, others call a water pipe. I believe these are the same basic thing but there seems to be numerous strange terms bandied about for the parts I needed.
My Water Pipe Bong Bubbler
The water pipe bong I bought is a triangular based glass beaker looking thing with a hole for your finger to release the air flow. It has a large mushroom print on the glassware which is clearly pitched at teenagers judging by the design. Obviously because I'm so youthful I appreciate this kind of aesthetic. It was also much cheaper than the more subtly decorated but complex science project looking rigs. Yes. I'm a cheapskate.
Down Stem Limitations
The bong came with an all in one down stem and bowl which meant removing the bowl also removes the stem which turns the bong into a jug of water. To connect other stuff to it I needed a new down stem part.
Attaching My Dry Herb Vape
I have an Arizer Solo 2 dry herb vape which came with a 14mm bong attachment. So I needed a down stem for that to work with the water pipe bong as well as the dab bits.
I ordered a 135mm long / 14mm wide glass down stem extension thing that fits into a 14mm hole but also has and extended bit with another 14mm hole so I could attach the vape stem or dab bits to it.
Luckily there were a lot of options for these parts so I could get one that was a good fit. Unluckily the myriad of options meant spending ages figuring out which one I needed.
I also bought a little removable bowl that has a small perpendicular glass handle which I think that would be the ideal way to use it as a normal bong with buds or hash as you can pop the bowl out to empty it and stand it up too for easy reloading.
That'd be much better than the all in one stem/bowl that came with the bong. But it also meant that I could attach my dry herb vape to the bong and test how that works.
Bong Vaping or Vape Bonging?
Using the Arizer through a bong was nuts. It feels very odd as the vapour is so smooth that it barely seems like you're inhaling anything. It's suddenly easy for me to rip the entire vape bowl in a one hit. The upgraded Arizer Solo 3 would work great in this instance as it has a faster oven speed and double the chamber capacity. However, it's not really what I like my dry herb vape for. I like slowly chugging it as for me it has replaced smoking and a part of that was the slow sedative chill-out routine to curb my hyperactivity.
The other thing I was slightly paranoid about was getting water in the vape oven as I suspect that'd go pretty badly. The weight of vape made the bong unstable enough for it to potentially topple over. I think if you were aiming for this setup you need to make sure you get a good sized and weighty bong for stability.
Back To The Dabs
I had to buy a banger and a carb cap (not an old car and a funny hat) to transform my water pipe bong into a dab rig. I don't know who invented the words for these objects. Is there some logic to them? Or is this a case of never letting a pothead name anything? I already had a few of the little spoon dab tool things. I also bought a chefs blow torch and as a result I am now unexpectedly equipped to make creme brulee should I ever choose to MasterChef a dessert to quench an attack of the munchies.
At Last - My First Dab
So with my new water pipe bong, down stem extender, banger, carb cap and blow torch, and with my dab tool and some crumble wax at the ready, I embarked on a new cannabis adventure. The first dab I attempted I royally fucked up. The word 'royally', when it comes to amplifying fuck-ups, seems to carry more weight than it used to.
Everything happened at once and I was cack-handed with all the oddly named parts as I didn't know what I was doing. I heated the banger then I faffed with the blow torch flame after as I was unfamiliar with it. I then dropped some crumble wax off the worlds smallest spoon onto my table several times and am curious as to why the dab tools are so small. I finally landed it inside the banger where it quickly vaporised into the air in the form of cannabis extract aromatherapy while I forgot to cover the finger hole on the water pipe and breathed in nothing. I didn't get any of it through the pipe at all. It was a disaster. But now at least I had a better idea what the process was. So I tried again.
Attempt Two
Dab two was much better planned and executed. Everything I needed was to hand and I mostly knew what was going to happen. The banger was heated again, the extract went in smoothly, it instantly boiled up into vapour which was capped as I bubbled the whole lot through the water and into my lungs. I'm still no closer to understanding the terminology but I am finally dabbing.
Within about 3 minutes I was so incredibly stoned that it's genuinely hard to describe. There are satellites launched into orbit less high than I was. The whole buzz seemed to arrive all at once like a sledgehammer to the face. I was briefly, fully and instantly smashed and needed a little sit back to adjust to it. It was not long before I was reaching for my next one though. I liked it.
You Can Probably Tell I'm Not An Expert
I've used the dab rig on a couple of sessions so far. I'm a bit of a klutz with it so some dabs I've messed up. Some are too cold and I then scramble to heat it up, some are too hot and the extract acts like you've dropped it into a nuclear reactor core.
Stained Banger
Through this process I seem to have stained my banger. I didn't know this was possible on glassware but I've got a couple of resin stains that don't seem to be removable. At least they don't seem to be with iso alcohol and scrubbing. Is this a common thing or did I screw up in some way? Any advice is appreciated.
Are All Bangers Equal?
I noticed that you can get thicker / thinner / posher / branded bangers. I picked a cheap one as I didn't know how many times I'd be using it. I'm wondering if anyone knows the advantage to the different bangers available and if it's worth investing in one? If you know please let me know in the comments.
Conclusion
I definitely like doing the dabs when they work smoothly. I think it'll take me a bit of practice to get any consistency with my operation of the blow torch and banger. But that's probably the sort of practice we can all get down with. Overall it does get you extremely stoned but there's an art to using it. What extracts shall I try next?
Thanks
As always, thanks for reading my topic. I truly appreciate everyone who does. I hope it was informative and if not I hope it was entertaining in some way. Let me know how you dab and any advice you have.
![[beginner weed]](https://i3.littlebiggy.org/images/u/w/300/yzWLoRbSZEjKyEBk.jpg)
