SOURCE Nail – Portable eNail & Vape Pen – Temp Control eRig

Sponsored by SOURCEvapes

By now, you’re probably familiar with the term “dabbing.” It’s essentially a fast-growing trend in which a person vaporizes cannabis concentrate (wax, shatter, crumble, etc.) by placing it on a heated surface — typically a hot nail — with the help of a glass rig [to hold the nail] and a concentrate utensil [to hold/dab the concentrate]. The nails are heated either electronically (known as an “enail”) or manually by something less high-tech, like a blow torch. Most of the dabs people take are from corded, stationary enails that are designed to be plugged directly into a power source.

Often these enails/rigs are bulky, expensive, and require some level of knowledge to operate the unit efficiently and effectively. That’s not to say corded enails are bad, they just have their time and place. A quick Google search comparing prices of enails currently on the market delivers results ranging from a couple hundred bucks for mass-produced, Chinese-manufactured products to $2500+ for short-run, custom enail rigs that are American made.

“Designed to vaporize concentrates and extracts, the SOURCE nail offers dabbers the ability to travel with their rig without the normal hassles associated with carrying around a corded enail/dab rig.”

One of the companies looking to break away from the mold and become a trendsetter in the enail space is SOURCEvapes. They’ve just announced the release of a new product that will surely bring the joys of dabbing to those on a budget, as well as to those that find themselves constantly on the go. Known as the SOURCE nail, this vaporizer is technically a portable eRig that features coil-free atomizers that are completely smooth and interchangeable.

Designed to vaporize concentrates and extracts, it offers dabbers the ability to travel with their rig without the normal hassles associated with carrying around a corded enail/dab rig. It’s small size, stealthy design, and lightweight feel make it easy to stash in any small bag of your own — or you could do what I do and put it in the provided carrying case (which is like a mini briefcase). Unfortunately, the SOURCE nail will not work with dry herbs (which makes sense; it’s an enail after all!), so unless you have access to quality concentrates, the SOURCE nail may not be for you. It’s priced at just $199.95 and comes with a 30-Day No-Hassle warranty from any manufacturer’s defects on atomizers and a lifetime warranty for the (new) batteries.

According to a representative from the company, the SOURCE nail is the first portable enail to feature true temperature control. Made possible by the new SOURCE volt 40w TC box mod battery, the SOURCE nail offers a full temperature range between 200°F – 700°F, as well as a full wattage control with a range of 5w – 40w.

One of the things I thought that was really nice about the SOURCE nail was that it comes with three different atomizer styles for you to choose from: Grade 2 titanium (USA-tested), Ceramic, and Quartz. Not only is it easy to swap between the atomizers when you need to, but because the SOURCE nail is 510 threaded, you can actually swap the atomizers from your other SOURCEvapes products as well (including the SOURCE orb 3 and SOURCE orb XL). This is especially useful if you want to use/try out different atomizers in the future when your main atomizers begin to die off from extended use.

What arrives at your doorstep:

• 1x SOURCE nail Attachment
• 1x SOURCE nail Bubbler
• 1x SOURCE nail Globe
• 3x SOURCE nail Atomizers
  • Grade 2 Titanium
  • Ceramic
  • Quartz
• 1x SOURCE volt 40w TC Temperature Control Battery
• 1x SOURCEvapes Metal Case
• 1x Quartz Carb Cap and Dab Tool
• 1x microUSB Cable
• 1x 510 to eGo Adaptor

How to Use the SOURCE nail

The SOURCE nail is capable of being used as both a portable enail with the SOURCE nail bubbler or a vape pen with the SOURCE nail globe. I personally enjoy using the globe as it is more compact (easier to carry), doesn’t require a dab utensil (you can just pre-pack it and tap the button when you need to take a hit — much like a vape pen), and it is less fragile than the larger bubbler attachment (which seems to attract itself to tipping over). One of the downsides of the globe is that it will get dirty relatively quick, although this may depend on the type of concentrate/product you use with the SOURCE nail.

One thing to consider when buying the SOURCE nail is product safety. One night I found myself using the SOURCE nail with a concentrate product that had re-introduced terpenes (which are notoriously runny/liquid in texture) and the moisture in the dab must have caused it to “jump out” of the nail when it hit the hot surface. Luckily I was using the globe attachment and it protected my face from getting burnt. Needless to say it scared the &$!* out of me, so be careful. Use pure concentrates and be mindful of the temperature your nail is set at. Most importantly: Do not stare directly down into the nail when you put the concentrate onto the hot surface.

