In my last post on this topic I decided on what I would begin building my own hash oil vape pen from e-cigarette parts. My quest for a cheaper alternative to branded hash oil vaporizer pens led me to purchase my Joyetech “eGo-C Twist” battery, cartomizer attachment, drip tip and cone cover. Amazingly I ordered these items on a Thursday and they were in my mailbox on Saturday (shipped via First Class US Postal Service).

All of the parts arrived in good working order, so it’s Christmas in May for Lakota! One expert tip: make sure you buy a charger from the same vendor where you purchase your battery. The two chargers I have look identical, but my Micro Vaped charger will not charge my Joyetech battery… interesting. This might have to do with the voltage rating of the charger. I’ll have to look into that later, for now I know they are not interchangeable.

My Hash Oil Concentrate Stash

Over the past few months I’ve collected a nice little collection of concentrates, ranging from shatters to wax to oils.

This collection includes Ear Wax (sativa-dominant), Honey Oil (sativa-dominant), a collection of shatters (sativa, indica and hybrid), hash oil (sativa) and my ghetto dab tool… a clay modeling tool I bought at a local art store. Another expert tip: make sure that your dab tool has metal ends that can be torched with a lighter, you’ll end up using your lighter a lot when you are trying to get that last bit of wax off of your dab tool, just heat up your metal tool and your wax will melt and drip right off.

Cheap Hash Oil Pen Parts: e-Cigarettes

I based my e-cigarette purchase on what was in stock at the time. I went with a Joyetech eGo-C Twist in blue (battery) and cone shaped cover. The eGo-C Twist is one of the newest models from Joyetech, a fairly well trusted name in electronic cigarettes. The Twist with the Joyetech eGo-C Twist is that you can change the output voltage from 3.2V to 4.8V just by twisting the bottom of the battery (see the images below). The Twist allows you to have a solid plume one moment and then tone it down for a mellow puff the next. You can also adjust the voltage to work with different 510 thread cartomizers and atomizers with different resistances.

My order consisted of:

Cheap Hash Oil Pen Compared to My Micro Vaped

Aesthetics and Ease of Use

As you can see in the image above, my e-cig vape pen is very similar to my Micro Vaped Vaporizer Pen. The Micro Vaped is shorter (Vaped Vaporizers does sell a larger battery comparable to the 650mAh Joyetech) and the on switch is in the same location. Both devices also have a lock-out safety feature when you hit the on button 5x in a row, it flashes and shuts off so that it doesn’t accidentally start to vape in your pocket. To turn it on, just hit the button 5x again and it flashes that it’s ready for business.

The other thing to note is the actual attachments that vaporize the hash oil concentrate. On my Micro Vaped it is easy to see my $10 new-ish bright green skillet attachment (you can also see the black skillet that came with the Micro Vaped sitting to the right). For the Joyetech e-cig, you can see the silver cartomizer capped with 2 silicone covers to the left of the blue device. There is also one attached to the battery (the silver piece with the black drip tip on the end, covered up by the blue cone cover).

Loading a Skillet Versus Loading a Cartomizer

Loading the skillet on my Micro Vaped is a super easy task, just unscrew the black cone on top and drop your dab onto the exposed coil. Then screw the top cone back on and you are ready for business. Be careful not to overfill your skillet as you can clog up the airflow.

Loading the cartomizer on the other hand takes a bit more work. First you need to prepare the cartomizer to accept thick hash oil instead of thin e-cig fluid. This requires popping the top off of the cartomizer and removing the wicking material that sits around the central air tube. This wicking material is meant to hold your e-cig nicotine fluid (think of this like the batting inside of a Zippo that holds the lighter fluid). Obviously this system will not work for thick hash oils, so it has to go. Remove the material and then load up your hash oil into the cartomizer. You’ll probably need to torch the outside of the cartomizer to get the oil/wax to flow down to the bottom of the cartomizer and then be in touch with the heating coil. This whole process takes some work, but I’m sure you’d get better at it with practice.

Comparing Use

The first hit from my e-cig vape pen was fantastic, it hit like a truck. Huge plumes and a very solid hit. Much, much better than what I have been getting from my clogged Micro Vaped. I was actually able to get 3 very solid hits from my e-cig… then it stopped working completely. Nothing happened when I hit the button. I checked all of the pieces, charged the battery again, still no luck, so I grabbed a new cartomizer, went through the reload process and it was working like a charm again… then it stopped, again, nuts. One more time, I tried a new cartomizer and it is working again, though 3x filling cartomizers is not my idea of a good time. On the plus side, you can put a full gram of wax into a cartomizer and have it available for use, on the downside, if that cartomizer stops working, you need to reclaim that wax by torching it and hoping that you get out all of your hash oil. Interesting usability issue.

Compare that experience to using my Micro Vaped skillet, and it’s a hands-down win for the robust skillet. I’ve even soaked my original skillet in alcohol to clean it and it still works fine. It turns out that due to the price, these cartomizers are known to be cheap and somewhat unreliable (you get what you pay for?). I really have to give Vaped Vaporizers a lot of credit for building a robust heating element. They have even come out with a recent heating element that sits in a glass globe, which really mimics the dab rig experience. Bravo for moving the ball forward Vaped!

I’m determined to build a better vape pen, so now I need to see if I can find a 510 threaded attachment similar to the skillet for my Micro Vaped. Stay tuned, we’re not done yet!

Other Weedist Build Your Own Hash Oil Pen Posts

Read more in the series of posts about my experience with hash pens and my journey of building my own pen with e-cigarette parts.