Indeed!!!
A bit of housekeeping.......
I'll be slowly integrating the new
mods into the mix. My plan to go balls to the wall, right off the bat was a tad over zealous, I'm afraid...
Too many little things to work out along the way, for the first few anyhow... Right now, I'm waiting on s'more bridge/insulator/figure 8 lookin' thingies. They just need to be 3D printed locally, so no serious wait time or anything. A few days pro'ly...
Also, I have switched to the Veritube BF 510's for the new mods. Thanks to
@Drunk_J and Gdeal and a few others for helping to design the things, and thanks to
@turbocad6 for reassuring me that they are awesome, and do not leak, at all.
The ability to purchase as many, or as few as I need, without having to worry about lead times and such, is a nice bonus. Also, they are less costly, so no additional 510 upgrade charge will apply. I really hated having to do that, btw...
While I really like the other 510, this one makes more sense for me, atm...
These new ones do have a PEEK insulator, which is nice... They also come with a variety of little o-ring to seal things up, nice and tight...
See the little red o-ring, just under the head of the pin...
Very nice.
Also, you can put another o-ring that comes with it, on the peek insulator to seal off the outer threads, as well. Like this....
Cannot leak, whatsoever...
I originally had high hopes to be able to use the spring loaded feature on these, but these mechanical mods, the way they are designed, will not allow it.
Picture this..... the contact would be sandwiched between two nuts, riding on the pin, there. As you screw the atty in, the pin would be forced down, and right along with it, the positive contact. These mods need for the positive contact to be in a fixed position, up and down. If it is allowed to travel downwards with the pin, it is moving closer and closer to the top of the battery. Run it in enough, and it will auto fire... not to mention that it will be taking the tension off the underside of the button. No bueno...
Also, the contact would be allowed to swing side to side when you tighten and loosen atties. It really does need to be fixed tight in there so this can't happen.
I have given this a lot of thought, and am of the opinion that all adjustments to pin height, should be made with the pin either going up or down. I want that insulator to remain all the way up in that housing, good and tight. This keeps any leakage from happening around the outside of the insulator. With the o-ring around the insulator, this drops the pin height to where any adjustment will only be necessary if your atty doesn't reach the pin to make good contact. You'll simply run the pin up a little, to a good height to make contact. The o-rings allow for a good amount adjustment, and still create a good seal in there.
There is still a good recess in the cap for an o-ring to sit under your atty, if you are like me and like to use an o-ring under there.
I'll include both a thumb nut, and a small hex nut, so you can choose which one you want to use. Given that you need to swing the contact out of the way to remove the button for cleaning, I think it's nice not to have to break out the tools.
Side note: You wouldn't believe how hard it is to find a thumb nut that's M3.5 x .6 thread pitch...
The ones I'm using now are plated brass. They are M3, so I have to drill them out, and tap them to the required threading. Plus side is, they are a little smaller than the ones I've been using, so we got that going for us... :
Man, that's a lot o' words.... sorry 'bout that...
Back to work now....