Puffco Peak vs Peak Pro
Features |
Peak
|
Peak Pro |
Size |
- The base is pretty much the same size. - Slightly shorter mouthpiece bubbler. |
- The base is pretty much the same size. - Slightly elongated mouthpiece bubbler. |
Heating Chamber |
- 40% smaller chamber - Removable / replaceable ceramic cup |
- 40% larger chamber - Fixed insert ceramic cup, must replace the entire chamber |
Technology |
- Limited temperature settings (only 4 levels) |
- Improved temperature control and stability - Bluetooth temperature control by the degree - Stays within 1% of set temperature with 3D Chamber |
Battery |
- Approximately 20 hits per charge |
- Approximately 25 hits per charge - Approximately 40 hits per charge with 3D Chamber |
Wireless Charging |
None |
Compatible |
Carb Cap |
- Simple glass carb cap. Must be connected to the tether and held in place. Does not lock in. |
- The” Oculus” cap provides a window into your chamber. The press-fit connection locks into the Peak Pro chamber, keeping your carb cap and your oil where they belong. It also features a directional air-path that maximizes vapor production. |
Price |
$249.99 |
$399.99 |
Conclusion
The Puffco Peak is a great place to start. It works really well, but doesn’t have all the bells and whistles like the Peak Pro. Connoisseurs might find the standard Peak lacking, so terp tyrants might want to go straight to the Pro and upgrade to the 3D chamber right away. The Pro does improve upon the original in many ways. So if you truly want the best experience from the electronic dab rig, get the Peak Pro. If you just want something convenient, tried and true, and get’s the job done, stick with the OG Puffco Peak. Click here to check out the newest Puffco products at The Dab Lab.
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Before we get into the pros and cons of this method, I’d like to start with a little history. Although the materials and form have changed a bit over the years, this is essentially the original way to dab. Prior people were using hot knives or even hookah coals to vaporize concentrates, but dabbing didn’t really take off and become a thing until the first dabbing accessory was created, the Vapor Swing / Skillet. A torch was used to heat the skillet (a titanium pad) on the vapor swing (which has now evolved into a ‘banger’) and the concentrates were placed onto the hot pad to vaporize. This method has been refined over the years with improved tools, materials, and added accessories. Check out our blog, “How to Dab with a Quartz Banger (2022 Version)” to learn more about the all the improvements.
PROS
When using a torch and banger there are actually quite a few crucial advantages. Because the dabs are not pre-loaded before the heating process, you are able to heat your banger hotter and more evenly. This results in much more efficient vaporization and preservation of terps! The standard banger is also much larger than the average electronic dab chamber. The combination of these two things results in the biggest tastiest dabs at low temperatures. There are also a ton of different styles of bangers to choose from so you can tailor the experience to your preferences. Lastly, if you properly care for your banger, it will last years.
CONS
The process and learning curve of dabbing with a torch and banger can be difficult for some, but a temperature gauge can be used to make the process easier and more precise. The biggest turn off with new dabbers and this method is easily the torch for a couple of reasons. A dab torch is pretty loud, and even though many of us cook with an open flame regularly, using a torch may feel too dangerous. They also require butane refills.
Electronic dab devices didn’t take long to pop up after dabbing started to take off. And as of now, there are literally 100s of electronic devices designed for vaporizing concentrates, but there are really only 2 types of Electronic Dab Rigs: A banger and heater coil (like the High5 E-Nail) or an all in one chamber and heating element (like the Puffco devices). They both get the job done, but offer slightly different pros and cons.
Banger and Heater Coil (E-Nail)
PROS
An e-nail is an at home desktop dab device. It can stay on all day, hot and ready. It has the same versatility as a torch and banger with similar banger options and accessories. It’s pretty easy to set up and just as easy to use.
CONS
Although e-nails works really well, they don't offer the same result as using a torch. The coil is heavy, so it doesn’t work on smaller dab rigs. Most are not battery operated, therefore you'll need access to a power outlet to use it. It can also potentially be dangerous if it were to fall over, so make sure to turn it off before leaving the house!
Chamber and Heating Element (Dab Pen or E-Rig)
PROS
This type of device and method of dabbing is by far the easiest. Just load the chamber and click a button to use. It doesn’t get any simpler than that. These battery operated devices are also very mobile, so they can easily be carried in a bag or in some cases your pocket!
CONS
Some work better than others, but they don’t quite compare to dabbing with a banger. They either produce much less vapor or much less terp preservation. One or the other will be sacrificed when using this method to dab. They can also be difficult to clean and will likely require many replacement chambers / heating elements throughout the life of the device.
In conclusion, the best method of dabbing really depends on your personal preferences. If big dabs without sacrificing flavor are most important, use a torch. If you need to dab on the go, use an e-rig or dab pen. If you want something easy to use, but still offers an exceptional experience, use an e-nail. Here at The Dab Lab, we got you covered with the latest and greatest tools for dabbing. Click here to shop now!
]]>These first handful of gadgets are for the joint lovers. If you prefer to roll up, check out these items below!
These are great if you like smoking joints but don’t like rolling them. No skill required. Just load and roll. It also speeds up the process quite a bit for when you need to roll more than one for an event or trip.
If you are more of a cone person, these cone fillers make the entire process ridiculously easy. And you can do 6 at a time! This is perfect for the festival and concert goer.
Speaking of concert goers, you’ll need something to protect those joints from being crushed in your bag or pocket. A simple, easy, cheap solution: Doob Tubes. Pop each joint in a holder, toss them in your bag or in your pocket and you are ready to go. They come in a variety colors too!
This is a bit of an odd one, but we think this is a really cool idea. These filtered tips have little flavor pop pods in them to add a burst of flavor to your joint, blunt, or spliff. Unlike traditional flavored wraps, the flavor is not burned, resulting in a much cleaner added flavor. If you like flavored papers and wraps, we highly recommend checking these out!
An old school design that is more useful than ever. Since the pandemic, we have all been much more cautious with sharing joints and pipes. For those hesitant to share but miss toking one up with some friends, this is the perfect solution. Insert a lit joint or blunt and the power hitter delivers a smoke stream into your mouth with no contact. Just squeeze, inhale, and pass da power hitter pon da left hand side.
Whether you are rolling joints, blunts, packing bong bowls, or making edibles, grinders can be super helpful to improve the experience. But everyone has a grinder, so we found a couple that we thought were pretty special.
This is my favorite new device. It works great and eliminates all my complaints of a traditional grinder. It stays very clean, chunks never get stuck in the teeth. It doesn't stick and become hard to grind. It really is effortless to use everytime. The charge lasts what seems like forever (I only charged it once). If you are sick of your traditional grinder, we highly recommend the upgrade. The only con is it’s not very portable.
This grinder on the other hand is great for on the go. It features a compartment to store your nug in so everything you need is all in one place!
Between smoking and dabbing it can be a bit of a mess. Ash, resin, reclaim, and even the smoke are byproducts of smoking. It helps to have the proper tools to make it easier to stay clean!
Every smoker needs an ashtray. But what makes this ashtray special is that it’s made of silicone, features a tap bump in the middle for cashing glass pipes and bowls, and holders for your accessories. This is an ESSENTIAL stoner item.
A poker is a crucial item for pipe and bong tokers. The toker poker combines a poker, a steel packer (instead of your fingers!), your hempick (optional), and bic lighter into one. It also feels much more ergonomic than a bare Bic. It’s small and inexpensive too, so that makes this a great stocking stuffer item.
These bong cleaning caps make cleaning your water pipe so much easier! It can be awkward and difficult to clean a water pipe, especially a larger one, using your hands to cover the openings. These caps secure each open end of a piece ensuring the solution doesn’t splash everywhere as you shake the piece clean. Simple and effective.
If you are a dabber you know the difficulties of keeping your quartz banger clean. It can take multiple cotton swabs per dab to clean a banger head effectively. That really adds up. In efforts to reduce our footprint and make the whole process easier, we started using the Dab Sponge. It’s reusable, cleanable, and has replaceable parts. Most importantly, it works great!
Mouthpeace
Similar to the Power Hitter, Mouthpeace allows you to share pipes and joints with friends again! These personal interchangeable mouthpieces also remove harsh resins and tar, creating a smoother and healthier toke. If you cough excessively after a toke, give Mouthpeace a try!
The SmokeBuddy comes in clutch when you need to be stealthy. Whether you are staying at your parents house for Thanksgiving, live in an apartment, or just don’t want your place smelling like weed, the SmokeBuddy does an amazing job of eliminating the smoke and odor. You’ll never get caught with your SmokeBuddy!
It’s always a good idea to protect your investments. Glass pipes can break so having some items that help prevent that is crucial. Or maybe investing in an unbreakable pipe is a better option.
Another simple idea that we love very much, decorative coasters for your dab rigs and glass pipes. Coasters are typically used to protect the table from dings and water stains, but these coasters are meant to protect your glass pipes. If you set a piece down on a hard surface too hard you risk chipping, scratching or breaking it. With a heady coaster you soften that surface significantly. They come in a variety of designs and sizes. Many are limited edition too, so they are fun to collect!
A bag designed just for stoners. They all feature smell proof technology and are custom designed to perfectly fit all your 420 essentials. They also feature a built in lock zipper to keep unwanted hands out of your bag! Available in a wide variety of styles, sizes, and colors.
The Eyce Pipe is an unbreakable silicone pipe with a built-in poker. This is great for people who have a habit of breaking their glass pipes. It also features a glass insert in the bowl so you still get that same clean flavor as a glass pipe. That piece is breakable, but pretty inexpensive to replace.
Electronic Dab Rigs and Vaporizers have been the new wave for the past few years. This is probably the most saturated area of stoner gadgets. And it’s understandable because these items attempt to make dabbing and smoking as easy and effortless as possible, something we all want.
Leading the pack in this category is…
Puffco (Peak, Peak Pro, Proxy, and Hot Knife)
Puffco has created several mentionable gadgets. Their Peak and Peak Pro E-Rigs are easily the most popular all in one electronic vaporizers on the market. These devices make dabbing a breeze with their fully automated heating chambers. No need for a torch, just load and vape! They also just released a new modular vaporizer that uses the same technology but allows glass artists more freedom to create compatible attachments. We can’t wait to see what people come up with.
They also make this really cool tool that makes it easier than ever to load a dab into a chamber. The hot end allows you to easily cut portions like butter and drop dabs off the end of the tool. No more struggling to get the dab off your dabber!
Thanks for shopping with The Dab Lab!
]]>Things have changed drastically over the past decade. How to dab in 2022 is much different than it was in 2010. And although we have covered some new dabbing techniques and tools, we have not created a fully updated how to dab blog until now. So let’s jump right in…
Before we officially get started with the dabbing process, you’ll need to make sure you have the tools for the job. Below is a list of the items you’ll need to dab.
OPTIONAL ITEMS
Once you have everything you need to dab, it’s time to heat things up!
STEP 1
Turn on your torch and point the flame at the bottom of the banger. Point the flame towards the sky and rock back and forth hitting the bottom and side walls of the banger. Heat your banger thoroughly (how long varies from banger to banger) and then wait for the banger to cool to the optimal temperature (around 500-600* F).
NOTE: For safety DO NOT point the flame towards your glass rig, table, or anything flammable. You’ll need to use a timer and a few test dabs to get it perfect or you can just use a temp gauge tool like the handheld TERPOMETER or the hands free OCTAVE.
STEP 2
Scoop or stick a dab to the end of your dabber. If you're new to dabbing, start small.
STEP 3
Melt the dab into the heady of your banger and swiftly grab a carb cap.
STEP 4
There are many styles of carb caps, but for the purpose of this blog we will keep it basic and use a bubble cap. Place the cap on the banger and inhale while using the spout of the cap to chase the oil around the surface.
That’s it! Now you know how to dab! Don’t forget to exhale ;)
This isn’t the only way to dab! There are a ton of accessories to improve or change the experience. For example you can use a spinner carb cap & terp pearl. Or you can use inserts to keep your nail as fresh as possible. Some people even do the process in reverse (Cold Start Dabbing)!
STEP 5 - CLEANING YOUR BANGER (OPTIONAL, BUT HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)
There are several ways to clean your banger. We cover the 3 best methods below. All methods should be done around 250* F, you can go a little hotter, but keep in mind you might burn the head of your q-tips and vaporize any iso applied.
(A) ISO DIP
Dip the head of your banger in a container of iso. Shake off excess and let the iso evaporate.
(B) ISO SWAB
Dip one side of your cotton swab in iso and swab the leftover oil in your banger. Repeat the process until full clean
(C) ISO RINSE & WIPE
Pour about a ¼” of iso into the head of your banger. Let the leftover oil dissolve and then soak up the iso with a wad of paper towel. Twist it around a few times and pull it out.
Instead of paper towels or cotton swabs you can also use a DABSPONGE that is designed specifically for this process. It really makes everything very easy and they last quite a long time before you need to change your head. This could potentially save you money on cotton swabs and paper towels.
As you can see the process has changed quite a bit from 2010, but so has the experience.
Happy dabbing and thanks for shopping with The Dab Lab!
]]>A majority of the game-changing innovations to hit the dabbing scene in recent years all involve temperature control of some sort.
It was not that long ago that a lot of us were heating titanium dab nails until they were literally red hot and glowing, then dropping a vapor dome over the top and globbing a massive dab of oil onto the searing surface.
While this method certainly produced a lot of potent vapor to be inhaled, we had no idea that we were incinerating many of the active ingredients in our wax and oils before we’d ever enjoy the benefits of them. These active cannabinoids and terpenes are responsible for creating the strain-specific flavor and effects that we all love – and we were nuking them for years!
As we learn more about the boiling points of these crucial constituents, technology has raced to keep up with consumer demands for more temperature control. We saw this kickoff with the rise of the e-nail, or electronic nail, that allows the user to pre-set a desired temperature and the device heats the dabbing surface to that exact temp.
Looking to take that tech on the go, next came the explosion in popularity of handheld, battery-powered all-in-one dabbing devices like the PuffCo Peak.
Still, true connoisseurs will tell you, those two options above may offer convenience, but nothing beats a dab of top-shelf terps off of a fresh, clean quartz banger torch-heated to the perfect temperature.
With so many styles of quartz bangers available these days, with varying thickness and design, trying to find that “perfect temperature” has traditionally involved a mixture of cooking timers and voodoo but once again, technology has stepped up to meet demand and now it is essential to have a Dab Temp Tool in your arsenal.
Although this tech is relatively new to the dabbing scene, we are excited to see companies already taking different approaches about the design and function of their temp-taking devices. Let’s take a look at some of the top models and brands:
If you are looking for one dabber to rule them all, turn your eyes onto the Terpometer – a dabber and dab temp tool all in one. This handheld, USB-charged & wireless device features a forked scoop dab tool on one end and a highly accurate temperature gauge on the other. With three simple clicks of the power button, the Terpometer lights up, ready to help you get lit up with the maximum level of flavor and effects from your dabs by giving you a precise readout of the temperature of your dabbing surface. If that’s not simple enough, the LED screen flashes to a backlit green color when your nail drops in temp down into the ideal range for true vaporization. Get yourself a Terpometer and your terpenes and taste buds will thank you with every dab!
or those that appreciate the finer things in life, behold the Terp Timer by Octave. This desktop dab nail temperature reader uses similar no-touch tech as the Temper listed above, but the Terp Timer also features an incredibly badass laser sight so that you are absolutely sure you’re taking the temperature of the ideal part of your banger. Dab tools with frickin’ laser beams!! The sleek aerospace alloy design is aesthetically appealing and standing at just 3.5 inches tall, the Terp Timer will fit unsuspiciously in with all of your latest devices and electronics. Boasting a 10-year manufacturer warranty and an unheard of 2-3 month (!!!) battery life, there is no doubt that this device was built to last, dab after perfectly temp’d dab. Customize your Terp Timer experience by setting your desired temperature into the unit and it will sound a reminder when the time and the temp are ideal.
The Dab Rite is very similar to the Terp Timer with one key difference. The Dab Rite™ utilizes a flexible temperature reading arm allowing for more accurate readings across a variety of heights and angles. Because of thie arm, the Dab Rite isn't as sleek and sexy as the Terp Timer, but if your banger is very high from the surface or sits at an awkward angle it's a necessary trade off. Like the Terp Timer it also has sound notification with the addition of a light notification when you reach the desired temperature.
The days of cooked cannabinoids and toasted terps are over! The days of battery dabs or being tied to a wall outlet to sesh are numbered as well. We all know how much a jar of top-shelf quality concentrates or extracts can cost these days – you deserve to dab every penny’s worth of wax.
Put the power back in your own hands and let’s torch some quartz! Add one of these innovative Dab Temp Tools to the mix and you can do away with timers, guessing games, and wasted wax.
Save money, save time, and save the terps… please save the poor terps… with a new Dab Temp Tool from your friends at The Dab Lab!
]]>The tools and techniques used to take a dab have certainly evolved over the past decade or so, but it is fascinating to see those innovations range from complex electronics to relatively simple borosilicate or quartz accessories – and now, Dab Beads or Terp Pearls.
As tastes evolved, dabbers came to realize that vaporizing their high-grade oils on a blazing hot nail or surface might produce a lot of smoke and a massive lung expansion, but it was greatly degrading the flavor and even the true effects that they expected their experience to deliver.
Once low-temp dabbing became the new jam, those same dabbers realized just how hard it was to time their hit in the ideal zone of a rapidly dropping temperature. Sure, an e-nail helps, but it always seemed as though a true low-temp dab left behind a half-vaped, gooey residue in your banger or nail. A cotton swab might clean most of it out, but what waste!
What if you could just vape it down to the last drop instead? Well friends, that’s where Dab Beads and Terp Pearls come into play and, honestly, it’s pretty crazy that it took so long for us all to figure out this flavor-saving tech. With terp pearls you’ll truly be getting the most bang for your buck out of your top shelf dabs, vaping it all instead of swabbing up puddles of wasted leftovers.
WHAT IS A TERP PEARL
Terp Pearls (Dab Beads, Banger Beads, etc.) come in a variety of names, materials, and even sizes – check out these millie encased boro pearls!
You can find them these days from a variety of brands, but they are, for the most part, mostly the same function-wise.
Typically shaped either as perfect spheres or in an elongated pill shape, Dab Beads and Terp Pearls are most often handcrafted out of borosilicate glass (clear, color, heady, or millies), quartz, SiC (Silicone Carbide), ceramic, sapphire, or even ruby – all favored for their aesthetic appeal as well as their ability to withstand and redistribute heat.
HOW DOES A TERP PEARL WORK
After you stop applying heat to your dab nail or quartz banger, it immediately begins to cool down, right? Though higher quality bangers do a better job or evenly distributing and retaining that heat, some parts of the dabbing surface will inevitably cool down quicker than others.
Terp Pearls solve this problem in a highly effective way.
Pop a pearl or two inside your banger and heat it up with a torch (note: some pearls can melt or can be thermal shocked – continue reading for more special care instructions). Once it cools to the ideal temperature all you have to do is take your dab as you normally would, using a carb cap with good airflow. The pearls will help with heat retention vaporizing more oil at the same starting temperature.
But to get the max potential out of your beads you will need to use a bubble cap, directional flow carb cap, or a spinner cap to move the beads around the nail. As they move around, they are not only helping to distribute the heat of the surface they are travelling on, but they move the oil around as well, ensuring that it will hit the hottest spots on the nail and vaporize much, much more thoroughly.
If using a spinner cap, your Terp Pearls will really come to life, spinning rapidly around the dabbing surface of your nail or banger.
WHICH TERP PEARL SHOULD I BUY
The various substances that Terp Pearls or Dab Beads are made from will also come with a variety of prices. So, while budget should absolutely factor into your decision of which one(s) to buy, there is more to it than that. Let’s look a bit closer and rank each on our exclusive Chazability Scale with 1 being Most Likely to Chaz and 10 being Least Likely to Chaz.
Borosilicate – Redefining the term “better than nothing”, clear glass Terp Beads are the most affordable option and offer the least heat retention but can still provide the added surface area and movement needed to more efficiently vaporize your oil. As with all boro glass, it can and will melt or change shape under intense heat – such as the direct, prolonged flame of a torch - so be aware of that when cleaning your Terp Pearls. Chazability: 1
Ceramic – Ceramic Dab Beads or Terp Pearls offer decent heat retention, similar to quartz, and some argue, better flavor. Much like a ceramic dab nail, Terp Pearls made from this material can be hard to keep clean and are probably the most fragile of all the materials on this list. They cannot be torch cleaned as they will likely break. Allowing them to completely cool down is the safest way to keep them intact, making them hard to keep sparkling clean. Chazability: 3
Quartz – If you are dabbing then you are probably pretty familiar with the pros and cons of quartz. Better heat retention and flavor representation are the two main reasons why your banger isn’t made out of boro, but out of quartz. They are also very resistant to thermal shock, so you can go straight from adab to iso with no worries of breakage. That being said, I would still wait for them to cool down a bit before submerging in any liquid as that will speed of chazzing. They can also be torch cleaned, but again, that will speed up chazzing. Chazability: 5
Sapphire & Ruby – Lab grown sapphire and ruby Terp Pearls are known for their superior heat retention and optimal flavor delivery. Some care must be taken when cleaning gemstone Terp Pearls or Dab Beads. If they are still hot or warm, do not submerge them in iso alcohol as this could cause thermal shock and break or damage your Terp Pearl. Similarly, hitting it with the direct flame of a torch could cause shock the other direction, also risking damage or breakage. Like borosilicate, ruby Dab Beads or Terp Pearls can potentially even melt if put under enough sustained heat. Gentle heat, reliable tweezers, and a dry swab works best. Chazability: 7
SiC –Silicone carbide has been used industrially for over a century, but its use in the dabbing scene came much more recently. Though they are more closely related to ceramic, these Terp Pearls look like metal and enjoy a similarly superior level of thermal/heat conductivity as well as thermal shock resistance. This makes them easy to clean with a torch flame, an alcohol wipe, or pretty much whatever method you want to use. Chazability: 10
Shinju – Made from a ‘sophisticated high temp ceramic material’, Shinju Ceramic Terp Pearls offer the best of all worlds with insane heat retention and the ability to be torch cleaned back to like-new in seconds. The same material appears to be used to make high end chef’s knives, shinju blades stay sharper longer than steel, and that durability definitely carries over to Dab Beads and Terp pearls made from this super-ceramic. Unrivaled heat retention caps off the list of reasons why we love this type of Terp Pearl. Chazability: 10
SIZE MATTERS
The final, and perhaps most important factor to consider when making a decision on what to buy is to figure out what size would be best for you and the glass dab rig, quartz banger, and carb cap setup that you plan to use.
The most common sizes for sphere-shaped Terp Pearls are 4mm, 6mm, and 9mm and then, as mentioned above, you will find some shaped more like a long piece of candy (think Good n’ Plenty) or a pill.
These sizes are optimized for different sizes and styles of quartz bangers, nails, and dabbing surfaces.
4mm - Best for ‘All-in-One’ battery powered dabbing devices like the Puffco Peak, these handheld, portable devices typically have a smaller than usual, built-in dabbing cup or surface. Its miniature size requires a miniature carb cap and so this miniature size of Terp Pearls quite literally fits right in.
