ha, no more tools at the moment, had to fix the car yesterday and today, power steering pump took a crap and then the air suspension sprung a leak so the cars been limping and moaningall fixed though
Yay for fixed and dependable again!
Turbocad's finally selling mods :)
- Thread starter turbocad6
- Start date
- th_trl_thread_readers 0
- Status
Yay for fixed and dependable again!
ha, no more tools at the moment, had to fix the car yesterday and today, power steering pump took a crap and then the air suspension sprung a leak so the cars been limping and moaning
Don't ya just hate when the things ya gotta do interfere with the things ya wanna do
ok so I have asked guys like Russ and Marcus to really nit pick my mod design here and to point out anything that they think is less than perfect or that has any room for improvement and the only 2 real things that are mentioned by both are #1 the chip cover to button and screen line up and #2 the sloppy looking positive terminal.
as many of you may know Marcus is a master machinist wth over 20 years of experience in machining under his belt and his help and advice to me in this matter has been invaluable. we've been communicating back and forth about many different CNC related things since he bought my own mod. as I have said here I've only just begun learning how to work with CNC stuff for about 6 months now so I really value any advice and input I can get from someone with Marcus's experience and the results of this is that I have decided to perfect my chip covers here to the point of actually scrapping all of my chip covers and remaking all new ones. this is NOT really such a big deal and won't really delay things here much at all and should be finished in the next few days but this will go a long way towards making my mod that much more perfect visually.
what I'm talking about here is very minor tweaks, to the order of moving the chip over by 15 thousandths of an inch to make it perfectly centered to the buttons and redoing the screen opening to make it just a little more perfect and moving my up and down buttons up slightly. because my buttons are now see through it is very easy to clearly see when they are even slightly misaligned and this slight misalignment just adds a bit of a sloppy or less professional look so I'm now correcting that. the fire button will still be located lower than the tact switch on the dna board but this is by design and done on purpose because the LED that lights up the button is located right below the button on the dna chip so by mounting the fire button a little lower this greatly improves the button illumination, so this will remain misaligned on purpose, but now the up and down buttons will be a much more perfect alignment and the screen cutout will be more perfect to the screen itself.
none of these chip cover things were really "bad" and I've really had no complaints, and of course they functioned perfectly, but now they will just be a little more perfect. it's amazing how .015" can make a difference visually but as Marcus has said to me, the chip cover is something that people will be looking at all the time so the more perfect it can be then the better the whole mod will be.
now the other thing that is pointed out as less than perfect is my positive battery terminal and it's mounting. now believe me I could go out and buy commercially made stamped out professional battery terminals for pennies that would look flawless, but the reason I don't is that commercially available battery terminals and battery springs just suck. they are mostly made for AA or C cell batteries and are usually just nickel plated and flimsy, they are not made to handle 10 and 15 amps as our mods require and they would cause big voltage drops under load.
many people talk about the difference in wire used or the difference between using a wire VS a metal mech where the body of the mod is the ground path but these are really not the limiting factor at all. a proper gauge wire is MORE than adequate to the point that there would be NO benefit at all in having a metal body instead of the wire but where the real limiting factor comes into play is the actual battery contact. that's why most of the top performing mods out there will use silver contacts and stuff, and that's why I make my own silver contacts and use a special silver coated beryllium copper spring wire to make my own negative springs from scratch. to me it's a matter of function over form and I'd rather have a contact that looks home made and less than perfect but performs much better, but that being said I would really like to do something to improve the look of my positive contact. working on that now. I'd like to eventually get to the point of asking a really picky person to point out any imperfections and have them tell me they can't find any I mean that may be a little bit of wishful thinking but that's at least my goal eventually, but for now I just want to make sure that this batch goes out as perfect as I can make them
as many of you may know Marcus is a master machinist wth over 20 years of experience in machining under his belt and his help and advice to me in this matter has been invaluable. we've been communicating back and forth about many different CNC related things since he bought my own mod. as I have said here I've only just begun learning how to work with CNC stuff for about 6 months now so I really value any advice and input I can get from someone with Marcus's experience and the results of this is that I have decided to perfect my chip covers here to the point of actually scrapping all of my chip covers and remaking all new ones. this is NOT really such a big deal and won't really delay things here much at all and should be finished in the next few days but this will go a long way towards making my mod that much more perfect visually.
