How a chemist cleans a tar-jammed bong tube

[JacksinPA]

When you can't draw any air through it all, the bong's smoke tube has gotten clogged. And I would think that the black gooey stuff that clogged that tube contains a worthwhile amount of MJ's active ingredient, THC. THC itself is an oily/waxy material that is soluble in hardware-store grade acetone.

I put the clogged tube in a Mason jar & covered it with acetone. Within an hour the clear liquid had become yellow, then overnight a dark brown with suspended black particles. I took another Mason jar & filtered out the black particles with a plastic (polyethylene) funne & a coffee filter. The bong tube: like new.

Solubility characteristics of THC: soluble in acetone, insoluble in water. My plan is to add water to the acetone extract of bong tar until things start coming out of solution. Then I'll filter that fraction to yield, after air drying, something worth the fun of recovering it.

 

[ecofarm]

Use salt. Grab a handful off your lawn.

That light is coming on for everyone, ain't it. Stuff makes more sense now.

 

[JacksinPA]

Use salt. Grab a handful off your lawn.

That light is coming on for everyone, ain't it. Stuff makes more sense now.

If you had been keeping up, we have been discussing all kinds of psychoactive drugs besides THC for some months now. For your info, there even is a forum for that called War on Drugs.

 

[ecofarm]

If you had been keeping up, we have been discussing all kinds of psychoactive drugs besides THC for some months now. For your info, there even is a forum for that called War on Drugs.

And you salted your lawn, right?

 

[JacksinPA]

And you salted your lawn, right?

You show how little you understand about what I was discussing.

 

[ecofarm]

You show how little you understand about what I was discussing.

I just wanna make sure you're the guy who salted his lawn. If not, this is not the hilarious revelation I thought it to be.

 

[calamity]

When you can't draw any air through it all, the bong's smoke tube has gotten clogged. And I would think that the black gooey stuff that clogged that tube contains a worthwhile amount of MJ's active ingredient, THC. THC itself is an oily/waxy material that is soluble in hardware-store grade acetone.

I put the clogged tube in a Mason jar & covered it with acetone. Within an hour the clear liquid had become yellow, then overnight a dark brown with suspended black particles. I took another Mason jar & filtered out the black particles with a plastic (polyethylene) funne & a coffee filter. The bong tube: like new.

Solubility characteristics of THC: soluble in acetone, insoluble in water. My plan is to add water to the acetone extract of bong tar until things start coming out of solution. Then I'll filter that fraction to yield, after air drying, something worth the fun of recovering it.

When I smoked, I would scrape out the tube and let the residue dry. Then, I'd save it for a rainy day--meaning anytime I ran out of pot. The resign would give you a good buzz...the more clogged the stem was when you cleaned it the better.

 

[bongsaway]

When you can't draw any air through it all, the bong's smoke tube has gotten clogged. And I would think that the black gooey stuff that clogged that tube contains a worthwhile amount of MJ's active ingredient, THC. THC itself is an oily/waxy material that is soluble in hardware-store grade acetone.

I put the clogged tube in a Mason jar & covered it with acetone. Within an hour the clear liquid had become yellow, then overnight a dark brown with suspended black particles. I took another Mason jar & filtered out the black particles with a plastic (polyethylene) funne & a coffee filter. The bong tube: like new.

Solubility characteristics of THC: soluble in acetone, insoluble in water. My plan is to add water to the acetone extract of bong tar until things start coming out of solution. Then I'll filter that fraction to yield, after air drying, something worth the fun of recovering it.

I clean mine with alcohol. I have an old pill bottle that I put mine in overnight and then a couple of Qtips to clean it out. Works wonder. To clean my bong I use course kosher salt and alcohol and shake it around real good until clean.

 

[JacksinPA]

When I smoked, I would scrape out the tube and let the residue dry. Then, I'd save it for a rainy day--meaning anytime I ran out of pot. The resign would give you a good buzz...the more clogged the stem was when you cleaned it the better.

That's the way my friend wanted to do it but I thought it would be an interesting chemistry experiment.

 

[Airyaman]

When you can't draw any air through it all, the bong's smoke tube has gotten clogged. And I would think that the black gooey stuff that clogged that tube contains a worthwhile amount of MJ's active ingredient, THC. THC itself is an oily/waxy material that is soluble in hardware-store grade acetone.

I put the clogged tube in a Mason jar & covered it with acetone. Within an hour the clear liquid had become yellow, then overnight a dark brown with suspended black particles. I took another Mason jar & filtered out the black particles with a plastic (polyethylene) funne & a coffee filter. The bong tube: like new.

