Monday, July 19, 2010

RELEASE THE KRAKEN!

I'm gonna start off by acknowledging that I really fell off the project bus. My computer and TV combine to make one wicked temptress. I'm hoping that I can keep to it a little better and ease myself off of my less productive habits. Anyway, off to the build!

It had been about two months since the death of the Sailor Jerry hookah. We had been through a lot, but poor design on my part made it nearly impossible to clean, and it was getting pretty nasty.

I had come across a lovely new brand of rum called The Kraken. A little smoother than Jerry, but more potent. A clear winner IMO.

I started off with the same basic items, although this time I opted for some higher quality parts. For instance I purchased an actual hose for the hookah, as opposed to the plastic tubing that was used in the last build (although I still use a little bit), and I picked up these metal rods from the nearby smoke shop.

The first thing I tackled was the center pole, that transfers the smoke from the bowl down into the water. A quick application of the Loctite and I had myself a nice center rod.

The last hookah I built, I ran the center rod through the cap of the bottle, allowing it to be screwed in. While this was convenient, I wanted to be able to break the hookah down into the simplest pieces possible. So with some handy teflon tape, I wrapped up the top of the pipe so that it fit snuggly into the bottle opening.
I then did the same around the mouth of the bottle for the bowl to fit onto.
Now I had to drill the hole in the bottle itself, a step I was not looking forward to. With my handy glass bit, and a solid 5 minutes of gentle drilling, I managed to punch through and give myself a hole for the hose. I wasn't too pleased this time around, I remembered the first hookah having a much smoother hole, but once it's caked in Loctite, it won't really matter.
Now for the hose itself. I wasn't sure how exactly to mount it to the bottle itself. This is where I lucked out completely. The plastic I had leftover fit PERFECTLY into the hose. So the plan then became to put a piece of plastic tubing into the bottle, and leave enough hanging out for the hose to slide over.
And that finished up the hookah...or so I thought. I pieced it all together, and then realized that I had forgot to put on the tin lid! This posed a problem, as with the bowl sitting over the center pipe, the lid couldn't sit on the pipe itself, as it did on the last hookah. But then, stroke of genious! I drilled a huge hole in the tin lid, one that matched the diameter of the bottom opening of the bowl. This then allowed me to mount the bowl the same way, as well as left the bottom completely open if it needed to be removed and cleaned.

So here's the beast in all it's glory. Still giving the Loctite some time to dry before I give it a use, and even then I'm gonna give it another cleaning to ensure and leftover bits of glass or metal from the drilling is cleared out. I know tobacco is bad enough, so the last thing I'm wanting in my lungs is tiny bits of metal/glass.