Just scanned over this whole thread again for the billionth time lol, finally tried gargling w/salt water as per crystalcallas' instructions, felt like heaven to my mouth, having tweaked the past few night w/out gum (kept meanin to get it, but it just kept slipping my mind!). Anyways, I was wondering if anyone could post a link to a good guide to making a needle lighter, the cryst-o vap link doesn't seem to work, and I've not had much success at following the directions on sixthseal.com. Also Im curious to know who prefers to pack their glass in the carb of the pipe or the stem? I usually pack the stem, because either way some often falls off the tip of the straw, and at least in the stem you don't lose it completely, whereas trying to herd miniscule glass crumbs into a small carb with your finger so you don't waste them is a pain too. My current pipe has a decent sized carb, slightly larger than Haze's reccomended O key, but not a gaping crater either, and i've found that by taking a slurpee straw (the kind w/the scoop at one end) and cutting a small piece of slightly wider straw (preferably clear, jamba juice has sturdy ones) and sliding it over the slurpee one it does a pretty neat trick. You stick the scoop end into your baggie, vial, milk jug, whatever, and positition your desires amount on the scoop, then carefully slide the clear straw towards and over the scoop part, rolling it (and the shit) in the clear straw. Since you're probably already confused, the basic premise is that it allows you to scoop larger amounts than a reg straw, and the clear "shield" helps prevent any from dropping on its way to Mr. P. Also any residue is eaisier to clean since its a scoop vs. a sraw. One last thing, does anyone have any tips on blowing a double bubble pipe? They look schweet but all my local shops just have plain one bulbs. I have access to both rose tubes and those air freshener vials as well as a semi melted but functional torch. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, sayonara fellow sketchers!!!