what I'm talking about here is very minor tweaks, to the order of moving the chip over by 15 thousandths of an inch to make it perfectly centered to the buttons and redoing the screen opening to make it just a little more perfect and moving my up and down buttons up slightly. because my buttons are now see through it is very easy to clearly see when they are even slightly misaligned and this slight misalignment just adds a bit of a sloppy or less professional look so I'm now correcting that. the fire button will still be located lower than the tact switch on the dna board but this is by design and done on purpose because the LED that lights up the button is located right below the button on the dna chip so by mounting the fire button a little lower this greatly improves the button illumination, so this will remain misaligned on purpose, but now the up and down buttons will be a much more perfect alignment and the screen cutout will be more perfect to the screen itself.
none of these chip cover things were really "bad" and I've really had no complaints, and of course they functioned perfectly, but now they will just be a little more perfect. it's amazing how .015" can make a difference visually but as Marcus has said to me, the chip cover is something that people will be looking at all the time so the more perfect it can be then the better the whole mod will be.
now the other thing that is pointed out as less than perfect is my positive battery terminal and it's mounting. now believe me I could go out and buy commercially made stamped out professional battery terminals for pennies that would look flawless, but the reason I don't is that commercially available battery terminals and battery springs just suck. they are mostly made for AA or C cell batteries and are usually just nickel plated and flimsy, they are not made to handle 10 and 15 amps as our mods require and they would cause big voltage drops under load.
many people talk about the difference in wire used or the difference between using a wire VS a metal mech where the body of the mod is the ground path but these are really not the limiting factor at all. a proper gauge wire is MORE than adequate to the point that there would be NO benefit at all in having a metal body instead of the wire but where the real limiting factor comes into play is the actual battery contact. that's why most of the top performing mods out there will use silver contacts and stuff, and that's why I make my own silver contacts and use a special silver coated beryllium copper spring wire to make my own negative springs from scratch. to me it's a matter of function over form and I'd rather have a contact that looks home made and less than perfect but performs much better, but that being said I would really like to do something to improve the look of my positive contact. working on that now. I'd like to eventually get to the point of asking a really picky person to point out any imperfections and have them tell me they can't find any
I mean that may be a little bit of wishful thinking but that's at least my goal eventually, but for now I just want to make sure that this batch goes out as perfect as I can make them
Last edited:
So, as I stated before, I am not mechanically inclined but just throwing out a question.
Could the side of the body that the wire runs along be slightly thicker, then drilled out and run the positive wire INSIDE the body leaving a slot where the wire runs in & out at each end?
Won't improve the see thru ultem models I suppose but would clean up the inside hiding the wire? I have no business talking tech stuff but just looking at the visual side.
Could the side of the body that the wire runs along be slightly thicker, then drilled out and run the positive wire INSIDE the body leaving a slot where the wire runs in & out at each end?
Won't improve the see thru ultem models I suppose but would clean up the inside hiding the wire? I have no business talking tech stuff but just looking at the visual side.
That would make the mod bigger then it needs to be in my opinion,
I'm a fan of the smallest mod possible
I'm a fan of the smallest mod possible
rudy yeah that wouldn't really be practical but I've been considering using a straight solid wire there instead of the thicker stranded silicone wire that's there now for that particular stretch which may look a little better but as a modder and a race car/performance type guy I usually put performance over appearance in some things I guess, but if I can improve the appearance without sacrificing performance then I'm all for that
Wasn't thinking of making it wider just thicker on the inside wall where the wire is now but having the wire threaded thru. Same amount of space but different milling process?
rudy yeah that wouldn't really be practical but I've been considering using a straight solid wire there instead of the thicker stranded silicone wire that's there now for that particular stretch which may look a little better but as a modder and a race car/performance type guy I usually put performance over appearance in some things I guess, but if I can improve the appearance without sacrificing performance then I'm all for that
Got it. You are the expert I have no idea about that stuff. I agree, performance over looks.
I'll be quiet now!!
making the wall thicker would make the battery move over which would ultimately make the mod wider, it would have to be a rounded type step type thing to not cause this which would be very impractical to machine. at that point it would be easier to just make a cover for it but even that has complications that would ultimately wind up adding to the width of the mod
Like I said, I'll be quiet now!!