6mm – Probably up for debate, but to us this seems like the ideal size for “standard” size quartz bangers. Whether they have a 10mm, 14mm, or 18mm joint, the 6mm Terp Pearl seems to be the best size to keep the terpenes flowing in these quartz buckets… and keep em’ clean!
9mm & Shaped – These oversized versions of what is described above are ideal for you heavy hitters out there who are dropping globs on the regular. Perfect for big ol’ 30mm bangers or the newly popularized Terp Slurper. If using a Terp Slurper, you will need a pill and a 9mm pearl. The pill goes inside the taper and the pearls sits on top of the taper acting as a valve. When you hit your piece the pill starts spinning about and the pearls hops up and down. It really is fun to watch and is extremely effective for vaporizing huge globs!
Picture Source: @_terpslurper
We know as well as anyone that there are a thousand ways to take a dab, but odds are you likely fall roughly into one of the categories above and we all love mouthwatering flavors, intense effects, and big rips. That’s why we made this guide to help steer you toward the best Terp Pearls for your tastes.
Of course, if you’re reading this, you’ve already arrived at The Dab Lab, your one stop shop for all of your dabbing devices, smoking tools, and kickass counter culture accessories!
]]>Users of the Focus V Carta love its lower price point, its wide array of intuitive features, its ease of use, and of course its mobility. No more flames, no more cords, no more timers, no more guessing – just darn near perfect dabs darn near every time no matter where you are.
Once you start dabbing exclusively on an electronic vaporizer like the Carta, you’ll probably wonder how you ever spent so much time and effort with cans of butane and crème brûlée torches. But no matter how convenient technology makes some of our favorite traditions, one thing remains constant, you’ve got to keep your gear clean if you expect it to work properly.
CLEANING YOUR CARTA SHOULD FEEL FAMILIAR
The popularization of the domeless quartz nail, the quartz banger specifically, can be chalked up to two main factors – flavor & aesthetic. Properly heated quartz delivers a much truer terp profile than the titanium options that once ruled the culture and the clear curves of a well-crafted quartz bucket, banger, nail, or trough just look so cool on both scientific glass and heady glass dab rigs… but only if that quartz is clean!
So, if you want your Focus V Carta to not only look as good as the day you bought it, but function that good as well, it is important that you be just as meticulous with how well you clean and maintain it as you would be with any other prized possession.
The Carta comes with an owner’s manual, but that documentation does not really give any useful advice on what the best practices are when cleaning or maintaining the device. It comes with a few alcohol soaked towelettes but no instruction as far as how or when to use them. Your buds here at The Dab Lab have some key tips for both cleaning and maintaining your Focus V Carta to ensure that you get the optimal flavor and effects from every heating cycle.
If you are familiar with the standard procedure for dabbing on a quartz banger these days, you are likely well-versed in “Q-Tip Tech” but if not, it’s pretty basic and it happens to be the best way to keep your Carta bucket clean and clear as well.
Regardless of the temperature setting you use your Carta at, there is almost always going to be some residual oil remaining in the bucket after the heating cycle is complete. If that residual oil is allowed to cool, and compound on itself, you get a charred, or “chazzed’, appearance which not only looks bad, but can affect flavor and function as well. So before the bucket cools, and while and residual oil is still liquified, use a cotton swab like the Crud Bud soaked in isopropyl alcohol to quickly and easily mop up the mess and leave a nice clean surface for the next dab.
By performing this seemingly mundane task after literally every dab, you will greatly reduce the need for deeper cleaning or maintenance but if you use your Carta often, that deeper cleaning will be inevitable eventually.
*** ALERT *** DO NOT ATTEMPT TO REMOVE THE CARTA BUCKET FROM THE ATOMIZER AFTER THEY HAVE BOTH COMPLETELY COOLED DOWN!
Residual oil often finds its way out of the bucket and can form a tight seal between the bucket and the ceramic plate of the atomizer once it cools and dries. If you need to remove the bucket for deeper cleaning, do so gently with tweezers like these handy Quartz Tech Reverse Tweezers while both bucket and atomizer are still warm.
The bucket can be soaked in iso alcohol much like you’d do with a pipe, bowl, slide, or downstem. Salt can be added for gentle abrasion to remove stubborn stains or accumulation. Be sure to let it dry thoroughly (a fresh, dry, cotton swab works well to expedite this). The last thing you want is for your next dab to be spoiled by that harsh flavor.
The glass mouthpiece attachment that comes with the Carta, or any custom glass attachment like the ones we offer here at The Dab Lab, are also cleaned like the rest of your functional glass collection – iso, salt, and hot water. Use your trusty cotton swab to clear the port hole near the bottom of the glass attachment.
The connection port where the glass attachment meets the Carta unit itself can be gently cleaned using a cotton swab lightly soaked in iso, then wiped clear with a paper towel. Try to avoid getting too much iso on or near the base of your Carta unit, it can react badly with some of the composite components.
FAULTY ATOMIZER - REPLACE OR REPAIR?
The atomizer is not really designed to be cleaned, but rather replaced. If you are relatively handy, however, you may be able to repair yours.
You will notice a gradual buildup of residual oil – or “reclaim” – on the bottom of your atomizer and in the port that it threads into. The gold colored connections on the atomizer and in the port are crucial for the operation of the Carta unit but introducing moisture like iso alcohol to these parts can often render them busted.
Here at The Dab Lab we offer replacement atomizers (always a good idea to have on hand) as well as atomizer repair kits that will get your Focus V Carta unit functioning again for a fraction of the price.
The process is pretty easy really and involves a simple prying off of a small copper cap on the bottom stem of the atomizer. That will reveal a rubber stopper that is easily removed with a pair of pliers or tweezers. With those removed you will find the wired heating element that you will be repairing. You will use your tweezer tool to remove the wired flat disc recessed down inside the atomizer. Yank that sucker out! Youwill replace it with a brand new one from your repair kit.
Reassemble in reverse order taking care to ensure that the longer of the two wires slides through the tube of the copper pin while the shorter of the two wires rides along the groove found on the edge of the copper pin. With both in place, use your clipper tool to snip the long wire flush/even with the end of the atomizer, reset the copper plug in place and BAM! you’re back in action!
This entire process can be done in less than 5 minutes once you have done it once or twice. The sudden and always inopportune need to repair or replace an atomizer can be frustrating, but with some gentle routine maintenance you can greatly reduce the risk of failure and keep your Carta running reliably.
]]>There is no better example of the results of this rapid innovation than the all in one electronic portable dab rig. The all-in-one dab rig is – by our definition – a portable, wireless, battery-operated, water-diffused device that allows the user to “dab” their own wax or oil directly onto a self-heated surface. These devices are meant to emulate the full-scale dabbing experience but without the awkwardness of the torch or Kevlar cords when you are on the move. If you have been considering treating yourself or someone you love to one of these hot new pieces of hardware but are unsure of which one to buy, The Dab Lab has compiled a list of the Top 5 All in One Electronic Dab Rigs of 2019 which should help you decide.
5. Pulsar RoK – As the newest entry into the competitive battle between Puffco and Focus V, the RoK from Pulsar offers an alternative, but not any new or innovative features. Its design is more reminiscent of a traditional dab rig or bubbler which some may find more aesthetically appealing, while others may knock for its added lack of discretion. We do like the showerhead perc and the impressive level of diffusion it creates in the borosilicate base, and it is more traditional to see that water chamber below the heating element, rather than above it as it is on competing models. The all-metal body above that glass chamber also feels well-crafted in the hand. Vapor flows directly from the water chamber into the mouthpiece, and into your lungs without ever crossing over electrical components or substandard enclosure materials. You can swap out the downstem for a variety of colors and different percolator options and that’s definitely cool. With just 3 temperature settings, advanced users may find the RoK too simplistic, while those new to this form of consumption may appreciate the ease of use.
4. Dr. Dabber Boost – The Boost certainly gets some points for originality, as it was among the first mainstream designs to truly replicate the dabbing experience with a handheld, battery-powered, water-filtered device. Compared to today’s more popular models like the Puffco Peak and the Focus V Carta, the Boost leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to user options, but that in itself can be an important point to consider. The Boost is so simple to use, even for those totally new to vaporizing waxes or oils. With a rapid heat up time of just 30 seconds, you can expect to get 40-50 full-flavored hits off a single charge of the lithium ion battery. Unlike most vape pens, the Boost uses no wicks or coils as a heating element, instead offering both titanium and quartz surfaces for ideal flavor and a thorough vaporization.
3. Sutra DBR – The “DBR” features more of a crossover design between a vape pen and a dab rig with a much more slender profile than today’s more popular designs. Don’t get it twisted, though, this handheld portable all in one e-nail RIPS! Not only does the DBR come equipped out of the box with a finely crafted borosilicate glass recycler attachment, it also offers four different heating surfaces to help you decide which is best for your preferred flavor and effects. Choose from titanium, ceramic, quartz, or silicon carbide and experience an explosion of terps across your tastebuds! At just six inches tall and boasting a heat up time of just 30 seconds, the DBR is perfect for dabs on the downlow and ultimate discretion. The surprisingly useful level of interactivity between user and device along with the sweet price point make the Sutra DBR a perfect stocking stuffer for the discerning dabber in your life.
2. Puffco Peak - The Peak is the most commonly known example of this category of vaporizing product, though it was hardly the first of its kind, and its reputation is not all positive. There is no doubt that the Puffco Peak changed the game when it came to all-in-one electronic dab rigs, not only by advancing the technology, but by inspiring popular glass artists to create new, headier glass attachments so that users can now truly customize their Peak to match their personality. Still, the fail rate of the atomizers on the units cannot be overlooked and mixed reports of the quality of their customer service have plagued the brand this year. The lone, non-removable battery is reason enough to knock the Peak into 2nd Place, and the comparative lack of user controls seals the deal.
1. Focus V Carta – That’s right… the Puffco Peak is not in the #1 slot because the Focus V Carta came along just long enough after the Peak that its developers could implement some of the key features that Puffco failed to include with their product. We did an in-depth breakdown which you can read HERE, but the key advantages that the Carta carries over the Peak, in our opinion, come down to lower cost of the unit and its accessories as well as a deeper, more intuitive and user friendly interface. Much like the Peak, the Carta is always in high demand and can be hard to find in stock from a reputable retailer, but you know The Dab Lab has your back! Add a few accessories to bump your order over $300 and we’ll ship it all to you for FREE!
Honorable Mention: The G Pen Connect – Although it is not truly an “all in one” electronic dab rig, the Connect from G Pen and Grenco Science has been a popular product this year and its unique design is worthy of a mention here. For starters, you need to already have your own dab rig, bubbler, or bong with a female glass on glass joint in either 10mm, 14mm, or 18mm. The G Pen Connect serves basically as a battery-powered banger for your waxes and oils by sliding seamlessly into the joint of your favorite functional glass piece. Leave the torch on the shelf and watch as the Connect heats up in a mindboggling FIVE SECONDS! While this may not work for those of you slamming full gram globs on your nail, the G Pen Connect is perfect for smaller portions and BIG vapor!
There you have it, folks, our all-in-one rundown of the Top 5 All in One Dab Rigs of 2019 is complete (+1!). The Dab Lab is your best source for legit, authentic, warrantied versions of most of the products described here and we’re always available in the event that you still have more questions to help you decide what may be best for your situation.
What sort of next-gen dabbing tech will surface over the next decade? Your imagination is as vivid as ours, but one thing is for sure, you’ll find the best deals on whatever is to come right here at The Dab Lab.
Here’s to the future!
]]>Getting a full rig set-up as a gift doesn't have to break the bank. MJ Arsenal offers full rig set-up for as low as $49! They all come equipped with a quartz banger, so they are ready to use out of the box. These mini rigs are the ultimate flavor savers! Each piece comes packaged in a custom box with a foam insert for safe storage. Some of their pieces are Limited Edition like the one shown above made for the Christmas season. A great gift for collectors!
2. SeshGear GiGi Cartridge Battery
At only $19.99, these cartridge batteries make the perfect stocking stuffer for people who use pre-filled cartridges. They are extremely compact and fit comfortably in your pocket. These batteries come in a bunch of different colors so you can customize this gift depending on who it is for. Camo for the outdoorsman? Or maybe Tie-Dye for your hippy friend?
3. Custom Torch
Have you noticed your friend using a lighter to ignite his dab torch? Well it's time to replace it! These Custom Torches are available in several different colors and custom pop-culture inspired designs, so we are sure to have something that is the perfect fit. Custom Torches also come with a LIFETIME WARRANTY! So if it breaks, they will fix or replace it!
An inexpensive chillum pipe or spoon pipe is always a great stocking stuffer for any stoner. Grav Glass has a wide variety of styles, sizes, and colors from $5 to $24. Priced right for any budget, so everyone can be sure to get a gift this year!
One of the pricier items on the list, this glass pipe by Liberty Glass is quite literally the ultimate "weed" pipe. This beautiful functional glass pipe was made using a glass art technique known and "sandblasting". The pipe is made with multiple colored layers of glass. One layer is "sandblasted" away using a stencil leaving behind a pattern or image. Not only are these pipe great to smoke out of, but they are also great table and conversation pieces. Make sure to check out Liberty's full selection for other color and design options.
A silicone ash tray is a great inexpensive gift for smokers. It's something every stoner needs. Especially if they use glass. Tapping your glass bowl on a glass ash tray is a big "no no" and has lead to breakage on more than one occasion. This silicone ash tray is perfectly safe to tap your glass bowl on. It even has a center piece specifically for that purpose!
7. Newport Refillable Torch Lighter
These torch lighters are great for lighting bowls, joint, and blunts. At only $5.99, it's the perfect stocking stuffer for any stoner! They are re-usable, re-fillable, and come in a variety of different colors. These torches are such a good deal, you'll have to grab one for yoursefl too!
8. Protective Coaster Pads by DabPadz
If you have friends or family that use glass pipes, bongs, or rigs, a pad by DabPadz is great stocking stuffer. They protect your glass by providing a soft cushioned surface for you to set your glassware on. They make a bunch of really cool designs and start at only $6.50 each.
We all have that one stoner friend that take his rig everywhere. You know, the one that prefers to use a Quartz Banger rather than an E-Rig. Well this is THE PERFECT GIFT for that person. The ultimate travel rig. Fill it up with water, screw on the tops and you are ready to go. No need to empty and fill your rig each time for those pit stops. Even if you aren't that person, these are great daily driver rigs and they look cool too!
This isn't exactly a "cheap" gift, so we suggest saving this one for someone that really means a lot to you. Whoever receives this gift is sure to know how much you appreciate them. The Carta Rig is one of the hottest items to release in 2019. Battery operated, precise temperature settings and best of all NO TORCH NEEDED! It's also customizable with 3rd party bubble attachments, so it can be upgraded later on (Gift idea #2 for a later date). We dub this the BEST STONER GIFT of 2019.
Well, that "wraps" it up! We hope this list helped you pick a wonderful gift for your friends or family. Thanks for shopping with us. Happy Holidays from your friends at The Dab Lab!
]]>However, that partial list above alludes to the advanced, multistep method that one must go through in order to take a traditional dab and while that ceremonial process is something that many of us seasoned heads enjoy, it can be intimidating for those new to vaping oils and it is certainly not ideal for dabs on the go.
So, for years, we settled for pocket-sized vape pens which are still unbeatable when it comes to discretion, but still leave a bit to be desired compared to other methods of ingestion.
That all changed, however, with the introduction of the Puffco Peak in 2018, a pyramid-shaped product that succeeded where no other portable, electronic dabbing device had – it delivered a thick rip very comparable to the most perfectly timed, cleanest quartz, perfectly carb capped dab that you’d get out of any heady glass dab rig.
For close to a year, the Puffco Peak reigned unchallenged in the market. As supply failed to keep up with demand, retailers faced inventory shortages nationwide, and savvy entrepreneurs saw an opening. That’s when we first saw the first real competitor to the Peak, called the Focus V Carta.
It’s no secret that Puffco Peak owners break down into two distinct camps: They either swear by its superiority, or they use it as a paperweight after refusing to repair it again. The Focus V Carta had the benefit of watching the Peak make the difficult climb to the top of the industry, but did they avoid the same pitfalls on their own path?
We have done plenty of “research” on both products here at The Dab Lab, and due to their similarity we get a lot of questions about both, so we figured we’d give you a rundown of the Puffco Peak vs. the Focus V Carta: Which is Better?
1. PRICE
Most reviews of these products wait until the very end to let you know how much the items actually cost – if they even tell you at all! Let’s face it, if you are dabbing on high quality oils, they can put a big enough dent in our budget, so saving money on accessories means more money for terps.
In this head to head, the Carta crushes the Peak in a line item cost comparison of not only the units themselves, but of all of the official accessories and replacement parts that each brand offers.
In theory, you should only need to buy one full kit, but the accessories (atomizers in particular) have the potential to be recurring costs, and the margin between the Carta extras and the Peak extras is substantial enough to give the Focus V Carta the clear edge when it comes to price.
ADVANTAGE: FOCUS V CARTA
2. SIZE
Both the Carta and the Puffco Peak stand right around 7 inches tall when equipped with their standard glass mouthpieces. They both feature a round base under 3 inches in diameter, but the conical form of the Puffco Peak from top to bottom creates a more stable platform making it much less likely to be accidentally tipped over than the Carta.
Both devices are heavier than they look due in large part to the powerful batteries that drive them, but both are still very easy to casually carry around a sesh or event, making anywhere a sesh spot. The ability to pass your Puffco or Carta back and forth between friends, rain or shine, in windy weather or otherwise, is the main reason why these products have catapulted in popularity.
Size really should not be a deciding factor for you here – it’s a toss-up. Maybe shape should be a bigger influence, as the two devices have distinctly different aesthetics.
ADVANTAGE: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
3. FUNCTION
Similar to most high end vape pens, both the Puffco Peak and the Focus V Carta allow the user to choose between four or more preset temperature levels. As a general rule of thumb, lower temperature dabs will deliver more flavor and a slower onset of effects, while hotter dabs tend to produce larger clouds of vapor and hit harder, faster while sacrificing some flavor.
The Focus V Carta takes temperature control to the next level, though, by offering a smartphone app that will allow you to connect to your Carta via Bluetooth and manually dial in the precise temperature that you desire. That’s hot!
With the touch of a button, your Puffco Peak will automatically heat up the dabbing chamber to the desired temperature in about 20 seconds – much faster than a torch and quartz banger. When it hits that temp, you’ll see the led lights signal the device’s readiness and a gentle vibration in your hand will coax you into taking your dab. The Carta works pretty much the same way but it only takes 5-7 seconds to reach your desired temperature, saving you even more time over the course of the sesh.
Your PuffCo Peak will recharge in roughly 2 hours and will then provide anywhere from 20-30 dabs before needing to be recharged. The battery for the Puffco Peak is internal and cannot be removed without cracking the unit open and voiding your warranty.
The Focus V Carta has a similar battery life but they will allow you to remove and replace the rechargeable battery with a spare. As long as you have an extra battery fully charged, you’ve got dozens of dabs at your fingertips.
The ability to dial in precise temps, the lightning fast heat up time, and the ability to swap out dead batteries make the Carta a much more user-friendly device whether you are sashing alone or if you’re the life of the party.
ADVANTAGE: FOCUS V CARTA
4. RELIABILITY & SERVICE
Dating back years before the Peak was ever introduced, Puffco had a rock solid reputation of making the most sought after vaping devices on the market along with some of the worst customer service to go along with those devices. Whether you go back to the retailer that sold you the product, or if you skip them and go straight to the manufacturer, true satisfaction from Puffco customer service is relatively rare.
Unfortunately, the web is full of complaints about the customer service behind the Focus V Carta as well, with allegations that emailed requests sit unanswered for weeks only to receive copy/pasted and unhelpful responses.
Again, you will find rabid fans of both the Puffco Peak and the Focus V Carta who will aggressively pinky swear that each company is doing just fine handling incoming issues, and the internet is far, far, far more full of complaints than it is compliments when it comes to just about anything, but it is clear that both brands need to do more to stand behind their wildly popular products.
The Focus V Carta offers a limited 1-year manufacturer’s warranty on the unit itself and they changed the game by also offering a 1-month warranty on the atomizers – the part most often replaced. This forced Puffco to match bowls, literally, and they too offer the 1-year on the unit and 1-month on atomizers.
NO ADVANTAGE
5. ACCESSORIES
The seemingly overnight popularity of the Puffco Peak, and then the Focus V Carta, not only changed the way that people took their dabs, but changed the way that glassblowers looked at their own trade. Seeing thousands of Peak and Carta units selling with ultra-basic, simple function, glass mouthpiece attachments sparked creativity in the minds of the world’s most talented glass artists and the results have been some intricately heady worked glass attachments that help both the Peak and the Carta raise their form to match their function.
The angle of the tilt employed by the Peak makes things a bit more awkward when it comes to these heady custom or scientific glass attachments, but almost anything is an improvement over the boring standard attachment.
Both brands offer a plethora of official accessories, though Puffco certainly takes the lead in this department with some really useful aftermarket options like their travel kits & cases. The Carta, however, does come equipped with BOTH a titanium AND a quartz bucket. Also, the Carta can technically vape dry herbs as well as oils, though a separate atomizer (not included) is required).
Honestly, as soon as one brand comes out with something cool, the other one isn’t far behind with their own version. They’ve been constantly trying to one-up each other since the Carta hit the scene and that is why competition is always good for the consumer.
NO ADVANTAGE
Overall, it is awfully hard to recommend the Puffco Peak over the Focus V Carta. Puffco had the advantage of brand recognition but the folks behind the Focus V Carta have proven that they aren’t going away.
The lower price point is impossible to ignore and the user-friendly interface and replaceable battery set the Carta a step ahead of the Peak, in our opinion. Overall, it is awfully hard to recommend the Puffco Peak over the Focus V Carta. Puffco had the advantage of brand recognition but the folks behind the Focus V Carta have proven that they aren’t going away.
Whether you are a diehard member of the Carta Club or if you prefer the Puffco Peak, be sure to check out the handy assortment of accessories and attachments that we carry for each brand here at www.TheDabLab.com to help you get the most out of your portable vaping experience.
]]>For some people, a bong is a bong, just pack it and rip it.
Others recognize the benefits of hand blown borosilicate pieces of functional glass that are easier to clean, more satisfying to use, and often nicer to look at than their entry-level counterparts.
But when you get to the upper levels of glass art appreciation, you quickly realize that it presents a whole new world of techniques and terminology that all lead to endless options for the true connoisseur.
Many of the terms used to describe specific aspects of today’s hottest heady glass dab rigs, mini tubes, bubblers, bongs, sherlock pipes and more can be new, confusing, or quite literally foreign to a lot of us so we decided to compile a quick glossary with some shouts out to some of our favorite artists from each category.
After this easy read, you’ll be a more well-informed head and you’ll find plenty of examples to test your knowledge for sale here at The Dab Lab
BOROSILICATE GLASSBLOWING ART TECHNIQUE GLOSSARY
LATTICINOS
Latticino is an Italian term dating back hundreds of years in reference to a style of glassblowing involving the twisting of a colored rod of glass, but even there the style is more technically referred to as Zanfirico. Here in the U.S., most artists have simplified it to be known as “cane” or “twisties”, which is a more literal reference to the technique itself.
