The Best Homemade Pipes (and How to Build Them)

The best homemade pipes are the apple pipe, the bamboo pipe, the soda can pipe and the DIY gravity bong — all built from things you already have at home. Every smoker runs into this problem at least once: it's time to smoke and there's nothing to smoke with.

There are plenty of reasons people end up building their own pipes. Maybe you ran out of rolling papers, or maybe you simply don't keep a piece in the house because having one around is too risky.

Whatever the reason, there are loads of household items that can stand in for a proper piece and give you a quick, easy smoking experience with surprisingly little effort to put together.

Before you fall in love with a homemade pipe or makeshift vaporizer and start smoking with whatever's lying around the house, there are a few precautions you should know.

Precautions before smoking out of a homemade pipe

Never use plastic where the weed actually burns.

Plastic melts when lit and the fumes can be seriously toxic to inhale. Plastic is fine for holding the smoke, but every piece you build should have a metal — or at least non-plastic — bowl where the burning happens.

Skip rotten produce when building a pipe out of fruit, for example.

Rotten fruit turns to mush and falls apart with almost no effort. That ruins any piece, so the best move is to stick with produce that's firm or just ripe.

Flimsy materials are a bad idea in general.

Use sturdy materials so your pipe doesn't fall apart mid-session and risk hot weed spreading a flame onto something else.

Types of homemade pipes

Bamboo or cane pipe

Take a thin piece of bamboo and cut it so one end stays sealed by the woody membrane bamboo naturally has, and cut the other end clean — that will be your mouthpiece.

Drill or cut a hole about 1.5 cm (roughly half an inch) wide at the opposite end, then use the leftover pieces of the bamboo stick to carve a small bowl that fits snugly into the hole you just made.

You should use an even thinner piece of bamboo, ideally one with the woody membrane at the thin end of the stick, which will act as a screen to keep ash from getting into your mouth.

All you need to do is poke a very small hole through that membrane, being careful not to break it completely.

Fruit or veggie pipe (apple style)

Making this kind of homemade pipe comes down to the same trick with most smokeable fruits and vegetables: take a pencil and push it through the long side of the fruit. That becomes the main chamber the smoke travels through.

Then make two more holes perpendicular to the chamber and connect them so the smoke can flow. Now you've got a spot for your cannabis and an air outlet — a fully functional makeshift piece.

Widen the spot where the cannabis goes a little. A metal bowl from any smoke shop is a great way to upgrade these pipes and make them much easier to smoke.

This style of homemade pipe works with a whole range of fruits and vegetables: apples, pears, melons, watermelons, bananas, cucumbers and plenty more. Apples are by far the fruit most commonly turned into pipes.

Soda can

Soda cans are even easier to turn into a homemade weed pipe than a plastic water bottle. Press the can in on two sides near the bottom to make a small dent, then poke the sunken part with a needle or a pen to create a little “grill” for your cannabis. The grill holds the weed in place and keeps any ash or herb from flying into your mouth as you hit it. Punch one more hole on top as a vent so it pulls easier, and your can pipe should be ready to go. 

What is a gravity bong?

A gravity bong uses gravity and negative pressure to build up a chamber full of smoke that you then inhale. All you have to do is light the bowl, lift the bong and inhale while pushing it back down. It's basically smoking weed out of a bottle.

Lots of people wonder how to make a homemade pipe, and the beauty of the gravity bong is that you can build it yourself, with simple materials you usually have around the house. Put all those plastic bottles to work and figure out how to make homemade pipes without much drama.

How does a gravity bong actually work?

The science behind this kind of homemade piece goes like this: it forces highly concentrated smoke into your lungs, filling them well beyond a typical hit. When the time comes to inhale from the bottle, you're pulling the smoke of an entire bowl of weed into your lungs in a single hit.

Build a homemade pipe — especially a gravity bong — and you'll see it delivers a hefty dose of THC, so we don't recommend it for lightweights or beginners who are just getting started with homemade pieces.

What is a waterfall bong?

The waterfall bong — a water-powered gravity bong — is built from a large water bottle. And unlike the bucket version, it genuinely uses gravity to produce the smoke. The experience with this water piece is that it spares your lungs the effort of filling the bong with smoke — emptying it, though, is on you.

Step by step: how to make a homemade waterfall bong

Step 1:

Unlike the bucket-style gravity bong, learning how to make a waterfall bong only requires one large 2-liter (about half-gallon) bottle. Use the bottle cap to build a bowl out of aluminum foil. Pierce one hole in the cap and several smaller ones in the foil to allow airflow. Pack the bowl with weed and set it aside.

Step 2:

Time to grab scissors or a box cutter and make a hole in the lower half of the bottle — it works as a drain or carb. The hole should be small enough to cover with one finger.

Step 3:

With your finger covering the carb, fill the bottle with water, leaving a few centimeters (an inch or so) free at the top. Ideally, keep your finger over the drain hole until you're ready to inhale.

Step 4:

For this step you'll want to be somewhere that can get wet, because the whole bottle is about to empty out. Screw on the cap holding the bowl and the weed. Now it's time to take your finger off the carb; when the water starts pouring out of the hole, spark the herb. While the water drains, the smoke flows from the bowl into the bottle, filling it up little by little. Once all the water is out, cover the drain hole with your finger again so the smoke doesn't escape.

Step 5:

You're finally ready to inhale. Take the cap off the bottle and start drawing in the smoke. When you lift your finger off the carb, the pressure will push the smoke into your lungs. And now it's time to brace yourself: a massive hit is coming.

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