err...no, i'm not 'fucken crazy' its actually a good way to smoke without using butane which alters the taste and releases carcinogenic chemicals when it burns. If you don't know jack shit about what i'm asking then just keep your ignorance to yourself and go find another thread. While your at it you might as well just get the fuck off the forum all together because apparently your about as useful as tits on a nun. Seriously, if you have nothing better to do than go on a forum and post stupid unhelpful comments that do nothing except show how much you don't know, you should do us all a favor and go kill yourself.
Ok, that was a little spastic and un-called for but hey who am i to judge? I'm here to answer your question. I have heard of people doing this and I get the reasons why. I found a full tutorial on another site and actually saved it because I'm a cheap ass and didn't want to spend the money on a real vaporizer. I hate linking other forums, so I've just copied and pasted it from there. I'm sure if you look hard enough, you'll be able to find it though.
I'm going to be covering a topic which to many probably seems quite new and possibly even very silly. I'll be talking about smoking your bowls using a soldering iron as a lighting element. I'm going to start with an introduction and review of my soldering iron unit, then I will do a tutorial on the use of a soldering iron in lighting a bowl, and finally a review of the use of a soldering iron versus using a butane lighter. There will be both pictures and video.
First off, I'm going to introduce you all to my soldering iron unit. The brand name is, "XYTronic" and the model is AUTO-TEMP 379. This unit is different than the stock XYTronic unit, however. I bought this from a Glass Art Gallery in Denver called Heady Glass. He bought 10 of these unit and had them customized to include a few extras:
1. The metal plate on the temperature control unit can be used as a small break-up tray, or to hold some hash oil.
2. The unit that holds the soldering iron was modified to hold a piece of brillo pad. This is to wipe off any ash from the ceramic tip without having to wait for it to cool down.
3. A sleeve of metal around the base of the ceramic heating element to reinforce the tip ad keep it from bending.
I'm going to go through the use of a soldering iron from beginning to end.
1. When you buy your soldering iron, there is one key thing to make sure of. Make sure that your soldering iron is a soldering iron that has a ceramic heating element. If it is anything but ceramic, you're wasting you time. It will take far too long to heat up, and it will not taste the same. Feel free to give it a try anyways, but take it from me, it's not worth it.
As far as readily available soldering iron units, I reccomend the Hakko Dash 60watt soldering iron. Google it to find out prices and availability. There are a couple screws you must take off the Hakko unit to expose the ceramic heating element, but from what I understand this is easy to do, and intuitive. The Hakko is widely regarded as the best ceramic-heated soldering iron for the money and is the soldering iron used by most cannabis conneseurs.
2. Now that you have your soldering iron, turn it on. On my unit, this involves a switch, on a Hakko, I believe you just plug it in. My unit takes less than 10 seconds to reach maximum temperature (red hot), which I set using the knob on the base unit. I do not know if Hakkos are temperature adjustable.
3. Pick up your soldering iron and touch it flat to the top of the bowl of herb where the tip is red hot. Start to inhale through your chosen smoking device as you do this.
4. Continue inhaling roll the tip of the soldering iron unit back and forth across the bowl, allowing oxygen to aid in combustion of the herb.
5. When the bowl is lit or you have as much smoke as you'd like, remove the soldering iron from the bowl, and set it down somewhere safe. My unit, for safety, has a holder for the hot (or unused) soldering iron unit so it cannot roll to the ground or aything. This makes it VERY convienient and one of the reasons I bought this particular soldering unit.
6. Clear whatever the smoking piece you're using is.
Here are the pictures for the tutorial, and a video I included of me actually using the soldering unit to take a hit.
Pros:
1. It's just as easy to use as a lighter, as it heats in less than 10 seconds.
2. There is no butane to alter the taste of the herb you are smoking. So the smoke tastes much better.
3. The lack of butane also means inhaling fewer carcenogens (cancer causing agents) while smoking.
4. The lack of open flame causes the smoke to be at a lower temperature when it reaches your throat and lungs. This makes the hit MUCH smoother and I can take MUCH bigger rips off of my bongs.
5. You lose less THC than with an open flame, as an open flame burns higher than the temperature necessary to vaporize the THC. Thus, you get higher.
6. Since it burns at a lower temperature, it burns the buds slower, thus allowing more hits off of one bowl.
Cons:
1. Is is slightly more inconvienient to use than a lighter. There is a cord attached, so it is slightly more complicated. This is really not an issue if you pay attention to what you're doing.
2. Use wit ha room full of people can be difficult. Again, the cord can be limiting, but since I don't smoke with more than a person or two at a time, it's not a big deal.
3. A hot soldering iron is ALWAYS a possible fire or burn hazard. Please use caution when smoking with a soldering iron unit. YOU ARE USING AND EXTREMELY HOT TOOL WHILE INTOXICATED, PAY ATTENTION.
So, in summation, I give the use of a soldering iron a 9.5/10.0. It has completely revolutionized my somking at home. I have not smoked a single bowl without it at my house since I bought it. Even my roommates love it, regardless of the slight inconvience. I reccomend everyone go out a purchase a soldering iron with a ceramic heating element today and start saving your lungs, reduce the amount of weed you smoke, and optimise the THC intake from the weed you do smoke.
Don't trip a stick because I said that, the guy just wants an honest answer. Anyways, a standard soldering iron is fine, it just MUST BE CLEAN. I've used the Hacko, it works pretty good I like it, used it with my bubblers and dry pipes (wouldnt reccomend it for little metal pipes). But there's some soldering iron out there where you can adjust the temperature to essentialy vaporize it, I have a Volcano and stuff
I've also wanted to try I think some stuff called Bee Line hemp wick, sounded interesting. Puff tough brotha!
,,,OP, your still a fucking freaK
. very well put sir.
My god, somebody got dropped on their head as a child!
I smoke with a soldering iron you ignorant fuck on a comedown.
Am I cheap, FUCK NO I own a damn Volcano a two fucking thousand dollar bubbler and another two thousand dollars in pipes, NOT INCLUDING THE ONES REAL CRACKHEADS LIKE YOU ROBBED FROM ME.
I'm sorry you couldn't cook your meth...
If you could, you're stupid ass would croak.
Respect the leaf punk, respect knowledge, and just be the bigger man.
Good day to you otherwise, have some laughs, grow a sense of humor, or wtf ever you need, keep your attitude up your bound to dissapear in any town, people don't dig smack talkers like you.
