[CLOSED]

[Zen Knitter]

Good afternoon Rick, awwww, hoped it was mine. The process is interesting, hope you post more process photos. I'll just keep hitting the process widget. I'll complain for you "everyone wants it yesterday" and my favorite " I must be the only client". I'll concede that I am antsy and excited. I'd sit on my hands but they are too busy vaping and typing. You have a great So. Cal day.

 

[renderwerks]

Hey Gang,

I've not updated lately - apologies - If you've read the Production Progress page on the website, you'll see I've been ill and not done much in the shop the last couple weeks.

I have a busy production schedule with more than five holders - two of them are large and require several laminations.

I did get another shipment of 3D Printed parts to share with you.

This is a SS print of our Ohm Faceplate. The bronze infusion process leaves an excess of bronze at the surface. If brought to a brushed or polished surface, the granulated appearance disappears, and it looks like SS with a tinge of brass color in it.

This is a previous SS print that has been given a brushed appearance.

I am sending several SS Faceplates (including the above) to a local shop that does CeraKote. Both granulated finish and the brushed appearance items will be coated, and I'll share pics after I get them back.

A couple other items that were in the shipment was a plain SS print of the Squonk Bottom-

No CeraKote here, I'm going to fill the lettering in with black epoxy, and then bring the surface to a brushed finish. Should look pretty cool.

Another item set that came in was the Skull Faceplate in Hi-Def Plastic:

Much better rendering of small details, the "fins" on the Faceplate are well defined. Remember, we're looking at an enlarged view of an item that is the size of a small bandaid. There is some variation in the surface in the lower left corner. I might look at making a Faceplate out of dark smoked acrylic.

Even smaller is the Skull Fire Button - the high definition plastic does well here:

I have some very fine Red glow in the dark powder meant to be mixed with epoxy. I'm going to fill the eyes with it. It absorbs light, then can glow for hours. Should look pretty interesting. Guess I could do the same with the lettering on the Faceplate - overkill?

I'm going to head out to the shop and see how it goes - still a little sore. I roughed the body for the Model III Squonker, just got the replacement bit for the 26650 battery hole. I'll try and video the machining on it as much as possible from this point -

Toots!

Rick

 

[B2L]

Hey Rick, sorry to hear you've been ill, glad you're feeling at least a little better.

That skull button looks awesome! IMO, the red may "cheapen" the overall look. I'm more into clean, crisp and understated myself (but I'm old too )

Hope you continue to feel better

 

[renderwerks]

Hey guys-

Have an update - but more of a question...

I've ran into what I consider a major bump with the Side by Sides (Model III & IV). They're too big. I've seen large Mods used and being sold, but - I don't know. I'm a reasonable size guy - 6'1", lean 210 lbs, and it feels big to me.

I milled the blank to rectangular size and noticed it was bigger than anything I owned. I thought it would look smaller when I made the bullnose along the front and back, and started drilling holes. It's got the bullnose, but it's big:

This is the largest Mod I have - the sized blank is 3-1/4" wide, the X-Cube is 2-1/4". Admittedly, it's not a squonker, 2x18650 instead of ours with a single 26650. But I consider the X-Cube to be a larg"ish" Mod. The blank is 4-1/4" tall because of it being for a squonker - need the height. The standard Models III &IV will be at 4" height or a little shorter.

This is comparing a body I was test machining earlier that is about the size of our Model V or VI. 26650 tube hole bored in a 1-1/4" thick body.

Early on during the sketching part of creating designs, I had thought these might be too wide. The Faceplate/board needs almost 1" in width. I had seen some custom Mods with the Faceplate "turned" or rotated so the Mod was thicker at the Faceplate, and didn't need to be as wide. I had made an alternate shape for the bodies of the Model III & IV:

On the left is the current configuration, you can see the amount of width needed for the Faceplate assembly (on the left of the unit). With the double 26650 battery tubes (represented by the circles), the total width needs to be 3-1/4". At this 3-1/4" width, it may be hard to get stabilized wood hybrid blocks - most are a little smaller.

On the right of the image is the earlier design for reducing the width. By rotating the Faceplate/board assembly and making the Mod thicker there, we could lose 1/2" of width. The design would still work as a squonker in 26650 trim. I never developed the shape past the accurately sized 2D sketch shown above, but as a previously finalized profile, I could change the shape of the Side by Side Models III & IV.

So - make the change to reduce the width, or leave them alone?

Rick

 

[renderwerks]

I modeled the angled Mod III body - basic, still needs detail work:

I still need to add details. This will have the squonk detail added, the battery tube expose, rounding of edges, etc...

I have some tooling coming today to help machine this body. Also I'm just starting to build up some stock of Hybrid Stabilized Blanks - I have 5 coming to get started.

Talk soon,

Rick

 

[renderwerks]

Hey -

Finished up a few custom stands, and quickly cut a blank to the shape of the wider Mod III & IV:

Please excuse the video format - last time I shoot iPhone video in portrait orientation Time lapse, about a minute, 15 seconds.

After, I ran it through the tablesaw to put the other angle on it. Just a little sanding after that.


Here, next to the wider design (still shown on the website - need to fix that)


Machining to this level is good to see how it would feel to hold it -


The thumb in the above pic is resting where the fire button would be if it were on the faceplate - we can still place it near the top, vertically like in the drawing a post or two up in the thread. It could even go on the other side.

