Vaping with eCigarettes

[Slayerik]

I'm ready to try this shit. Plus, it'll double as a conversation starter at the bar :) Send them shits, Nerf!

[Nerf]

Want me to make you one out of a big rubber cock so you can walk up to women and say "Hey baby, wanna suck on this?"? I can totally do that.  Oo, maybe I can put the switch in the balls so you've gotta squeeze em, they always forget to squeeze the balls.

[Slayerik]

Just send the goods and stop talkin' shit. 

[Big Gulp]

Okay, Nerf (or anyone else in the know) I just bought a Smoke Everywhere kit from my local smoke shop, but to be honest the cartridges are pretty fucking worthless.  It's like $8.99 for 5 of them which supposedly equal half a carton or so.  Not even close for me.  I got maybe two cigarettes worth before all taste was gone.  Defective cartridge, or do these things really suck that bad?  What would you do in my situation?

[Ookii]

Say it ain't so, you bought Smoking Everywhere stuff! Boo.

Carts aren't so great, but there a couple mods you can do.  Buy those Lipton Tea Bags that come in a Pyramid shape and cut and roll one up so it fits in the cart.  You'll get much more out of it that way.

[schild]

Carts aren't so great, but there a couple mods you can do.  Buy those Lipton Tea Bags that come in a Pyramid shape and cut and roll one up so it fits in the cart.  You'll get much more out of it that way.

This sounds like it could end poorly.

[Ookii]

Another thread schild can steer clear of!

Unless you start vaping.

[Big Gulp]

Say it ain't so, you bought Smoking Everywhere stuff! Boo.

Well, I sent Nerf a PM asking for his advice, but bitch don't answer his mail.  

This would actually suffice as a replacement if I could get the carts to last for any period of time.  I've ordered some juice from Amazon, hopefully that'll work out better.

ETA:  The inside of the carts look pretty tight.  Wouldn't something like cotton work better than the tea bags?

[Nerf]

Hrm, thought I replied to all my PMs, but I've been pretty busy lately and theres a chance I missed one.

I hate carts, i think they fucking suck, they're just too inconsistent.  I drip 2-3 drops at a time directly on to the atomizer, it works great, except it will kill your automatic battery that came with your SE kit pretty damned quick.

SE also uses a kind of off-brand of atty too, the rn4081 iirc.  The 801, 901, and 510 are popular for a reason.

[Ookii]

Say it ain't so, you bought Smoking Everywhere stuff! Boo.

Well, I sent Nerf a PM asking for his advice, but bitch don't answer his mail.  

This would actually suffice as a replacement if I could get the carts to last for any period of time.  I've ordered some juice from Amazon, hopefully that'll work out better.

ETA:  The inside of the carts look pretty tight.  Wouldn't something like cotton work better than the tea bags?

Trust me! This is based on research by the ecigarette forum people.  The thing of tea bags will set you back 3 bucks.

[Big Gulp]

Trust me! This is based on research by the ecigarette forum people.  The thing of tea bags will set you back 3 bucks.

Okay, you're talking about jamming a tea bag into the orange colored filter itself, right?  Not the tiny little white nicotine holder inside the filter?  And I also assume that you remove the tea from the bag otherwise it'll wind up tasting like some fruity clove cigarette, right?

[Ookii]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25bk_E0DJ5g

[Slayerik]

I got my stuff from Nerf and my first impressions are:

This is a bit of work
Puffing on these kinda reminds me of hitting an almost cashed pot bowl
A little tough on the throat
Will require a bit of ordering shit
I can smoke in my cube...muahaha

Overall, not bad. I still find myself preferring a cigarette at the end of the night, but I think this could save me some money and probably help me quit altogether. We'll see!

[Ookii]

Do the teabag mod as soon as possible.