By layering patterns of colored glass stringers onto a clear piece of glass, or into a glass tube, artists then heat it all up and begin to twist and stretch it, creating the iconic encased ribbon look found on so many cool pieces of glass art.
For examples of this tech at the highest level, look no further than Colorado-based glassblower Harold Cooney whose exquisite Latticino layering stands as a testament to this time-consuming but utterly satisfying aesthetic style.
THUMBIES / THUMBPRINTS
When you take a well-prepped twisty/cane and slowly and precisely press it down inside a blank piece of clear glass, you can end up with a heady looking thumbprint design, also known as a ‘Thumbie’.
INSIDE OUT WORK
Rather than applying Thumbies, Latticino, or fuming to the outer surface of clear glass tubing, Inside Out (our Double Blown) glass art is created when the artists performs these jaw-dropping techniques encased inside of the clear glass, making a deep, dimensional effect. Perhaps the most well-known artist to incorporate this design style is Arik Krunk (AK), whose pieces are renowned for their chaotic harmony which almost always includes an ample amount of Thumbies and Millies.
MILLIES
Millies are relatively small, often coin-shaped, pictorial glass discs depicting anything from famous characters, to nature scenes, to anything you or a famed Millie glass artist like Dave Strobel can imagine. Millie is actually short for the Italian term Millefiore. This age old technique involves the puzzle-like stacking of tens, or hundreds, or thousands of colored glass rods of varying diameters which, when combined and viewed face-on, create the desired scene or profile that the artist was aiming for. This bushel of vibrancy is usually encased into a long clear tube. When joined together, slices are taken from the tube to create multiple Millies; glass badges ready to be incorporated into glass art in a variety of ways or even kept as collector’s items from rare pulls.
CHIP STACKS
Similar to a Millefiore, a Murrine is a pattern or image designed into a glass cane that gets exposed when the cane is sliced into smaller chips, with each chip displaying an accurate representation of the main design throughout the cane.
When an artist like Cap’n Crunk (not to be confused with Arik Krunk) melds a series of these chips together, it forms a unique mosaic called a Chip Stack that could be made again, but never made again exactly the same.
WEAVES
Similar to the Chip Stack, but with the added dimension of weaving longer sections of Murrine chips together in a lattice-like effect, this distinct look has been all but perfected by artists like Cris Carlson whose mind bending work presents an optical illusion that you just can’t take your eyes off of.
LINEWORK
Most simply put, Linework refers to a tube of glass that is colored or decorated with lines of color applied from smaller rods of colored glass. Of course, as simple as that definition is, the technique itself can vary from beginning blowers experimenting with shaky hands, to incredibly precise, multilayered, and mesmerizing Wig Wag designs from an artist like Jake C. Jake’s swirling, zig-zagging Wig Wags have blown minds for many years with a psychedelic, natural flow that has become a defining feature of truly heady glass.
MULTI-LAYER LINEWORK
Though many of these techniques date back hundreds, or even thousands of years in some cases, today’s glass artists are building on millennia of inspiration and their own long, hard hours of experience to push the medium to new heights.
One such artist is Jason Lee who defined his Double layer Linework to us as, “Separate worked elements laid on top of each other to create depth and contrast.” Picture, if you can, intricate line work, encased in dichro, encased with a multilayer Latticino and you begin to realize that, as Jason Lee puts it, “Layering is an endless realm.”
RETICELLO
One of the most stunning forms of Linework is the fascinating precision seen in pieces that feature the Retticello glassblowing technique. The artist lays down an even pattern of parallel lines using a stringer or cane of colored glass. That pattern is then given a twist while being heated by the flame of the torch, bending those lines evenly. Then, a second layer of lines are laid down – either with the same, or a contrasting/complimentary colored stringer – in a crosshatch net-like pattern opposite of the first set. Again, heat is applied and a twist is given in the opposite direction creating a symmetrical web design that seems too perfect to be manmade.
Top artists like Devol use this technique on its own or as part of a multilayer effect to either add an eye-catching pop to a clear piece, or to completely envelop an entire heady dab rig or glass bong with this look that is sure to turn heads and spark conversation at any sesh. This technique can also be done with fume (mentioned later in this blog) and is referred to as a Fumicello.
FILLACELLO
Again, never satisfied, artists like Eusheen and Adam Reetz have upped the ante on this high skilled method and honed their talents on a hybrid tech called Fillacello which fills in the clear gaps with complex geometric color patterns. Reetz has been known to fill some of these gaps with gibson opals! Bling Bling!
DRAWINGS / FLIPS
Puntington Rainbow Wig Wag may sound like a mashup of various glassblowing techniques, and it is, but it is also the full title of a legendary glassblower who is more commonly known as another glassblowing term – Punty.
Known as the master of the Disc Flip, or “Cut & Flip”, Punty uses stringers of colored rods to essentially draw or paint a picture using a glass “brush”, with glass “paint”, on a glass “canvas”. You can imagine how skilled one needs to be to pull this off at all, let alone with the meticulousness that he is able to do it with.
By opening up an entirely new medium for skilled illustrators, the Disc Flip aspect of glassblowing is also attracting new artists to the craft. Following in Punty’s footsteps are up and coming creative artists like Windstar Glass, whose illustrative work can be found right here at The Dab Lab. But instead of applying the glass drawing with intentions of flipping it, she draws them directly on the outside of the glass!
ENCALMO / LIP WRAPS (LIPPIES)
Another old school Venetian glassblowing technique, Encalmo, refers to the careful stacking of varying bands of color which, when done correctly, creates a classy, symmetry-driven, heady appeal.
Perhaps the trickiest part of nailing down this technique is mastering temperature control as each band of colored glass reacts differently to different temps in order to avoid damaging the entire piece. Just as important, looks-wise, is to keep those lines tight and the bands consistently even in thickness.
The word “Incalmo” means “to graft” in Venetian, and that is aproppriate considering the repeated joining of separate bands to create the stacked, even, art deco effect.
This style is demonstrated perfectly in the ongoing work of the Lip Wrap king himself, Vela G, whose flawless Lippies often fetch four figures or more on the glass market.
IMPLOSIONS / COMPRESSIONS
To clear up some confusion in the glass game, technically “compression” and “implosion” refer to the same aesthetic style, they just use slightly different methods to get there.
As one of the craft’s most highly respected teachers of the tech, John Kobuki tells his students that an Implosion is made with a tube, and a Compression is made with a rod.
Most commonly used for pendants or marbles, or non-functional add-on décor for a dab rig, bubbler, or bong, the artist will create a flat boro glass “canvas” to work on. They will then apply their preferred style of design to that heated flat surface using colored rods, dichroic material, etc., slowly building layer upon layer.
Once ready, that stacked design is (com)pressed against another heated piece of clear or colored glass for a backing, imploding the design forward into the clear glass it was previously laid upon, encasing the design between the clear front and the color backing.
Once again, this is one of the first techniques tackled by a new glassblower but it takes thousands of hours on the torch to begin to truly unlock the potential greatness that we see from famed artists like Kobuki’s incredible floral displays or Gong’s iconic Acid Eaters.
DOT TECH
Just when you’d thought you’d seen it all, Junichi Kojima, aka Rose Roads,
burst onto the glass scene with his Dot Tech style of glassblowing that took
traditional methods of expression to the micro level.
By creating a systematic pattern of hundreds and sometimes thousands of
incredibly tiny dabs of colored glass, Kojima demonstrates extreme patience and
precision to make stunning geometric patterns and images that give me arthritis
just thinking about the process that each piece must undergo.
DOT STACKS
Using a heated, flattened end of a clear or colored tube of boro glass, the artist will use various colored rods of glass to apply globular dots of color to the glass “canvas” they have prepared. Typically, a base layer of one color of dots is applied. Then subsequent layers of different colors of dots are stacked on top of the layer before them. The result is a trippy floral look that is relatively easy to learn, but incredibly hard to perfect.
Designs featuring this tech range from the relatively simple efforts by intrepid glassblowers fine tuning their skills to the multilayered madness seen in the expert work of Kondo Glass and the iconic imagery of Mike Gong’s catalog of wearable and collectable glass art.
FUMEWORK
Glass fuming is one of the first techniques taught to an entry-level glassblower, but it is a skill that they will likely use from time to time for the rest of their career behind the torch.
Using an actual nugget of pure silver or gold, the artist will heat up one end of a clear glass rod and then attach the precious metal to the glowing end. With the pipe or tube that they are looking to enhance heated from the flame of the torch, the artist will insert the silver or gold into the flame allowing the vapors coming off of it to envelop the surface of the pipe or tube in their opposite hand.
When the silver is layered evenly underneath some gold, the result is a dope color-changing array of amber, green, and blue hues that have an almost galactic feel to them, regardless of the style of the pipe, bubbler, or bong they are found on.
For more info check out the blog we wrote back in 2017, What is Fumed Glass?, about Bob Snodgrass and how he ‘discovered’ this fuming tech and how he has inspired so many artists like Lammy, Hefe Glass, and more to find ways to incorporate this timeless technique.
SCULPTING
Solid glass sculptures are as difficult and time-consuming to create as they are spectacular to look at. Now consider how much more skill and planning needs to go into making one of these works of art functional in a way that it can deliver terp-filled vapors to your dome when you take a dab from it.
The freedom of artistic flow and creative design that this style allows has led to some of the highest priced pieces of glass art ever made or sold, and played a major role in elevating functional glass from the traditional tubular bong and pipe shapes to anything you can possibly imagine.
One of the undisputed blackbelts of this craft is Buck Glass out of Oregon. His incredibly life (or death) like anatomically accurate sculptures of various skeletal remains would impress any fan of art even if they didn’t realize that it was made for more than just looking at.
Inspired by everything from H.R. Giger, to robots, to “wook stuff”, Banjo Glass is another highly skilled glass sculptor whose exceptional style has earned him a top shelf reservation in the top glass galleries in the world. His psychedelic tribal warlord motif has fetched five figures more times than we can count and Banjo’s finest has flirted with the $100k mark in the past.
Once a new jaw-dropping design is conceived, the prep work and assembly on these pieces is extensive, which is why the finished product can be expensive. Like a ridiculously fragile jigsaw puzzle, each piece must be manipulated into shape with metal and graphite tools in the flame of a torch and then painstakingly assembled, piece by piece, around a functioning dab rig. Buck had a piece of sculpted glass art that he worked on for over eight years!
COLDWORK
Coldworking borosilicate glass typically breaks down into three distinct post-processing methods that each requires a different set of skills and a different set of tools.
Sandblasting is a technique where abrasive material is forcibly propelled onto a surface (in this case, glass) in order to etch or carve into the material itself. By applying a pre-cut pattern of painter’s tape or adhesive vinyl to the glass before blasting it, deeply intricate designs can be achieved as the tape acts as a stencil to transfer the desired design onto (or rather into) the glass.
The heady collection of spoon pipes, onies, and mini tubes from the revered glass shop Liberty Glass that we have available here at The Dab Lab demonstrates just how much detail and creativity this technique allows for.
Carving glass is very similar in many cases to Sandblasting, but can allow for even finer detail and a more layered, dimensional effect. Using a variety of tools like a Dremel, or even hand carving with a blade, artists like Rye Glass add a truly hand-worked element to their collabs and solo pieces that can be felt as clearly as it can be seen.
Faceting is a skill better known for the production of gems than for dab rigs, but this technique adds a unique and classy appeal to any piece utilizing it. By grinding boro glass at precise angles against a spinning, wet, adhesive wheel, mouthpieces for rigs or bongs, handles for slides or bowls, or geometric designed pendants or paperweights can be formed with a multitude of angular faces all providing a magnified window into the piece of glass itself. Like a hall of mirrors, one embedded opal or millie can be reflected seemingly infinitely due to the refraction of the angles created in this process.
Check out Derek from Boro Boy Glass for a perfect example of how faceting certain features of a heady dab rig can make it stand out in a crowded market.
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Whoa! We went pretty deep there and the crazy part is, we didn’t even get to it all!
The glass art scene is bursting with talent as the experienced artists we all love continue to push the boundaries of what we all thought was possible and continue to inspire the new generation of creators to jump on the torch.
It’s cool to realize that so much of this tech has existed for hundreds of years, but is being reinvented right before our eyes in just the past couple of decades.
At The Dab Lab you’ll always find a heady blend of old school and new as we continue to bring you an unrivaled selection of glass art, hand selected by us and delivered direct to you.
]]>There are few things in life more inviting than a perfect crystal clear quartz banger heated to the ideal temperature and ready for a dab of some top shelf terps. But, on the other hand, even the best budder, shatter, live resin, dank rosin, diamonds, or sauce will be considerably less appealing if they are presented alongside a cloudy, dirty, or “chazzed” domeless nail.
I’m not sure where the term “chazzed” came from but it refers to the black, sooty, or soiled look that many poorly cared for quartz nails take on over time. I went to high school with a guy named Chaz and he was not cool, and neither is busting out a heady glass dab rig at a sesh just to plop in a blackened banger.
You already know that The Dab Lab is your one stop shop for all dabbing tools and accessories, including an unrivaled selection of quartz bangers, buckets, nails, and attachments priced to please everyone from entry level to cannabis connoisseurs.
So we figured we’d give you...
5 Tips on How to Avoid Chazzing Your Quartz Banger & Keep It Clean
TEMPERATURE SWEET SPOT
The act of dabbing concentrates has really not been around that long in the grand scheme of weed, but the evolution of the process over the past five years has been incredible to witness.
Gone are the days of heating a titanium nail until it looks like a space shuttle reentering the Earth’s atmosphere and then judging the ideal time to take your dab by the color of the glow of the metal.
One of the best features of dabbing off of quartz instead of titanium is that quartz allows you to efficiently vaporize your concentrates or extracts at a much lower temperature, and the material itself is much more effective at retaining heat longer.
We now know that the perfect temperature for dabbing most forms of concentrates is somewhere between 300-400°F.
Unless you are using an electronic nail or some sort of heat gun, the best way to hit that range of ideal temps is by using a timer of some sort.
For example, you might heat up your quartz nail for 30 seconds and then let it cool for 50 seconds before applying your dab, hoping that the temperature dropped from ‘too hot’ into the ‘sweet spot’. Times will vary due to a lot of factors, including but not limited to: the style of your banger, the quality of the quartz, the thickness of the base of the dish or bucket, the ambient temperature around you, the strength of your torch, etc.
If you wait too long after the heat up, your oil or extract may not vaporize completely – even with the use of a carb cap. This is not the end of the world as you will lose some vapor but will gain a lot of flavor and cleanup is typically a breeze.
If you do not wait long enough, however, and the quartz banger or bucket is still too hot when you apply your dab, this is when discoloration and “chazzing” most commonly occurs. It is most often the result of too high of a temperature while dabbing.
To avoid this, and to keep your banger sparkling, absolutely employ a timer on your phone or watch, and start with a seemingly long wait after the initial heat up. Keep track of the timing and slowly reduce the wait until you hit that equilibrium of complete vaporization without the black charring inside your quartz nail. Make note of that heat up and wait time and stick to it for all future dabs.
ALWAYS BE SWABBIN’
If you told me half a decade ago that an essential tool to have at any dab sesh is a fistful of cotton swabs, I would have told you to stick it in your ear.
Since most dabs are taken while the surface temp of the nail is dropping, there is often a varying amount of residual and decarboxylated oil remaining in the base of the banger well after the rest of the dab has been enjoyed.
This is where a product like Crud Buds comes into play. Before the residual oil in the banger begins to stiffen back up, a thorough mop up with one of these high quality cotton swabs will effectively remove about 99% of any leftover oil.
Not only will this give you a much cleaner palate to taste your terps from on the next dab, but it will reduce charring and chazzing and the risk of a small fire erupting in your banger the next time you try to heat it up.
Some dabbers like to keep their swabs submerged in isopropyl alcohol for the ultimate cleaning power.
GOING DEEP ON SOLVENTS & GLASS CLEANERS
So it’s too late you say. You didn’t see this article in time you say. For quartz bangers or buckets with baked on stains and dark discolorations hope for clarity may not totally be lost.
Quartz bangers can be soaked for extended periods in isopropyl alcohol. This long term saturation can break down the impurities causing the chazzing, and can sometimes restore the nail to a new or like-new condition.
Above we mentioned the cotton swab alcohol dip method, and like with that we know that iso alcohol evaporates so quickly and easily that no residual solvents should remain behind from dab to dab.
If you have your quartz nail hooked up to a competent enail, chazzing should be very minimal due to the precise temperature controls you’ll have. Additionally, you can buy a non-flammable and non-toxic product like Dark Crystal Glass Cleaner and literally just carefully pour some into your quartz banger or bucket, filling it about halfway. Then just fire up your enail and gradually bring the heat up until the Dark Crystal begins to bubble and watch as it magically strips away all the dark nastiness from the base and walls of your quartz.
FLIP THE SCRIPT WITH REVERSE DABS
If you are not already familiar with the concept of “reverse dabs”, well the name is pretty self-explanatory but you can learn about the entire process in an article we recently wrote about it.
Due to the fact that the quartz is never overheated using this technique, the odds of staining or chazzing your banger or bucket is almost non-existent.
This technique can be a bit tricky to get used to but once you have it dialed in you’ll enjoy more flavor, more efficient vaporization, and a cleaner quartz attachment on your dab rig.
BUDGET BANGERS vs QUALITY QUARTZ
We briefly mentioned it above, but two things that you really need to consider when either deciding on which quartz nail to buy or how to keep it clean once you have made the investment are the style of the nail and the quality of the nail.
Quartz bangers now have so many options – each with their own pros and cons – but some far easier to keep clean than others.
We carry quartz products at all price points here at The Dab Lab but it goes without saying that the more an item costs, the higher its quality will be. You will notice that higher end quartz products are easier to maintain and keep clean, but you can still put a lot of miles and a lot of dabs on our entry level options and keep them looking great if you stick to the tips we’ve laid out here.
Pass this article along to that friend of yours who always busts out the blackened banger.
]]>One of the most popular forms of consumption, dating back millennia, is the use of simple bong tech to somehow filter the hot smoke through a vessel of water before inhaling it, purifying it to an extent and cooling it for a smoother experience.
The history of the bong may date back thousands of years globally, but its history here in the U.S. has been pretty provocative over the past 50-60 years as the telltale silhouette shape of your standard bong has become an icon of the cannabis counter culture.
Facing scrutiny from a Reefer Madness-fueled society and an unforgiving criminal justice system, for many years retail smokeshop and headshop owners often insisted that the word “bong” never be uttered in their store, instead requiring customers to use awkward terms like “water pipe”.
This is our history and we don’t have to excavate ancient tombs to study it. These days, as society has come to terms with cannabis in a more realistic manner, you can walk into most shops around the country and use the word bong without being a buzzkill but there is still one term being used a bit too loosely and it’s high time we clear it up.
STRAIGHT TUBE vs. BEAKER vs. FLASK
Bongs come in quite literally all shapes and sizes these days, but the vast majority of them can typically be assigned to one of two categories – what are commonly referred to as “straight tube” or “beaker” bongs.
The straight tube bong is, as the name aptly implies, usually just a straight piece of tubing with a mouthpiece on one end and a termination into a flat, wide base on the other. Slip a downstem inside and fill the tube with a bit of water and bam, you’re bubblin’!
What a lot of folks call a beaker bong would also have a mouthpiece attached to a straight tube but instead of terminating at a flat attached base, the tube would flare outward in either a straight tapered design or a rounded bubble design. This widening from the down tube allows for a larger water chamber and provides a wider footprint or base for the bong to rest on.
Ok, pretty basic stuff right there – Smokeshop 101, if you will.
But now we are taking you back… way back to Chemistry class for a quick little lesson about scientific glass.
Now I had Advanced Placement Chemistry my senior year of high school, but my lab partner was the county’s leading running back and the teacher was the offensive line coach so, suffice so say, we weren’t made to learn very much that year on our way to easy A’s.
So I had to do a bit of research myself when, after all these years, I got corrected when calling a piece of glass a beaker bong.
The fact of the matter is, if you have a bong that is truly shaped like a beaker, you are going to have a hard time getting baked without looking like a goof.
In the world of scientific glass, a beaker is a cylindrical, straight-sided vessel with a wide mouth equal in diameter to its base, typically with a pour spout indented into it. Once you’ve wrapped your head around that, picture trying to wrap your mouth around it.
The defining aesthetic feature of a flask (scientifically speaking, you lushes) is that the top spout is smaller in diameter than its base, usually with a narrow neck leading down to a tapered form to the base. If you weren’t getting too baked before Chem class or if you didn’t have a bruising tailback as a lab partner, you might remember your teacher calling them Erlenmeyer Flasks.
Which one sounds more like the stereotypical “bong” to you?
It’s strange though, isn’t it?
I’ve bounced around all corners of this grassroots cannabis culture and I have never, ever, had someone pass me their ‘flask bong’… at least, that’s not what I was calling it in my head!
I don’t think I will be that guy cruising around every sesh I’m invited to, correcting people who have the audacity to get their lab glass terminology mixed up, but it does make for a cool piece of trivia and something to talk about next time you and your buds are passing around the ol’ water pipe.
]]>The most popular style of herb grinder today is the 4-piece grinder. This multichamber marvel of ingenuity features a large lid and loading area for the top chamber, packed with concentric circles of razor sharp teeth in both.
Convenient drop-through holes allow the chopped material to pass down to the 2nd chamber. This area will have a fine metal mesh screen as its floor. As ground herb is gently agitated across the surface of the screen, shiny golden trichomes are broken off the cannabis material.
These ‘trichs’ are small enough to pass through the micro holes in the mesh screen, but the leafy plant material will not. Not all trichomes will be separated from the plant material. In fact, most will remain intact within the pile of delicious smokable material stored in this 2nd chamber.
It is from this pile that you will pack bowls, fill papers, or load your vaporizer, but it’s the final chamber below that holds the real treasure.
In the bottom chamber, below the mesh screen you will begin to accumulate a golden dust-like material known as “kief”. This kief is just a mass of ultra-potent trichomes that would likely have been lost to your scissors or fingers had you not had that grinder handy.
Now you have a bounty of flavorful powdered hash essentially, ready to be enjoyed in any number of ways.
There are 2-piece, and 3-piece grinders that simplify the process and slim things down considerably, and each style has its own pro’s and con’s. We have a bunch of quality affordable weed grinders to choose from – heck, we even have a 5-piece grinder with TWO mesh screens!
Of course, there are plenty of ways to pack a bowl or roll something up without an herb grinder. Scissors and buds in a cup can do some work. So can a few shakes with some clean nugs, a cleaner coin, and a plastic container. And who among us hasn’t packed about a billion bowls with nothing but our fingers to bust things up a bit?
So yeah, it can be done, but these methods are far from ideal when compared to the smooth, aromatic results of a top shelf grinder.
FEEL THE BURN
When you are trying to burn anything, surface area is a key factor. Just like a thick wood log will burn very slow, very hot, and with little smoke in a campfire, so too will that tree stump sized nug that you just jammed into your bowl.
