I liked Insahar’s Shisha 2.0 so much that I bought a model in dark wood some time ago – more of an art object than Shisha.
However, over time it has turned out that the processing quality and manufacturing tolerance of the wood was not quite as good as expected. The varnish on the wood surface cracked and began to flake off. The upper part was not quite straight from the beginning and always wobbled on the solid aluminium body. Also the silicone layer in the bowl started to loosen and the water had direct contact to the wood.
Time to rework the shisha and design a new wooden cladding.
As soon as I had replicated the shape of the base plate of the aluminium body once, all other parts consist of the same outer basic shape. Inside there are 5 different shapes.
- 15x standard recess with 10mm edge for the parts of the bowl and the upper body
- 3x base plate without a recess
- 1x round recess for the aluminium ring
- 1x round recess with 4mm pocket for the aluminium ring
The parts were milled out of 21mm birch plywood in about 5 hours. I glued the segments with waterproof wood glue.
Then thoroughly sand the surfaces with emery paper. I used linseed oil varnish to preserve the surfaces. Here I made good experiences with my previous furniture.
A small challenge was to protect the bowl against the water. Once again I didn’t want to use silicone. After some research I came across polyester resin, which is available as a two-component system in every DIY store. The processing is simple, as long as you have a fine balance for exact weighing of the hardener. Nevertheless, pay attention to the hazard warnings!
With the resin I have swung out all interior walls of the Bowl in several passages. In my opinion the whole thing makes a very solid impression and should sufficiently protect the wood from the water.
A nice weekend project with good results.