[Nerf]

Just don't use carts at all, order some little dropper bottles from usplastics.com and drip 2 drops at a time directly on the atomizer.  That cached bowl taste is when your atomizer is running dry and you need more liquid.  Get those lorann flavors ASAP and mix up some of your own flavors a few ml at a time using that bliplabs.com liquid I sent you.  The stuff is fucking amazing, very clean and theres no bitter beer taste to cover up like most of the tasteless e-liquids for sale.  I like watermelon - a lot - try that first, 20% flavor to 80% diluted nicotine solution to whatever strength you want.  Some cheap 3ml syringes are great for mixing small amounts and less messy than pipettes - you should be able to get em at walgreens or cvs.

You'll find what you like pretty soon through experimentation, and after awhile you'll find yourself craving cigarettes less and less.  Whenever I feel that urge, I just vape 2 drops of 75mg straight and it cures me pretty fucking quick.

[Ookii]

I still think the teabag mod > direct drip.

Try both!

Oh, I got a 510 the other day, loooooooooooooooooooving it.

[Nerf]

I should have 801->510 adapters in about a week, so you can use your 510 attys on your NerfCo mods ^_^

[MahrinSkel]

Just FYI, I have a Top Secret project underway in cooperation with Nerf, and we've been sharing research.  His equipment will be getting a major upgrade in performance pretty soon, and I still think he should switch to RCA jacks and build adapters from RCA to whatever, rather than building the units around a particular model and then having adapters from that to the exact model of atomizer the user prefers (especially since that brass corrodes and will stop conducting after a while, not a big deal when both ends are disposable but a bigger issue when one is supposed to be a durable tong-term product).  You can buy high-quality all-metal RCA jacks for $1-2, and most of them have just exactly the right inner diameter for 801-901 battery fittings, once you cut the cable end off.

--Dave

[Ookii]

Other people have been doing this and it's awesome. Definitely keep me updated!

[Big Gulp]

Just got my Janty Stick today and so far I'm loving it.  Good throat hit, the carts refill nicely and seem to last for a good long while, and it's also got a USB passthrough port.  My only gripe so far is that I have yet to find a juice that actually tastes like tobacco.  Menthol I've found no problem, but I fucking hate menthol.  Any suggestions on a good authentic tasting tobacco juice?  So far I've tried Johnson Creek and Camel, and while I could live with the Camel, it's still not there.

[Nerf]

the 555 and mild 7 from bestecig.

Also, fuck you for ordering a janty stick before PMing me, you know I could have gotten you something better for less, right?

[Big Gulp]

the 555 and mild 7 from bestecig.

Also, fuck you for ordering a janty stick before PMing me, you know I could have gotten you something better for less, right?

Dude, I'm still in the market.  This is just my first real dip in the pool.  I can see this easily being more expensive than actually smoking.  =D

[Nonentity]

I started on a 501, but I've basically burned out my batteries. I'm gonna be in the market shortly to pick up a USB passthrough, and a couple more batteries. I am super, super, super interested in the tea bag mod, as those shitty little white clusters never seemed as good as they could be.

Any experience with the manual batteries as opposed to the automatic ones? I was kind of interested in picking one up, as it seems like it'd be more reliable than the automatic ones.

[Nerf]

Oh hey, good news, I got my 510 connectors in like 2 days ago, so I can 510 mods for you guys now.

Non - Just get a mod dude, *all* of the chinese batteries suck. Hard.  They're 180mAh batteries trying to push 1.2A (1.4A or so on the 510, lower resistance coil).  That's just shy of 8C.  Li-ions aren't meant to be discharged that high, thats why they keep dying.  If you want to stay small, get one of these:



They're my new go-to mod, runs off a 10440, AAA sized 400mA li-ion, so you're only discharging at 3C.  They're probably 20% bigger than a standard ecig battery, have a manual button, peak at 4.2v and hold it for longer, so you get more quality vaping in between charges.

The batteries are $5 a pop from lighthound (don't get the ultrafire/trustfire brand from DX, I know they're 2/$4, theres a reason) - get the AW brand 10440.  Chargers are about $15.  Expect batteries to last 3 weeks to 2 months before they won't hold their charge anymore.

I sell the lasers for $75, I have them available with LEDs too, they've been going for $100.


F13'ers get a discount though, drop me a PM, it's substantial.