Some tokers like to stack it like that and pass the same bowl around all night long.
Personally, I prefer to get a nice fresh, green, tasty rip every time I take a toke. I’d rather not settle for everyone’s leftovers.
Breaking up a 1g bud of cannabis still just produces 1g of broken up bud, but just like kindling in your campfire now it has much increased surface area for the flame of your lighter to interact with.
The finer the grind, the more surface area available.
This is why smoking ground up herb in a bowl makes many people feel the effects much more powerfully than if they had just stuffed in a fully intact bud.
This also allows you to make your meds stretch further for you. Just a pinch of finely ground cannabis will hit you a lot harder than a couple calyxes.
ROLL WITH IT
If you enjoy the ceremonial process of rolling your own joints or blunts, you probably already appreciate the reliable, uniform texture that only a good grinder can deliver. The straightest, strongest, most evenly burning bats, blunts, and doobies all begin with an even grind.
For particularly moist nugs covered in glistening trichomes, a grinder can help keep your fingers from getting too sticky to handle your rolling papers or blunt wraps effectively.
Not to mention, that bottom chamber full of frosty, caked up kief comes in very handy when you’re rolling one up for a special occasion.
THE ONLY WAY TO VAPE
Whether you prefer to use a tried & true tabletop vaporizer unit like the best-selling Volcano, or the feature packed Arizer Extreme Q, or a packet-sized handheld herbal vaporizer like the the Pax or the Firefly, it is absolutely critical that you have a grinder to prepare your cannabis for full and efficient vaporization.
Since you’ll be using hot air and convection to heat your herb, instead of a flame, that surface area science from earlier is even more important now. Proper airflow is crucial and can only be achieved with a uniform grind.
These products often come with an inexpensive plastic grinder or a grinder card, but we recommend that you, and your herbs, stay away from those. Both are typically made from substandard materials and can deposit shavings or chunks of plastic or paints into the same material you plan to smoke.
You deserve better, get yourself a top shelf grinder from TheDabLab.com
YOU WANT OPTIONS, WE’VE GOT OPTIONS
Besides a vibrant array of color options from the bestselling brands in the industry, here at The Dab Lab we have grinders that provide a super-fine, sand-like grind. We have others, like our Phoenician Grinders, which provide a more scissor-like final product that many find ideal for blunts.
Prices range from entry level to connoisseur, with features to match.
Our grinders are precision machined and expertly anodized for years and years of safe, fresh grinds.
When your grinder gets a little sticky and your threads hold more hash than your stash, a simple soak in a bong cleaning solution will have you back to brand new in no time.
When you are ready to upgrade your grinder, and your overall smoking experience, your buds here at The Dab Lab will be happy to take a spin at matching you up with the perfect grind.
]]>After visiting the vet, we starting treating him with antibiotics, which did not help. So we then we tried changing his food. I did a bunch of research and decided to make him homemade meals. I tried tons of additives like probiotics, digestive enzymes, etc. It was expensive, but worth it if it would make Doja feel better. We did that for a couple months, but he was still having the same issues.
At this point our vet had diagnosed Doja with Ulcerative Colitis. Instead of jumping straight to more drugs, we decide to try one last thing, a prescription dog food specifically for dogs with these issues. Unfortunately, it did not work either. And at this point Doja had lost quite a bit of weight and I was starting to freak out. Finally we tried prednisone, which is an anti inflammatory steroid. Bingo. It worked!
It wasn’t the greatest solution, because prednisone isn’t “good for you” , but it was better than Doja suffering everyday. So I began to give Doja prednisone daily to keep his intestines from flaring up.
A few months later, I was petting Doja and noticed the skin on the back of his neck felt “stiff”. So I took him to the vet again. My vet took a sample and came to the conclusion that is was “hardened fat”. It appeared to be some sort of flare up. So he decided I should increase his prednisone dosage for a little and see if it helps. A couple weeks later I brushed him and noticed tons of flakes coming from the back of this neck, I inspected and notice a crust had formed. Unfortunately, brushing him, scratched this area a bit and irritated it pretty badly.
I took him to the vet again and we shaved the area to get a better look. The vet thought it was a “hot spot” and that it should heal over time and told me to continue with the prednisone. So I kept a close eye on it and it appeared to begin scabbing over and healing. But the more time that when by it started looking worse instead of better. I kept going back to the vet and at a certain point the vet agreed it did seem to be “spreading” and not healing. So we did further expensive tests. They had to do surgery and cut into Doja’s skin for testing.
When the test came back, the vet determined that was happening was Calcinosis Cutis, which is basically calcification of the skin. One of the causes of this issue is overuse of prednisone. So obviously we immediately took him off prednisone before he turned into a lizard dog.
Now that he was off the prednisone, we had to worry about his gut again. I hoped that maybe he would just be ok, but that was wishful thinking. Soon after weaning him off the prednisone, he began to eat less and less and shake again when he did eat. He even stopped wanting to go for walks. I had to try something different. Changing his food didn’t work and we could no longer use prednisone. We had to try something else to reduce the inflammation. I even considered curcumin from turmeric, but after much research I wasn’t convinced.
Being in the cannabis industry, I heard a lot of stories about the healing power of CBD. During this time Ben started having a conversation with the owner at Fully Activated about getting some of their products on The Dab Lab. He mentioned how all of his pets were on CBD and the benefits they received from it. We had already heard that CBD was anti-inflammatory so I decided I should try it. So I began giving Doja 30mg capsules of Fully Activated Full Spectrum CBD Oil every day. I did that for a month and noticed a slight improvement. He was eating more and shaking less, but he still wasn’t back to normal.
After the first month I decided to try and double the dose. This is when we started to notice big improvements. Doja started to eat all his meals and was no longer shaking after eating. After a full month of 60mg doses Doja starting to go on walks again. I had to coax him at first, but once he gained his confidence back he was pulling me down the street!
It was nearly unbelievable how an oil from a plant with zero negative side effects could help my dog so dramatically. I want to be clear, Doja is not cured, but his quality of life has dramatically improved and he rarely has flare ups anymore. I am extremely thankful for how much CBD oil has helped Doja live a comfortable life.
Jay (TheDabLab.com)
]]>UPDATE: In the late 90's, Silica Alchemy decided to make some glass paddles to replace the outdated metal knives from the silverware drawer. He called them "Hüfers" (word play on Huffer and Hoover). This was the first stepping stone to the "Vapor Swing" (mentioned below).
Humans have been making and smoking hash around the globe since at least 100 A.D., and now nearly two full millennia later we are still trying to perfect the method. Although butter knives certainly rocked our world in the 1990’s, it wasn’t until around 2010 that the game really began to change when it came to dabbing and vaporizing cannabis concentrates.
Simply combusting or burning full melt hash or butane hash oil with a lighter cannot generate enough sustained heat to thoroughly vaporize the hash and maximize its effects. As concentrates have exploded in popularity, so too have unique and innovative tools and techniques to take terp tasting to a whole new level, beginning with the birth of the boro glass male joint.
In 1996, California passed Prop 215 which established the world’s first legal major medical marijuana market. Though it took a few years to really get established, the Prop 215 market provided Cali’s cannabis users with access to high grades of hash and cannabis oil previously unseen on the streets.
Prices for these products started to rise along with their demand, and so connoisseurs sought more efficient ways to enjoy every last drop of their dab stash.
Forward-thinking glassblowers and other engineering types started wrapping their creative brains around this hot new trend and soon the age old concept of a vase-shaped bong with a grommeted female joint and a simple downstem was out and the endless imagination of dab rig designs featuring a glass on glass male joint took over.
SWING SETS
The first major evolution in dabbing technology came with the glass or titanium skillet and vapor curve.
The most commonly attributed pioneers of this tech whereas HashMasterKut and his sister, and thus, the HMK Vapor Curve and Skillet remain the most often referenced pieces from the era.
The premise is pretty simple. A glass, or more commonly titanium, skillet or plate is attached to a swing arm. You heat the skillet with your butane torch until it reaches your desired temperature. Then you swing that hot plate back down to the front of the dab rig where it sits directly under the borosilicate vapor curve.
The vapor curve is most often a rounded glass tube with a glass-on-glass female joint on one end, and a flared, bell-shaped opening on the other.
When you apply your concentrate to the heated skillet, the resulting vapors are then drawn up through the bell-like opening above and down into your dab rig on their way to your anxious taste buds.
This process not only did away with the sketchy look of getting high with kitchen knives, it made the entire dabbing process safer and even more sophisticated as glassblowers began to focus as much on form as they did on function.
Additionally, the glass-on-glass female fitting really pushed the glassblowing world to implement male joints into their higher end work for the first time
GETTING DOMED
The vapor curve was innovative, for sure, but it was also bulky and at times cumbersome depending on the style of the rig that it was attached to.
Seeking a more streamlined option, JP Toro of Toro Glass is widely credited for coming up with the traditional dome and dab nail setup that at one point in time dominated the dabbing culture.
Again, the concept isn’t quite rocket science, but this evolution in technique was definitely blasting people off.
By then, the male joint had really caught on in the world of functional glass art and Toro’s new idea became instantly popular as well. Utilizing the male joint on a dab rig, a borosilicate rod with a slightly concave dish on top is inserted. Phalanges on the rod hold the dab “nail” in place on the rim of the male joint.
Then a globe or tube shaped glass dome is placed over the top of the dab nail, sliding down snugly over around the tapered edge of the male joint on the dab rig.
An opening, typically on top of the dome, provides access to the head of the dab nail.
So heat the nail with your butane torch, then place the dome over the top, then apply your dab down through the opening in the dome and onto the warm nail head. The resulting vapors would be contained and condensed by the dome and then drawn down through the male joint and into the dab rig for further percolation and filtration on their way to your brain.
Even safer than the vapor curve and skillet, the dome and nail tech originally hyped by Toro went on to define dabbing for years to come.
Artists incorporated the design of their domes into that of the overall aesthetic of multi-thousand dollar dab rigs. A custom dome was often a conversation starter.
But all good things must come to an end and the days of the dome are definitely numbered, if not gone for good. Some connoisseurs still use them, especially when enjoying an older rig featuring a male joint.
THE TI RENNAISSANCE
Perhaps the most important influence that vapor curves and skillets/swings had on dabbing culture was the introduction of titanium as a more ideal dabbing surface than borosilicate.
Even during the dome days of dabbing, companies like Highly Educated began offering high grade titanium alternatives for dabbing with a male joint.
This upgrade almost certainly extended the window of supremacy for the dome and dab nail tech, but it wasn’t long before Task Rok at Highly Educated Titanium changed the game once again with the invention of the female domeless titanium nail.
This mind blowing new design took full advantage of the vast numbers of heady high end male jointed dab rigs in the market and truly simplified the dabbing routine by eliminating an entire step and moving part – the dome.
The wide dish design introduced by Highly Educated featured a vapor straw downstem in the center of the dabbing surface that would powerfully draw vapors down and into the dab rig before they could escape into the atmosphere.
The bottom half of most of these domeless titanium nails was tapered enough so that they could function properly with a snug and safe fit on either a 14mm or an 18mm male joint.
The fact that titanium doesn’t break like glass, the fact that putting the dome aside saves time and clutter, and the fact that better heat retention and a wider dish lent to fatter and tastier dabs all contributed to titanium being king for so long.
BANG, BANG … THE DEATH OF THE MALE JOINT
During the titanium revolution, ceramic nails made a brief appearance in the dabbing landscape but overall the substance could not keep up with hardcore concentrate lovers.
Over time, an onslaught of cheap, imported, low grade titanium (or worse) dab nails flooded the American market and way too many people fell for it. This led to less-than-desirable dabbing experiences as users would discover layers of built-up carbon deposits on their deteriorated nail head from past unvaped oil and poor manufacturing.
One guy who was several steps ahead of (almost) everyone in the dab game was a super talented glassblower out of Colorado by the name of Joel Halen.
Halen’s Honey Holes have been around since people purged their wax on top of their cable box, and Halen continues to push his creative limits to the max with new designs. What set the Halen Honey Hole apart was the fact that it is made out of high quality clear quartz.
Though it may look like regular borosilicate glass to the untrained eye, quartz is a much stronger material, offers far better heat resistance and retention, and it just so happens to deliver far tastier terps than glass or titanium.
The Halen Honey Hole has long been a favorite accessory on shop dab rigs in glassblowing studios and rumor has it that it was in just such a scenario that the next big thing was born.
As the story goes, a Mothership crew member purchased a few H3’s directly from Joel the first year he brought them out to the AGE show. Now, quartz is strong, but it’s not titanium, and so the tale continues that a Halen Honey Hole in use at the Mothership shop got broken slightly. Soon after, photos of a Frankenstein’d Honey Hole appeared online, but with the top rim sliced down at an angle from back to front.
It wasn’t long after that when the angle top quartz banger became the must-have accessory for any serious terp hunter.
Is that exactly how it went down? Maybe… maybe not…
But we do know that the crystal clear look and distinct profile of the quartz banger lent well to the aesthetic appeal that heady glass artists were trying to convey and soon the simplicity of the banger was driving the creativity of dab rigs.
Though there always have been, and still are, female jointed quartz bangers, you will easily be able to draw a straight line from the birth of the quartz banger to the inevitable final death of the male joint on a dab rig.
Halen is still at it, though he is quick to point out that he wasn’t the first.
He pays homage to another legend in the glass game, Ron over at Pukinbeagle who was creating quartz dabbing devices dating as far back as 2008!
IT AIN’T DEAD YET, BUT IT SURE LOOKS FUNNY…
The fact is, we all got plenty stoned and tasted plenty of flavor off of skillets or domed dabs, and we still can. Some people still prefer these old school methods, whether it be for nostalgic or practical reasons.
At TheDabLab.com, we still have some domes in stock from the glory days, and we still sell one every now and then – believe it or not! Getting a dab rig with a male joint is a great way to save some money! We have a bunch available with heavily marked down prices. We still carry dab nails for male jointed dab rigs too!
But as the entire cannabis concentrate craze goes mainstream, all trends are pointing to simplicity.
Those new to cannabis and concentrates are most often leaning towards vape pens for that very reason so while it may not be totally dead yet, we don’t really foresee the male glass-on-glass joint ever making a substantial cultural comeback.
]]>As you know, the process of taking a dab these days has become almost a ceremony, with lots of separate moving parts and ticking clocks and a separate heady stash of cleaning supplies.
While there is a time and a place for the full process to play out, many people want a quicker, cleaner, and easier way to enjoy their cannabis extracts and concentrates… hence, the rising popularity of the vape pen. But cold start dabs may just be the solution that a lot of cannabis lovers are looking for.
From boro glass nails and domes, to the titanium revolution and right up until the current quartz banger meta, the gear has changed over time but the basic premise of taking a dab has not…until now.
TRADITIONAL DABBING METHODS
Traditionally, the idea is that you will get your dab ready and waiting on the tip of your favorite dabber.
Then you heat your nail. This might take anywhere from 15-30 seconds of steady torching.
Then, depending on its style, the material it is made from, and your own personal preference, you let the nail or banger cool down a bit. This could take 30-60 seconds.
Then, finally, you apply your dab to that hot surface, inhale the vapors, exhale, and repeat if necessary.
If using a quartz banger, nail, or trough, etc., a lot of care must be taken to keep it looking clear and clean. If you dab on it when it is too hot, it will develop a hard black layer of funk on the walls.
To avoid this, timers are often used to determine the perfect cooldown times. Then, after the dab, a q-tip style cotton swab is used to mop up any excess and unvaped oil that may have pooled in the bottom of the banger.
That’s a lot to do and to remember for the average cannabis user, or especially for someone just getting acquainted with the plant. Now, with cold start dabs, there is an easier way.
COLD START DABS (also known as a REVERSE DAB)
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to do a cold start dab, and thoughts on why they’re becoming so popular.
Other than the tools you need for a standard dab using a torch, there are only a couple requirements to do a Cold Start Dab. You will need a Quartz Banger style Dab Nail and some Cotton Swabs for cleaning.
That’s it! But here’s where the cold start dab – or ‘reverse dab’ – earns its name.
Instead of heating your banger or nail first, and then applying the dab, we are going to reverse that order.
Step 1 – On the base/floor inside a room temperature clean quartz banger, bucket, trough, etc., place your desired amount of extract, hash, or concentrate. We know, we know, just bear with us!
Step 2 – With your glob of wax waiting, place the carb cap on top of the cool quartz banger, bucket or trough. A directional flow bubble cap on a flat top banger is the ideal setup for this method.
Cold cap, cold nail, cold wax… cold start dabs.
Step 3 - Using just the very tip of the flame of your butane torch, begin heating the very bottom of the quartz nail. This entire process should only take roughly 5-8 seconds. You’ll know when to cut the flame when you see your concentrate begin to boil and vaporize inside the nail.
*Note 1* This is why starting with, and maintaining, a clean, clear quartz nail is essential for this tech. You need to be able to see that vaporization process begin.
*Note 2* Focus on using just the tip of your flame on the very bottom of the nail. Avoid letting the flame wrap around or reach the borosilicate carb cap on top of the nail as it could break from excessive heat.
Step 4 – Once the oil is bubbling and beginning to break down and vaporize inside the quartz banger, you are ready to take your dab(s). Consider the fact that you can get to this step in well under 20 seconds, which just makes everything more efficient. With the carb cap still on, and your torch turned off, begin to inhale the vapors and work the directional flow of the cap.
You will be pleasantly surprised at how true the flavor is as the terpenes in your cannabis oils are not tarnished by the guessing game of temperatures that end up too high or too low. There is an exact and ideal temperature that different forms of extracts begin to vaporize, and with cold start dabs you are steadily climbing to that temperature and then taking advantage of it, instead of hoping to catch a small window of opportunity as the temperature rapidly drops.
Step 5 – You will need a cotton swab at the end to do away with any unvaped oil. But you will notice that there is substantially less of that waste, and you’ll notice that your favorite quartz banger, bucket, or trough is staying much cleaner for much longer.
It is not uncommon to have your quartz nail cost as much as your entire dab rig, so it is essential to keep it clean and functioning properly and cold start dabs can help you do that.
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That’s pretty much it! As you can see, you can dab at least 2-3x faster using this reverse dab/cold start dab technique, so it is a great way to keep plenty of heads happy at a party, event booth, or sesh.
One other variation is to pre-load several quartz inserts with your favorite dabs. They work perfectly with this cold start tech and can really help to keep your actual quartz nail looking brand new.
It is pretty remarkable that even after a 5,000 year relationship with cannabis, humans are still coming up with all new ways to smoke, vape, eat, drink, and otherwise reap the benefits of the miraculous plant.
What do you think?
Have you tried this cold start dab method yet?
Let us know in the comments and be sure to browse The Dab Lab online head shop for the hottest deals on all of the gear mentioned in this article, and so much more!
]]>For those of you who love smoking flower, you’re surely familiar with the sticky and nasty brownish-black resin that accumulates in your bong or pipe. Similarly, after just a few dabs of highly potent hash oil, you’ll notice a slightly different type of build-up which is known not as resin, but as reclaim.
If you’ve been smoking cannabis for as long as we have, you’ve probably had one of those rainy days when you were short on money, short on weed, and short on homies willing to come and hook you up. We’ve all been there…scraping away at our favorite glass spoon pipe or bong slide in an attempt to free up some chunky black resin for a desperate toke or two.
That gooey or crusty dark buildup on your daily driver is the result of layers and layers of cannabis smoke residue, and even though it looks pretty disgusting, it is still packed with THC and other cannabinoids that, in theory, can still get you baked. But, more often than not, pipe or bong resin is just going to give you a terrible taste in your mouth and an annoying headache for a few hours.
Recondensed reclaim from dabbing, however, can definitely be worth…well… reclaiming as there are several uses for it once you rescue it from your favorite dab rig or drop down.
WHAT IS RECLAIM?
Reclaim forms from your dabbing vapors first as a thin, golden layer of residue along the inner walls of your glass dab rig. As it gathers, it will eventually break off into the water and typically form into small, smooth yellowish-orange balls that float in your water.
A cannabis testing lab called MCR Labs recently tested several samples of dabbing reclaim and discovered that they not only still had fairly high concentrations of THC (40-50%), but that they were also relatively abundant in at least 4 other cannabinoids, including CBN.
They also affirmed that reclaim is at least 85% decarboxylated due to the high temperatures associated with dabbing. This means that it is very potent when infused or added into food or drinks, and can also be applied topically and be absorbed into the skin effectively.
*Note* Reclaim melts easily into coffee or hot chocolate, and can be applied to just about any food you can imagine. To avoid its spicy flavor and sticky texture, it can be filled into empty gel caps for easy ingestion. BUT, always start slow when eating or otherwise ingesting reclaim. Its effects are quick and hard hitting, then long lasting. You can always eat more, but you cannot undo it.
Of course, you can also dab it again. It will lack a substantial amount of its original terpenes, and due to the elevated CBN ratio it may deliver slightly more sedative effects than you remember from the fresh dabs, but it will give you a much needed head change on one of those rainy days.
HOW TO LAY CLAIM TO YOUR RECLAIM
Reclaim, like pipe or bong resin, is very sticky and unwieldy if you try to manipulate it with your fingers or hands. Just don’t.
Extremely hot water will reactivate it, and if you can loosen and drain some of those large balls or chunks of reclaim onto a non-stick surface like a silicone pad, that is ideal. But water rarely does the trick on its own.
For a crystal clear cleaning, you’ll likely need to resort to a non-toxic cleaner like the ones we offer here at The Dab Lab. Or, for a really sticky situation, perhaps some isopropyl alcohol or grain alcohol.
You really need to consider what your plan is for the reclaim once you have recovered it.
If you plan to ingest it, non-toxic options or grain alcohol is probably your best bet.
Anytime you use a solvent, the reclaim will break down and mix evenly with the fluid solvent that you used. That mixture then must be allowed to spread as thin as possible so that all residual solvent can evaporate out, eventually leaving you with a sticky film of leftover reclaim.
If you really want to smoke or dab it again, the methods above are not ideal, and you should consider investing in a simple drop down attachment or a reclaimer adapter for your favorite dab rig. A proper drop down will trap a vast majority of your reclaim in a dry chamber before it ever reaches your percolator and your water.
When that trap chamber begins to reach its limit, simply detach the drop down from your rig, flip it over, and apply a gentle amount of heat as you watch the honey-like reclaim ooze its way down and out of your drop down and onto your non-stick silicone surface below.
Since no solvents of any kind (even water) were involved in that process, the resulting collection of reclaim should be safe for vaporizing.
DOWN THE DRAIN
Of course, the most common option is to just rinse reclaim right down the drain with the rest of the solvent and water being used to clean your dab rig. A lot of people feel that the time and effort needed to capture and store reclaim is not worth whatever potency or benefits it still possesses.
That is definitely a personal choice, and we certainly don’t save every spec of reclaim after our seshes, but hopefully we showed you that reclaim does have some value if you are willing to harvest it one way or another.
Do you have a killer edibles recipe using reclaim?
Or some other highest and best use for the sticky substance?
Let us know in the comments!
At the pace we are moving, it probably won’t be too long before heady glass dab rigs and bongs are common fixtures everywhere from tailgate parties to weddings, but for now you could face a steep fine or even a misdemeanor charge and some jail time depending on where you get popped taking tokes in public.
