601-C Stuck switch?

[dustypioneer]

Hey everyone, so I've enjoyed my awesome 601-C pipe for a whole 3 weeks and yesterday it decides to stop activating when I take a draw. I can still get it to activate every now and then or if I blow through the bowl it activates just fine. I've q-tipped it and blown/sucked every which direction and still can't get this thing working decently again.

Anybody have any tips on fixing this?

P.S. I decided I would try to take the thing apart... much easier said than done. After a few scratches and dings on the gold tip I've given up on taking it apart to get to the switch.

 

[toth]

Any luck, dusty? My switch is acting up too.. I can blow the bowl or (strangely) hold the pipe upside down and get normal function, but holding it normally it acts very shifty - sometimes ok, sometimes only on hard fast draws, sometimes not at all..

 

[dustypioneer]

Nothing yet, I'm still playing around with it though. But from what I can tell, this pipe doesn't come apart like the other version does. The gold circle part which the stem connects to does unscrew(with a bit of motivation), but I can't seem to get anything else taken apart. I am hoping I'll figure out a way to take the metal tube out so I can get to the switch like the old model so I can clean it.

Other than that though, I can activate the pipe doing exactly as you've described as well. And on the flip side, all the banging around I've done on this thing seems to have loosened the switch up at least a little bit to a point of where it's almost decently working again.

This pipe was a gift to me for Christmas, and I used it non-stop till like a week ago. And now I'm missing it so much I decided to upgrade and order myself a Jazz cartopipe. So perhaps when that gets here, if I haven't figured out any civil way of taking this apart I might just take a dremel to it and see if I can break it apart and take some pictures to hopefully help anyone else with the same problem. But I would much rather it stayed in one piece lol.

 

[dustypioneer]

I stumbled upon this thread just now and discovered the trick of connecting a metal piece from the square part and the screw activates the device. I just tried it with a screw driver and confirmed this! Now I just want to turn this thing into a manual switch... *gears turning*

 

[dustypioneer]

Hey guys, I am starting to feel like a creeper on my own thread lol. I'm seeing that it's getting plenty of views though so I thought I would share a short update.

Basically, I don't think there's any way of getting to the vacuum switch without destroying the pipe. I saw on a different thread that you could however make the pipe fire if you make a connection between the battery post thing and the little square thing right next to it. So I got out my solder and a switch and my pipe is finally usable again! I've got plans to relocate the switch to a more permanent location once I get some more time on my hands to do so.

So if you have a broken DSE 601 C there is still hope if you don't mind changing it to a manual switch and doing a little bit of soldering!

 

[toth]

Nice, so theoretically, you could drill a small hole in the bowl or topcap, and put the switch nicely on the outside.
Is that an on/off switch you got there, or a springloaded push-switch?

 

[dustypioneer]

It's a spring loaded push-switch. It cost around $3.50 for a 2 pack at Radioshack, so this in theory is a really cheap mod. I'm thinking of drilling out the back of the pipe underneath the gold ring to run the switch on the outside, this should keep it looking as original as possible.

 

[toth]

Hey Dusty,
before you start drillin', you could try what I did:

OK, so here's what I did:
-I used the "AntiBac" hand sanitizer, 85% ethanol (PGA isn't available in norway I think)
Poured it in from both ends, a good amount of liquid, filled it up(ofcourse removed battery and carto), let it sit for maybe a minute.
-Shaked out som excess fluid, and blew and sucked hard in both ends several time.
-Then got out my vacuum cleaner, wich has both suck and blow, and did the same thing - blew and sucked it completly out from both ends.
I then cleaned the contacts in the bowl with an alcohol-wetted cloth.

-Put it back together, and voila - tasted a little like harsh alcohol the first 20 drags, and now it just works flawlessly, registers even the faintest drag..! I'm a happy camper!

 

[dustypioneer]

Nice! Might I ask when you say both ends, you mean that little hole next to the battery?

 

[CarpePM]

If you have the cap off, you don't need to focus on the little hole next to the battery. If the cap is on, yes, your airflow is primarily dependent on that little hole.

 

[tnt56]

Is it the automatic or manual style. I got a 608 manual button. First one was a DOA. Second is fantastic. If it's an auto draw then their might be juice down the tube. That's why I always go with a manual button type.