Make a Gravity Bong
The gravity bong (sometimes known as a bucket bong) is an extremely efficient way to draw tobacco and other smokes into your lungs. It may seem complicated at first, but it is actually very easy to make. These steps will show you two methods for making slightly different variations, both of which can be made from a few basic materials.
Contents
Steps
The Waterfall Vacuum (No Bucket Necessary)
- Acquire a plastic bottle. A 2-liter soft drink bottle is ideal. Pour everybody with you a tall glass of tasty soda—they'll thank you later when they have cottonmouth, and you need the bottle empty.
- Coke's new redesign of their bottles makes some lids harder to work with. If you do use a Coke product, try to find a different lid.
- Make a hole in the bottle. You can use a drill, or simply hold your lighter to the plastic (on the side, near the bottom). When the plastic becomes soft, poke your scissors through to make a hole. Rotate the scissors 360 degrees to make the hole wider.
- Make the hole just large enough so that you can still cover it with your thumb. If it’s too small you won’t get sufficient enough airflow to pull a hit; if the hole is too big, or even almost too big, to be easily covered by your index finger, get a new bottle.
- Alternatively, you can use a glass bottle. This will require you to use a drill with a glass-friendly drill bit, but the idea is the same.
- Make the hole just large enough so that you can still cover it with your thumb. If it’s too small you won’t get sufficient enough airflow to pull a hit; if the hole is too big, or even almost too big, to be easily covered by your index finger, get a new bottle.
- Make a hole in the bottle cap. Use the lighter to soften up the plastic if you need to. When you have poked all the way through, rotate the scissors to make the hole rounder.
- A small switchblade-sized knife is best because, generally, when you stab it through the top until it hits the desk, the slit it makes is the perfect diameter of the hole you want. Once you’ve stabbed through the top of the cap, slowly and deliberately twist the knife so that it carves out a perfect circle. However, scissors or your drill will also do the trick.
- Make the bowl. There are a couple ways you can do this: with aluminum foil or an aluminum can.
- Aluminum foil method: Tear of a small square of aluminum foil and lay it flat across the top of the bottle cap.
- Push it down in the middle with your finger so that it forms an indentation in the hole that you just made.
- Scrunch the aluminum foil around the edges of the bottle cap so that it stays on tightly.
- Finally, use a pin or needle to poke small holes in the part of the foil that goes into the hole. Make them small enough so that anything you put in the bowl will not fall through.
- Aluminum can method: Carefully cut a rectangular piece out of an aluminum soda can. It's probably best if the soda can is empty before you do this.
- Bend this rectangle into a funnel shape. You want the top of the funnel to be large enough to put tobacco in, and the bottom to be small enough that nothing can fall through.
- Slide the funnel into the hole in the bottle cap. The bottle cap should more or less bisect the funnel, so that the top of the bowl sticks out but the bottom will go down into the bottle when you but the cap back on.
- Use hot glue or superglue to glue the funnel to the bottle cap and make sure that the hole is sealed airtight.
- Aluminum foil method: Tear of a small square of aluminum foil and lay it flat across the top of the bottle cap.
- Cover the hole at the bottom with your thumb. Making sure you have a good seal, fill the bottle with water.
- Fill up the bowl with tobacco and screw the bottle cap back on.
- Light the tobacco in the bowl and release your thumb from the hole at the bottom. As the water drains, the vacuum will suck the air through the tobacco, into the bottle, and the bottle will fill with smoke.
- When the water has completely drained, unscrew the cap and inhale.
- If you have a funnel and a container to catch the water, you can keep recycling the water over and over again. (You can make a funnel out of a soda can the same way as described above, only larger.) This makes this method very portable and usable pretty much anywhere that you would normally smoke.
The Bucket Bong
- Cut the bottom off a plastic container. You want one that is at least a 2 liter bottle, though 3 liters are even better.
- Empty its contents. Take note of the contour of the bottle before you start cutting. There's usually a ring near the bottom that's just above the 5 fingered base. It's an excellent guide line.
- Make a hole in the lid. With a 3/8 drill bit, drill a hole in the center of the plastic lid. If you don't have access to a drill, you can just take a lighter and slowly melt the top of the cap slightly so it softens up, then push a metal pipe into the melting plastic for an airtight seal.
- Make a bowl. Use a socket from a socket wrench set, a bowl from another water pipe, or a funnel bowl as described in the Waterfall method.
- Get a bucket. You will want one large enough to fully submerge your container. Full gallon jugs work well for this, too.
- Fill it with water. Place the container into the water with the cap removed. The top of the container should rest an inch or two above the surface of the water.
- Load the bucket with your desired smoking substance and screw on your lid. Be sure to put the container into the water first, before screwing on your lid, or it'll blow your herb right out of the bowl.
- Light the herb. As you are lighting, slowly draw the bottle out of the water. The chamber will fill with smoke.
- Once the container is nearly full and before the bottom comes out of the water, prepare yourself: breathe out!
- Hit it! Twist off the cap and place your mouth on top of the container and, without inhaling, push the bottle down til it reaches the bottom of the bucket. This will force the smoke into your mouth without you even inhaling. When the bottle reaches the bottom, inhale the rest and take your mouth off just before the water rises all the way to the top close to your mouth.
- If you inhale while pushing the bottle down, you might not be able to clear the whole thing.
Tips
- If you push the container down as you inhale, the smoke will be pushed into you and you will get a much larger amount in you.
- Ice can be added to the water for a cooling effect.
- This design can easily be modified to be self water-filtering. Simply find a tube of some sort which fits or can be fitted to the bottom of your bowl and run it downwards into the water. Some adjustments and fine tuning of the length of tube will need to be made before it will work suitably. The tube should end about 1-3 inches (2.5-7.6 cm) above where the bottom of the chamber is cut. This will also change the technique you will need to use when pulling the chamber upwards slightly, as the suction will kick in once you've raised it a few inches, and smoke will begin to bubble up and fill the chamber. This smoke should be much smoother, and more enjoyable.
- A good setup can be made using a 2 liter soda bottle, and a 1 gallon Arizona Iced Tea jug. The 2 liter fits perfectly into the jug, and it even has a handle if you can cut it right.
- A carb hole can be drilled into the 2 liter, so you can suck out any excess smoke after the bottle has been pushed down all the way.
Warnings
- The aluminum foil and aluminum can method is extremely unhealthy and harsh for your lungs. For a healthier option use a metal or glass bowl.
- Only individuals over the age of 18 should smoke.
Things You'll Need
Waterfall Method (No Bucket Necessary)
- A plastic bottle (glass is also possible)
- A lighter
- Scissors
- Aluminum foil or can
- A pin
- Water
- Optional: hot glue gun
Bucket Bong Method
- One large bucket or bottle with the top cut off
- One slightly smaller bottle that will fit inside with lid.
- Aluminum foil, can, socket, or bowl from a metal pipe
- Water
- Lighter or matches