That’s the legal aspect of it, but there is also the social aspect.
Not everyone is as down with the plant as we are. When trying to sneak away from a crowd that joint you rolled might taste like blueberry muffins to you while you hit it, but the stale secondhand smoke can travel pretty far and is not appealing to most folks.
Maybe your mother-in-law is asleep down the hall and you finally have a chance to get your head right. Do you dare bust out the bong and pray that the telltale sound of percolating water doesn’t betray you? Or worse, your dab rig and torch to imitate a military jet taking off as you try heat your quartz banger… no way.
Instead, we’ve got the absolute best options here to toke your terps and dab your dank discreetly. With this undercover gear from TheDabLab.com you’ll be the life of the party and they’ll be none the wiser!
OIL VAPE PENS
Shown Above: GiGi Vaporizer by SeshGear for use with Pre-filled Vape Cartridges (Extremely Discreet)
Recent feedback from states like Colorado, Oregon, and California have shown that consumers are buying and using much less cannabis flower than they used to. Instead many are turning to alternative options like vaporizer pens loaded with high potency cannabis oil.
Oil Vape Pens basically consist of a battery, a chamber or tank for the oil to be loaded into, and a mouthpiece.
High quality options like the Orb XL Travel Kit from SourceVapes or the R2 Rig from #THISTHINGRIPS will offer variable voltage so that you can dial in the temperature you prefer to vape at, as well as adjustable airflow to deliver lung expanding blasts of awesome flavor and effects.
The best part is that when you are vaping cannabis oil, the secondhand vapor is typically very minimal (especially if you keep your voltage/temperatures low) and its aroma is generally very non-offensive. Most extracts or pre-filled cartridges smell nothing like combusted cannabis once vaped and exhaled.
Some people prefer to load their own wax, budder, shatter, or rosin into their vape pen and at The Dab Lab we have an unrivaled selection of the very best options for that use from trusted brands like Pax, Firefly, GPen, Yocan, #THISTHINGRIPS, Wulf Vapes, Magic Flight, Cloud Vapes, Exxus, Atmos, Apollo Airvape, Stag Vapor Co., SourceVapes, and more!
For those who get their oil in pre-filled cartridges we have some cool options to accommodate those as well – be sure to check out the super discreet Selfie Vaporizer from Sutra, the Snap Vaporizer from Exxus, and the Duo Vaporizer from Wulf Vape for a palm-sized, easily-concealed, long-lasting and heavy-hitting option for enjoying your pre-filled carts everywhere you go.
HERBAL VAPORIZERS
If you absolutely must have some actual flower in your daily routine but you know that the stench of burnt buds is bound to blow your cover, we’ve got your back.
Though not quite as discreet as an oil vape pen, using a handheld herbal vaporizer can put your head in the clouds while keeping you under the radar.
When you use a legit herbal vape like the Atmos Jump (shown above), or the various herbal options that we carry from Wulf Vape, you know that your herb is being heated by convection vaporization, instead of straight combustion like with fire, and this leads to a much less offensive odor from the resulting vapors.
When used at the proper temperature, the amount of vapor exhaled by the user is nearly invisible and carries very little odor.
CHILLUMS
Vaped herb doesn’t float everyone’s boat however, so if you are really craving a taste of some old school herb but you don’t want to make a scene, a pocket-sized one-hitter, or chillum, could be just what you are looking for.
A chillum (or a “onie” as they are sometimes referred to) is a basic pipe usually crafted with a bowl just large enough to jam one good hit into. Simply hold the chillum in your palm and make a fist, totally concealing all but the end you light and the end you toke. Since you are taking the entire bowl down in one rip, there should be little or no residual smoke wafting off the tip of the pipe so whatever you exhale will be the only evidence.
Chillums are quick and easy but, like any pipe, they begin to stink more and more with each use. It’ll do you no good if you sneak away successfully and then come back to the crowd with a resin-coated tube in your pocket. You’ll need to stash it.
STORAGE/TRANSPORT
Just because the vapors from your wax or herbs don’t smell much doesn’t mean that the flowers and extracts themselves don’t. Do not count on a ziplock bag or a scrap of parchment paper. An important part of smoking discreetly is storage – where will you stash your tools and meds when they are not in use?
Especially when traveling it is crucial to have an odor-proof bag or case to not only keep your gear safe, but to keep it a secret as well.
The T Case is a great option that offers rugged hard-shell outer protection, with customizable pluck-out foam padding inside. The best part is that no matter what you put in there, or how bad it smells, that odor will be locked in tight once you buckle down the latches.
Similarly, RYOT cases and bags provide plenty of padding for peace of mind along with activated carbon SmellSafe technology to keep odors in. These are perfect to stash your vape pen, tools, accessories, and whatever you choose to load it with safely and discreetly.
Both brands offer an everyday stylish look with a variety of sizes to choose from.
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There is a time and a place to puff loud and proud, but when discretion is key the proper tools and accessories from TheDabLab.com can make staying baked all day nobody’s business but yours.
]]>Ok, let’s be honest. How many of you really clean your bong after each and every sesh?
Ok, now how many of you remove the downstem completely each time you clean your tube or beaker bong?
If you’ve still got your hand raised, that’s great! But sadly, you are probably one of the few. Most bongs, bubblers, pipes, and heady dab rigs might get thoroughly cleaned once every five, or ten, or fifty seshes.
Even when downstems are removable, they are often ignored as long as they work. But long before the buildup of resin causes a problem with percolation, it may have already created an issue further up the stem.
It doesn’t take much sticky residue buildup between the joint on your glass bong and the glass downstem seated inside of it to cause the downstem to become stuck.
During regular use of your bong or bubbler there is a certain degree of heat transfer between your glass bowl or slide and the glass joint and the glass downstem. That heat can activate and re-activate resin buildup in the area creating a dangerously tight seal that can prevent you from being able to remove the downstem without fear of breaking any of the glass parts.
Another common cause for a stuck or jammed glass downstem, ironically, often occurs just after doing the right thing by cleaning your glass bong or bubbler often and removing the downstem to clean it separately.
What can cause a problem is if the glass joint on the bong or bubbler and the outside surface of the glass downstem are not thoroughly dried before reinsertion. Even if they are both perfectly clean, the residual moisture can form a difficult seal making removal a nerve-wracking event.
The third most common cause for a stuck downstem is when it becomes jammed downward by some incidental contact with a table, or elbow, lighter, or anything you can think of really.
We asked around on Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, and more on what to do and here are a handful of methods that we came up with for freeing up a stuck downstem on your favorite glass bong or bubbler.
METHOD 1: PIPING HOT WATER
Start by trying to run the hottest tap water from your sink directly over the area where the downstem enters the bong or bubbler. If your hand can stand the temperature of the water momentarily, reach in and firmly (but cautiously) pinch the sides of the exposed portion of the downstem and gently try to twist and pull. With any luck, that combination of heat and water lubrication will do the trick.
METHOD 2: KILL IT WITH FIRE
If that downstem is still stuck due to resin, you can try your dab torch or a triple flame torch. Just quickly apply moving heat to the affected area with the very tip of the flame of your torch. You do not want to hold the flame to the glass for long as you could damage the glass. If there is visible resin or reclaim buildup, you will see it begin to activate from the heat.
Knowing that the glass downstem will be hot from the torch, use a pot holder or heat resistant gloves to try the same technique as above, gently trying to twist and pull the downstem up and out of the bong while the buildup is still boiling a bit.
METHOD 3: SCIENCE!
If the gunk has caked up so bad that those two methods didn’t even make a dent, don’t give up yet! There are some great glass cleaners on the market these days, like Dark Crystal, Grunge Off, or Formula 420. Just fill the water chamber of your bong enough that the downstem and joint are in contact with the cleaning solution and let everything soak.
With any luck the muck will break down and within 24-48 hours you should be able to gently twist and pull your downstem to freedom.
METHOD 4: TAP, TAP, TAP
When your stem is stuck from moisture being trapped between two glass pieces, the ideas above (hot water, tip of the torch) may come in handy. But another option gets brought up often enough by those who know such things that we think you ought to know too.
It sounds a bit strange at first but bear with us. You’ll want a large spoon, preferably wooden. Some folks wrap the spoon in a towel, some use it bare, but the idea is to gently tap-tap-tap the head of the spoon all around the joint where the downstem is stuck.
Surprisingly enough, the subtle vibration from the spoon’s impact can be just enough to shake loose a seemingly stuck stem and this simple yet effective technique has saved many heady bongs and daily driver bubblers from being scrapped.
METHOD 5: LAST RESORT
One final trick that cames in particularly handy when a downstem is just jammed a bit is to find a pair of pliers with the rubber coated handles. You do not want to apply metal to glass with any amount of force, but using the soft grip rubber handles you may be able to grip the neck of the downstem just where it meets the glass joint of the bong or bubbler. If so, slowly and carefully tilt the head of the pliers downward creating a lever action to (hopefully) raise the downstem up/outward.
Of course, all of these methods require extreme caution so you do not damage your glass or yourself.
Not every situation has an easy solution, but based on the causes that we discussed above these tips and tricks might just get that downstem unstuck.
If you managed to loosen things up enough to get your downstem out, congratulations, not everyone is so fortunate. If not, hopefully it will continue to function until, well, it doesn’t. Just clean it up the best you can with the stem in and keep on rippin!
Thoroughly cleaning and drying your downstem and your bong, bubbler, or dab rig often can go a long way towards prevention.
At The Dab Lab we carry a great variety of scientific glass bongs and bubblers as well as some really heady and affordable glass pieces as well, many of which have the useful option of the removable downstem.
If you recently had to retire a piece due to a jammed up joint we’re sure you can find a new favorite at TheDabLab.com – your one stop shop for all smoking and toking needs.
]]>The dish of a quartz banger is heated with a torch, allowed to cool down slightly for a pre-determined amount of time, and then globbed with a dab of your favorite oil, wax, rosin, or hash to deliver top notch terps to your taste buds every time.
Quartz is preferred mostly due to how well it translates flavor, but it is also revered for its heat retention, its ability to be heated and re-heated without cracking or shattering, and for how easy it is to clean.
With such high demand has come a fresh new supply of different styles of quartz bangers from a variety of artists, each with their own benefits and occasional drawbacks.
Of course, The Dab Lab always brings the heat when it comes to providing proper quartz nails and accessories, so we figured we’d bust out this useful guide to help you decide which style is best for you.
ANGLED TOP QUARTZ BANGER
The Angled Top Quartz Banger was popularized by Quave and their iconic QCB (Quave Club Banger) that is credited with helping to kick off the quartz era in dabbing. There is no doubt that the angled top is aesthetically pleasing, but in most scenarios, the flat top is more functional.
PROS: Easy to clean. Smaller volume leads to easier heat retention. Visually appealing. Great for small to medium sized dabs.
CONS: Not fully compatible with all Carb Cap styles, such as Bubble Caps. Directional flow Carb Caps could chase vaping oil up to the neck/joint due to the angle they are pointing.
FLAT TOP QUARTZ BANGER
The Flat Top Quartz Banger is probably the most popular profile seen in quartz nails today. There are many different variations, which we will cover below. But for most dabbers, the flat top is the preferred style for form and function due to the higher quartz wall across from the neck/joint.
PROS: Compatible with the widest range of Carb Cap styles. Great for virtually any sized dab.
CONS: No inherent flaws in this style
ROUND BOTTOM QUARTZ NAILS
C’mon, who doesn’t like a round bottom, right? The always innovative Joel Halen has popularized this style and has once again changed the quartz game by cutting the corners, literally! The deep dish design is ideal for those who like to load up large dabs and the sheer flat top provides a strong seal with almost any style of Carb Cap.
PROS: No corners means your oil moves freely and vaporizes more efficiently. Easy to clean. Deep dish prevents oil from escaping down the neck/joint on larger dabs. Amazing flavor.
CONS: Not the most efficient heating when using a standard heater coil attached to an e-nail. Will not accept typical quartz dish inserts.
EVAN SHORE STYLE QUARTZ BANGERS
Evan Shore is a former glass artist with Quave so he definitely knows how to properly craft a killer quartz banger. His signature bell-shaped flare at the bottom of his dishes is not only a pleasure to look at, but provides extra efficiency as well, and has been adapted by other prominent quartz artists.
PROS: Flared base of dish helps contain swirling oil. Properly placed air flow neck/joint hole prevents splashing oil from entering. Available in flat top or angled top, in a variety of dish diameters.
CONS: 2mm base could be thicker for more heat retention, but it does heat up quickly! Neck/joint not as thick as a Mayoral Quartz Banger, for example.
THICK BOTTOM QUARTZ BANGERS
A common complaint from those just starting to use a new quartz banger is how hard it is to get the dish of the nail to the right temperature. Of course, that temp is different for everyone depending on their tastes. Many people prefer lower temperature dabs, but by letting your dish cool down so low, you run the risk of not having enough heat to properly vaporize your oils. A Thick Bottom Quartz Banger is a great solution. With a double layer thickness of quartz in the bottom of the dish, you can hit and sit at your target temperature longer.
PROS: Superior heat retention. Ideal for low temp dabs.
CONS: Will take longer to initially heat up
OPAQUE BOTTOM QUARTZ BANGERS
The newest hype to hit the quartz banger game is the Opaque Bottom Quartz Banger. As the name suggests, the bottom of the dish is crafted from machined opaque quartz, giving it a foggy or even sandblasted look in the dish. The opaque nature of the design improves thermal conductivity.
PROS: Heats up faster & stays hotter longer than standard “clear” quartz of the same dimensions. Leaves less “puddle” residue
CONS: No inherent flaws in this design
HYBRID BOTTOM QUARTZ BANGER
This banger is a hybrid of the flat bottom and round bottom quartz banger. It has an ultra thick flat bottom on the outside, but rounded on the inside.
PROS: Has the sleek look of the classic flat bottom banger, but functions like a round bottom. The ultra thick base holds a ton of heat for extra large dabs.
CONS: May be too heavy for smaller rigs and it takes a long time to heat up properly due to the extra thick bottom.
SPLASH GUARD QUARTZ BANGER
This banger was designed for people who like to take extra large dabs. It features a taper in the middle of the head to prevent oil from creeping up the nail head and into the neck. Make sure you don't waste dabs with a splash guard banger!
PROS: Helps prevent your dabs from being sucked up and wasted in the neck of your banger.
CONS: The taper in the middle makes it a bit difficult to clean. Spinner carb caps aren't quite as effective either.
COLD START / LONG BOTTOM QUARTZ BANGER
This banger features an extra long head with a round bottom. It's intended to be used with the "Cold Start" dabbing method where you load the concentrates into the nail first and then carefully heat it from the bottom. It's very long to prevent the oil from creeping up the nail head and into the neck.
PROS: Can be used as a standard banger or with the "Cold Start" method. If using the cold start method, it's much quicker as you do not need to wait for a cool down like the traditional dabbing method. Check out our "How to Cold Start" blog to learn more.
CONS: Requires a carb cap with an extra long spout. The narrow head isn't compatible with most aftermarket carb caps.
AUTO SPINNER QUARTZ BANGER
Spinner carb caps have been one of the hottest dabbing trends of the past couple years, but it can be hard the find one the works effortlessly with your banger as the specs can vary from banger to banger and cap to cap. The Auto Spinner banger makes things a whole lot more simple. It features to angles holes on the side of the head. All you need is a marble to seal to top and watch your terp pearls ZING around!
PROS: Doesn't require a fancy cap to spin terp pearls. The spinning action does an amazing job of spreading the oil across the surface of the banger which makes it extremely efficient for vaporization at low temps.
CONS: It's a bit restricted of a pull, which may not be ideal for some dab rigs.
TERP SLURPER QUARTZ BANGER
This style of banger was invented by Toro Glass. It features a spout at the bottom of the banger head with 4 angled slits and a dish weld to the bottom. For best function, this nail is pair with a insert set that features a marble tops, a marble "valve" that sits at the top of the spout, and a "pill" that sits inside the spout. When in use the pill zings up and down the spout hitting max surface area offering amazing vaporization at low temps. This has was easily the most popular quartz banger design of 2020.
PROS: Huge dabs at low temps! With the proper insert set, there is no better draw feel as the pill quite literally zings about inside the spout. It just feels right!
CONS: It takes some practice, if you pull too hard oil can leak into the neck. It's also the hardest design to clean especially with use of an insert set as there are many parts.
BLENDER QUARTZ BANGER
The newest design on the block and a front runner for most popular quartz banger design of 2021. It's similar to the terp slurper banger as it features a dish with "slits" where the dish meets the bottom of the banger head. It has a larger dish than a terp slurper and doesn't have a taper (the spout and head are the same diameter).
PROS: Can be used with many types of inserts and terp pearls. Doesn't require a "valve". Very efficient vaporization at low temps. Effortless spinning action much like the Auto Spinner Quartz Banger. Much easier to clean than a Terp Slurper Banger.
CONS: The large dish can take awhile to heat up. Harder to clean than a traditional flat bottom banger.
THERMAL P QUARTZ BANGERS
Originally introduced by Pukin Beagle, the Termal P Quartz Banger has become an immensely popular design due to its vaporizing efficiency, cleanliness, and awesome heat retention. The dual-wall design offers a lot of benefits to those seeking the tastiest terps.
PROS: No more oil spills! The dual wall design keeps the oil in the dish, not in the neck/joint.
CONS: Some Thermal P styles are slightly more difficult to keep sparkling clean compared to a simpler quartz banger design.
THERMAL CORE QUARTZ BANGERS
Taking everything that works so well with the Thermal P design, the Thermal Core Quartz Banger adds another element to the mix with the core itself, an additional “puck” of quartz at the bottom of the dish that provides superior heat retention.
PROS: MAX heat retention allows for multiple dabs per heat up or for the ultimate low-temp dabs as the Core begins to slowly cool. Flat top is compatible with the widest variety of directional flow Carb Caps.
CONS: The Core in the base of the dish is an obstacle when using Glob Mops or Q-Tips to keep your quartz clean.
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So there you have it!
When you are on a quest for the most strength, aroma, flavor, and effects from your dabs, a new quartz banger from www.TheDabLab.com is the key! We have options in all of the styles and designs outlined above, with prices to fit any budget. Of course, if you have any questions when trying to decide which quartz banger is best for you, just hit us up!
]]>Well, glass pipes have not been around quite that long, but the art of glassblowing dates back to some of our earliest civilizations. It was not until the Roman empire of 30 B.C. that colored glass rods and blow tubes started to be used to create valuable artistic hollow glass vessels for the highest members of society at the time.
It took nearly 2000 years for glassblowers to realize that they could fashion this art form into smoking devices, but it was then that the earliest versions of glass pipes emerged, still reserved for the rich and elite due to their rarity.
Eventually, we arrive at the 1970’s where pretty much everything created – like bellbottoms, disco music, and white people with afros – has failed to stand the test of time...everything, that is, except the first patent for glass pipes, which was filed in 1977.
For two and a half decades after that patent was filed, glassblowers enjoyed blazing a new and exciting trail in the fast-growing industry of pipe and bong making, pushing the techniques of the past to new levels.
The Feds began to take notice of the flow of cash rushing into this quasi-legal business model, and in 2003 they launched a sting called Operation Pipe Dreams which targeted headshops, smoke shops, and glass artists nationwide in what was an attempt by law enforcement to curb the illegal sale of drug paraphernalia.
One day in 2003, 100 homes and businesses were raided, and 55 indictments were handed out to suspects. 54 of the 55 indictments resulted in either a fine or a form of house arrest. The 55th was for the infamous Tommy Chong who was made to be an example, and was sentenced to 9 months in prison for his part in helping to market his son’s “Chong Glass Works” branded bongs and pipes.
These were dark times for glass artists and for their bread n’ butter wholesale customers, but the federal government didn’t have the budget, the manpower, nor the appetite to continue the charade forever. Some of today’s most popular glass artists lived (and worked) through these scary times. Those who took up the trade in the last 10 years or so, however, owe a debt of gratitude to those who stared down the law and kept the art form alive.
There is a fantastic documentary available on DVD and streaming on your favorite sites online titled Degenerate Art: The Art and Culture of Glass Pipes.
Directed by old school legend Marble Slinger and released in 2011, the film combines face to face interviews, historical context, as well as footage of artists creating and showcasing their finished works. If you have not seen it yet, you should look it up right away!
Today’s glass pipes range from super affordable production type pieces, to wholly unique works of art that Picasso himself would be stoked to get baked with. And you know that your buds at The Dab Lab have all of those options, and more, available for you whenever you are ready to support the glass art movement and add to your own collection.
What will the glass pipes of tomorrow look like?
We’re not sure but we can’t wait to see how today’s glass artists push and inspire the next generation, and you know we’ll have the headiest options on deck for you here at The Dab Lab.
]]>The heads of these “trichs” contain the strain-specific blend of cannabinoids – such as THC – that give you the effects that you seek from the plant. So, in other words, it’s not the leaves of the bud that are getting you baked, it’s those sticky icky trichomes and the oils they contain.
For centuries, cannabis connoisseurs have been perfecting the way that they separate those trichs from the plant material, to concentrate the potency of the smoking experience.
When the oils from inside those trichomes are harvested/extracted properly, the end product is what we call a “dab”. A dab is a single dose of this highly concentrated cannabis oil that will vaporize thoroughly when applied to a heated surface, such as a titanium or quartz domeless nail. Those vapors are then inhaled at a potency of anywhere from 60-99% THC, as compared to the highest lab tested cannabis buds which in their natural form might contain 25-30% THC.
Check out our past blog for a detailed look at the different consistencies that your dabs may come in.
These are some of the most common extraction methods in use today:
Water Hash/Ice Water Extract
One of the oldest methods of all, and still very popular among those who are opposed to having harsher solvents used in their process. All this takes is cannabis, ice, water, and agitation. The ice and cold water works to physically break the trichome heads off of the plant matter. Everything is then passed through a series of very fine mesh filters which only allows the water and the desired trich heads to get by. The water is then allowed to dry out and the processed hash is virtually ready to dab. Even the highest quality water hash dabs tend to leave some residue behind when dabbed, but the powerful, natural effect is very unique and refreshing.
Rosin
Relatively new to the dabbing scene is the rosin tech. Rosin is created with no solvents whatsoever, using just heat and pressure. Either a juicy bud, or some select kief or hash, is placed into a fine mesh screen pouch. That loaded pouch is then placed in between two temperature controlled metal plates that are pressed together at extreme pressures. This squeezes the oils from the trich heads and oozes out a clean puddle of fresh dabs.
CO2
Considering the fact that we produce CO2 every time we breathe, it is a virtually non-toxic gas. This makes it very safe to use to extract cannabis oil, when using the proper equipment. The supercritical temps and pressure used by these systems often strips the terpenes which can be added back later on in the process. This gooey cannabis oil is most often used in vape pen cartridges where it works very well.
BHO (Butane Hash Oil)
Probably the most popular, and most common, form of the dab is BHO.
Using the polarity of the pressurized butane and the extremely cold temperatures it is delivered at, the oils are chemically separated from the plant matter when the butane is introduced to the buds. The liquefied butane and its associated fumes are very toxic and VERY flammable, making this process quite dangerous when not done properly.
