-=> Quoting Steve Ross to L P <=-
 >switch to fit through and bolted the dimmer to the case.  It went
 >in diagonally.  No drill?  Make the holes for the bolts by driving
 SR> Dang it.  My mailreader cut off this message right here.  Would you
 SR> mind reposting the rest?
No problem.  Here it is:
in diagonally.  No drill?  Make the holes for the bolts by driving
a wood screw through the plastic.  Mark "off" and "max" settings 
and adorn to taste.
*Attaching the thermometer
     _
   _|_|_                                                                  
   |   |        This is supposed to show a slim, high-temp
   | | |        thermometer attached to the shaft of the iron.
   | | |        Attach it with wire  (strip the paper off a bag
   | o |        tie).  The thermometer must contact the iron as
   -----        tightly as possible and must include the range
 ___|_|___      150-250 Celcius or so.
 \       /      I have not accomplished this yet - all the oven
  \     /       therms I have found are far too large for the task. 
   |   |
*Soft drink bottle ---> vapor chamber
The bottom of your bottle will be the top of the vapor chamber.
Cut a roughly 1/2" diameter hole near the bottom of the bottle,
and cut a smaller hole for air intake near the neck.  Voila.
*Assembly and usage
Here's another crude ascii drawing to illustrate the whole setup:
   _____                                                                   
  /   O \      Pack the hollow space in the shaft of the iron with
 |       |     your favorite hemp product.  Buds are best chopped
 |   ~   |     into small bits.  For use with hash, consider filling
 |    ~  |     all but the top 1/2" of the shaft with aluminum foil.
 |    ~  |     If you're forced to fashion a bowl on a nonremovable
 |   ~   |     tip, make sure it fits in the mouth and resists
 | o H   |     spillage, and realize only material very very close
  \  H  /      to a hot surface will vaporize (huge, stuffed bowls
   \_H_/       won't work right).                                             
    
   [___]
    | |                 Dimmer Box
    |_|                  ___[_]___    extension cord        socket
     \__________________|         |__[=[---------------------[=
                        |_________|                                        
Screw the cap down and power up!  Keep both holes covered with
your fingers and wait about 1 minute.  Put the dimmer on full at
first to get up to the working temp.  Turn the switch down some
when you see first see white vapor rising from the bowl.  Unless
you've got the thermometer, finding the right dimmer setting to
vaporize without combustion will take several trials :> .  If
you do have it, a reminder:  shoot for 200 Celcius.  
Allow a decent cloud of vapor to form before putting your mouth to
the top hole, release the carb (bottom hole) and inhale!   Ahhh.
Heuristics:
*How to tell smoke from vapor:  while both are white, vapor rises
 from the bowl more slowly and evenly, while smoke sort of 
 billows out when the temperatures becomes too high.  Also, you'll
 notice a pronounced difference in the flavor of a vapor hit.
*If you hear a quiet buzzing coming from the dimmer switch, don't
 fear.  It's coming from a capacitor in there somewhere and is sure
 to be some multiple of 60 (50) hz.  As an ee, I'd guess this
 buzzing is the reason why G.E. put a lower limit of 75 W on the
 recommended power for my dimmer (which I ignored; my iron was
 25 W).  A 75 watt bulb has a lower resistance and would move some
 break frequency a little lower to make that buzzing too quiet to
 notice.  If you hear a quiet buzzing coming from an orange,
 consider your vaporizer a success.
*Think it might be a good idea to drill a hole near the bottom of 
 the shaft to let air flow up through the weed?  So did I, until I
 actually did it and found that the iron's shaft was filled with
 come kind of heat-conducting powder, which promptly ran out of 
 the hole.  Bad idea.
*The time delay between hits and the wires and whatnot detract a
 bit from the smoking ritual.  Hence, I only use my vaporizer
 about half the time when smoking alone and only as a novelty
 among friends.  However, if harvesting resin from your bowl is
 your thing, there is no better way to recycle it than with a
 vaporizer; smoked resin tastes so awful.
*While one of vaporizing's benefits is its kindness to your lungs,
 I'm in it for the efficiency; I usually smoke the brownish-black
 debris from a vaporizer bowl in a bong.  I can't say for sure 
 whether it contains very little THC or none at all.  Furthermore, 
 when vapor emissions slow down, I crank the temperature a bit, 
 combusting materials on the fringes but chasing the last bits of
 THC out of the stuff in the middle.
An expensive alternative:  drop roughly $100 into a soldering
station with a temperature control (which goes as low as 200 C).
If you have access to such a device at a discount (used, etc.),
this is definitely the option for you.  It provides simpler
temperature control than the dimmer switch-thermometer arrangement.
On the other hand, the dimmer and thermometer will cost you less
than $20 ($6 for the dimmer). 
I should mention that the dimmer switch-thermometer idea was
offered by a creative a.d.p. reader who read the previous version
of this design.  Thanks!
That concludes version 1.1 of this Very Simple Vaporizer Design. 
This 240+ line instruction file merits the name Very Simple since
it's considerably easier and quicker to build than designs I've
seen involving car cigarette lighters, brazing tools, and step-down
voltage transformers.  The only simpler design I've seen is a glass
blender on a frying pan.
I'll reply to comments posted to a.d.p. or mailed to my 
anon.penet.fi address.  Feel free to distribute and repost
this file, or to alter, improve, or expand it.  
From:  The Sputnik Drug Information Zone
       http://www.nepenthes.com/
___
 X Blue Wave/QWK v2.20 X
--- Maximus 3.01
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