Generally speaking, I found crumble, shatter, and other “dry” concentrates to work much better than dabs that contained any amount of liquid, although this could have been more of an ingredient and/or temperature issue rather than a consistency issue; I need to ask around and do some research on the topic to learn more. Regardless, as long as you remember to keep the nail pointed away from your face, you should be good to go.

Using the SOURCE nail is a very simple and straight forward process. It only takes 1-2 times of using the product before getting the hang of it. Below we’ve summarized how to use each attachment provided in the kit. Simply follow the steps and you should be on your way to enjoying clouds of vapor in no time:

How to Fill Your Bubbler

• Remove the glass bubbler from the attachment (gently pull from the attachment).
• Pour 1/4 oz of water into the mouthpiece, or until the bubbler is less than 1/4 full.
• If some water drops to the bottom chamber of the bubbler, that’s ok, but you can tip forward slowly to let the excess water drip down.

How to Prep and Power On

• With the glass bubbler removed, screw the desired SOURCE nail atomizer clockwise onto the SOURCE nail attachment.
  • Be sure to use grab the body of the atomizer to twist on, not the ring cap above.
  • Twisting by the ring cap will tighten the ring cap onto the atomizer, push the bucket, and break the atomizer.
• Replace the glass bubbler after it’s filled with water.
• Attach the SOURCE nail attachment to your SOURCE volt 40w TC battery.
• Press the Power Button (square) on your SOURCE volt 40w TC battery sequentially 5 times.

Using Temperature Control (TC) mode

1. Make sure either a SOURCE nail atomizer, or a Grade 1 Titanium (Gr1) atomizer is screwed on the SOURCE volt 40w TC battery.
2. Press the Power Button (square) on your SOURCE volt 40w TC battery sequentially 5 times.
3. Once your battery powers up, you will see “HELLO” pop up on the screen and then “System: On”.
4. The next screen will read “New Atomizer” since the atomizer has just been installed, followed by the question: “Init Res” with “NO” selected by default. Click the right arrow to select “YES.” The battery will then analyze the initial resistance of the atomizer, and once completed will read “Init Succeed.”
5. This will take you to your battery’s Temperature Control mode with the desired temperature on display (between 200F and 700F).
6. Select your desired temperature by using the right arrow to increase the temperature and the left arrow to decrease it.

Using Variable Wattage (VW) mode

1. Once the battery is already activated, press the Power Button (square) sequentially 3 times. This will take you to the SOURCE volt 40w TC Main Menu.
2. The first option on the Main Menu is “Atomizer,” select it by pressing the Power Button.
3. The first option of the next menu is Normal (Variable Wattage Mode), click the Power Button to select and activate VW mode.
4. Once in VW mode, you will see the Wattage rather than Temperature.
5. Select your desired wattage by using the right arrow to increase the wattage and the left arrow to decrease it.
6. Use the following Wattage settings depending on the SOURCE nail atomizer type:
   • Grade 2 Titanium: 25w – 35w
   • Ceramic: 30w – 35w
   • Quartz: 19w – 22w

Navigating the Main Menu

1. To open the Main Menu, press the Power Button sequentially 3 times once the SOURCE volt 40w TC is powered on.
2. Use the right and left arrows to change your selection. To make a selection, press the Power Button.
3. Atomizer (Select between TC Mode and VW Mode)

Using Your eRig

1. With your desired temperature or wattage selected, use the included Quartz Carb Cap & Dabber to pick up the material you want to vaporizer.
2. Press and hold the Power Button on your battery to start heating up your nail. The SOURCE volt 40w TC has a 15 seconds cut off time. We recommend letting your nail cycle between 7-10 seconds to reach optimum temperatures.
3. Place your lips on the mouthpiece of the bubbler, press and hold the Power Button, slowly lower your material into the SOURCE nail Bucket, and inhale softly.
4. Once all of the material from your Quartz Carb Cap & Dabber has been placed on the atomizer, flip unto the Quartz Carb Cap and cover the top of the glass bubbler to increase vapor strength and density.
5. Release Power Button when all material has vaporized.
6. Repeat Steps 1-5 until completely satisfied.

Cleaning the SOURCE nail

The SOURCE nail comes with a variety of small parts that will require regular cleaning. To empty out the water from the bubbler attachment, blow out through the mouthpiece and shake gently until all liquid has been removed. The go-to ingredient you need to remove resin and keep your glass pieces spotless is isopropyl alcohol. It seems to be effective and as long as you wash your pieces with water thoroughly after each cleanse, no strange flavors should linger into your vape session.