I'll continue to machine this as the squonk proto and post when I have stuff to show -

I have a couple large display stands I need to get finished as well - figured Walnut; should be awesome, I'll post pics.

Rick

 

[renderwerks]

Hey everyone-

I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving (and a great holiday season) -

I continue to machine on the Mod III blank shown just above. A little break is coming...

We're going up to NorCal for the week - we have a new Granddaughter, can't wait to see her!

Have a great one all!

Rick

 

[B2L]

Hey everyone-

I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving (and a great holiday season) -

I continue to machine on the Mod III blank shown just above. A little break is coming...

We're going up to NorCal for the week - we have a new Granddaughter, can't wait to see her!

Have a great one all!

Rick

Congrats

 

[renderwerks]

Cyber Monday at Absolute-Wood.com!​

25% instant rebate (nearly instant) on any item in stock at Absolute-Wood.com
20% discount on any custom vape order - contact me to get started
10% instant rebate (again, nearly) on gift certificates

Rebates are given via a PayPal instant refund. I should be able to process the rebates within an hour or two, but may take up to 24 hours (I don't think so, but better safe than sorry).

Offers end at midnight tonight - East Coast Time. Discounts on item price, including added flocking. No discount on shipping charges. Offers cannot be combined.

Thanks to everyone for your support - Happy Holidays!

Rick

 

[renderwerks]

Hey-

I should've let y'all know I've been concentrating on a couple stands that are overdue... Scary expensive wood, so I'm being very deliberate (slow!). The Christmas season put our house in full "host" mode. We're Grand Central Station this year - we have all the kids home, grandkids, etc... Not much to report unfortunately.

Here's a quick pic of some blocks for Mods I've acquired:



Still haven't had the time to properly shoot them.

I have another friend that wants to help with soldering & assembly (not local), so we'll see how that goes. I've gotten my iron out and have been practicing as well.

I plan to finish the two large holders by year's end, then back on the Mods!

Hope everyone has an awesome Holiday Season & New Year! See ya soon!

Rick

 

[renderwerks]

Hey everyone -

I just wanted to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday & New Year -

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah from Chell & I to all of our vape family!

Hope everyone has a great year end - and I'll see you right after the first of the year!​

Rick

 

[classwife]

Merry Christmas to you and your family

 

[renderwerks]

 

[renderwerks]

Well, not the post I was hoping to make ... Actually, not the last few days I wanted - shortly after making the previous video, I had a flare up of a med condition and ended up in the hospital - got home earlier today, it's still going to take a couple days before I'm back to vertical.

I was hoping to have soldered on one of the first Mods, and maybe have gotten it assembled. Well, spent the last couple days in a morphine haze...

I'll try for a meaningful update on Monday -

Rick

 

[renderwerks]

Hey everyone,

Well - I missed making a post Monday... Tuesday... Damn it! This getting old sh really sucks!

Just as I was getting back into the swing of things, I got hurt and am just now feeling better - not 100% yet, but better. I pushed a little too hard earlier today (feeling better), and overdid it - gonna bite the bullet and ease through the rest of the week (I hate being idle).

I have all the parts for the first two Mods - and am itching to work on them!

Look for a post in a couple or few days -

Rick

 

[renderwerks]

OK- finally back in the shop! Been a rough couple weeks. Good news, I'll soon be back to working on the Squonk Mod - the 3D model needs serious work before I can machine any farther - plus this will allow me to update the pics to the new configuration.

I am starting on another PV, and will follow the build with text and pics, maybe some video. I have a rendering of what it will look like-

It's body will be a stabilized hybrid block of black dyed buckeye burl and gold/brassy resin. Actual pic of the block used in the render (software doesn't do well with textures). All polished solid brass hardware, including a cast and polished brass faceplate with "In Draco Dormiens" - Latin for "The Sleeping Dragon" engraved on the faceplate. Hi-Def black acrylate buttons. Exposed 26650 FDV brass battery tube. DNA75.

I made a little video for the customer, to hype the design a bit - (new software, second try at this... no sound yet)


Talk soon,

Rick

 

[renderwerks]

Hey gang,

A quick update - I'm currently working on the 3D model of the squonker. It needs to be completed so as to know where to machine the body. The redesign means that all the 3D printed parts will need redesign as well. What sucks about that is the lead time on printed stainless steel, about two weeks. Also, these parts print with some shrinkage that is hard to design for. This usually means that it's often necessary to print them twice or more before they fit just right.

I have advanced a bit with the "Dragon" Mod, and have a new video:



Rick

 

[renderwerks]

Wow - been a while... I've been busy tho -

This is a quick video of the next step in the Dragon Mod. Some quick bandsaw.


I've gotten farther, and will post the next video of the body on the mill for a few cuts. The body is still in the mill, and machining continues - more video soon.

Also, We've just sold our first Mod "kit" - This is a Model II partial assembly. A fully machined & finished body & door, a faceplate set with chipset mount, and the divider (LiPo version) with the cover. The customer will supply the DNA250, LiPo & the 510 connector, and assemble the mod. I'm currently working on finalizing the 3D model of the body, as well as the body cavity divider & cover.

Rick

 

[renderwerks]

Hey guys-

Here is the next video of the progress of the Mod, some work on the mill. About 3 minutes.


The next video is complete (faceplate machining), and I'll post it by next weekend. I also have a few hours video of additional machining, but it takes a bit to edit it down to a couple or few minutes - I'll get it!

Later-

Rick

 

[K1lla]

Can you deliver your goods in Russia?