How To Make a Gravity Bong: Step-by-Step Guide to DIY GB
- 1. What is a gravity bong?
- 2. How does a gravity bong work?
- 3. What you need to make a gravity bong
- 3. a. Materials
- 3. b. Tools
- 4. Types of gravity bongs
- 5. How to make a gravity bucket bong
- 5. a. Make the bong
- 5. b. Prepare the bowl
- 5. c. Fill the bucket with water
- 5. d. Get ready to smoke
- 5. e. Light your herb
- 5. f. Inhale
- 6. How to make a gravity waterfall bong
- 6. a. Make your waterfall gravity bong
- 6. b. Prepare the bowl
- 6. c. Fill the bottle with water
- 6. d. Get ready to smoke
- 6. e. Fill the bottle with cannabis smoke
- 6. f. Take a hit
- 7. Can you make a gravity bong with a small bottle
- 8. Are gravity bongs bad for you?
- 9. Is a gravity bong better than a regular bong?
- 10. Do gravity bongs get you higher?
- 11. Are gravity bongs safe to use?
- 12. How often does the foil in your gravity bong need to be changed?
- 13. Are gravity bongs worth making or buying?
- 14. The bottom line
- 15. Faq
- 15. a. What can i use as a bowl piece for a gravity bong?
- 15. b. What size socket do you need for a gravity bong?
- 15. c. How do you make a gravity bong without a socket?
- 15. d. How to make a gravity bong without foil?
- 15. e. How many hits will i get from one bowl of weed?
- 15. f. How come my bottle didn’t fill with smoke?
Marijuana smokers are a creative crowd and never seem to amaze with new, imaginative ways of consuming our favorite herb. We bet you too were in a situation where you ran out of rolling papers and had to make some smoking contraption out of what was at hand. Gravity bong is just one of those inventions that come to the rescue when you only have a nugget and a lighter and hardly anything else.
What is a Gravity Bong?
Gravity bong is a fun DIY device for smoking marijuana. You can make it out of two plastic bottles where one is small enough to fit inside the other, which is filled with water. Or you can use just one small bottle and a bucket of water.
Gravity bong uses gravity and the suction force of the vacuum to fill the small bottle with smoke as cannabis burns in the bowl on top of it. The term ‘gravity bong’ is often shortened to just GB, which in its turn, can take many fancier forms – such as geebie, geeb, or jib. You may also encounter terms like bucket bong, grav bong, or gravity pipe.
How Does a Gravity Bong Work?
The short version is that you cut the top from the bigger bottle and the bottom from the smaller bottle, fill the larger one with water, and slide the smaller one into it. Then, you make a simple bowl out of aluminum foil, fill it with some herb, and place it on top of the smaller bottle. When you light up the bud and start to slowly lift the bottle, the water in it is displaced by dense cannabis smoke, which you can later inhale.
What You Need to Make a Gravity Bong
The beauty of gravity bongs is that you can make one with things that most probably just lie around your house. There’s no need to run to a store or spend money.
Materials
- Two bottles or a bottle and a bucket
- A piece of aluminum foil
Tools
- A boxcutter or sharp knife
- A needle, toothpick, or similar sharp object
Types Of Gravity Bongs
In addition to the classic gravity bong, which you fill with smoke by lifting the smaller bottle from the larger one, you can make another type called ‘waterfall bong.’ The latter creates the suction when the water is allowed to run out of the bottle from a small hole near its bottom. One can also distinguish between bongs made out of plastic bottles and glass bottles, as well as DIY and store-bought gravity bongs.
How To Make A Gravity Bucket Bong
Unlike rolling a joint, the process of making and using a bucket bong is so simple and straightforward that you can do it even while stoned out of your mind. However, here are the step-by-step instructions.
1.Make the Bong
Cut off and discard the bottom of a small plastic bottle. For your purposes, a single-use 500-ml (16.9-oz) bottle will be just right. Cut the top of a larger, 2-liter bottle. The smaller bottle should fit in the larger one so that its opening is at the same level as the edges. In place of the bigger bottle, you can use a bucket or any other vessel of appropriate size.
2.Prepare the Bowl
Take a piece of foil, double it for sturdiness, shape it so that it has a depression for holding a pinch of ground bud, and place it on top of the bottle opening, making sure the edges of the foil wrap around the opening and everything is airtight. Take a needle or a similar sharp poking tool and make about 5 holes in the depression of your ‘bowl’. Don’t make them too big, or else the crumbs may fall through.