I'm thrilled and excited just the way it is. No need to reinvent the wheel!
no man, like I said from the beginning I welcome any and all constructive criticisms and input here. it can only help to make the mod better and I welcome any kind of criticism, I only have my own one point of view but getting others points of view can only help
that wire takes advantage of the space left in the void of a round battery in a square pocket, otherwise wasted space put to use to increase the compactness of the mod. in the past I have also utilized the space of the void between the battery and the bottle too when I would mod the REO's, might no have been the best look by having wires run up and down the center of the pocket but it was efficient and saved space. personally I haven't put as much value on the cosmetics of the internals of the mods but I have since learned here that some others really do care about what it looks like inside just as much as outside too when it comes to a big dollar mod like this and again I value others input on stuff like this, so I now make much more effort to make the inside look as good as I can too, I don't really care as much about this personally but some do so...
that wire takes advantage of the space left in the void of a round battery in a square pocket, otherwise wasted space put to use to increase the compactness of the mod. in the past I have also utilized the space of the void between the battery and the bottle too when I would mod the REO's, might no have been the best look by having wires run up and down the center of the pocket but it was efficient and saved space. personally I haven't put as much value on the cosmetics of the internals of the mods but I have since learned here that some others really do care about what it looks like inside just as much as outside too when it comes to a big dollar mod like this and again I value others input on stuff like this, so I now make much more effort to make the inside look as good as I can too, I don't really care as much about this personally but some do so...
I agree. I don't care what the inside looks like either, knowing the 510 connection, wire connections, soldering, silicone coatings etc. are of top quality is comforting. Inside really a non factor at all with the black solid color mods. I'm sure a lot more noticeable with the transparent ultems. I know my regulated woodvil has withstood the test of time !
What is the advantage of having coated wire in a mod? Unless you completely close off the coating ends, you will get juice trapped in there.
Here is an example of DNA40 wiring (I understand that other chips require different paths). The dark areas of wiring are shadows, no juice or gunk ever gets inside.
Here is an example of DNA40 wiring (I understand that other chips require different paths). The dark areas of wiring are shadows, no juice or gunk ever gets inside.
Last edited:
well that wire is very thin but the silicone wire I used is maybe a little overkill really. it's great everywhere else, especially for the 510 because of it's extra flexibility and being over spec at 16 gauge helps reduce the mods internal resistance to the 510 which helps for temp control accuracy but for the battery 18 gauge would be adequate and an 18 gauge uninsulated solid wire would be a cleaner look for sure so that's what I'm going to. I don't personally think the silicone wire looks bad by itself like Marcus said but what might look a little less than perfect is the glue needed to hold that wire in place. if it's not held well into the corner then it can cause a tight fit between the battery and juice bottle, but a solid wire would be inherently straight so require less or no glue and def look cleaner overall. it doesn't really need to be insulated tbh
Ok I made all new faceplates for all of the mods in this batch, all of the original faceplates will be scrapped. the new faceplate has the buttons precisely centered over each button instead of being slightly off and I centered the screen opening to the exact center of the faceplate instead of the offset I originally used and I also tightened up the screen hole opening so the edges of the screen are no longer slightly visible in the corners of the rounded ends of the opening for a cleaner more perfect looking screen opening
this is old one on the left, new one on the right
here you can see that the buttons are now precisely centered over the button actuators on the chip
and here are all the old chip covers and the new ones mounted to the mods
and the lineup shot
I also made a quick video showing the difference between a left hand mod and a right and mod and showing the 3 different squonk hole options. the idea here is for you to be able to choose which configuration would be ideal for you and the way you vape instead of the mod just being built one way and you just having to adapt to it, here at Big apple Mods the mod gets adapted to you
this is old one on the left, new one on the right
here you can see that the buttons are now precisely centered over the button actuators on the chip
and here are all the old chip covers and the new ones mounted to the mods
and the lineup shot
I also made a quick video showing the difference between a left hand mod and a right and mod and showing the 3 different squonk hole options. the idea here is for you to be able to choose which configuration would be ideal for you and the way you vape instead of the mod just being built one way and you just having to adapt to it, here at Big apple Mods the mod gets adapted to you
Ok I made all new faceplates for all of the mods in this batch, all of the original faceplates will be scrapped. the new faceplate has the buttons precisely centered over each button instead of being slightly off and I centered the screen opening to the exact center of the faceplate instead of the offset I originally used and I also tightened up the screen hole opening so the edges of the screen are no longer slightly visible in the corners of the rounded ends of the opening for a cleaner more perfect looking screen opening
this is old one on the left, new one on the right
here you can see that the buttons are now precisely centered over the button actuators on the chip
and here are all the old chip covers and the new ones mounted to the mods
and the lineup shot
I also made a quick video showing the difference between a left hand mod and a right and mod and showing the 3 different squonk hole options. the idea here is for you to be able to choose which configuration would be ideal for you and the way you vape instead of the mod just being built one way and you just having to adapt to it, here at Big apple Mods the mod gets adapted to you
Thank you for making the video. It made a huge difference for one man, and I am sure it will help many others
- Status
Similar threads