But, assuming that the process itself goes down without any incidents or injuries, and assuming that the residual or leftover butane is successfully purged out of the extracted oil, BHO can then be made into everything from shatter, to budder, to live resin, and pretty much every other consistency that people enjoy for their dabs.
Proper BHO should give you an amplified version of the strength, aroma, flavor, and effects of the strain of cannabis used in the extraction.
To use dabs you will need some Dab Accessories or an Oil Vape Pen all found here at The Dab Lab.
]]>The two most common ways to rotate a piece of glass in the flame of the torch are to spin the glass by hand (Hand Spun), or by attaching the glass to a mechanical lathe that will spin it at the artist’s desired speed (Lathe Made).
More often than not, you can tell the difference between the two by looks alone. There are certain tell-tale characteristics of rigs or bongs that are spun by hand versus those spun by machine.
The Lathe Made glass bongs and dab rigs that we have available here at The Dab Lab are a great example.
Take the work that we proudly carry by Rawlins Glass. The crisp, sharp lines and angles and the flawless sizing, spacing, and function of every aspect of his work just shimmers with the perfection of a mechanically spun process. Downstems and percolators are always placed and lined up precisely. Another dead giveaway is the perfectly balanced and extremely thick flared base that you’ll find on many of his taller pieces.
There is really no disadvantage to Lathe Made glass, although the buyer should expect to pay a bit for it to compensate for the added skillset of the artist and the added risk and overhead costs incurred when making such pieces.
Hand Spun glass is usually (but not always) headier than Lathe Made Glass. The straight tube sections are generally shorter on Hand Spun as well, and might not always be exactly straight. Angles get rounded and lines begin to bulge on most Hand Spun glass pieces, but more often than not this only adds to their charm and even their value as they can be difficult to mass reproduce.
Diffusion is often simpler on heady Hand Spun glass rigs or bongs than the intricate percs that you typically see on Lathe Made scientific glass pieces. Experienced artists can hand spin a very well-balanced base, but if they are flared it is usually more like a wine glass, and not as thick or solid as those spun on a lathe.
Hand Spun glass is much more common than Lathe Made glass, mostly due to the fact that a good lathe can run several thousand dollars, used, and as much as a car or truck if you want to buy a new one.
On top of the high cost, they take up a lot of space in a glassblowing studio, and suck even more power which adds to an artist’s overhead costs each month.
But are there advantages of one method over the other? Not really. It’s up to you, and the look and chug that you prefer.
Hopefully, by using some of the pointers and clues that we have given you today, it will help you to decide which style suits you best!
]]>Just four years ago, we were making our own step-by-step video on how to properly use a dome when taking a dab. It wasn’t long thereafter that titanium and ceramic domeless dab nails took over the top spot for a few years.
While they are still highly functional, the new king is quartz.
Quartz bangers, and the variants of that design, are now preferred for their ability to convey the truest translation of terps to your taste buds. With a torch and a directional flow carb cap, the quartz banger is unrivaled in aesthetic form and awesome function.
To get the most flavor and awesome effects from their concentrates, most dabbers want to vaporize at low temperatures. If the nail is still glowin’, you shouldn’t be goin’…ya gotta wait! Domeless quartz dab nails can vary greatly in size, shape, wall thickness, base thickness, etc. So once you determine the exact amount of time to heat the nail, and then let it cool , you’ll get fat, tasty dabs every single time.
So the tools of dabbing have definitely changed, and so have the best methods.
Right now, in the spring of 2018, here is the step-by-step guide on how to take a proper dab, from your friends at The Dab Lab.
WHAT YOU’LL NEED – Most items can be found at TheDabLab.com!
*RECOMMENDED: A comfortable seat & something to drink
STEP ONE – Cleanliness is Next to Godliness
There is nothing worse than having a buddy pull out his bong or dab rig and it looks like some sort of science fair experiment gone wrong on the inside. Don’t be that buddy. Always make sure that the rig or bong at least gets dumped, and ideally cleaned, at the end of each day. Fresh water goes in to start each new sesh – your taste buds, and your real buds, will thank you.
Ok, the rig is ready, here we go!
STEP TWO – Prepare For Blastoff
With all of the items listed above within arm’s reach, it’s time to load your concentrate (your dab) onto the dabber tool. If you are new to dabbing, but you have seen people doing huge dabs online or at events and you think that looks fun, slow down. Believe it or not, a dab the size of a BB can produce an immensely euphoric effect. But take too much, and well…it won’t be so fun.
We recommend a dab of roughly .03 grams to begin. That gives you somewhere around 30 dabs out of one gram of concentrate, and like we said, it will work. The size of your dabs will grow as you get more comfortable with the process and as your personal tolerance builds.
STEP THREE – We’ve Got Ignition
Using your torch, direct the tip of the flame away from your rig to heat the bottom of the dish of your quartz banger until it begins to glow slightly orange, from the bottom up. At this point, shut down the torch and begin the cooldown timer according to what nail you are using and what temp you like your dabs at. "But why wait for the nail to cool down?" If your asking yourself that question right now, check out our blog about Low Temp Dabbing and How to use a Carb Cap.
STEP FOUR – Just Do it
The most common method for applying the often sticky dab to the heated nail surface is to press it against the quartz wall across from the neck joint air flow hole that leads back to the rig. It should melt off of your dabber tool and make its way down to the dish surface where it will begin to more thoroughly vaporize. No stirring necessary.
STEP FIVE – Taste It, Don’t Waste It
With your concentrate starting to vaporize, its carb cap time. A properly paired carb cap will form a “glass on glass” seal with the rim of the head of the quartz bucket. This changes the air pressure in the banger and induces more convection vaporization of your concentrate. A good directional flow carb cap will allow you to manipulate it by spinning it and plugging/unplugging the air hole. This action will chase the vaping oil around the dish surface for the most optimal and waste-free dabbing experience.
Lift the carb cap to clear the tasty vapors from the chamber of the rig, then replace the carb cap on the quartz banger and rip it again! You can repeat this process to get up to five really good tokes off of one solid dab.
Check out our Carb Cap Compatibility Master List to make sure you get the best one for you and your setup.
Another popular twist on the technique these days is the use of various forms of inserts, typically also made of quartz, that are placed into the quartz bucket to further stimulate proper vaporization.
Separate quartz dish inserts allow you to pre-load your dabs and just drop them in the banger and can help keep the much pricier banger itself sparkling clean. See our recent blog to learn more about How to Use a Quartz Insert.
Similarly, quartz “pucks” and other shapes can be dropped into the dish of any quartz banger to essentially halfway mimic a thermal core quartz banger.
STEP SIX – Remember What We Said About Cleanliness
After you exhale and gather your wits again, but before the dish of the banger cools all the way down, use Tip Tech Swabs, or some sort of cotton swab to wipe down the entire inner dish and walls of the quartz banger. Especially when you are enjoying low temp dabs, a reclaim-like residue remains after each one. This step will clean all of that up to ensure that your next dab will be unaffected by the last one’s leftovers.
If you see a blackish residue, you likely didn’t let your nail cool down enough after heating it. Reheating with a torch can often remedy this. Then adjust your timer settings on both the heat up and cool down of your quartz banger.
If you took our advice about the comfy seat and the cool beverage, you’re extra stoked.
Ready for another dab? Just repeat the process!
=======================
Well, there you have it. Like we said this is how it’s done in 2018 but as fast as this whole thing has moved in the past four years since our first How to Dab blog and video, there’s no telling what our next guide might look like!
WiFi dabs?
3D printed concentrates?
Artificial Intelligence powered honey badgers with frickin’ laser beams?!?
So you know that The Dab Lab has today’s best glass, gear, and accessories… and whatever the future brings, we’ll bring it to you!
]]>The effect that you receive from dabbing hash oil is multitudes higher than how you feel after smoking a bowl or taking a toke of cannabis flower.
The strongest lab tested weed is coming back between 25-35% THC, while hash oil extractions have pushed that scale up to nearly pure 99.9% THC.
When you strip away all of the plant matter, properly processed hash oil is full of cannabinoids, flavonoids, and terpenes in an incredibly tasty concoction that packs a punch unlike any bong-load ever could.
Just because dabs are powerful and potent does not mean that they are only for hardcore stoners or high tolerance hotshots.
Here are a few tips and facts to help you make sure that your dabbing experience is not only safe for you and your friends, but as pleasurable and awesome as can be too!
Lab Testing – Most dispensaries and extractors these days are having their products lab tested before they are put out to the public. Customers are picky as can be these days when shopping for concentrates, so a clean lab test is good for sales. As a dabber, you should demand clean lab tests on the hash oil that you will be vaping. Residual butane in your BHO, or mold in your water hash can be harmful to your health - demand better.
Dosing – Know your limits! It doesn’t matter how delicious that last dab tasted, or if peer pressure is mounting, or if you are trying to make a perfect Instagram video…don’t overdo it! Someone new to dabbing should get at least 40 dabs out of a gram of hash oil. Start small and work your way up, giving yourself plenty of time in between dabs to make sure you are still feeling ok.
Set & Setting – Taking your first dab at a Cannabis Cup or similar event probably isn’t the best idea. Ideally your first few dab seshes will be in a place where you are comfortable, with people who have your best interests in mind. A comfortable seat always helps, as does a glass of water. If the effect of a powerful dab is overwhelming your first time, just remind yourself that it’s all-good and that you are in a good place.
Proper Tools – Here is where we come in at The Dab Lab. What’s the use in seeking out clean, safe lab tested concentrates if you are just going to unsafely vaporize it off of a janky knockoff domeless titanium or quartz nail? Or store it in a low-grade silicone container instead of a platinum cured medical grade option from us? Like you, we take our dabbing very seriously and so we make sure that all of the best and most innovative tools and accessories are available for you here in our store.
Dabbing is an excellent alternative for people who enjoy the effects of cannabis, but do not want to deal with the mess or smell of traditionally smoking weed. The fact that dabs carry a higher potency level should not be a deterrent, or something to be feared, but instead should be respected and utilized to maximize your cannabis using experience.
Dabbing is great for people who have sensitive lungs, but need the effect of THC/CBD quickly. Just a tiny dab will do!
]]>The Dab Lab website has been updated and upgraded. We are still working on more updates so expect more things to change in the next few weeks. We will list the updates below as they are made.
Here is a list of new features and improvements:
Update V3.0
Category, Brand, and Search Result Pages
Product Pages
Update V3.1 - 5/3/18
Update V3.2 - 5/14/18
Update V3.3 - 6/15/18
Known Issues:
Notice a glitch or some sort of problem that isn’t listed under "Known Issues"? Contact us at info@thedablab.com and let us know right away!
]]>
A hemp-woven rope dating back to 26,900 BC was recently discovered in Czechoslovakia, making it the oldest known relationship between the plant and mankind. The oldest known written record of cannabis use comes to us from Chinese Emperor Shen Nung back in 2727 BC.
The fact of the matter is that for the vast majority of human history worldwide, the cannabis plant was not only legal, but a preferred crop for its usefulness in textiles and medicine…and probably a little bit of getting baked. Colonialists arriving to the new world to establish America relied on the fast growing and highly sustainable plant to quite literally outfit the revolution that founded this country. Hell, the Declaration of Independence was drafted on hemp paper!
Throughout the 1800’s, cannabis and various forms of its extracts were used medicinally to help with a variety of ailments.
In the 1900’s, Mexican soldiers fighting in the Mexican Revolution showed Americans that the plant had recreational value as well. It was literally resentment towards Mexican immigrants that, in part, led to the begging of cannabis prohibition and by 1931, 29 states had outlawed it.
Another driving force was William Randolph Hearst, who owned the prominent news outlets of the day. He used those outlets to help stoke the racist fears. It was his own fear of hemp replacing lumber to make newspapers that truly drove his hatred of the cannabis plant.
In 1937, Samuel Caldwell was the first person arrested under the newly drafted Marijuana Tax Act. He was sentenced to four years of hard labor after being convicted of selling the “evil weed”.
In 1970, the Marijuana Tax Act was replaced by President Richard Nixon with the Controlled Substances Act, which sinfully placed cannabis at the top of the list as a Schedule I drug allegedly as dangerous as heroin in the eyes of the US government.
And there it sits to this day... But strides have been made!
In 1996, the state of California passed Prop 215 and SB 420, effectively laying the groundwork for the massive medical marijuana movement that would quickly consume the country.
In 1931, 29 states outlawed cannabis. Today, 29 states and Washington DC have robust medical marijuana programs. 8 states have taken the step to legalize marijuana on the recreational level for adult use.
With this rapid acceleration of legality has come a societal acceptance with cannabis and cannabis users that had been unfortunately lost in our culture for decades due to bullshit propaganda. It has also encouraged more experimentation with ways to enjoy cannabis which has led to groundbreaking advancements in topicals, edibles, and concentrates.
4/20 has traditionally been the code for smoking cannabis. You can do it at twenty minutes after four, or on the twentieth day of April, or preferably both, to celebrate the plant.
With the rise of dabs, dabbing, and hash oil, a new code has entered the lexicon – 7:10
The genius Task Rok of Highly Educated Titanium came up with the concept of looking at the number 710 upside-down to spell the word OIL. So now, like 4/20 before it, 7/10 is the new dabber’s holiday.
We here at The Dab Lab were not around in ancient China or even in the 1930’s prohibition era, but we’ve been around! We’ve seen medical and recreational legalization become a reality and we’ve seen the dabbing revolution take shape and turn into the subculture that it is today and we have been there every step of the way offering you the best gear at the best prices all with one visit to TheDabLab.com
]]>We have found a new high with the innovative new Quartz Insert - options available now here at The Dab Lab from Quartz Tech and Eternal Quartz .
The two questions we get the most about these must-have items is – What is the best way to use it and what size will fit my nail?
First you need to have a Flat Top Quartz Banger domeless nail, such as one of our options from Hoyes, Quartz Tech, Halen, or Mad Rob Quartz. But before you buy one you need to know what size to get.
The easiest way to find the right size quartz insert for your nail is to visit our Compatibility Master List . If you have one of the nails in the list, select it from the drop-down menu and a list of compatible sizes will appear. But if the nail you have isn’t in our list or you just want to double check to make sure you will need to do a little math.
Step 1
Find out the outer diameter of your nail head. If it was sold as a 25mm Banger, then 25mm represents the outer diameter of your nail head.
Step 2
Find out the thickness if your nail head. You can refer back to where you purchase the nail from or use a pair of calipers to measure the thickness (this will also work for step 1).
Step 3
Now take the outer diameter of your nail and subtract double the thickness of your nail.
Example: 25mm head – (2 x 3mm thick head) = 25 – 6 = 19
Step 4
The number you get represents the size of the insert you will need. That size should fit, but to be safe, we always recommend getting 1mm smaller. So in the example above, we would have bought a 18mm insert.
Once you’ve got your banger and correct size insert, there are the 3 ways to use your new Quartz Insert to take your terps to the next level!
Option 1
With everything at room temp, place the empty Insert into the head of the banger. Then proceed to heat your banger as you normally would. The heat will transfer from the quartz banger to the quartz dish, giving you an enhanced version of a Thermal P dab nail.
Advantage: Superior heat retention gives you plenty of time to get your dab into the dish or take very large dabs.
Disadvantage: Longest heat-up time
Option 2
With everything at room temp, heat the insert itself, holding it with Reverse Tweezers, then place it into the room temp banger and wait as long as you would on a regular domless quartz nail to apply the dab. Once the vapor has cleared, remove the insert and clean with Tip Tech Cotton Swabs.
Advantage: This can keep your banger head looking sparkling new for much longer. If/when you need to replace something, the insert is much more affordable than an entirely new domeless nail.
Disadvantage: Less heat retention than the 1st method means you can’t take giant globs without a little waste. Use caution when handling a hot or warm Quartz Insert Dish.
Option 3
With everything at room temp, load your preferred size dab into the insert, and then heat the head of your Flat Top Banger as you normally would. Once you have it at your desired temp, place the pre-loaded insert into the heated banger head (Halen quartz recommends waiting 10 seconds before placing the insert inside the head after heating) and when the oil begins to bubble and boil, carb cap that baby and rip it slow and steady for the ultimate flavor burst.
Advantage: This is the tastiest way we have found to dab from a quartz nail so far. The gradual rise in quartz-to-quartz heat transfer ensures that you are vaporizing your oil at the most ideal and lowest temp possible.
Disadvantage: Not really any so far, unless you wait too long after the oil begins to bubble, which can occasionally result in slightly too hot of a dab.
The Dab Lab brings you the latest and greatest dabbing, smoking, and vaporizing rigs, tools, accessories and everything else that you need to get the most out of your dabs and tokes. Getting the sizing right is crucial on these new Quartz Insert so be sure to check the details on the product pages to get exactly what you need. Still not sure? Hit us up and we will help you figure it out!
]]>2017 - Top 5 Bestselling Dab Rigs for $100 or less
SESH SUPPLY - FUMED BANGER HANGER RIG ($60.00)
Strike gold this holiday season with this vibrantly fumed dab rig from Sesh Supply. The 14mm female “banger hanger” joint and fixed downstem leads to a chugging 4-hole perc for some awesome bubbly action as you take a rip. Standing at just 5.5 inches tall, the function on this little ripper is flawless with no unwanted splash. It comes equipped with a 14mm martini style bowl/slide, but you can easily upgrade it to come with your choice of several affordable quartz domeless nails from TheDabLab.com and still stay under $100!
BARE GLASS - MINI DAB RIG ($60.00)
This proven design features a large can/chamber for such a small dab rig, allowing the 4-slit percolator enough room to stack some serious bubbles! The extra thick base is accented in a classy black and provides a stable base to keep your new glass safe. The matching dome has a black accented handle and the rig comes equipped with a 14mm quartz nail so you’ll be dabbing minutes after the mailman brings your delivery from The Dab Lab!
BARE GLASS - MINI REYCLER RIG ($60.00)
Another stunner from Bare Glass, this clear scientific recycler rig is an absolute steal at this price! But don’t take our word for it; check out the customer review on the product page. A simple 3-hole perc leads to a perfect spinning recycler drain keeping your lips dry and your head high. 14mm dome and quartz dab nail included.
FAMOUS BRANDZ - CHEECH & CHONG DAB RIG ($74.99)
This chunky and sturdy dab rig from Famous Brandz is a solid piece of glass worthy of any road trip or sesh. It features a 14mm male joint, which spills into a fixed downstem with a double showercap perc – a bulbous diffusor with several slits. Stamped with the Cheech n’ Chong “Up in Smoke’ logo and equipped with a 14mm matching dome and quartz nail, this rig is flying off of our shelves here at The Dab Lab.
MAV GLASS MINI DAB RIGS ($100.00)
3 hot new styles of highly functional mini dab rigs from Mav Glass have arrived at The Dab Lab and the customer feedback has been great so far. All three styles are unique from one another in their overall shape, but each one features a 14mm female joint, a splash of heady color work, and a simple 2-hole perc. The “Candy Can” style has a cool drop-down joint that sits at table-level making it much more stable for use with e-nails. So be sure to check out the Baby Bulb, the Candy Can, and the Head Stand mini dab rigs from Mav Glass, brought to you by your friends here at The Dab Lab.
Looking to spend a bit more?
These are just a small sample of the unrivaled selection of dab rigs, tools, accessories, and other 420, 710, and counter culture gear that you can find at The Dab Lab. So whether you are shopping for a friend or for yourself, hit us up with your budget and what you’re looking for and we’ll pair you up with the perfect piece of glass for the holidays.
]]>
It’s not just chips that started out as a mistake though, Post-It Notes, penicillin, and pacemakers too! Even chocolate chip cookies and color-changing fumed glass pipes! Yep, that’s right. We’ve all hit a fumed pipe or bong, right? It all began as a mistake in the humble studio of the legendary artist, Bob Snodgrass. Ol’ Snoddy accidentally dipped a bit of silver in front of his torch while working away one day and boom, or rather *FUME*, a new style of glass art was created.
Fumed glass is as popular as ever these days. When glass artists place precious metals like gold, platinum, and silver in between their torch flame and the glass they are working with, the ultra-high temp of the flame vaporizes the metals, releasing fumes that are then carried by the flame to the glass to make some awesome looking iridescent designs that are often then encased with more clear glass.
Check out this dope spoon pipe from Custom Creations below, available now in our store. This twisted fumed pipe is thick and solid and is accented brilliantly with a sweet millie cluster mib on the side of the bowl.
Though gold and silver are most commonly used, the skill of the artist can pull a killer variety of shades and hues of colors from the metal into the glass. When you hold your new, or sparkling clean, pipe up to a lighter colored background, you will see the transmitted colorful patterns in the glass. As you darken the background, often those patterns “pop” even more giving the effect of the colors actually changing. This is why as a fumed pipe fills with dark resin, people often talk about the newly visible spectrum of color. Unlike more recently popular UV-reactive glass, fumed glass does not actually “change color”, it just reveals more with use.
Here at The Dab Lab, we have a heady selection of fumed pipes, bongs, bowls and slides, as well as dab rigs and more, all from the artists you love and prices you love too. Show us your before/after color-changing fumed glass pics on Instagram! #thedablab
]]>This Dab Rig Buyer’s Guide might help to answer some of your questions and help to point you in the right direction.
SIZE
Generally speaking, dab rigs tend to be smaller than your average bong. Reducing the amount of air between your dab vapors and your taste buds usually delivers better tasting and heavier hitting dabs. Still, there is quite a bit of variety when it comes to the size of dab rigs. A big part of your decision depends on what style catches your eye, but there are some other things to consider.
For example, if you plan to travel a lot with your dab rig, or use it at music or cannabis related festivals, you might consider one of our pendant dab rigs available here at The Dab Lab. Secure it with a dope chain around your neck and your terps will never be too far away. If you plan to keep your dab rig at home and on the coffee table, maybe you want to bump up the size a bit so that you can just lean over and let her rip!
This Fab Egg Rig from Bare Glass is a perfect example of a coffee table dab rig:
Every dab rig here at The Dab Lab has a bunch of useful information on its product page, including size dimensions to help you make the right decision.
DIFFUSION
When it comes to dabbing, fewer/larger bubbles is usually preferred. This helps to preserve flavor of your vapors, as opposed to many smaller bubbles that are instead intended to cool the smoke when combusting herb. Recyclers are very popular as Dab Rigs. Recyclers tend to create a lot of diffusion, but they are still great as Dab Rigs. They hold a lot of water reducing the air space in the water pipe, creating smooth terpy vapor.
Recycler rigs like these from AFM Glass:
Or this beauty from Leisure Glass:
are ideal for enjoying concentrates, while also being darn cool to look at while they are in action!
PRICE
Here at The Dab Lab, we have dab rigs for you with a dome and a quartz nail starting at just $60!
Our selection of clear and scientific glass dab rigs and accessories is virtually unrivaled and is always as affordable as possible. The more work that a glass artist puts into a piece, the more value it has. So as you can see with some of our more colorful, and fully worked heady glass dab rigs, the price does go up a bit. Heady glass handcrafted by respected artists has proven to be a good investment over the years, and even though the prices are higher than some of our entry level glass, we are still proud to offer you the best prices even on high end heady glass. That is our mission.
