Use Black Light to find Fibers in the Atomizer

[jamie]

Awesome videographer RatInDaHat clued me in on using a black light to see the stray fibers left in the atomizer (from the cart). It works perfectly - they glow brightly, you can't miss 'em.

The bad news? At least in my well-used atomizers, some of the fibers have already fused to the steel wool bridge, so now I can see them but I can't get them out. Adds a little trepidation to my already trepidatious new habit.

I purchased a portable battery operated 6-inch fluorescent, looking like this.... The light is quite weak and I plan to purchase either a better bulb or a different black light: UPDATE: Bigger lights aren't better, this one works properly.

Rat has an LED black light keychain like this, which seems to work for him:

 

[TropicalBob]

Funny stuff.

Whatever you do, Jamie, do NOT shine that black light on your kitchen countertop or bathroom floor! If you do, you will be changed forever. Also do not look at yourself in a mirror while illuminated by UV light.

I love UV experiences ...

 

[jamie]

Hehehe. You're correct, but years too late to save me. Went through all the rooms with a large black light... wanted to sell the house immediately. 8-o

 

[jamie]

After a week using a black light it's become a required paraphernalia for my esmoking with carts.

Prior to the black light purchases I used a variety of small focused lights and magnifying lenses to find fibers in the atomizer. I can't overstate how useless those tools turned out to be as compared to a black light.

Fibers in the atomizer are responsible for 90%+ of my burning tastes and odors. I didn't know that before, because I couldn't see many of the fibers with my other tools - although I thought I could!

Nearly every puff deposits fibers into the atomizer, both with my DSE901 Minis and my Penstyles. It's distressing to know that I'm nearly always smoking fiber particles. The black light helps to minimize this a great deal - WHEN there is time to use it.

The portable battery operated 6-inch fluorescent is better than nothing. It's a cheap product (we've heard that before!) and the light dims fairly quickly. It eats batteries so I finally changed to digital camera labeled batteries.

Now I've ordered a high intensity LED penlight that I expect will work better. I've had their white penlight and it's my favorite flashlight ever.

There are also many small 3 or 5 or 12 LED black UV lights available, the one Rat has and similar.

 

[windblown]

Dude! Those lights are too cool. As if I needed another way to drop some cash, I ordered one from Amazon yesterday, and they delivered it today. Wow, warp speed.

I've already tried to smoke it about a dozen times. Looks just like my black penstyle if I'm not paying close attention.

Now that I can see every little fiber in the atomizer, I seem to need a third hand.....one to hold the atomizer, one to shine the light, and one for some tweezers.

Am I just ......ed, or how do you do this???

 

[20ADAY]

Search for "helping hand" on ebay maybe be just what your looking for..

Out on interest, what happends when you shine UV in bathroom, kitchen and especially the mirror, I tempted to buy on just to find out.

 

[dnakr]

Okay guys, if you are going to tell him - lets keep it nice - I don't want to have to delete posts again

However, back on topic, I would like to have one of those lights myself, just to see if I do keep my atomizer clean enough.

 

[Mihai]

Okay guys, if you are going to tell him - lets keep it nice - I don't want to have to delete posts again

sadly, my english is not good enough for this task

 

[TheEmperorOfIceCream]

argh Rachel - I suppressed this! Who bumped it? Another gimme gizmo...

 

[windblown]

Search for "helping hand" on ebay maybe be just what your looking for..

Out on interest, what happends when you shine UV in bathroom, kitchen and especially the mirror, I tempted to buy on just to find out.

Thanks, 20, a helping hand is just the ticket.

So far I haven't seen anything too gross in the kitchen and bathroom, but I'm not sure what to be looking for. Creepie crawlies, I presume???

It could be that the size of the light makes a difference. I didn't see anything in the mirror either. This is my first black light so I might be missing something.

 

[jamie]

Started discussion of non-blacklight helping hands and paraphernalia here.

 

[jamie]

Was happy to open my new Streamlight Stylus UV LED Penlight today.

Right off I noticed a difference using this LED black light as compared to a fluorescent black light:
- with fluorescent the fibers glow whitish
- with LED they show as blue and not so much glowing.

BTW, an incandescent black light bulb might not work - I haven't tried for this purpose, but know it doesn't show certain other items as compared to fluorescent.

I can hold the Streamlight in my mouth to view/extract obvious and loose fibers. Beyond that I have to hold it in my hand and put the atomizer into the clamp.

The focused Penlight allows me to better see my tweezers (and pin) while I'm extracting fibers. This is very good news because I think I'd cost myself an atomizer with the other light - I could see the fibers but not my tweezers and accidentally did too much picking at the steel wool bridge.

UPDT: Forgot to mention, I'm not certain I would recommend the Penlight UV LED as compared to a 3 or 5 LED light. I'll probably try one of those also.

(unrelated, don't judge their white LED by the performance of the UV LED... the white Streamlight probably can be seen from a mile away, like their ad says... UV is a different animal)

 

[Spider]

Where do I get a cheap but decent UV light to find fibres in my atomiser?

 

[jamie]

So far I haven't seen anything too gross in the kitchen and bathroom.... It could be that the size of the light makes a difference.

Couldn't respond to this until my LED arrived, now I can definitely say a UV LED black light is not the same as a flourescent black light in what it shows. Not a huge surprise as that is also true for an incandescent black light.

 

[jamie]

Where do I get a cheap but decent UV light to find fibres in my atomiser?

 

[Spider]

I'm still none the wiser