Bongs can be expensive. There’s no doubt about that. Much of the cost is a result of the extraordinary lengths bong designers and manufacturers go to to come up with original, compelling designs. But even if manufacturers have the best intentions, expensive is still expensive and there will always be people in search of a cheap alternative. And why not? How hard can it be to produce your own homemade bong? After all, bongs are pretty simple devices with no moving parts, so it’s not like it’s rocket science. In this post, the team at our headshop in Denver will look at four homemade bong ideas you might want to try.
The Parts of a Bong
Before we get into a discussion about how to make a homemade bong everyone needs to agree on the parts of a bong. While people sometimes add optional aftermarket accessories to their bongs, every bong is nonetheless composed of five essential parts. Remove any one of these and you’ll be searching for rolling papers. Those five essential bong components are:
- The bowl: The bowl sits atop the down stem. You load the bong bowl with weed and fire it up.
- The downstem: The downstem extends from the bowl into the water chamber at the bottom of the bong. When you fire up the herb in the bowl and inhale the smoke travels down the stem into the water chamber.
- The chamber: Smoke from the bowl travels through the downstem and enters the chamber, which contains water that is used to filter impurities from the smoke.
- The carburetor: The carb is a small hole on the side of the chamber. You place a finger over the carb while inhaling to create a vacuum and allow smoke to accumulate. When you take your finger off the carb the smoke is released into your lungs.
- The neck: The neck runs from the water chamber to your mouth. It carries the filtered smoke from the chamber to your mouth after you release the carburetor.
So, armed with that knowledge how would you go about creating a homemade bong that actually works? In truth, it’s easier than you think. Here are three homemade bong ideas from our headshop staff that will do you right.
1: The bottle bong
At some point, every veteran stoner has run out of papers or misplaced their pipe and been forced to improvise. In most cases, they’ve defaulted to the toilet paper bong (more on that in a minute) or the bottle bong. All you need for a bottle bong is an empty water bottle, some tin foil, and something to cut the plastic bottle with. Just cut a small hole in the side of the bottle about halfway down for the stem and another, smaller hole for the carb. Fashion a bowl and stem from the tin foil and insert it into the larger hole. Fill the bottle about 1/4 full with water, load your herb into the bowl and you’re ready to rock.
2: The fruit bong
This one is more of a stretch than the bottle bong, but not much of a stretch. You can make a perfectly adequate homemade bong using fruit as long as you have a sharp knife, a little foil, and a bit of patience. We suggest you use a large apple for the water chamber, simply because apples have a lot of structural integrity. Just hollow out the apple with a knife and carve three holes. One at the top for your mouth, one on the side for the pipe stem, and one on the opposite side to use as a carb. You can carve the pipe stem and bowl from a carrot. Just put a little foil over the carrot bowl to keep the herb in the bowl.
3: The Tic-Tac bong
By now you’re probably catching on to the fact that just about anything can be used to make a bong. That includes a Tic-Tac container. Simply empty the Tic-Tac container and cut a hole in one of the narrow sides for the downstem. Then cut a small hole in another side for the carb. You can use the hollow chamber of a cheap pen for the downstem. Just cut it short and install an aluminum foil bowl at the end. Fill the Tic-Tac container about 1/2 full with water and use the dispenser opening as a mouthpiece.
4: If all else fails: The toilet paper pipe
Toilet paper rolls have probably been employed more than any other household item as a vehicle for copping a buzz when no pipe or papers exist. The toilet paper pipe is extremely easy to make and can be ready to use in just minutes. All you need is a cardboard toilet paper roll and a small amount of foil. Just cut a bowl-sized hole in the cardboard roll. Cover the hole with foil. Poke some tiny holes in the foil and voila! You’re ready. Just put your mouth against one end of the roll and hold your hand over the other open end of the roll while you’re firing up the herb. Then remove your hand to release the smoke.
Visit our Online Head Shop Today
Emergency bongs are all well and good without better options available. However, if you really want a quality cannabis experience, pick up some beautiful heady glass at the 710 Pipes online smoke shop or our brick-and-mortar pipe shops in Denver and Northglenn.