Avoiding the long and mostly pointless backstory, in a nutshell I couldn't find what I was looking for and decided the time had come to build it instead.
I don't take full credit for the build, as the enclosure was purchased from Berkshire Box mods and I just made it work for my application.
What you see is V1 and I learned quite a bit from the initial build process, so I'm looking forward to starting the next couple I have waiting on my bench and polishing the build overall.
It's a basic mechanical firing mechanism that's quite popular on the more recent 3D printed squonkers, using a flat contact strip and an inverted battery.
The basics:
"mini G" mahogany enclosure, beryllium copper sheet, squonk bits and FD V5 connector
Drilled some holes for connector and button, original ugly test-fit button shown
contact strip formed and heatshrinked. I had some flat sterling silver from some previous jewelry making, so I had the idea to use it for the main contact points with the beryllium copper as a backer for springiness and additional flow of current. It worked well for the initial build and test, but after some testing I decided to remove it. The silver added extra bulk and a "heaviness" to the button throw so I ditched it altogether and from what I have tested I didn't lose any conductivity to speak of. The original contact:
The top (negative) contact was kept simple. Note that the contacts ave a small "leg" that is folded over to act as a spring, this was in part because the box is about 4mm larger than a 18650 and I felt like it would help with holding the battery securely in place. Paired with a sled this worked quite well and after some tweaking the battery holds snugly and is easily removable.
top contact installed
contacts test fit. you can see how honking large the double-thick contact was before I removed the silver
enclosure was a bit deeper than I cared for, so I decided to fashion a sled for the battery and bottle, secondarily to fill some of the void in the enclosure. from a flat 1/4" sheet of white pine the sled was born.
cozy fit
adjusted and in place, all that was left internally was to add the battery and bottle.
cut the squonk hole in the door and it was time for a test (no door magnets yet lol)
After I was satisfied with the way it functioned, it was time to disassemble and go ham on the finish. I'm not particularly fond of mahogany with a natural finish and this one was my guinea pig, so my daughter actually gave me the idea of using.... food coloring.
Forgive me for not taking more pictures during this phase...... because food coloring lol
As a stain I have to say it worked quite well, in the end I was simply dropping the color directly onto the wood and working it in with a sponge, alternating between red and blue. soaked and dried the box and door looked black. I was sure the finish was a wash until I started sanding, revealing a beautiful mix of dark blue and purple (even though it's hard to tell in the pictures)
Once I realized that the finish would be something I'd like to keep, it was time to do something about that ugly button.
I picked up a 1/2" clear blue acrylic bar that I thought would work quite nicely for my needs and turned down a replica of the original ugly button that I had initially used for testing. after shaping and a final test fit, I polished it up and immediately fell in love....
I had some poly sealer taking up space in my toolbox from an unknown origin, and in the spirit of "why not?" I started to give the enclosure some coats. most of this was done at night and there's nothing less exciting than watching things dry, so no pictures of the steps here.
After about 10 coats I discovered that it was a satin finish which bummed me out at first a little but then I quickly realized that the haze gives the wood a very antique look and it also eliminates fingerprints. score and score.
I'm no photographer and my lighting sucked, but here is the finished product from a bunch of angles in an attempt to show the colors.
The door looks a bit wonky in a couple of these, only because my magnets seem to be lost in USPS purgatory, so the door is held on by sheer will and some creative balancing.
everything's better with a kitteh....
I'm sure there should be some obligatory "hits like a mack choo choo truck" or whatever, but I just don't have it in me. Overall I learned a TON from the build and I'm already looking forward to starting work on another..... and another.....
I realize now that this is probably put together pretty choppy, so if anyone would like to know more detail or see more pictures, I'd be happy to share!
Thanks for reading my story!
I don't take full credit for the build, as the enclosure was purchased from Berkshire Box mods and I just made it work for my application.
What you see is V1 and I learned quite a bit from the initial build process, so I'm looking forward to starting the next couple I have waiting on my bench and polishing the build overall.
It's a basic mechanical firing mechanism that's quite popular on the more recent 3D printed squonkers, using a flat contact strip and an inverted battery.
The basics:
"mini G" mahogany enclosure, beryllium copper sheet, squonk bits and FD V5 connector
Drilled some holes for connector and button, original ugly test-fit button shown
contact strip formed and heatshrinked. I had some flat sterling silver from some previous jewelry making, so I had the idea to use it for the main contact points with the beryllium copper as a backer for springiness and additional flow of current. It worked well for the initial build and test, but after some testing I decided to remove it. The silver added extra bulk and a "heaviness" to the button throw so I ditched it altogether and from what I have tested I didn't lose any conductivity to speak of. The original contact:
The top (negative) contact was kept simple. Note that the contacts ave a small "leg" that is folded over to act as a spring, this was in part because the box is about 4mm larger than a 18650 and I felt like it would help with holding the battery securely in place. Paired with a sled this worked quite well and after some tweaking the battery holds snugly and is easily removable.
top contact installed
contacts test fit. you can see how honking large the double-thick contact was before I removed the silver
enclosure was a bit deeper than I cared for, so I decided to fashion a sled for the battery and bottle, secondarily to fill some of the void in the enclosure. from a flat 1/4" sheet of white pine the sled was born.
cozy fit
adjusted and in place, all that was left internally was to add the battery and bottle.
cut the squonk hole in the door and it was time for a test (no door magnets yet lol)
After I was satisfied with the way it functioned, it was time to disassemble and go ham on the finish. I'm not particularly fond of mahogany with a natural finish and this one was my guinea pig, so my daughter actually gave me the idea of using.... food coloring.
Forgive me for not taking more pictures during this phase...... because food coloring lol
As a stain I have to say it worked quite well, in the end I was simply dropping the color directly onto the wood and working it in with a sponge, alternating between red and blue. soaked and dried the box and door looked black. I was sure the finish was a wash until I started sanding, revealing a beautiful mix of dark blue and purple (even though it's hard to tell in the pictures)
Once I realized that the finish would be something I'd like to keep, it was time to do something about that ugly button.
I picked up a 1/2" clear blue acrylic bar that I thought would work quite nicely for my needs and turned down a replica of the original ugly button that I had initially used for testing. after shaping and a final test fit, I polished it up and immediately fell in love....
I had some poly sealer taking up space in my toolbox from an unknown origin, and in the spirit of "why not?" I started to give the enclosure some coats. most of this was done at night and there's nothing less exciting than watching things dry, so no pictures of the steps here.
After about 10 coats I discovered that it was a satin finish which bummed me out at first a little but then I quickly realized that the haze gives the wood a very antique look and it also eliminates fingerprints. score and score.
I'm no photographer and my lighting sucked, but here is the finished product from a bunch of angles in an attempt to show the colors.
The door looks a bit wonky in a couple of these, only because my magnets seem to be lost in USPS purgatory, so the door is held on by sheer will and some creative balancing.
everything's better with a kitteh....
I'm sure there should be some obligatory "hits like a mack choo choo truck" or whatever, but I just don't have it in me. Overall I learned a TON from the build and I'm already looking forward to starting work on another..... and another.....
I realize now that this is probably put together pretty choppy, so if anyone would like to know more detail or see more pictures, I'd be happy to share!
Thanks for reading my story!
