My Turn! Another DIY pipe

Cavediver;11079740 said:

It's almost done.

View attachment 265713View attachment 265714

The bowl warped a bit as it dried. The 18350 battery barely fit in the 3/4" hole that I'd drilled, and the EPM button wouldn't fit the 7/8 recess at all (in one direction). I put it back on the lathe and was able to re-bore and sand out the battery chamber and the button recess, though both are still out of round. It shows a little around the button, but it's acceptable.

After the fix-it work was complete, a 14mm forstner bit made short work of the eGo connector mounting hole. You can't see it in these pictures, but I drilled that hole way too deep. I didn't see this as a problem, but it wasn't my intention.

Another thing you can't see in these photos: the two dents in the bowl and the chips under the connector. I dropped it once during drilling, and again while doing some chisel work to make way for the wires. It was during this step that I also managed to crush the delicate edge at the bottom of the connector hole, resulting in a few small chips. Figuring that the dents would give it character, and that the chips would be a good reminder of what not to do next time, I decided to proceed with the circuit & connector mounting.

There's a 3/16" tall ring of copper under the switch: it's 3/4" copper pipe, cut down with a tube cutter and filed flat / burr free. This is soldered to a wire that runs down the inside of the bowl (epoxied in a groove), and on to the center pin in the connector. There's a Vape Safe fuse in the bottom of the bowl, also epoxied in place. It's wired to the connector housing.

Oops.

The center pin is supposed to be the positive pole, and the housing is supposed to be the negative pole. The battery is supposed to sit with the positive side down.

The circuit is completed when the spring-loaded button is pressed down and makes contact with the copper ring. Since the button needs to sit on the flatter surface of the negative pole, this all causes a small problem: it's possible to short the pipe by connecting the button to the exterior surface of the connector. It's not likely, but it is possible.

Oh well, another point on the list of things not-to-do.

Next, the connector was epoxied in place. After this dried I discovered that the connector is recessed too far into the pipe body to allow for an eGo threaded device (an Evod). Oops again. So, I decided to add a dress cone and use a mini vivi-nova or whatever other 510 threaded device I could find. The upside to this: the vivi-nova works very well with the Cherry Vape drip tip adapter.

The stem is vulcanite, and was purchased as a rough blank via Ebay. It took a bit of filing, a fair bit of wet sanding, and a little heat to form the curve. I also chucked it up in my lathe to turn the tenon that's inside the adaptor. It looks great from the side or if you just take a glance at it, but it's off center, uneven, and I'm not all that happy with it. That's also OK though, because the vulcanite tastes terrible, so I'm going to get rid of it and buy a Lucite stem from David Walker.

I failed to add a finish to the bowl before putting the connector in, so I will need to go back and do that soon. The color in the first picture is fairly accurate, and I like it, so I may just wax it and call it good.

All in all, this was a fun project, and I'm really glad I did it. The results aren't spectacular, or even up to my normal standards, but I'll take it as a first attempt

I've learned a number of lessons and will give this another go in a week or two. In the meantime, I'm going to kick back, read a book, and vape on my new pipe!

Click to expand...