The Micro Juice Box

[Scottbee]

First and foremost, I need to give props to the folks that came up with some of the fundamental ideas behind this "mod". The groundwork for this was laid out by folks like Carlos, Scottyballs, Kristin, and some guy in Germany....

Background: I'm a big fan of fillerless mods like the ZFM (Zero Filler Mod), Spring and Plug Mod, Straw and Plug Mod, and other variants like that. But I've always had two problems with them. One is that we still rely on the intrinsic wicking capabilities of the atomizer. And that not only varies wildly from atomizer to atomizer, it also changes with the viscosity and film tension characteristics of the fluid that we are using. Change atomizers or change liquids, and a perfectly working cartridge now either floods or starves that atomizer. Secondly, if you build a "perfectly sealing" cartridge like the silicone ZFM, it will ultimately stop deliverying liquid to the atty (unless you introduce an intentional leak). That's because the the liquid reservoir is sealed, and as the bridge pulls liquid away from the reservoir a vacuum (partial pressure) developes. That inhibits or completely stops the flow of additional liquid into the bridge mesh.

My idea was to build a cartridge that perfectly sealed like a ZFM... but that had a "button" that would allow me to "burp" away the vacuum in the cartridge.. delivering more liquid to the bridge when I wanted it to. In other words.... a "dripper" that I could use to put some more liquid into the atty when it was running dry. Throwing some additional capacity into the unit, and allowing for easy "field refill" were additional goals.

Here's what I did.

First I cut up two cartridges (901's.. my cartridge of choice for the 510). This would allow me to piece together the functions that I needed along with increasing the storage capacity.

Then I carefully drilled into the top of one of the cartridges and installed a "check valve" that has a stainless ball bearing and a stainless compression spring. The ball protrudes through the side of the cartridge and makes an air-tight seal. I can press on this ball with my finger or fingernail to "break" the seal and allow air to enter the cartridge.





The other cartridge half has the tip removed and the passages have been opened up to extend the vapor path and liquid reservoir. Then a stainless steel sleeve has been pressed on:



When assembled, the cartridge looks like this:



Continued in next post:

[Scottbee]

OK... now to "top the cartridge off". To do this, I molded a silicone plug (an idea that came from the ZFM thread). After the plug cured and was trimmed, I punched a small hole in the middle, creating this:



That plug is installed in the cartridge with a straw spacer to properly set the height. The height is set so that the bridge compresses the plug slightly, and the plug conforms to the bridge creating a seal.





The plug is then removed and the cartridge is filled with liquid. It holds almost exactly twice as much as a standard 901 cartridge.

The cartridge is then installed on the atty. "Clocking" the cartridge so it aligns with the bridge is (for the most part) not necessary.

When the cartridge is installed it will initially dump a few drops of liquid into/onto the bridge. That will be enough to vape for a while... but ultimately the bridge will run dry and you'll get "the taste".

Hold the PV vertically (battery down) and give the ball bearing "button" a quick press with your thumb or thumbnail. That will "burp" off the vacuum in the reservoir and another few drops of liquid will be released into/onto the bridge. Vape...

Repeat this process until the oversized cartridge is completely dry!

Continued.....:

[terranlanding]

Whoa this is rad! Thank you to everyone who made this publicly available. this seems like a really cool idea. I think I might try it after the holiday.

[Scottbee]

And finally....

An additional advantage to this cartridge is that it can be somewhat easily refilled in the field. You don't even need to take the cartridge off of the PV! Just invert the PV so that the battery points up, press your bottle nozzle up against the ball bearing (depressing it) and "squirt" the liquid in. The downside of course is that you're doing this "blind" and it is easy to grossly overfill the cartridge. If I had a clear cartridge.... <ponder, ponder, ponder>.

The one in the picture is currently the only one in existence. I plan on building another one that has a small "tube" projecting from the silicone seal in lieu of the hole. I will use this one on atomizers that have had their bridges removed (see the "Atomizer Resurrection" thread).. and I honestly think this will work exceptionally well. The tube will just "drip" liquid directly onto the coil when the ball bearing button is depressed. No bridge.. no atomizer wicking issues.... simplicity!

And now for (perhaps) the bad news. I plan on making the "dripper" version of this, and then one more for my wife (which I will trade for sexual favors). And that's it. I have no intention of making or selling any additional units.

So this is for posterity and inspiration. Take it, use it, copy it, ponder it.... I don't care. Maybe one of our commercial mod vendors will see some benefit to this and incorporate it into one of their monsters. I'm all for it. Hell... I'll even buy one!

Read, enjoy, vape.....

[kwcharlie]

you do good work for an old grump, thanks and Merry Christmas

[anim8r]

It looks ingenius!

but...

There's no frikkin way I'm going out shopping for parts tonight

[opuscroakus]

Very slick! Simple to do if one cares to. My hat's off to you sir!

[eclypse]

Finally someone designs a cart mod to eliminate the vacuum problem i've been trying to explain to people for a while now. I guess you must of been listening scott. heh..

A little better then a tiny hole in the side end of a cart.. but i bet you'll still have juice on the fingers when the ball moves.

Thats ok.. didnt expect any thanks

P.S. A2dconvert prob will try to explain to you that all this isnt nessisary and no need to cut up a well designed cart. heh


Good design and pics.. Thanks for sharing.

[Scottbee]

Eclypse,

You got exactly the thanks that you deserved.

And no, the ball doesn't get any liquid on it during normal use, only during field filling.

But I did fail to thank Kent C and DC2 for all of the private dialogue and ideas that they generated long before I fabricated this unit.

[Kelemvor]

interesting dripping-depot mod. subscribed and observed

this opens lots of possibilities i think, especially regarding the brokenup 510 atomizers with the removed wicking mesh.