For example, check out these super heady recyclers by Schmalex Glass with colored glass and linework for only $350:
If you still have any questions in your search for the best dab rig for your situation, hit us up and we will be happy to have a sales associate help you make the right choice!
]]>If you keep hearing the term “heady” being used to describe a piece of glass, but you see no heads on it, and you are confused, we got your back. The best way to think of what makes a piece of glass art – like a pipe, rig, or bong – heady, is to think of what would make such items the opposite of heady, what we call “scientific”.
Scientific glass is just like it sounds – usually lots of straight lines, beaker shapes, and always clear, colorless glass. So heady glass is the opposite of that! With heady glass, explosions of colors and patterns and designs worked into and onto the glass by experienced and talented glass artists lead to a never-ending medium of art that is getting more and more impressive as today’s artists build on the skills they learned from their predecessors and push it all to another level altogether.
Though there are exceptions to the rule, heady glass pieces are usually not mass-produced, and are typically created from the highest quality materials. The inclusion of precious metals like gold or silver for fuming, shaped or chunks of opals for encasing, or rare millies, add visual appeal to a heady glass piece, but also drive up the price.
Artists spend considerably more time on their heady glass work, which also affects the price tag at the end, but ensures that you are getting a unique and hand-crafted piece of art that often retains value or even in some cases gains in value over time.
Want to see some? Better yet, want to buy some at amazing prices? You’re in luck, you’ve found The Dab Lab! Some heady pipes are intricately sculpted like our lineup from Bard Glass and Jordy Minnick. Others are cold-worked with deep sandblasting or carving like the beauties from Liberty Glass, or the eye-catchers from Pa Jay. And those are just a small selection… of just our dry pipes!
As soon as you start browsing our easy-to-use web store, your jaw will drop from the incredible variety of heady glass pipes, bongs, dab rigs, dabbers, carb caps, pendants, and so, so much more. We’ve got price points and options to help everybody put a little more color into their glass collection. Having a hard time deciding? Shoot us a message with your budget and ideal features and we will pair you up with a perfect piece of heady glass!
]]>Over the millennia, the cannabis plant has taken on many nicknames such as marijuana, weed, herb, bud, reefer, and so many more. But if you thought the plant form had a lot of names, trying to figure out the growing list of types of concentrates and dabs can be a bit overwhelming for those new to dabbing. “Dabs” or “Dabbing” refers to vaporizing the highly potent and flavorful oils that are extracted from the cannabis plant by a variety of methods. Heck, if you squeeze a bud hard enough it’ll ooze out some dabs!
This article will educate you about the many different types of dabs that you may come across, as well as the best type of dabbing tool from our store here at The Dab Lab, so that you can be in the know at your next sesh.
Sap / Distillate
Best Dabber Style: Flat / Scoop / Spoon
This distilled cannabis oil is typically very low in viscosity, making it runny and gooey, especially when artificial terpenes are added for flavoring. A flat, or spoon-shaped dabber works best for this type of dab, with titanium being preferred since its heat transfer capability will help move the goo off your dabber and onto your nail. Check out these two affordable options from Ti King.
Pull and Snap / Taffy
Best Dabber Style: Ball Point or Flat
When you see an unexperienced person try to get a modest dab of Pull and Snap, it can be hilarious as they entangle themselves in a web of messy waxy dabs…unless it’s your dabs. As the name implies, Pull and Snap, or Taffy, often looks a lot like Shatter, but due to ambient temperature or some different step in the processing of the cannabis oil, it doesn’t shatter and just gets very stringy if you’re not careful. Instead, you just use your dabbing tool to sort of measure off the size of the dab you want, then press down and quickly and briskly pull the dabber away, “snapping off” the desired dab without the mess.
Once again, Ti King has a few variations if you are looking for an unbreakable titanium dabber. We also have some heady boro glass dabbers – like these vibrant boro crayon and pencil style dabbers from Rodz Glass, or Brother Bud’s colorful array of glass Dabbers with built-in Carb Caps - that work great with this taffy-like consistency.
Sugar Wax / Sauce
Best Dabber Style: Flat / Scoop / Spoon
Super hyped right now, this hybrid consistency of runny oil and chunky, potent THC crystals can be a bit tricky to dose for yourself if you don’t have the right dabbing tool. Since this type of cannabis oil is meant to be a terpene and flavor-rich experience, you’ll want low temperature dabs, so this Ti King Flat Titanium Dabber with an attachable carb cap is perfect.
Shatter
Best Dabber Style: Flat / Pointed
With the right dabber, Shatter can be very manageable. Without it, you’ll be finding shards in your beard, car seat, or carpet way too often after your stash literally shatters apart. By using a sharply pointed or flat bladed dabber from The Dab Lab, you can cut off the ideal sized dose, then just stab it and dab it! In fact, aside from the Ballpoint options, every dabber you see in the Dabbers & Carb Caps section of our site works well with proper shatter.
Wax / Crumble
Best Dabber Style: Flat / Scoop / Spoon
Whipped to induce air into the curing cannabis oil, Crumble or Wax is a much drier form of dabs. Super popular until the Shatter era, Crumble is now making a comeback for its ease of use with vape pens and its ability to capture and deliver the essence of the strain used to make the oil. Sometimes, when it is too dry, or too crumbly, you need to use your dabber to mash some smaller pieces together to form a respectable dab. You also don’t want to try to balance Crumble on a pointed or small head of a dabbing tool. So a nice flat head dabber should do the trick.
Crystalline
Best Dabber Style: Flat / Scoop / Spoon
With lab testing often coming back at anywhere from 99.5% to 99.9% pure THC, this Crystalline form of concentrated cannabis is no joke. However, that steep THC count is usually matched by a steep price, so you don’t want to waste one grain of this sugary looking hash. Since it’s not sticky at all, you want to scoop a decent pile of it onto a flat dabber, and then just dump it onto your warm quartz bucket or banger, or domeless titanium nail, and then its blast off time!
THC Diamonds
Best Dabber Style: Scoop / Spoon
This is the newest hype among oil enthusiasts. We're not entirely sure what the process is to make these "gems", so you'll have to do more research to find out that information. This type of dab is hard like rock candy and sometimes comes submerged in extra terpy sappy oil. Towards the end of the extraction process the oil undergoes a separation of THC (the diamond) and Terps (the sappy oil). We recommend a scoop or spoon shaped dabber with a sharp edge, so you can break the THC Diamonds into smaller pieces if need and you can scoop a piece up without getting any sappy oil on your fingers and essentially wasting dabs!
]]>In fact, we have so many torches that it can be a bit overwhelming to sort through them all if you are not sure what you are looking for. That’s why we created this handy dandy Dab Torch Buyer’s Guide, which should help you determine exactly which torch is best for you.
One thing that all of these torches have in common is that they are all fueled by butane gas, which is of course highly flammable, so always exercise caution and good sense when using your torch. That is really where the similarities end, so we will break down the 4 most common sizes that you will see here in our store, with the pro’s and con’s about each size.
MINI TORCHES
These very small handheld pocket torches aren't really designed to heat a quartz banger. They are best for lighting cigars, joints, and bog bowls. If you are looking for a torch for that purpose, check out Zico Torches here at The Dab Lab. Scroll down to check out the best entry level dab torch!
SMALL TORCHES
Our “small” series of torches from the company Special Blue are perfect for travel. The Special Blue Diablo Torch is very useful for heating quartz bangers. The lowest priced torch in our store, this model features a manufacturer warranty, a flame height adjuster, a removable stand, and more.This torch will take longer to heat the average dab nail than some of our larger options (especially bangers with extra thick 30mm heads), but the price is just so appealing!
MEDIUM TORCHES
The Blazer Big Buddy Torch is the perfect medium sized torch. Blazer is well known for their high quality torches and the Big Buddy is only $40! The medium size makes it good for traveling but still plenty big enough for regular at home use with any size quartz banger. This is the most popular Dab Torch here at The Dab Lab
LARGE TORCHES
For those who want the fastest and most efficient heating time when dabbing, the Blazer Big Shot GT 8000 is just what you’re looking for. The piezo crystal instant ignition ensures frustration-free dabbing, and blazing fast heat-up times on even the largest titanium or quartz nails, buckets, bangers and troughs. The price of this torch is slightly higher than the smaller models, but its high efficiency will save you money on butane over the long run. One of the most popular dab torches on the market today can be yours when you shop online at The Dab Lab.
Most buyers will probably want to browse the products described under the “Medium” and “Large” sections of this Buyer’s Guide, but don’t count out the many uses of the “Mini” and “Small” sizes too!
If you have any more questions about which dab torch might be best for you, feel free to leave a comment below, hit up our Live Chat during business hours, or send us an email or message on social media and we’ll be happy to point you in the right direction.
]]>Herbal vape options and quality have come a long way in the past 4 or 5 years, and here at The Dab Lab we have made sure to always keep the very best in stock for you. Whether you are already on that vape game and are just looking to upgrade, or if you are new to it and looking for a different way to enjoy your herbs, this Herbal Vaporizer Buyer’s Guide will help to answer any questions that you might have when shopping for a new vaporizer in our store. Be sure to click on each product in our store for in depth details about each one.
Handheld or Desktop?
We carry the finest in both pocket-sized handheld herbal vaporizers, as well as proven high quality desktop versions. The real question is, do you plan to use your herbal vaporizer more on the go, or more as a sit down at home and sesh type of tool? You can almost think of it like a spoon pipe vs. a large bong.
Desktop Herbal Vaporizers
The larger, desktop models like our options from Volcano, Arizer, and Vapir function a bit better than their simplified handheld counterparts, but are meant for home or stationary use.
Yes, the Volcano brand is a bit pricier than the Arizer and Vapir, but as with all things you get what you pay for. There is one major distinct difference between the two brands though. The Volcano units utilize a plastic balloon/bag that collects the vapors as they emit from the unit itself. With the bag full of tasty vapors, you remove it from the vaporizer unit, place your mouth over the opening, and inhale deeply for a great hit. This can be a bit weird for 1 st time vapers to see but it is an effective delivery method. The Arizer Extreme Q and Vapir Rise units have a more traditional whip/mouthpiece that connects to the vaporizer unit and delivers plumes of vapor directly to your mouth as it emits from the unit OR you can use a balloon/bag system as well.
Another highly recommended unit is the award winning VapeXhale Cloud Evo Herbal Vaporizer. Though it is marketed as a “desktop” vape, it is really quite easy to travel with but definitely not pocket sized. It does still need to be plugged into a wall outlet, but with its detachable glass mouthpiece and slender profile it is a perfect blend of great function and portability. If you plan to mostly use your new herbal vaporizer at home or at a buddy’s place, definitely consider spending a few extra bucks on one of these units.
Handheld Herbal Vaporizers
Handheld herbal vaporizers are more portable, more affordable, very discreet, and simple to use. Their main downside is that they usually have limited sized chambers to pack your herbs resulting in only only a few good puffs before you must reload. Ranging in price from around $60 - $330, you will have many options for a new handheld herbal vaporizer here at The Dab Lab from trusted brands like Atmos, Pax, Firefly, Wulf Vapes, Magic Flight and more. But there are certain tradeoffs that you will need to consider.
If you are looking to spend as little as possible, we have some affordable entry level herbal vapes that will save you a bit of money but the tradeoff is that you will not have a full spectrum of digital temperature controls, instead relying on preset temperature levels. The Wulf Vape Classic, Pulsar APX, and Atmos Jump Vaporizer are examples of the type of handheld portable herbal vaporizer that might not have all of the bells and whistles of a more expensive unit, but simply put, THEY WORK GREAT! The Atmos Jump is the least bulky and most discreet herbal vaporizer we carry.
The mid-range handheld units like the Exxus, Sutra, AirVape XS, Davinci Accent and others offer a more intuitive user interface and more options for customizing your vaping experience, but the tradeoff is that they are a bit more bulky and not as discreet. Although, the AirVape XS does have a thin smart phone shaped design (pictured below).
Our top shelf herbal vaporizers include the FireFly 2, Pax 2 & 3, and the Crafty Vaporizer by Storz & Bickel, the creators of the Volcano Vaporizer. These are the most trusted vaporizer brands on the market. Although the FireFly and Pax units do not let you dial in the exact temperature (instead they feature multiple preset temperatures), they are still considered to be among the very best herbal vaporizers. The Crafty does allow precise temperature control that you can adjust with your smart phone!
When choosing which handheld herbal vaporizer is right for you, two main considerations should be whether you are trying to stay under $100 or are willing to spend more, and if you are willing to sacrifice some discretion and sneakiness for better function.
When considering a new herbal vaporizer, there are a lot of questions that you need to answer and hopefully this guide helped you do that. One thing that is never in question is that your buds at The Dab Lab will always keep the finest and most highly functional herbal vaporizer options available for you at the best prices.
Oh, and don’t forget to grab a new grinder too for optimal vaping!
]]>The 14mm joint is by far the most popular size used on dab rigs these days, so we have gathered some of the most affordable, and some of the highest quality male and female domeless quartz nails in that size from the brands that you trust – all on one site www.TheDabLab.com
For those on a tight budget we have 14mm male and female domeless quartz nails for sale from Grav Labs, starting at just $30. At that price, it pays to grab a couple and always have a backup on deck. For just a bit more money, starting at just $35 we offer a wide selection of 14mm options from Quartz Tech, like their version of the XL Club Banger and Trough styles of domeless quartz nails. Both of these come in “Straight” or “45 Degree” options to help you match the nail and how it sits with the style of your dab rig. Customers love their Thermal P Bangers as well.
For the true G’s, when only the very best will do, we have a selection from Halen Glass is 2 nd to none. Yes the price is a bit steeper on his infamous Halen Honey Hole and Halen Trough styles of domeless quartz, but you get what you pay for in the highest quality quartz from the artist who literally blazed the trail for the trend as we know it today.
Made in Washington State, the super popular Diamond Knot domeless quartz nail from J-Red Glass has been flying off of our shelves and onto your dab rigs all year long. This 14mm quartz nail will slide down perfectly onto a male joint and its unique design eliminates the need for a carb cap by evenly distributing your oil through the 100% quartz “knot”. After your first dab from one, your taste buds will beg for more!
Don’t like factory made joints? Jason Hoyes Quartz features 100% hand-worked quartz all the way down to the joint. His XL Bangers and 30mm Flat Top Bangers are among the top sellers on The Dab Lab right now. Don’t hesitate to scoop one (or two) up when they are in stock. They sell fast! There are a lot of janky and even unsafe domeless quartz nails on the market these days. So it is more important than ever to trust the source that you are getting them from. It is our commitment to bring you a full range of the best products at the best prices.
PS. Don’t forget your Tip Tech Cotton Swabs and 3-in-1 Nail Cool Down Timer for the ultimate domeless quartz nail experience!
]]>I mean…does it get any more baller than a new Tammy Baller dab rig? As you can see, some of her coolest designs are available right here right now for way over 30% off their original prices.
Or this stunning 10mm opal-stacked loop-welded masterpiece from Orian Glass out of Oregon – huge savings on this incredible scientific work of art are waiting for you!
In fact, at the time of this post, we have 20 totally unique designs from 13 highly sought after artists that all fit into that $300-$600 price range; from Recyclers to sculpted characters, some with simple diffusion and others with bubble stacking percs, our selection is second to none.
Looking to spend a bit more on a truly unique piece of art? We have a truly top shelf selection of high end dab rigs too from OG’s like Elbo, Ryno, Cap’nCrunk, and more.
As always, only here at www.TheDabLab.com, once you get over the $300 subtotal, your jaw-dropping new functional glass art will ship to you for FREE!
That’s right; your buds here at The Dab Lab cover the shipping costs on all domestic (U.S.) orders over $300. You can even combine that Free Shipping offer with any other promos that we may be currently running, as long as your subtotal (after all offers are applied) is over $300.
Of course, we have even more affordable dab rigs for those on a tighter budget. But when you pair one of them with a new torch, a carrying case, or some other accessories from The Dab Lab, you can get all sorts of cool stuff for $300 AND get it ALL shipped for free!
Bottom line is: No matter when the time comes that you are in the market for a killer new dab rig, The Dab Lab will have a smokin’ hot deal ready for you.
]]>Often imitated, and never, ever duplicated – The Dab Lab changed the game in 2011 by showing you just how convenient, secure, and FUN it could be to skip the trip to the local strip mall smoke shop, and instead browse thousands of the coolest smoking, toking, and vaping gear right from the comfort of your own home. At The Dab Lab we bring that old school “Mom & Pop” head shop feeling – that feeling that is missing from 99% of walk-in head shops today – right to your fingertips with new school cutting edge e-commerce technology to make your shopping experience with us a breeze. It didn’t take long for others to notice our success, and lots of smoke shops now try to dip their toes into online sales, be it through Instagram or their own half-baked websites. But they cannot match our prices, or the experience that we have gained over the course of the past six years.
We have blazed that trail and learned important lessons along the way. Those lessons allow us to streamline our operation and pass the savings along to you, our awesome customers! Forget about walking into a hole in the wall shop that smells like the shitter in an incense factory, trying to haggle prices with an uninterested employee who wouldn’t know what a carb cap was even if it bit them on the nose.
There is a better way. We keep our online store stocked 24/7 with the very best and most useful products in the industry, at prices everyone can enjoy. We know because we live this life, just like you! Our everyday low prices can be shaved down even more with lucrative Coupon Codes that often appear as you shop with us. And, as always, every time you spend $300 or more at The Dab Lab, domestic shipping is FREE! Our tight-knit crew is dedicated to making sure that you find exactly what you need to keep your sesh lit! We are always just a click or call away if you have any questions, and you can fill your cart and check out anytime.
Don’t settle for glass flippers, seedy smoke shops, or Instagram hustlers – shop at TheDabLab.com and support a California based small business and we promise to keep bringing you the heat from the artists and brands that you love!
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Removable and interchangeable downstems are pretty rare on dab rigs, and are not as common as they used to be on waterpipes and bongs either. Still, they are nice to have. They make cleaning your bong so much easier, and allow you to change up the diffusion if you have multiple downstems each with their own array of holes and/or slits at the bottom.
Here at The Dab Lab, we carry a super affordable selection of downstems, and a common question that we often get is: How do I know what size or length I will need my new downstem to be?
There are actually a few different measurements that you need to keep in mind when buying a new downstem. These measurements are given in millimeters (mm). If you do not have a metric ruler handy, remember that 1” = 25.4mm
DOWNSTEM LENGTH
Here at The Dab Lab, we determine the length of a downstem to be the clear section only – from the bottom of the frosted glass joint, down. Nothing is worse than getting a new downstem and it’s too short to reach the water, or too long to even fit at all! We have options ranging from 75mm (roughly 3 inches) to 140mm (roughly 5.5 inches) to make sure that you get exactly what you need every time you shop at The Dab Lab.
If your downstem broke and you are unable to measure it, don’t worry, we have an easy solution.
1. Take a strand of uncooked spaghetti pasta. Stick it in your bong where the downstem would normally go. Position it parallel with the joint (don’t angle it or your measurement may be off) and make sure it is as far in as it can go.
2. Break off the extra that sticks out past the joint. Take the strand of spaghetti out of your bong and measure it.
3. Take that measurement and subtract 22mm (that accounts for the length of the joint) .
NOTE: Some bongs, like the ones made by MIO Glass, are made with hand worked joints. In that case, you will need to measure the frosted section on the bong where the downstem goes in and use that number to subtract from your spaghetti measurement.
That’s it. Now you have the exact measurement of the downstem you will need. If the exact length is not available go with the closest available size down.
JOINT SIZE
The size of the joint on your dab rig or waterpipe will most commonly be either 14mm or 18mm. If you are unsure of what you have, simply measure the widest part of the opening on the joint, from inner edge to inner edge.
If you do not have any way to make that measurement, you can use the ol’ Dime Trick. See, a dime coin will fit in an 18mm joint, but will be too big to fit in a 14mm joint.
BOWL OR SLDIE SIZE
If you already have a bowl or slide that you’ll be combining with your new downstem, or if you are buying a new one of those too, you need to make sure that the opening at the top of the new downstem is the correct size to fit your slide into.
Again, most common sizes are either 14mm or 18mm. It can get tricky as many downstems fit into an 18mm joint, but accommodate a 14mm bowl, so be sure to read the product description to be sure you are getting the right accessory!
Still unsure? Hit us up with pictures and we can get you what you need. With this handy guide from your buds at The Dab Lab, you should have no problem determining exactly which new downstem will help you keep the sesh lit!
]]>Don’t you hate click-bait headlines that lead to bullshit? Us too, and this isn’t one of them! You read it right; The Dab Lab is making room for 2018 by passing some of the best savings of 2017 on to you, our favorite dabbers, with 16 different styles of dab rigs for sale under $100!
If you are new to dabbing and have some questions and want to get into the game with a small investment to see if you like it – we got you. If you know what you’re doing, but you’re a baller on a budget in need of a sweet new dab rig that won’t break the bank – we got you, too. If you’ve got a jaw-dropping collection of heady and high end glass art and dab rigs at your pad, but you need a sturdy, rippin’, inexpensive dab rig for travel or a gift – we’ve definitely got you.
Right now we’ve got smokin’ hot options from Domer Glass for under $100. The first four are all 14mm males with 4-Slit Stemline percs for stacking tons of bubbles. The only difference between these four is the color of the wrap around the dome and the mouthpiece and base of the rig. We sold a bunch of these at their original price of $145.00 but you can snag one now for just $90! The other 2 Domer rigs are only $75, and have a different percolator – a bubbler-style 4-Slit fixed downstem. The three options that we currently have from Grav Labs for under $100 all come complete with a 14mm domeless quartz nail – everything you need just add the water, the fire, and the terps!
Always made in the USA, the two iDab Glass pieces available for under $100 right now at www.TheDabLab.com didn’t use to be on this list, but as we make room on our shelves these best-sellers have been marked down by over 35% for you. So now is the perfect time to add their gorgeous German schott glass work to your stash. Of course, the unique style of work that Crush Glass puts out is always a conversation starter, and we’ve got some of his most affordable work ready to ship to you right now.
*WHILE SUPPLIES LAST* This 10mm 2-Slit Pocket Nano Vapor Rig from Stone Glass Works is the best deal you can find on a dab rig for sale under $100 anywhere. Recently reduced, these will not last long and when they are gone…they are gone! UPDATE: Last one left!!!
We get it – if you are getting your hands on good quality dabs, a lot of times that does not leave a lot of leftover funds for super heady or expensive glass. We’ve all been there, that’s why we started The Dab Lab. We might not always have this many dab rigs online for under $100, but we promise to always keep our selection useful for all dabbers and to pass savings along to you every chance we get!
]]>Yes, you read that right! The Dab Lab is your #1 Source for the dopest, headiest, most affordable selection of spoon pipes, sherlocks, chillums and more for under $50. Did we mention styles? Because when we say styles, we mean styles! These aren’t some cheap, paper-thin clear glass pipes. We are talking about a vibrant array of solid colors, fully worked glass, fume and frit work, sculpted and sandblasted pieces, and so much more – all for less than a weeks’ worth of herb to pack into that new pipe!