I do USB passthrus too, vaping at 5V is fucking awesome.  The throat hit is far superior.

If any of you fookers want to make your own mods, I'm the supplier for the battery connectors, its the only piece you need to buy that is specially made for the ecigs.  Tact switches, housings, etc you can get from anywhere, I use mouser.  If you're good with electronics, I'd strongly recommend using a couple transistors or a mosfet (someone explain to me exactly what a mosfet is, btw) so you're not running all that amperage through the tact switch.

I've got switches, housings, and helpful info on how to make anything if you want to give it a shot yourself, just ask.  I sell 801 and 901 atomizers too, $9 per.

One last, rather important thing.

Chinese e-liquid sucks.  The base they use and then flavor has this wierd bitter beer taste, and is dirty as shit.  I found a company called Blip Labs (www.bliplabs.com) that sells a nicotine+pg solution for "research", but I checked it out and its pure shit.  I buy from them, then mix in lorann flavors, USP pg to cut the nic level to what I want, and about 10% glycerin for the vapor clouds.  It's cheap too - 30ml of 3.8% nicotine in USP pg (38mg/ml) is $20+shipping, USP pg is like $30 per gallon, and the lorann flavors are a buck or two for 3.7ml.  I turned dave onto this stuff and he did some comparison testing on residue left in carts etc, and the chinese stuff always leaves a nasty brown residue.  We know it's not the flavoring, because he went back to the mall and checked the 0nic of the same flavor - clear liquid vs brown liquid on the 24mg.  Whatever kind of nicotine they're putting in, its got something in it, because the shit I ordered at 7.5% nicotine (75mg/ml) is damn near clear.

[Mrbloodworth]

Can you make one look steampunk?  It's what you do, no?

dude.

[Mrbloodworth]

Ok. I know eCigs are not intend, or marketed as quitting aids.

But are any of you using them as such? I mean, I figured maybe I can pick up some (that instantly removes smoke from my life) start using them, then attempt to step down the dose...eventually lowering my need until i simply stop.

Am i just deluding myself here, or what?

[Big Gulp]

Am i just deluding myself here, or what?

Even if you just switch habits you're still way better off.  No cancer, no breathing problems, food tastes better, and your clothes won't stink anymore.  So what if you're replacing one habit with another, especially when harm-wise they're dramatically different?

Anyway, I'm treating vaping as a smoking replacement.  I still enjoy smoking, and I still have that twitchy oral fixation.  This addresses that, it just removes the negatives associated with it.

[schild]

I don't think it replaces any of the best parts of smoking, but I'm pretty sure Nerf is going to try his damnedest to get me to switch over to it.

[Big Gulp]

I don't think it replaces any of the best parts of smoking, but I'm pretty sure Nerf is going to try his damnedest to get me to switch over to it.

I think it's easier if you're a menthol smoker, because it's damned near identical there.  If you smoke regular tobacco it's a bit more difficult since the flavor is vastly different.  This beats the hell out of everything I've tried thus far, including authentic Swedish snus, though.

[Ookii]

I don't think it replaces any of the best parts of smoking, but I'm pretty sure Nerf is going to try his damnedest to get me to switch over to it.

I really have no clue why you haven't yet, it really is the best thing ever.

[schild]

I don't think it replaces any of the best parts of smoking, but I'm pretty sure Nerf is going to try his damnedest to get me to switch over to it.

I really have no clue why you haven't yet, it really is the best thing ever.

It's really not, but you make an incredible argument.

[Nonentity]

Good tips on that stuff, Nerf, I'll probably have to hit you up when I'm a little more flush on funds.

That being said, I don't really want this to turn into a home chemistry project, so is there any place that has a more decent quality off the shelf flavor selection than the chinese sites?

[MahrinSkel]

So, I mentioned that I was trying to build an ePipe?  I'm almost there, I've got a working-but-ugly prototype and a plan for how I will get something prettier.  I started with the cheapest wooden pipe I could find locally, $10.  I drilled the bowl out (blew up a lot of wooden blanks before I figured out how), and put together something with just a battery pack, an RCA connector I salvaged from an old Radio Shack cable, and a cheap RCA -> 801 adapter made from another piece of that cable, a bunch of hot glue, and some heat shrink:



That showed what I wanted to do was possible, but that I needed to shave down the length of the stem, make a shorter adapter (at least for 801's), and plan out some features I felt were needed (indicator lights and a safety switch).

