Subject: Bongineering
From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 6 Apr 1993 08:03:09 GMT
Newsgroups: alt.drugs

This past weekend, some friends and I undertook a "bongineering" project.

We designed and built a "hookah" -- a multi-user water bong.

Since the result was very sucessful, I've decided to post the design in
hope that fellow travelers will benefit....

Here is an ASCII schematic of the basic design:

               to user                                       to user
                 ||                    bowl                    ||
                 ||                   |    |                   ||
                 ||                    \  /                    ||     
               |-++-|                 |-++-|                 |-++-|    
               / || \                 / || \                 / || \   
              /  ||  \               /  ||  \               /  ||  \ 
             /        \             /   ||   \             /        \
            |     _____|___________|    ||    |___________|____      |
            |    / ________________     ||     _______________ \     |
            |    |/    |   tubing  |    ||    |   tubing  |   \ |    |
            |----||----|           |    ||    |           |----||----| 
            |    ||    |           |    ||    |           |    ||    | 
            |    ||    |           |    ||    |           |    ||    | 
            |    ||    |           |----||----|           |    ||    |   d2
            |    ||    |           |    ||    |           |    ||    |
            |    ||    |           |    ||    | d1        |    ||    |
            |    ||    |           |    ||    |           |    ||    |
             \________/             \________/             \________/ 

              secondary               primary               secondary

 d1  =  water depth in main chamber  (may be Zero)
 d2  =  water depth in secondary chambers (d2 > d1)

This design requires no stoppers or valves -- it uses water pressure
differences to effect a one-way valve. The main requirement is that
the water levels in the secondary chambers are higher than the water
level in the primary chamber.  This allows the bong to work even
without every "service station" occupied!

Starting from this basic design, we actually built an slighlty
enhanced version.  It had a total of 4 service stations (i.e. 4
secondary chambers), as well as well as an extra buffer chamber
between the primary chamber and each secondary chamber.  This beast
had a total of 9  2-liter bottles arranged in a diamond pattern!  The tubes
from the primary chambers to the buffer chambers to the secondary chambers
were very short, but the tubes from the the secondary chambers to the users
were very long (4 to 6 feet).  This allows for mobile or remote operation.

Hints:

1)  Use large-diameter (3/8 inch internal), (clear) plastic tubing.
    This reduces air resistance and makes sucking easier.

2)  To make the holes in the bottles for the tubing, the following
    procedure worked well for us:
    Use a hot pointed object to first melt a small hole in the plastic bottles.
    (A very small phillips screwdriver held under a lighter for a few
    seconds works great.)
    Slowly twist a screwdriver/drill/pliers/knife to gradually increase
    the diameter of the hole.  Stop when the diameter of the hole is
    slightly less than the outer-diameter of the tubing. This will allow an 
    air-tight seal.
   
    This same technique works for making the holes in the top of the
    plastic bottle-caps.

3)  If possible, use even larger tubing for the bowl tube in the
    primary chamber.  This tube is the primary "bottleneck" for
    entering smoke, and the bigger this is, the easier it is to suck.

The results were fantastic.  At first, the users didn't think they
were getting anything, since the smoke was greatly cooled by the dual
water chambers.  As a result, they sucked even harder....  A few
minutes later, they were orbiting Pluto... :-)

This was definetly a big hit (no pun intended :) with everyone...

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