How to Make a Good Homemade Vaporizer

Rather than smoking your herbs, vaporize them to save yourself from the harmful health effects of smoking. Vaporizing heats up herbs to temperatures at which the herb's essential oils, which contain all of the active ingredients, are evaporated and released as vapor instead of being combusted to produce smoke. Vaporization provides the same effects as smoking does by releasing the active ingredients, but saves your lungs from the harmful carcinogens produced by combustion and consequent health problems that result from smoking. Most commercially available vaporizers are expensive, but there is no need to purchase one when you can create one yourself with everyday household products.

Things You'll Need

• Transparent 100-watt light bulb
• Serrated knife
• Duct tape
• Scissors
• Pliers
• 2 drinking straws
• Cap of a 2-liter soda bottle

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Instructions

• 1

  Slice off the bottom-most part of the metal component at the bottom of the light bulb with a sharp serrated knife. Sand off any resulting jagged edges.

• 2

  Empty the light bulb completely of its contents using a pair of pliers.

• 3

  Sanitize the light bulb by soaking it in a mixture of isopropyl alcohol 90% or higher and epsom salt for ten minutes.

• 4

  Ensure that the two-liter soda bottle cap fits on the light bulb. Larger bottle caps may be fastened on with duct tape, but smaller bottle caps will not fit.

• 5

  Poke two straw-sized holes in your bottle cap, about half an inch from each other.

• 6

  Insert the drinking straws into the holes on the bottle cap and ensure that they connect the inside of the light bulb to the outside by trimming them to size with scissors. The drinking straws should be inserted at an angle perpendicular to the bottle cap.

• 7

  Insert a couple pinches of ground-up herb into the light bulb from the open hole and screw on the bottle cap with the drinking straws. Ensure that the bottle cap is secured on by using tape if necessary; the connection between the cap and the light bulb should be airtight, allowing airflow via the drinking straws only.

• 8

  Turn the light bulb upside-down so that the bottle cap is on top and the herb on the bottom.

• 9

  Vaporize your herb by lighting the bottom of the light bulb with a lighter or candle flame. Move the flame in small circles around the bottom of the light bulb where the herb is, to ensure even heating and maximize vapor yield. Inhale through one of the drinking straws when you begin to see a thin white vapor. Continue vaporizing until your herb becomes dark brown in color, which indicates that it is spent.