That produced this:



A rat's nest of wires, and it got worse once I wired up the switch (since I insisted on using a larger switch rated for the amount of current (1.0-1.4 amps) I was pushing, rather than over-driving a tiny 0.05 amp tactile switch like most modders), with the unfortunate consequence that the finished prototype looks like this:



A bit clunky and steampunk, and the slide switch safety deformed when I tried to screw it down, and now has to be fiddled to make a good connection.  Anyway, in the "Safe" position, pressing the button on top lights a green LED but does not deliver any power to the RCA connector (so you can stick it in a pocket without risking second degree burns, or a cell explosion that takes a sharkbite chunk out of your leg).



In the "On" position, you get an amber light and the RCA connector gets power:



Even with the clunky over-sized button housing and the fiddly switch, I'm already more comfortable using this than I am using the one I bought from Nerf.  At first glance people seeing me holding and smoking a pipe, rather than sucking on a "sonic screwdriver", a "battery puck", or a "pipe bomb".  When it comes to "Which one of these would you rather take through Airport Security?" , it's no contest between this and nearly everything on the market. It also has about half again the battery life, which moves it from not quite enough for a whole day, to comfortably leaving the house with a fully charged battery and no spares (which is good, because this thing is such a cludge I can't change batteries on it without disassembling it).

The connector is concealed by a rubber cable boot, which also turns out to be a useful method of controlling airflow (push it tight to the stem, you get a hot dry vape and a sharp throat hit, pull it back a little and you get a cool easy draw and a big steam plume on the exhale).

See the red can in the top left corner of the assembled prototype picture?  Building a mechanically safe protected battery out of heatshrink was so time-consuming, and produced such a bulky result, I decided to try putting it all in a aluminum pill bottle.  It worked great, with the diameter exactly correct, enough headroom vertically for a few layers of insulating rubber, the PCB, and the dinky little RF connector I'm using for a power jack (a standard DC coaxial jack would have been *way* too large, and even an RC vehicle JST plug would be bigger and less durable).  So the basis for the next prototype is the cheapest briar wood pipe I could find (briar being a common pipe material that is notoriously difficult to work mechanically), and a battery pack built around a pill bottle:



The only wire that will come above the battery case will be the power connection, I'm going to move the main switch to the side under the index finger rather than the top under the thumb, and I'll use a recessed pushbutton instead of a slide switch for the safety.  Having actually been a pipe smoker made me think in terms of covering the bowl with my thumb, but most people would find the finger switch more intuitive and it helps simplify the assembly and aesthetic (as does the pushbutton safety).  Now the cap can be a rubber grommet a quarter of an inch think, with a metal disk over that, securing it will involve pushing down the disk over three screws, then rotating a few degrees down a narrower channel (think of how a smoke detector or light fixture is attached to the wall).  I'll use a single LED that can shine red, green, or amber (I'll use red for safety mode and yellow for vaping, green will get reserved for an enhanced feature of a future model).

--Dave

[Rasix]

This shit is a little creepy.

[MahrinSkel]

This shit is a little creepy.

Join us, you'll be much happier.  Can't you see how happy everyone is?

Seriously, it's all the benefits of quitting smoking without the withdrawal.  Yeah, you can get obsessed with the gadgetry and spend more on it than you did on smoking, but not counting the tools I'm ahead of where I would have been having been smoking $5 a day worth of cigarettes for the last month and a half, and today I climbed 4 long flights of stairs in a parking garage and when I got to the top, I was surprised that I *wasn't* winded.  I'm smelling things I haven't noticed in years, and food tastes better (when it's good, bad/cheap food tastes nasty).

Even if you buy the overpriced Smoking Everywhere kits, you can break even the first *month* if you're a pack a day smoker in a state with stiff taxes.

--Dave