How to Vape With Your Bong
Stop wasting weed that only goes up in smoke!


Vapes are great, alas, many of them work poorly or inconsistently, and sometimes they cease to work at all.

Vapes are great because they reduce the negative by-products like tar and ash that get into your lungs when you smoke.

However, you can vape with your bong and get several benefits by doing so.

For one thing, your weed will last longer if you vape it with your bong.

For another thing, while you will be getting some of the same tar and ash by vaping with your bong, because you are vaping there will be less tar and ash per use than if you were more actively puffing more of your weed up in smoke.

Smoke is wasteful and dangerous.

Vaping can be wasteful and may be dangerous too.

Consequently we advise vaping with your bong, its less wasteful, and its healthier than smoking with your bong, and it may possibly be safer than risking your health with the additives common in many vapes.

So how do you do it?

There are two key components to vaping with your bong, these are Bong Preparation and Vaping Technique.

Bong preparation is pretty simple.

1) Begin with a reasonably affordable quality bud.

2) Shred your bud well.  Any grinder-winder should do the trick; our aluminum grinder has lasted us many years and is still going strong.

3) Pack your bowl very firmly.  Be sure to use a screen!  Be careful not to snap the stem by supporting the sides of your bowl with your fingers of one hand while packing it in with your other hand's fingers.  Do not pack the bowl while it is in your bong, that's a quick way to snap the stem or fail to pack your weed in tightly enough for a good vaping technique to work.

4) Pack a small bowl close to the rim but leave a little space near the top.  A good packing will result by filling the bowl and packing it down several times.  Be sure to leave some extra space at the top.  Also be sure to set aside a small amount of your shredded weed to make a blanket to cover for your hash.

note - larger bowls are much more difficult to pack firmly, this makes them much more wasteful.  If you have a large bowl then only fill it a little way up.  We use a conical shaped bowl about 3/4 inches in diameter and 3/4 inches high (outside dimensions).  You should probably limit your fill to about 1/2 to 3/4ths of a gram of bud.  You should be getting at least 4-5 fills with each 1/8th ounce.

5) Distribute a tiny amount of granulated hash across the top of your well-packed bowl.  Not a lot.  An 1/8th ounce should last at least 2 to 3 weeks for a single smoker.  Press the hash into the packed weed so that it will stay in place.  You should see about 30% hash and 60% bud on top.  Don't waste your hash by mixing more into the shredded weed, or making it too dense on top.  Too much hash will just cause coughing which is a big waste.  Even if you are a tough guy who can suck it all up without coughing, you will still be doing more harm to your lungs.

6) Cover your hash with a thin layer of shredded weed that is also packed down very firmly.  This should fill half the remaing space to the rim of your bowl if you use a small bowl.  

note - you will need to keep the level of weed below the rim because you will be using a cap on your bowl as part of your vaping technique.  If the weed is filled too high it will stick to the cap and build up until bits drop off when you lift the cap (wasteful).  You want to keep your cap clean of weed, although a good deal of very sticky resin will inevitably build up over time.

also note - the purpose of covering your hash with a thin blanket of weed is to smother the hash so that it will stop burning when you stop toking.  Once hash begins to burn it will burn a long time, wastefully smouldering away.  That blanket of weed on top will save you money.  You don't need for your hash and weed to go up in smoke while you aren't toking.

7) Poke a straight or very slightly bent pin all the way through your well-packed bowl, and all the way through your screen too.  This hole should be positioned very close to the rim of your bowl, preferably at the position where you will apply the first flame.  This is your chimney hole; this hole is necessary to overcome the tight packing which would otherwise prevent any air from passing through.

0) Prepare your cap.

This is a process that may need to be done only once or twice a year at most.  The purpose of the cap is to reduce the air intake while you are vaping with your bong.  If you don't reduce the air intake your weed will be going up in smoke.

To make a cap for your bong:
a) Take a small piece of aluminum foil and fold it in half.
b) Roll up one edge, trying to make the roll very narrow and firmly compacted.
c) Wrap the rolled edge around the outside edge of the rim of your bowl, so that the ends meet and it fits snugly.
d) Flatten the cylindrical wall of aluminum foil that projects upward from the rim, pulling the excess toward the joined ends.
e) Twist the flattened portion together with the ends to ensure a tight fit, then trim away any excess to leave a short 'handle'.
f) Tug the handle gently to remove the cap.  There should be a slight snap-fit when you replace the cap on the top of your bowl.

With a well packed bowl and a good cap you are ready to practice your vaping techique with your bong.


The techique for vaping with your bong has several steps.

1) Apply the flame gently, stop as soon as you see some weed begin to glow.

2) Immediately snap on your cap, while gently drawing on your bong to keep the weed barely glowing.

3) As soon as the cap is on, cut back on your draw-power, so that you keep your weed gently smouldering but not burning.

4) Stop when you've reached your fill, pulling the stem of your bowl out of your bong to suck up the last traces of smoke and vape.

5) Quickly but gently replace your bowl in your bong.

note - you need to replace the bowl gently because air will rise up through the stem and make your weed burn when it doesn't need to burn.  You need to replace the bowl quickly because doing so will provide more accurate feedback for your technique.

The essence of vaping is to apply a low heat that releases vapor rather than smoke.  But when vaping with your bong the source of that heat will still burn up some of your weed.  You can easily burn through your entire bowl very quickly by drawing on your bong too hard, and you will likely pay for that mistake by coughing, wasting weed, and inhaling too much useless smoke.  Of course, if you want to get very wasted very quickly, feel free to waste away...

The essence of vaping with a bong is training your breathing to get a feel for how hard you need to draw to get just the right amount of combustion and vaping.  Too little combustion and you won't get much of anything, too much combustion will be wasteful.

If you see smoke escape from under the lid of your bowl when you put the bowl back in your bong after removing it at the end of your toke then you were drawing too hard.

If you aren't feeling the desired effects then you aren't drawing hard enough.

Find your comfort zone and stick with it.  Once you learn the trick of it you can experiment with improving your results, but learn good technique first, because unlearning bad habits can be a female sort of dog.

A very small, well-packed bowl can be vape-smoked many times a day for many days before it needs to be refilled, and the quality of your experience will soar because you will be getting a more effective dose without getting over-dosed.

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We smoke for pain relief.  Our pain is considerable, all day long, but it is well-mitigated by careful use of our bong.  Vape-Bonging frequently each day we can usually make an 1/8th ounce last at least 2-3 weeks (for one person).

We consume less than $100 a month in bud and hash, less than $5 of which is spent on the hash.

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Enjoy!
love, the grigs...

originally published in our blog...