Content

• Steps
• Method 1 of 2: Isopropyl Alcohol
• Method 2 of 2: Freeze
• Tips
• Warnings
• What do you need

Getting resin from your pipe. For those desperate times when you need crowbar and smoke or just want a fresh, clean pipe.

Steps

Method 1 of 2: Isopropyl Alcohol

1. 1 Check the tips and warnings at the bottom of the page to avoid accidentally breaking your pipe.
2. 2 Look into your tube to see where the resin has collected. Unfold a paperclip or use a rubber clip. Insert it into a mouthpiece, carburetor, or bowl (wherever you want) and collect the resin as best you can. If desired, you can rub more (10-15 seconds) where you want to clean. This heats up the resin and makes it more sticky. It is best not to try the easy method or scraping the outside of the bowl, as the resin will be very difficult to get here. Instead, place the bowl under hot water for about 30 seconds, then use your fingernail (protect with a sturdy cloth or tissue if you don't want to smear your nails) to pull out a huge amount of resin. After scraping, you will end up with some very sticky black pieces of resin. Find a place to put them where you can easily pick them up. A metal or similar surface is best because it is impossible to separate wet resin from items such as tissues and tube cleaners after they have been accidentally touched by this material. After all the resin has been removed and it has cooled and dried, roll it into a ball. If you are not going to smoke tar, then skip this step entirely.
   • Continue scrubbing until you see a complete lack of resin.
3. 3 Clean it up. Your tubing will need at least 90-95% isopropyl alcohol to look like new, preferably 100% (this will break the resin). You can find it at your local pharmacy or Wal-Mart. You can also buy a pack of iodized salt.
4. 4 Place the tube in a ziplock bag and fill with isopropyl alcohol; not all of it, but enough for the bowl to be covered. Use the salt as an activator (shake the bag from side to side to activate) this will significantly shorten the cleaning time.
5. 5 Leave it on for 3 hours. If you've used salt with alcohol, you don't have to wait at all, just shake until you're done. Nobody wants to wait 3 hours before using a favorite item.
6. 6 Go to the sink and rinse with hot clean water. Flush the tube. If you skipped the “salt or scrap” step, clean with a baby bottle or clean tube. Water and some dish soap will wash away any alcohol.
7. 7 Continue washing the tubing until you smell any isopropyl (this is flammable). Once you've rinsed it out and the odor is gone, your tubing should look like new.

Method 2 of 2: Freeze

1. 1 Check the tips and warnings at the bottom of the page to avoid accidentally breaking your pipe.
2. 2 Pick up the phone if you want tar.
3. 3 Place the pipe in the freezer.
4. 4 Wait 30 minutes. You can leave it on longer if you want, but half an hour is the minimum.
5. 5 Take a scraping tool.
6. 6 Clean the tube. The freezing effect only lasts a few minutes before it gets all sticky again, so try to be quick.
7. 7 Look, the resin just falls out of the pipe like a handful of dry black sand.

Tips

• Another way to remove smoking tar by skipping the tedious cleanse step is not to use salt with alcohol. Most of the debris will already loosen in the tube when you leave some isopropyl in the bag (for as long as needed). After that, use a gold coffee filter to remove the ash (it falls through the sieve, leaving you only tar). Then wait for your resin to dry; if you want to get rid of alcohol before smoking. It will take a long time and is not recommended for beginners.
• After cleaning, if the alcohol in the bag is still golden amber in color, your pipe probably didn't have a lot of tar, or you missed the salt step. It does not take long time to use the pipe to darken the alcohol.
• If your resin is fresh or you got it wet anyway and you don't feel like you can wait for it to dry, place it in the freezer to harden. Do not place resin soaked in alcohol in the freezer. Let it evaporate completely.
• This is the best way to clean glass tubes in particular, but it is also effective for metal.

Warnings

• Again, make sure you wash off all the alcohol. It is highly flammable, not to mention its smell and taste.
• Be careful when scraping the inside of the bowl (called the cone). Sometimes this is the weakest part of the tube, and don't push too hard.
• Tar contains more carcinogens and tar as the concentrated product of your plant mass is combustion products.
• Just because you can clean glass and metal tubing this way doesn't mean it will work for acrylic water tubing. Isopropyl will destroy her.

What do you need

• Isopropyl alcohol.
• Clasp bag.
• Salt.
• Baby bottle or clean test tube.
• Hairpin / clip / pipe cleaner.