Hello all fellow tokers, today I ask if there is a material that is just as healthy as glass to smoke out of that could be used as a bong? I ask because me and some of my engineer friends want to see if we can make a bong that has some sweet added features to it that would be almost impossible if not impractical for us to attempt to make with glass. Any solid advice would be helpful, trolling/sarcasm in an entertaining way is ok too.
Ah I should have stated this as well. We were thinking acrylic as more of a last resort solely because it just looks and comes off as amateurish. I don't think I have ever seen an acrylic piece that legit blew my mind in terms of "wow that looks really nicely made." True we are amateurs in this industry, but we do not want to put out a product that gives this perception. Thanks for the reply though DrSheldonCooper
In all honesty... There really isn't one. Although making a hard plastic body with a glass slider would be cool. But not acrylic, the material that Chem Labs use to hold dangerous chemicals would be the best option, I can contact my old IB Chemistry teacher and get its name for you.
I unfortunately do not have an answer to your question. However, I just wanted to compliment you on your grammar I hate seeing people type like they have no sense. Good luck on your quest!
Well thank you, I appreciate your appreciation of good grammar. Also its quite alright that you do not have an answer as I'm sure there is not one.
teflon is my suggestion, if not that than the same material used on the incridibowl. both are sound smoking material and both are stronger than glass and both are clear like glass. actually teflon lets more light pass through it so it's clearer than glass.
Wood? I made one in shop class in high school. I turned a 24 inch cylinder on the lathe then I did like a bunch of swirls and stuff on it then burnt a weed leaf and 420 onto it, forgot to say in only made the long cylinder at school the rest was done at home in my dad's mini shop, it was sick. I even made a bowl/down stem for it but it wasn't the best. So I bought a glass on glass down stem and bowl wt my LHS. It was sick but it was stolen earlier this year from an ex-GF. So sick, it meant a lot to me, not only did that bitch steal my heart but she stole my true love.
I would say wood...with a good lathe, plenty of tools, and some time/design you could probably spin out some pretty nice pieces. You'd have to (or I'd want to, anyway) look into stains/varnishes to see what would look good and be safe.
Thank you all for your replies. I think we are going to throw up some drawings first, then decide on a material once we have a design fully ready for production. If there is interest, I will keep a follow up thread about it all with pictures and a little journel maybe. Again thanks for ideas and keep them coming if you think you have more to add. We are always taking ideas into what smokers would like to see in a piece.
Do you think it would be hard enough for use as a bong though? Plus there is going to be at least be one type of electronic tool on it so glass is not really an answer unless we can think of a way. Hmm I guess we have some thinking to do.
Dude.. Polycarbonate is damn near indestructible.... hence why its used on a pipe that's supposed to never break.. you can run this shit over... and have nothing more than a crack in your tube that will not harm the functionality of the tubing
Electronic tool? Intrigued on your idea for a more scientific tube. What kind of electronic tools are you contemplating?
I'm sorry, I should have stated my question in a better form. What I meant was, I have personally never touched an incredibowl nor have I touched the material it is made out of. I guess what I mean is, does it flex under the pressure of say the average bong holding grip strength? Or while being gripped does it still hold strong with no flexing like glass? While I cannot say exactly because this is not going to be a homemade DIY project and we want to try and maybe capitalize on our ideas. We want some little "gadgets" on the bong to bring novelty, functionality, and of course that WOW factor. Is there anything you would like to see on a bong?
Unless you have something to mold polycarbonate you should prolly just forget about it. Polycarbonate requires tons of heat/pressure at the same time to be applied to mold it, which is what causes it to be so strong. I think you should probably just add some things to a normal glass tube, like a auto-torch maybe some little diffusion gadget? Hope it ends well!