Hey guys, been some time I've posted but I do follow you every now and then and am always happy to see your new creations.
I finished a new squonker and figured you'd like to see some pics. This is a YiHi SX350J temp board squonker mod made exclusively for one of my Nuppin atties. The 510 fitting is sunk-in somewhat and the opening is only 20mm so it only takes small atties like the Nuppin (this was by choice).
Everything you see here is machined by hand and the biggest challenge I had was the squonk bottle configuration. I wanted to stay away from doors as they ruin (in my mind) the design so I had to come up with a way to remove the bottle easily since there is nowhere to grab it from to remove it. Similar mods I've seen have the user try to grab the bottle from the squonk hole and try to twist it out. This method really is a pain in the .... because if you finally do manage to get the bottle out then you have to get it back in (which is a feat in itself to find blindly the squonk tube). So I machined from delrin a new bottle cap which is the same diameter as the squonk tube and is fixed in there permanently. To overcome the bottle removal problem I machined (also from delrin) a bottle bottom cap which is bonded to the bottom of the bottle and has a metal tab that opens for easy unscrewing. Now the bottle can be refilled real easy by just grabbing the tab under it and unscrewing the whole bottle.
The battery cap was machined from stainless and then polished. The face plate and buttons are made from aluminum and the board is fixed behind the face plate.
This is the first time I use the SX350J board and I must say that its a great chip.
Here are a few shots before completion so you see the internal milling
This is the FD 510 which has been machined down to 19.8mm diameter
The internal cavity for the battery and the SX350J board
The battery tube. The battery cap you see in the first pictures screws into a ring that sits in this opening and connects the bat negative terminal. I didn't want to make a metal tube for the battery to save on weight so I just machined a ring (about 3/4" long out of stainless steel) I then cut threads into it on the lathe then machined a cap that screws into it. The ring was epoxied into the wood so the cap sit flush when fully screwed in.