An alternative way is to take the bottle cap, cut a medium-sized hole in it, and wrap the foil around the cap, again making a small depression for the buds right where the hole is. (Don’t forget to poke a few small holes too.) The benefit of this method is that the whole thing is sturdier and more convenient to put on the bottle (by screwing and unscrewing). The downside is that the plastic in the cap, when heated, may release some unpleasant and harmful vapor.
Yet another way is to use a real bowl (maybe even coupled with a down stem) from your old smoking device. In this case, cut a hole of an appropriate size in the cap so that the downstem or the bottom part of the bowl itself fits tightly in the cap.
3.Fill the Bucket with Water
Pour enough water into the bigger bottle or bucket – up to a couple of inches (5 cm) from the edge. Insert the smaller bottle so that only the opening with the foil bowl stays above the surface.
4.Get Ready to Smoke
Pack the bowl with weed. You’ll probably want to do it while the bowl is removed from the bottle. Then, place it back on top of the bottle.
5.Light Your Herb
This part is actually a bit tricky and requires some practice. As you light up your cannabis, you should start lifting the bottle from the bucket. Don’t rush it and watch the bud, which should be burning at a good, consistent rate as the air gets drawn through it. If you do everything right, dense smoke will be filling the bottle as you lift it.
Stop when all the contents in the bowl have burned, but if you’ve packed too much bud, stop before the bottom edge of the bottle gets above the surface. Failing to do this, the smoke will escape at the bottom and your whole experiment will be ruined.
6.Inhale
Remove the bowl, put your mouth to the bottle opening, and start pushing the bottle down. Inhale as you do it. Your lung capacity is probably enough to inhale everything in one go, but the dense smoke is likely to cause a coughing fit and you may get too high a dose of THC for your own good.
You’ll be better off if you save some for a second hit. Just close the opening with your thumb or screw the cap on top and hold the bottle steady until you’re ready for more.
How to Make a Gravity Waterfall Bong
Making a waterfall bong requires only a slight modification compared to the instructions we’ve given above.
1.Make Your Waterfall Gravity Bong
Cut a hole in the side of a single-use bottle near its bottom. The hole should be just big enough for you to comfortably cover it with your finger. You can also go high-tech and greatly enhance the convenience of your waterfall bong use by plugging the hole with a carb-hole plug or bong plug.
2.Prepare the Bowl
Use any of the methods described above. Fitting the store-bought bowl into the cap is the most convenient option, while using a piece of foil serves as a quick and free DIY alternative. Also, you probably know what a socket from a wrench set looks like? Maybe you have one at home? Wrench sockets make very good bowls as well. Just don’t forget to put a piece of fine metal gauze inside it.
3.Fill the Bottle with Water
Plug the hole near the bottom and fill the bottle with water. You’ll probably need a few experiments to match the volume of water to the amount of weed you pack in the bowl. The best case scenario is when all the water drains just when all of the bud has finished burning.
4.Get Ready to Smoke
Putting the bowl with weed on top of the bottle while plugging the hole with one finger can actually be a bit tricky, but with practice, you can learn to do it like a pro.
5.Fill the Bottle with Cannabis Smoke
Ignite the bud in the bowl and let the water drain from the bottle and into the sink. The negative pressure created by escaping water will draw the air inside the bottle and through the burning herbs. As a result, the water in the bottle will be replaced with smoke.
6.Take a Hit
Plug the bottom hole again with your finger when there’s no more unburned weed in the bowl or all the water has drained. Remove the bowl, put the bottle opening to your mouth and inhale. Of course, when you start inhaling, you’ll need to remove your finger from the “carb hole”. If you plan to make several hits and space them well, you can make your life easier by screwing a cap on top and putting a piece of adhesive tape on the carb hole. This will hold the smoke safely inside.
Can You Make a Gravity Bong with a Small Bottle
Yes, you can make a gravity bong with a bottle of any size. Just be sure to match it to the size of your bowl. It’s not the best scenario when you’ve filled the bottle with smoke to its capacity but the bud in the bowl is still smoking. So, for small bottles, make a small bowl and pack it with only a little weed. You’ll have to experiment a bit until you make it right.
Are Gravity Bongs Bad for You?
If you’re concerned for your health, smoking in general isn’t the best method of weed consumption. Try vaping or edibles instead. Compared to joints, blunts, and spliffs, gravity bong is healthier as the smoke contacts with water and cools down. On the other hand, the smoke here doesn't actually get filtered through water as in other types of water bongs or hookahs.