As for cleaning the provided atomizers, I really like the fact that they can be unthreaded and the heating dishes can be fully removed. This means you can toss the little ring and the dish into a cup of isopropyl and let them both soak. If you want to clean all three atomizers at the same time, be sure to remember which atomizer goes with which dish, so that you can put the correct dish back into the corresponding atomizer. This is an important step as each atomizer has a different temperature and wattage range based on the materials they are made from (see below). After ample soaking time, use a cloth or paper towel to ensure the pieces are completely dry prior to placing the cup back into the atomizer body and threading the ring back on. Spot clean the outer metal atomizer body with the isopropyl and the cleaning is done.

Grade 2 Titanium Enail Health & Safety

Although titanium products are used throughout the dabbing scene, it is still important to be educated on what you are buying for your personal health and safety beforehand. With counter fitting and lack of morals, the titanium nail market has a lot of smoke and mirrors on what is being used. This article will help you understand the importance of using trusted companies that use medical grade 2 titanium, and will give you some insight on proper medical grade purity levels.

It’s important to note that just because a nail or enail says it is grade 2 titanium does not mean it is safe to use — especially on a daily basis. As specific as “Grade 2 Titanium” sounds, it is still a very vague description of what it actually is. For instance, marine and aerospace industries use grade 2 titanium for its strength and light weight. The medical field uses “medical” grade 2 titanium for its strength, light weight, and resignation with the human anatomy. Both industries are using grade 2 titanium, however the purity of each is very different.

When manufacturers buy titanium, they get certifications with the material to verify its consistency/purity. By law, titanium certification forms have to declare the amount of Iron (FE), Carbon (C), Oxygen (O), Nitrogen (N), and Hydrogen (H). These amounts are needed to declare the proper ISO requirements for that material classification. Here is a lab test certificate posted publicly on the company’s website from December of 2015 (a bit outdated if you ask me) — take it for what it’s worth:

Titanium Enail Specifications

Recommended Wattage (Enail): 25w – 35w
Recommended Wattage (Vape Pen): 17w – 20w
Resistance: 0.5-0.8 ohm (Resting) / 1.2+ ohm (Active)

Temp and Times (enail)

Recommended warm up time for portable enail use: 7 – 10 seconds

Temperature after warm up:

• 25w: 700F
• 30w: 950F
• 35w: 1100F

What I Liked…

My favorite part about the SOURCE nail is its small size and easy-to use design. It’s definitely not something you could carry around in your pocket but it is a lot more portable than most of the other enails currently available on the market. As far as taste goes, I would say that there is a noticeable improvement in flavor over the wide variety of vaporizer pen devices being marketed as “for concentrate use.”

Another big selling point for me was that unlike traditional concentrate rigs, no butane / torch is required to heat an enail. Not only does this make dabbing less intimidating [especially for first-timers] but it also removes a step altogether that may have otherwise lead to user-error (eg. over-heating nails with a blow torch, etc.). With the SOURCE nail’s simple 1-button design, dabbers can effortlessly heat their concentrates with the push of a button. Additionally, there are a handful of competing products that offer similar looking cordless alternatives to traditional enail/erigs, but as far as I am aware, none of them currently offer as many temperature settings as the SOURCE nail.

What I Didn’t Like…

Unfortunately, if you are a heavy user, you will need to clean the nail every few days as it tends to clog faster with more frequent use. To do this, refer to the cleaning instructions outlined above. Also, the provided quartz dab tool and connected carb cap certainly looks like it’s cheaply made; it feels as though it would break if you ever accidentally drop it/tip it over. I would prefer to see a dab tool made of medical grade Grade 2 titanium — but that would certainly increase the overall price of the kit — so I guess it’s a trade off the company had to make. At the end of the day, you can always use your own dab tool/carb cap if you ever decide to upgrade, so it shouldn’t be much of an issue.

Final Thoughts

The SOURCE nail offers dabbers the ability to dab on the go without breaking the bank. Its lightweight and easy-to-use design makes it a good option for first-time dabbers who do not want to mess around with a blow torch or larger, corded enail rigs. It’s not the most luxurious product I have ever come across, and if you are like me you’ll have to dedicate a few hours a week to keeping it clean, but it does get the job done for its low price tag. I am not entirely sure of the SOURCE nail’s durability over extended periods of use/time as I only had a few weeks to test it, so please leave your feedback below and share your experience using this product with other readers.