How to Make a Potato Pipe: 5 Simple Steps for a Spud Pipe

Learning how to make a potato pipe is one of those stoner life skills that sounds ridiculous until the day you actually need it. Forget your pipe at a friend’s? Only have a potato? This DIY potato smoking pipe tutorial walks you through the full build in 5 simple steps, using tools most people already have at home. No potato flavour. No fuss. Just a functional spud pipe that works.

What Is a Potato Pipe?

A potato pipe (also called a spud pipe) is a makeshift vegetable pipe cannabis smokers have been building since forever. Like an apple pipe but using a potato, it works on the same principle — drill or carve a mouthpiece channel and a bowl hole, add a screen, load some herb, and smoke. The potato has almost no flavour when used as a pipe, and it is biodegradable, so cleanup is as easy as throwing it in the compost bin.

How to Make a Potato Pipe: 5 Simple Steps

1. Choose your potato: Any potato works for a DIY potato smoking pipe. A medium-to-large potato gives you more surface area to work with and a longer airpath, which means cooler smoke. Avoid very small potatoes — there is not enough room to drill the channel and bowl hole without them meeting in the wrong place.
2. Drill the mouthpiece channel: Use a 6mm drill bit (or similar small bit) to drill horizontally through the potato, stopping about two-thirds of the way through. This is your airpath. If you do not have a drill, use a metal straw, chopstick, or sturdy pen to punch the channel through — just be patient and work slowly for a clean hole.
3. Drill the bowl hole from the top: From the top of the potato, drill straight down at the spot where your horizontal channel ends. Go just deep enough to meet the airpath. Test airflow by blowing through the mouthpiece — you should feel air coming up through the bowl hole. Carve the top opening slightly wider with a knife to create a proper bowl shape.
4. Add a carb (optional but recommended): Drill a small carb hole on the side of the potato near the bowl end. The carb lets you clear the smoke by releasing your finger from the hole when you pull the last hit. Without a carb, the smoke sits in the channel and can go stale. For a spud pipe tutorial done right, the carb makes a big difference.
5. Place a screen and load your herb: Fold a small pipe screen into a plus sign shape and place it in the bowl so it sits across the hole. This stops plant material from falling through the channel. Load your herb on top of the screen, light from the side that has the mouthpiece, cover the carb with your finger while lighting, then release the carb to clear the hit.

Tips for a Better Spud Pipe

A few tips to improve your DIY potato smoking pipe experience:

• Use a screen always: Without a screen, herb falls into the airpath and clogs everything. A cheap pipe screen makes the whole thing work much better.
• Blow out debris after drilling: Small potato chunks will sit in the drilled channel. Blow firmly through the mouthpiece before smoking to clear them out.
• Try to make a pipe without tools: If you do not have a drill, a metal drinking straw and a sharp knife are all you need to make a pipe without tools. Push the straw firmly through the potato for the channel, and use the knife to carve the bowl area on top.
• Fresh potato hits cleaner: A fresh firm potato produces the cleanest hits. Older potatoes get soft and can crumble, making the carving and drilling harder and less precise.
• Apple pipe hits better: If you have an apple available, make an apple pipe instead — the flavour complements cannabis much better than potato. But when all you have is a spud, this vegetable pipe cannabis guide gets the job done.