Solubility characteristics of THC: soluble in acetone, insoluble in water. My plan is to add water to the acetone extract of bong tar until things start coming out of solution. Then I'll filter that fraction to yield, after air drying, something worth the fun of recovering it.

Not sure what the purpose of the water is here. If you've cleared the tube of resin with acetone, the gooey tar or even solid residue left behind when the acetone evaporates is probably high in THC, with some other organic compounds in the mix.

 

[joko104]

Messing around with acetone? Is the motive to save money somehow by doing this?

 

[JacksinPA]

Not sure what the purpose of the water is here. If you've cleared the tube of resin with acetone, the gooey tar or even solid residue left behind when the acetone evaporates is probably high in THC, with some other organic compounds in the mix.

Evaporating half a quart of the acetone extract is time consuming & hazardous (flammability). Read what I posted about THC's solubility. The THC is very happy in the acetone but not when the amount of water reaches a certain level, then the extract will turn cloudy with the cannabinoids that were in the tar to start with. And I will only have to deal with a spot on the filter people the size of a quarter rather than having to scrape the walls of the evaporation pan.

 

[beefheart]

When you can't draw any air through it all, the bong's smoke tube has gotten clogged. And I would think that the black gooey stuff that clogged that tube contains a worthwhile amount of MJ's active ingredient, THC. THC itself is an oily/waxy material that is soluble in hardware-store grade acetone.

I put the clogged tube in a Mason jar & covered it with acetone. Within an hour the clear liquid had become yellow, then overnight a dark brown with suspended black particles. I took another Mason jar & filtered out the black particles with a plastic (polyethylene) funne & a coffee filter. The bong tube: like new.

Solubility characteristics of THC: soluble in acetone, insoluble in water. My plan is to add water to the acetone extract of bong tar until things start coming out of solution. Then I'll filter that fraction to yield, after air drying, something worth the fun of recovering it.

I have a little glass one hit pipe, it gets gunky quick, especially on the sticky dank assed OG Kush I just bought.

The cure is a little ziplock bag, some pure acetone nail polish remover and lots of shaking. Just be sure to rinse the hell out of the glass pipe afterwards.

And, if you have a nice manicure with polished nails...wear rubber gloves when you do this!

 

[Mr Person]

Ewwfff....

Scraping and smoking the tar is something only done when you're a poor college student or somesuch and need every bit of efficiency you can get. This process is a bit more efficient, but is effectively the same thing.

Don't smoke tar even if it can get you high. Plant matter is bad enough.

 

[d0gbreath]

That reminds me of the old chamber pipes with an unscrew-able metal bulb mid stem. There's a reason why you don't see those anymore. It's because the resins (tar) are a by-product formed while the THC is removed in the form of smoke. Smoking that stuff will not get you high. We would fill that section with weed, so you did get high, but the resins were not enhancing anything.

Glass pipes and small bongs can be placed into a zip lock bag with vinegar and lots of salt. Microwave for one minute and they come out clean as new.

 

[The AntiDonald]

When you can't draw any air through it all, the bong's smoke tube has gotten clogged. And I would think that the black gooey stuff that clogged that tube contains a worthwhile amount of MJ's active ingredient, THC. THC itself is an oily/waxy material that is soluble in hardware-store grade acetone.

I put the clogged tube in a Mason jar & covered it with acetone. Within an hour the clear liquid had become yellow, then overnight a dark brown with suspended black particles. I took another Mason jar & filtered out the black particles with a plastic (polyethylene) funne & a coffee filter. The bong tube: like new.

Solubility characteristics of THC: soluble in acetone, insoluble in water. My plan is to add water to the acetone extract of bong tar until things start coming out of solution. Then I'll filter that fraction to yield, after air drying, something worth the fun of recovering it.

The better way that will get all the goodies is to thoroughly soak the tube till it's clean and just let the acetone evaporate. Then use a razor blade to scrape every last drop of that resin. No multiple steps required. Use a bread baking Pyrex shallow container. Only cover the tube just enough to dissolve all the resin. Remove the tube and come back tomorrow.

 

[Lord Tammerlain]

Messing around with acetone? Is the motive to save money somehow by doing this?

Acetone is the most important ingredient in nail polish remover.

But for cleaning a bong I would use isopropyl alcohol, less toxic and still a very good solvent that will evaporate about as quickly. It is less likely to damage other materials it might have been spilled on as well