help with vaping
i've recently started vaping instead of smoking, since daily use was irritating my throat. so far, my throat and i are happy with the results, but i'm running into a couple areas of difficulty, probably due to inexperience. any vape users who can rush to my aid?
1. transferring MJ from the grinder to the vape chamber
thanks to MS my coordination is kinda shitty, and i tend to spill during the transfer operation. i'm trying out using a small cooking funnel, but so far it's just moved the mess, since the MJ tends to get stuck in the funnel's outflow tube. any ideas on how to do this most effectively?
2. controlling the amount
now i've gotten quite proficient at measuring what i need into a bong bowl, and supposedly, vaping cuts back on what one requires for a high. however, i'm finding that in order to pack the vape chamber with enough MJ to keep it covering the exit on its own, i grind about 50% more than i'd typically use in a personal bowl. then i run the vaporizer, and it can fill the bag 3-4 times over when inhaling 1-2 bags are plenty to put me in the "good place". how do i correctly pack the chamber without decimating my stash?
any help is appreciated...
= new reply since forum marked as read
1) I'd try using paper with a slippery surface. After grinding, dump it out onto a piece of paper (maybe a magazine), then crease the paper (forming a V), and then pour it into the chamber. Back in the day, we'd use double-album covers (the area between the two sleeves) to do this. 
2) Vaping, unfortunately, uses much more weed than smoking (you're not using 100% of the mass when you're just melting the crystals), so there's no good answer for that. I do recycle what I vape from (merely by smoking it conventionally - takes more, but it's still potent ).
).Slight contradiction between the "uses more" and "use what's left" part. Vaping is more efficient--you're not using all of it. What is left over isn't used up, like you said. You can always revape it again and again, and usually that will use almost all of it. It's not so much that it physically uses less so much as you have to re-vape it to extract it all. One pass isn't usually enough on most vapes. I know I stir mine in between draws, and that helps. But in the end, you are using it more efficiently than burning it, which is a lossy process.
Plus, whatever is left over even after only a single vaping can still be smoked or made into edibles. It seems like it would be less potent to smoke afterwards, but I find it works fine, if slightly decreased. Actually, I tend to get super strong body highs off of smoking vaped weed compared to regular cured bud. The smoke is harsher, but nice for sleeping, imo.
I use a "hash" pipe, that has a sliding cover. I pinch a little ground bud, one lung-full. If I take too much, sliding the cover snuffs it. There is some accumulation on the pipe. So maybe not 100%. 
As you point out, there are perhaps some qualitative differences between smoked and vaped weed. I have heard that only smoking renders the cannabinoids in a form that is most psychoactive. Theoretically, (as told to me) the higher temps more thoroughly break up the chains of organic cannabinoid molecules, facilitating happiness. 
--imm
going by temperature alone, the effects are radically different:
if you smoke, you get all of it. that includes the naughty bits at 401'.
a solid temp-controlled vaporizer gives the user a lot of control over what kind of result they'll get.
smoking does have a certain aesthetic that i haven't gotten from vaping yet. i think some of it may be oxygen deprivation and a slight adrenaline surge that comes with it. and sucking out of the vapor bag just has a different vibe than passing around a bong. but so far i can't argue with the results...
I have used a few different vaporizers over the years.
They seemed to work okay. I had a friend who grew some excellent bud, from which he extracted lovely hash oil, which he carried around in a vaporizer similar to those they use with nicotine. I liked that 
I have an order in for a Grasshopper, a design which appealed to me because, beside the specs looking good, its pen-like form factor lends itself to discreet usage. I am hopeful. 
imm
Response to 0rganism (Original post)
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and now I'm adding to it, serving as necromancer to this vaping thread.
I may have mentioned that I took a 24-year hiatus from cannabis, breaking that fast in early October of last year. Early on, I tried vaping dry herb, but found the process tedious. I liked grinding flower, gathering a sizable cache of keef that I put to use making homemade 'moon rocks', which were absolute fire! I had no complaint about taste, although it's hard to discern whether the vapor was any less harsh than burning directly. My rig was definitely portable, and the scent was more discreet than firing it up directly, but it had a degree of pungency that betrayed my activity if I were out & about. There was the matter of cleaning, which was an issue as well, considering that the combustion chamber required rearrangement occasionally to ensure fresh flower was impinging upon the heating element; ashes didn't cut it.
For all these reasons, I opted to begin vaping concentrate, but only when discretion was required. Otherwise, I opt for flower, mostly through a small bong and usually no more than required for a one- or two-hit campaign. I'm kinda picky about allowing my pipes to get funky; I don't dig it at all. I also like old-school hash, which I smoke through a small pipe used only for that purpose. I'm working on a 1g temple ball, which lasts a long time. I've also begun dabbing, although I haven't purchased a proper dab rig yet. I want to get an e-rig in order to maintain tight temperature control. It's not that high a priority yet (no pun intended), so I improvise.
Additionally, I smoke the occasional preroll. I'm working on a 1.2g infused preroll presently, which I extinguish and relight throughout the day. It's wasteful, I know, but I do love it.
If anyone is interested in a series of 'OK, boomer' cannabis tales that harken back to the earliest 70s through the late 90s, let me know if that would be boring or not. I like to indulge my reflective side on occasion.