There is nothing better than a perfect chillum, or one-hitter. It’s basically a beautiful and reusable boro rolling paper. Ideal for discretion, perfect for travelling, these stealthy steamrollers pack a huge punch and now you can snag a sweet sandblasted one here at The Dab Lab from the legendary Liberty Glass, or we have a couple real stunners under $50 from Schmalex Glass, highlighting his gorgeous spiraling linework and brilliant use of color. If it’s a cool looking character pipe that you are after, Crush Glass loaded us up with a ton of options in the $40 range – everything from pigs to sharks, from gas masks to Super Mario Bombs, monkey faces, elephants, monsters and more. All of it MADE IN THE USA! We’ve got a great line-up of chillums, traditional spoon pipes and sherlock pipes for under $20 from Grav Labs. Yeah, buds! UNDER $20!!
Even though we are The Dab Lab, we realize that lots of you still enjoy packing a fat bowl of herbs from time to time, and we are proud to offer you so many affordable options that let you save a few bucks without sacrificing any style. We package each shipment professionally and discretely, so that they always arrive safe and sound, for your eyes only. There is something about a custom glass pipe that stokes great conversation among friends. The age old tradition of packing the bowl and passing it around might seem priceless but we’ve put the low price of “Under $50” on approximately 50 pipes for you to choose from. Enjoy your new glass pipe and keep the conversation lit.
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A Clean Bong Is a Happy Bong – Here’s How to Care for Your Glass
1. Carefully dump out the dirty bong water.Fill with clean, warm water, swish it around, and dump that out. When filling, use both the mouthpiece and the downstem. You can repeat this if you feel that you need to.
2. Pour in your chosen cleaning solution. We are aware that some people still use rubbing alcohol and table salt to clean their glass bong, but we are here to tell you that you do not need to use such harsh products. Dark Crystal Cleaning Solution is 100% organic, made from plant materials. It can be heated up before use to break through the crustiest resin globs, and is reusable. The Grunge Off Super Soaker is a proven product for glass bong maintenance as well, and Formula 420 has been around for more than 2 decades! Not many smoke shop products or brands can say that. These products were formulated specifically for cleaning glass, and they work, and we are proud to offer them to you!
3. Soak n’ shake! If you are dealing with some heavy resin buildup inside the water chamber and/or downstem of the bong, you may want to let the cleaning solution sit and soak in the glass bong for an hour or so. Then a good shake will usually dislodge any and all chunks of nastiness. Here is where the brilliantly simple product Resolution Cleaning Caps comes in so handy. These universal fit silicone caps sit snugly over the mouthpiece and joint of your glass bong after you add your cleaning solution, giving an airtight seal and allowing you to turn your piece upside down and shake-shake-shake without fear of making a huge smelly mess. Particularly stubborn spots – like a dirty downstem - can sometimes be reached with a nylon pipe brush. We’ve got a variety of sizes at rock bottom prices to help you keep your glass looking new.
Still got a hard to reach spot that needs a scrub? Try these awesome Magnetic Bong Scrubbers by SCRUBBERZ. One goes inside the tube, and you hold the other on the outside. The magnetic attraction between the two allows you to navigate the scrubber throughout the chamber and tube of your glass bong, eliminating any tricky stains. Make sure that the Magnetic Bong Scrubber will easily fit inside both the tube and chamber before using it.
4. Once all resin is broken down and floating or dissolved in the cleaning solution, dump it all out and repeat the first step for a final rinse. If your glass is still a bit foggy, add a splash of fresh cleaning solution and one or two more swirls should clear it right up, then dump that out and rinse one more time with fresh filtered water.
5. If you plan to use the bong right away, fill it to your desired level with fresh, clean, cool,filtered water. If you just plan to store it for a while, leave it dry and just add fresh filtered water right before the next sesh. Filtered water is always recommended over spring or tap water which can leave unsightly water stains on your glass that can be hard to then get rid of. Leaving water (especially dirty water) in your glass bong for too long also runs the risk of mold spores growing inside, which is definitely not good! Keep it clean, buds!
This simple 5 step guide to clean your glass bong is just as easy as it is effective. If you change your water frequently, this entire process only gets easier and all your friends will line up to try to get greens out of your beautiful clean glass.
Recommended Products to Clean Your Glass Bong
- Resolution Silicone Cleaning Caps
- Nylon Pipe Cleaners (assorted sizes)
- Magnetic Bong Scrubbers by SCRUBBERZ
- Dark Crystal Cleaning Solution
- Grunge Off Super Soaker Glass Cleaner
- Formula 420
Recommended Products
- Resolution Silicone Cleaning Caps
- Nylon Pipe Cleaners (assorted sizes)
- Dark Crystal Cleaning Solution
- Grunge Off Super Soaker Glass Cleaner
The Simple 5 Step Process to Keep Your Dab Rig Sparkling Clean
1. Dump out your dirty water. Replace it with clean, warm water, swish it around a bit, and dump that out. Try filling from both the mouthpiece and then from the joint or downstem. You can repeat this if necessary, but the real action begins with the next step of the process.
2. Pour out all the water and add your cleaning solution. Of course we know that plenty of people still use rubbing alcohol and maybe some salt to clean their glass, but we are here to tell you that you do not need to use such harsh products. Dark Crystal Cleaning Solution, for example, is 100% organic, made from plant materials. It can be heated up before use to tackle stubborn gunk, and is reusable over and over again. The Grunge Off Super Soaker is a best seller here at The Dab Lab as well, and Formula 420 has been around for over 20 years! It simply would not have made it this far if it didn’t get the job done. These products were formulated specifically for cleaning glass, and they work.
3. Shake it up! Unless you have some really heavy caked on build-up inside your dab rig, you should not need to let your cleaning solution soak for very long. Instead a gentle agitation or shaking should swish the cleaner around enough to clean the entire chamber of the rig. Here is where the brilliantly simple product Resolution Cleaning Caps come in so handy. These universal fit silicone caps sit snugly over the mouthpiece and joint of your dab rig after you add your cleaning solution, providing an airtight seal and allowing you to turn your rig upside down and shake to your heart’s content without fear of spillage. Particularly stubborn spots can often be reached with a nylon pipe brush – we’ve got a variety of sizes at rock bottom prices to help you keep your glass looking new.
4. Once all reclaim is dislodged and swirling in the cleaning solution, dump it all out and repeat the process from the very first step. If your glass is still a bit hazy, add a splash of fresh cleaning solution and one or two more swirls should clear it right up, then dump that out and give a final rinse with fresh filtered water.
5. If you plan to use the rig again right away, fill it to your desired level with fresh, clean, cool, filtered water. If you just plan to store it for anywhere from an hour to a year, leave it dry and just add that filtered water right before the next dab sesh. Filtered water is always recommended over spring or tap water which can leave unsightly water stains on your glass that can be hard to then get rid of. Leaving water (especially dirty water) in your dab rig for too long runs the risk of mold spores growing inside the rig, which is obviously unsafe as well as disguuusting! Change that water, clean that rig!
This basic 5 step process to clean your dab rig really is that easy. The cool part is, if you do this routinely, it just gets easier as reclaim and dirty water never has a chance to stick around!
]]>If you think that your domeless nail might be a little grimy, or if you know somebody who needs a tip or two on how to clean one up, you’ve come to the right place. This guide from your pals here at The Dab Lab will tell you everything that you need to know to keep your dab nail clean for proper flavor and effects with each and every rip.
Supplies Needed
- Dark Crystal cleaning solution
Titanium Domeless Nails
Yes, you can and should be cleaning your titanium domeless nail, if you are still rocking one. This guide assumes that you have a good high quality titanium nail (grade 2), such as the options that we offer from Ti Power, Silika, and Highly Educated. If you are unsure of the quality of your titanium nail, we highly suggest that you consider upgrading to new titanium or quartz, as lower quality ti nails tend to break down and can even be unhealthy to dab off of.
Since titanium is a porous material, you really do not want to use any alcohol or other solvents on the head of your titanium dab nail, and definitely do not soak it in any of them. Dark Crystal says that it is safe on titanium, and could be used as a last resort, but you should not need it for titanium if you follow the steps below.
When your top quality titanium dab nail starts to accumulate any residue, the simplest way to clean it is to heat the nail head up using your butane torch, and while the nail is still hot, gently and carefully scrape the residue off, letting it pile up loosely in the dish of the nail head. Then, either one brisk blow of air onto the nail head with either your mouth or a blast from your torch will send that black residue flying off – careful, don’t let that junk land in your oil!
There it is, a shiny new nail head for your dabbing pleasure. Using a nylon pipe cleaning brush on a cool nail head before the buildup gets too severe is advisable as well.
Quartz Domeless Nails, Bangers, Buckets, Troughs, Etc.
Nothing looks sweeter than fresh, clean quartz on a beautiful glass dab rig. But, on the other hand, there is almost nothing less appealing than a filthy, dirty quartz dab nail. Unlike titanium, the clear bucket of a quartz nail should not be scraped to be cleaned. The good news is, with this method, it never needs to get to that point.
1. Low temp dabs are the key. Finding the optimal torch time, and then wait time, for your personal quartz dab nail is essential when you are trying to get the most out of every dab. It’s not just a flavor thing though, using a proper dab timer will help keep your quartz cleaner longer by not incinerating your oil on contact and permanently staining the inner walls of the banger or trough. If you are using an e-nail with a heating coil on your quartz to achieve your desired temperature, be sure to check out Tip #3 below!
2. Give it a soak. Also unlike titanium, you can use cleaning agents on your quartz to help keep it looking good and working good. We have been getting great customer feedback and reviews on one of our newest products, Dark Crystal. While you can use iso alcohol for deep cleaning, Dark Crystal cleaning solution offers a handful of superior features. First of all, it is 100% organic, derived completely from plant materials. Dark Crystal never expires as long as the container is sealed, and it can be reused over and over and over again, as it never breaks down no matter how dirty it gets! Rubbing alcohol cannot make that claim. Not to mention, Dark Crystal is non-toxic and odorless. Give your quartz a good soak in some Dark Crystal and let us know what you think!
3. Tip Tech, for the win. We’re not sure who the first dabber to think of using a cotton swab immediately after a huge rip to clean their quartz was, but give that dude or dudette a medal or something! It might seem simple, and it might look silly, but mopping up the excess/unvaped oil from the bottom of a quartz domeless bucket, banger or trough with a high grade cotton swab while the dish is still warm and the oil is still low in viscosity has changed the game in quartz cleaning.
- Take your dab
- Exhale as usual, no rush
- Dip your cotton swab into a cleaning agent like Dark Crystal, or iso alcohol
- Mop out all excess oil
- Any residual cleaning solution will be burnt off while torching the nail for the next dab
These Tip Tech Cotton Swabs from Errly Bird are a best seller here at The Dab Lab. You get 180 swabs in a box and each one has two differently shaped heads to make sure you can get all nooks and crannies cleaned up in between dabs. If you stay consistent with this method, you will be rewarded with virtually flawless quartz every time you want to experience the true essence of your heard earned dabs.
Another “How-To” guide for you from the crew at The Dab Lab! What are your dirty little secrets to keeping domeless nails clean? Let us know in the comments or hit us up on social media to keep the conversation going!
]]>We are proud to carry a strictly chosen lineup of oil vaporizer pen kits here at The Dab Lab and although they all tend to vary slightly from one another, we have compiled this universal guide for how to use and maintain your oil vaporizer pen to ensure thousands and thousands of satisfying puffs of tasty vapors. This guide assumes that you have already purchased a pen and are looking to maximize its capabilities. If you are looking to buy one still, hit us up at The Dab Lab and we will answer all of your questions and lace you up with exactly what you need.
ANATOMY OF A VAPE PEN
Like we said, vape pens take on many forms these days, but all of them essentially break down into three parts: Mouthpiece, Battery, Tank/Heating Element
The mouthpiece is just what it sounds like, a hollow tube, typically tapered on the end that you will inhale from. In most cases, the mouthpiece rests over the heating element once it is loaded.
The battery is what you will be connecting to a wall or car charger and what provides the power to heat the heating element. Some batteries offer a variable voltage feature, allowing the user to dial the amount of heat produced either up or down, but this is usually a matter of preference that you will need to experiment with if your pen offers it. Some vape pens have their own style of battery that only fits with their components, while most vape pen batteries use a common 510 universal threading making them compatible with all sorts of tanks and mouthpieces.
The heating element, also called a tank, is where you will load your oil into. It receives the power from the battery and transmits it to the heating element which converts it to heat to vaporize your oils within. These days, there are tons of types of heating elements, but the most popular for vaping cannabis oil seems to be the quartz or ceramic rods, and most connoisseurs try to avoid any tanks that use a fabric wick. So, how do you use it?
LOAD UP
Your best bet when packing your tank is to go easy on the amount you load each time. Once that oil starts to heat up, it will begin to bubble and become runny and viscous, and if you overloaded your tank you could end up with a sticky situation and oil all over the outside of your mouthpiece and battery…or all over the inside of your pocket. Just toss in a BB-sized ball of wax and figure that you are going to get 2-3 good rips off each load – like packing a pipe – and you should be fine. If you feel like you “waste oil” with your vape pen, most likely you are packing too much into your tank each time.
POWER UP
Most vape pens will have a slight charge to the battery right out of the box. This is so that retailers can “demo” the pen for customers who want to see how it works. But as tempting as it may be to just get to toking, you should always give your pen a FULL charge prior to its first use. Consult your owner’s manual, but “overnight” is usually long enough to charge even a fully drained battery, but you should avoid leaving a vape pen battery charging for much longer than that. Once charged, most oil vaporizer pen batteries are powered on by pressing the main power button either 3x or 5x quickly. An led light indicator should let you know once you are powered up.
VAPE UP
On most setups, simply holding down the power button once the pen is ON will heat the tank and begin to produce vapors. A common mistake is to hold that button down way too long, thinking that you aren’t “getting a hit”. Trust us, you are. You are not combusting plant matter like smoking a bowl, so the vapor is much more thin and easy to handle, but will pack the punch of 10 pipe loads. Hold the button and inhale for a few seconds, release the button and continue to inhale for a few more, hold it in for just a few more and BAM! you are blasting off, every time.
CLEAN UP
Cleaning your oil vaporizer pen on the go is not always easy, but every time you get back to base, there are a few simple things you can do to keep your pen tasting great and working well. Your mouthpiece can be a spit trap, and does get a bit sticky inside from vapor residue. So a simple soak and rinse in some iso rubbing alcohol after each use will keep everything cleaner down the road. Your battery should be clean, but now is a good time to recharge to full power. Your tanks are meant to be disposable and replaceable after several uses. You can and should remove the tank/heating element when the pen is not in use, and be sure that the electrical connection between tank and battery is clean and oil-free. The #1 way that batteries get damaged is when a dirty tank gets stuck to the battery and the user tries to force them apart. Keep it clean! So there you have it, friends! As long as you buy a high quality and reliable oil vaporizer pen like the ones we offer here at The Dab Lab, the tips here in this handy guide will help you keep your head in the clouds.
]]>It’s easy to see how some people might get mixed up, after all they are both typically crafted from borosilicate glass and they both hold and move water as a means of smoke filtration…but really, that’s pretty much where the comparisons end.
NOTE: Technically speaking a bubbler is just another name for a water pipe. So technically a glass bong is a bubbler. But, many people have a specific type of water pipe in mind when they think of a bubbler. That is what we will be describing in the following texts.
SIZE
The average bong is going to be 1.5-2x larger than your average bubbler pipe. This makes a nice bong the ideal daily driver for when you can sesh at home and keep your bong safe and secure. With a strong and sturdy base, you can rest your bong in your lap as you rip it, or leave it on the table in front of you.
For those who like to take the show on the road, a bubbler might be more ideal. With their smaller size, bubblers are much more discreet, much easier to safely transport, and require much less water to fill the chamber.
Bong Shown Above
STYLE
There are exceptions to every rule, but for the most part bongs tend to take on just a handful of different shapes – with a long tube connecting a simple mouthpiece to a beaker or bubble shaped base. With their larger size, bongs can accommodate more intricate percolators, giving them some really awesome bubble stacking levels of diffusion. Where the overall shaping of bongs might lack in options, the vast number of different percs and the effect they each have on your smoking experience more than makes up for it.
Bubblers, on the other hand, usually display more variety in styling. Sometime the mouthpiece bends out the back like a sherlock pipe, or shoots straight off to the side. Bubblers are available with all sorts of different shape mouthpieces from tubes to discs to spoon style.
Bubblers tend to have simpler diffusion – lots of 2 or 3-hole percs. With their smaller chambers, stacking a thousand microbubbles just isn’t necessary, so the chug of the simple percs is very popular. Again, there are exceptions like these awesome bubblers from Custom Creations that showcase a cool variety of perc styles.
Bubbler Shown Above
VERSATILITY
The bong has been a highly popular method of getting baked for decades now. But with dabbing on the rise, many people want a piece of glass that can multitask for them and handle both dank flowers and terpy dabs.
Yes, you can adapt most glass on glass fitted bongs with a dab nail of some sort and make it work. But the greater volume inside the large chamber of the bong deteriorates too much of the terps and flavor that we really enjoy as dabbers.
Some bubblers have a built-in push bowl and/or downstem, and might not be able to accept a dab nail. But, if you spend a few minutes browsing our awesome selection at The Dab Lab, you are sure to find lots of options that will allow you to burn your trees and vape your oils all out of one handy bubbler pipe.
So whether you are looking for the large rips of a bong, or if you prefer to savor the flavor with tasty tokes from a hot new bubbler, your buds at The Dab Lab have always got what you need.
]]>For you and for us, scientific glass refers to borosilicate glass bongs or rigs/bubblers that have a few specific features:
- Typically made out of nice thick all clear glass, sometimes with minimal color/worked sections
- Known for having perfectly functioning percs, creating massive diffusion for cooling and filtering your smoke
- Often remind you of lab grade science equipment with long clear glass tubes, flared beaker bottoms, and airtight glass on glass connections
When compared to the other end of the spectrum - the heady and fully worked pieces - scientific glass is often more affordable, but it is still a difficult form of glassblowing. The completely clear glass is quite literally a window into the inner workings of the bong, bubbler, or rig, so the artist needs to be sure that everything not only looks perfect, but functions perfectly as well.
The added diffusion that is created by a new scientific glass perc leads to the hot smoke traveling through the water in smaller bubbles. Their smaller surface area allows the water to cool them more efficiently as they stack up towards your awaiting taste buds. This filtered and cooled smoke hits your lips like a cool breeze for the some of the smoothest hits of your life!
We always have the best heavy duty scientific glass bongs for sale at The Dab Lab from highly reputable brands like Rawlins Glass, Mr. Flow, Custom Creations, MIO, Grav Glass, Kush Scientific, and many, many more.
We’ve also got some gorgeous scientific bubblers, recyclers, and dab rigs for you too. It only makes sense that The Dab Lab would be the place to go for the best scientific glass for sale. We may or may not be wearing lab coats around here on a daily basis, but we definitely know high quality, heavy duty, flawlessly functioning scientific glass bongs and rigs when we see them – then we swoop them up and make them available to you at the best prices around!
]]>Yes, a ash catcher does what it's name implies. It catches the ash keeping your glass cleaner, a large benefit, but that’s not all it does!
Many of these new ash catchers feature percolator just like the ones in a bong or water pipe. So not only can it keep your bong cleaner, but it will upgrade it with more percolation too!
Different types of percolators create different size, stack, and patterns of bubbles full of smoke. You might love your current bong, but with its built-in perc, you always get the same kind of hit. With a new Ash Catcher, you can add a 2nd level of diffusion which further cools the smoke before it reaches your mouth for an even smoother toke. With Honeycomb, Shower Cap, Double Honeycomb, Double Shower Cap, and Shower Cap x Honeycomb combo percs available, you can make your favorite piece feel brand new again.
Each Ash Catcher has two joints – one male, one female. The sizes of those joints vary between 14mm and 18mm, and the male joint might be set at a 45 degree angle, or a vertical 90 degree angle. It’s great to have those options to make sure you get exactly what you need.
Basically, if the bowl on your bong point away from you when you rip it, you might want to consider a 45 degree joint on your Ash Catcher, so that the bowl stays somewhat level as you light it and roast it. If the bowl on your bong points towards the ceiling, the 90 degree ash catchers for sale online in our store are probably your best bet. Generally, straight tubes need 90 degree and beaker or bubble bongs need 45 degree.
Another added benefit of adding an Ash Catcher to your bong is that now no heat from a lighter or torch should ever go near your bong or its joint. While heat damage on a bong’s joint might be rare, a new Ash Catcher eliminates the possibility.
When you do add that new Ash Catcher to your cart at The Dab Lab , be sure to take a look at the Grav Labs Mouthpiece Bubbler Converter for Ash Catchers. For just $15, these boro J-shaped mouthpieces can be connected with your Ash Catcher and a slide to make a Sherlock-style bubbler. This is a great option if you are taking your glass on the go, with limited room.
It is easier than ever to get the perfect Ash Catcher to enhance your smoking experience:
1. Determine the size of the female joint on your bong (14mm or 18mm)
2. Determine the angle you will need (90* angle or 45* angle)
3. Make sure you have a bowl or slide that will fit the female joint of your new Ash Catcher – or find yourself a killer new bowl or slide here at The Dab Lab. Some ash catcher options include a bowl!
4. Find your preferred perc/diffusor type from our line-up and match that with the joint size from Step 1
5. A few clicks later and you will be all checked out from our online store and your new Ash Catcher will arrive at your doorstep shortly thereafter – easy
As always, if you have questions about Ash Catchers, or anything else you see on our site, feel free to hit us up and we’ll get back to you asap with more info. Keep it clean with a new Ash Catcher from The Dab Lab!
]]>That should not be the case though, since these days universal carb caps will fit on virtually any size domeless titanium nail or quartz bucket or banger. And as with the best-selling Ti King Universal Titanium Carb Cap, the dabber is built in as well.
While directional flow carb caps are currently the rage, you still need a separate dabber and let’s face it, they are glass and small loose pieces of glass can break. Imagine that sick feeling in your gut when you arrive at your destination, ready for a fat dab, only to discover that your glass carb cap broke during the journey. A banger with no cap is a sad story indeed. Don’t be that guy/gal.
If you are searching for a carb cap that will do its job and will never break, you need a Ti King Universal Titanium Carb Cap for sale at www.TheDabLab.com
These Grade 2 Titanium carb caps are flat on one side and tapered and hollow on the other to accommodate everything from Halen quartz troughs to the Highly Educated titanium domeless nails – we have yet to find a nail that this awesome and unbreakable carb cap and dabber set won’t work with.
Each set includes 2 threaded titanium dabbers – one flathead and one ballpoint. These dabbers are 3.5” long and they thread horizontally into the side of the carb cap which is nice since it will keep that sticky dabber head off your hat brim or out of your bangs – am I right, ladies? The carb cap even features an air hole/carb which can be used to partially direct airflow on certain nail heads.
Of course, you might want something a bit more heady when you are seshing around the house, and you know we’ve got something for everyone here at The Dab Lab, but an unbreakable and fully functional universal titanium carb cap/dabber combo is a perfect product for the dabber who likes to take their terps on the road.
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