The main health concern with grav bongs, however, is the use of plastic bottles. When heated, plastics–they are usually made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET)–release potentially toxic substances, such as antimony (Sb). Inhaling it is a health hazard.
Is a Gravity Bong Better Than a Regular Bong?
Each has its advantages and disadvantages. A gravity bong is a quick fix when you have nothing else to smoke your weed with (e.g. when traveling or visiting friends), while a regular bong is probably your go-to option at home. Having said that, some stores sell high-quality glass gravity bongs as well. Why bother buying them? Well, when you first draw the smoke and then inhale it, it cools down somewhat and is easier on the throat, making the hit smoother than in regular bongs. On the other hand, the smoke is likely denser and will make you very very stoned.
Do Gravity Bongs Get You Higher?
Yes, they usually do. When you smoke from a regular bong, the smoke is hotter and is likely to make you cough, and before you’re done coughing, you may realize you’re high enough already and stop there and then. The smoke from a gravity bong, though very dense and full of THC, is much easier on the lungs because it’s cooler, so it may encourage you to take a deeper hit than is good for you. Another reason is greed. When the smoke already sits in the bottle, why waste it, right? That’s a mistake that made only too many beginners green out.
Are Gravity Bongs Safe To Use?
It’s kind of a big question if smoking anything can be considered safe. Gravity bongs are probably safer than most as the smoke in them cools when coming in contact with water. What raises concerns is the use of plastic bottles, as plastic, when heated, releases some not-so-innocuous chemicals that are harmful to inhale.
How Often Does the Foil in Your Gravity Bong Need to Be Changed?
You can reuse the foil in your GB as long as it retains integrity. Only when the foil starts ripping apart, will you need to replace it with another one.
Are Gravity Bongs Worth Making or Buying?
The reason gravity bongs are so popular is that they’re so easy to make and don’t cost anything. However, their attraction goes a little beyond that – they produce dense but cool smoke, and they make you higher than many other smoking devices. So, if you are a heavy smoker, buying a sturdy and durable gravity bong from a store isn’t such a bad idea.
The Bottom Line
Now you know how to make a gravity bong at home the easy way, and we hope this will help you out in a situation when a stupid thing like running out of rolling papers stands in the way of your getting high. And what did you do in a situation like this before you learned about DIY gravity bongs? Please share your stories in the comments section!
FAQ
What can I use as a bowl piece for a gravity bong?
It's easiest to use aluminum foil for a bowl of a gravity bong, and you can put it on the bottle opening itself or wrap the foil around the bottle cap. Alternatively, you can take a glass or metal bowl from your old bong or pipe and fit it into a tight hole cut in the cap. You can also use a wrench socket coupled with a piece of fine metal mesh.
What size socket do you need for a gravity bong?
It’s no secret that sockets from a wrench set make quite passable bowls. When deciding on their size, make sure they can fit a bottle cap or the bottle opening. This means anything from 1/2'’ to 5/8” (12-15mm). Please keep in mind that the more you can inhale in one go, the bigger the socket you’ll need, but for most smokers out there, smaller sockets are preferable.
How do you make a gravity bong without a socket?
While wrench sockets are very similar to regular bong/pipe bowls in shape and size and are very convenient to use in DIY smoking devices, you can just take a piece of aluminum foil and make it into the shape of a bowl. Though not as sturdy and durable, a foil bowl is good enough for at least one unplanned smoking session.
How to make a gravity bong without foil?
If you don’t have a piece of foil, you can get creative and use anything that can tightly fit the bottle opening and hold a pinch of bud in a small depression – a piece of apple, carrot, chewing gum – just let your imagination run wild. The best option though would be a real bowl from a broken old bong/smoking pipe or a wrench socket.
How many hits will I get from one bowl of weed?
Using a gravity bong, you can make one bowl of weed completely fill the bottle with its smoke, and it’s physically possible to inhale everything in one go, but we caution you against it. You may get too much THC, and the dense smoke is likely to make you cough. In traditional bongs or pipes, a well-packed bowl is good for at least 3 rips and up to 10-15 in larger bowl sizes.
How come my bottle didn’t fill with smoke?
If you failed to fill the bottle of your bucket/gravity bong with smoke, make sure your aluminum-foil bowl has holes in it and they are big enough for the smoke to pass through. The whole thing should be airtight enough so that the only way for air to come inside the bottle is through these holes. Light up your cannabis properly so that it catches fire and pull the bottle out of the bucket slowly and steadily.
