BOTTOM FEEDERS= a place for everything modified and/or custom made

[RiverNut]

I'm pretty sure mark from burlsource uses K&G for his stabilizing. I know he did for sure at one point. a lot of vendors use K&G for there stabilizing

I'd buy from him but his inventory is pretty darn limited. Fair pricing imo, just needs more inventory.

 

[turbocad6]

lately he's been adding batches to inventory and they are being bought up in like an hour or 2. I'm on his mailing list so I get notification and by the time I go to look there already gone.

I like raw natural hardwoods personally so I don't buy much stabilized but I'd be cautious of ebay stabilized from just anyone because there are worlds of difference in what can be called stabilized. I've got another guy that's almost local to me that does small batches of stabilized woods and he too uses K&G so I would buy from him but he hardly ever has anything really nice and big enough for a mod. there are a few guys on ebay that have high quality stabilized too of course but that's def something to watch for.

honestly if you want to get a few nice blocks of exactly what you want then it is worthwhile to put a batch together and send it to K&G. I'd rough shape them to a bit oversized for a mod and then send them out to minimize cost. always thought to do a batch but again, I like it raw

 

[CaptSteve]

Mark at Burlsource needs to broaden his inventory because he always brings small batches that get sold in minutes then goes weeks with no stock. Admittedly he brings in nice pieces but sadly unless you stalk his site you never get the chance to get the good one's.

BTW in his newsletter he mentioned that he sends them out to be stabilized so I guess he doesn't do them in-house. They are nonetheless top quality stabilized to the point that you sand them with 800, 1500 and 2000 then wax and buff and it looks like it's finished with poly.

I'm vaping one of his blue maple burl's right now and it's finished just as I described above

 

[custom-classic]

Finally gettin' a chance to do a little boring...

So far, so good.....

 

[CaptSteve]

Coming along nicely CC. Are you planning this to be a mech or a DNA?

 

[Quigsworth]

...that's the route I'm going too Quigs, screw it...

My first attempt at hybrid'ing a Derringer...man I love having a lathe, so much easier



Basically I just copied the D pin up top, I ditched the slots and went with an oversized hole (not a big fan of the slots) and added a tail threaded to 6-32. I used Order Brass 464 Round in Small Quantities at OnlineMetals.com for this one...Pb free. Though machining brass without Pb is not fun, it's not copper nasty but close...

Direct connect to my beryllium copper contactor strip, no leaks, no v drop...no BS

 

[custom-classic]

Thanks, Cap'n.

These will be mechanical. I've got a few BeCu relay contacts out of a couple 35A power relays, (credit to Quigs ) that I'm itchin' to use...

 

[Mark Denison]

Thanks, Cap'n.

These will be mechanical. I've got a few BeCu relay contacts out of a couple 35A power relays, (credit to Quigs ) that I'm itchin' to use...

Just a battery hole, but very beautiful to me

 

[custom-classic]

Thanks Mark, I'm feelin' it too.

To give some scale.......

 

[RiverNut]

My first attempt at hybrid'ing a Derringer...man I love having a lathe, so much easier

View attachment 424406

Basically I just copied the D pin up top, I ditched the slots and went with an oversized hole (not a big fan of the slots) and added a tail threaded to 6-32. I used Order Brass 464 Round in Small Quantities at OnlineMetals.com for this one...Pb free. Though machining brass without Pb is not fun, it's not copper nasty but close...

Direct connect to my beryllium copper contactor strip, no leaks, no v drop...no BS

that's awesome! Pics of it connected when you get a chance
next you'll be carving an atty out of your top plate for direct connect to the neg

 

[Quigsworth]

that's awesome! Pics of it connected when you get a chance
next you'll be carving an atty out of your top plate for direct connect to the neg

So I after I drilled out what was left of the Grand's stock 510 after I shaved it flush, I press in a chunk of thick wall brass tube then tapped it...it's a little risky doing that because you don't have the opportunity to clock the RDA's airholes, once the RDA bottoms, that's it...but I've done a couple Grands like this and I've got lucky both times ...though on another mod I used a gutted FD body so I could clock it...works great but kind of a waste of an FD conn.

Then it's a nylon washer for insulation, contactor leaf and 6-32 nut, bob's your uncle...

 

[RiverNut]

could you tap first, then press it in with the atty attached for clocking?


and I'm guessing the atty doesn't come off the mod too often...or ever

 

[Quigsworth]

could you tap first, then press it in with the atty attached for clocking?


and I'm guessing the atty doesn't come off the mod too often...or ever

Interesting River...you could turn the threading off an FD body and finish it +.001 of your deck hole bit and counter sink the deck to accept its flange, you could then screw the FD on the RDA, orient and indicate, then press the FD in...that's not a bad idea

I mean, obviously this is only going to apply to mods like a Grand or a Dibi "style", where the top deck doubles as a conductor and you need seamless electrical continuity.

Like all you guys, because I build my own mods I've never understood why one would be swapping them all the time?, if you got a great RDA, build a mod for to sit on, it's not like an RDA is going to work better from one mod to the next, 3.7V is 3.7V...although that's probably why I have 15 functional mods ...though I bet I still have less than Cappy

I do have several "conventional" mods where I test new RDA's before I decide to hybrid them, i.e., I follow Catfish and decided to pick up the "hype" of the week and got a Mini Freakshow clone off ebay. I'm liking the "under air" design like the Magma and Lancia (which are 2 great RDA's imo), but there's just something wrong with the Freakshow, the air is more "under/side" than "under/center" by virtue of it's design...anyway, I won't be bothering to hybrid the Freakshow. But when I find an RDA that's a true solid performer, then ya, hybrid it and stick it on either a new mod I build for it or, in the case of the Derringer, it bumped the hybrid'd Magma that was on it...I have to keep my major PITA fingerprint magnet brass Grand current

As it's working out, I now have 2 classes of mods, the conventionals and the hybrids and the hybrids are becoming my elite status mods from a performance perspective...like a number of you guys are realizing, we go through all this work building the perfect mod...only to have it brought down by junk 510's made by others (same reason why I started making my own mech switches). The hybrids aren't hard to swap, you just have to undo the bottom nut, then you just spin the RDA off as usual which I do for periodic cleaning)...but if that extra step affords me a rock solid, no leak, no v drop marriage between the mod and the RDA, screw convention

...just sayin'

 

[custom-classic]

I gotta say, I'm pretty impressed with this little mill. It's taken everything I've thrown at it, from a 1/2" radius corner rounding end mill, to a 2-1/2" fly cutter, to a 5/8" end mill plunging to almost 3 inches, to a boring head with a 3" boring bar..... I know it's only 6061 aluminum, but I wasn't sure it'd handle all that. So far, no complaints...

Little closer.....

 

[turbocad6]

looks awesome from here

 

[CaptSteve]

You're doing some great machining work there good buddy. I'm waiting anxiously to see you cutting the slots in the sides of the mod for the burl inlays

 

[custom-classic]

Thanks Turbo.

It's startin' to look like a mod now...

Once again, for scale...

 

[custom-classic]

You're doing some great machining work there good buddy. I'm waiting anxiously to see you cutting the slots in the sides of the mod for the burl inlays

Thanks Capt'n.

Not too sure about my wood workin' skills though....

I do still have a chunk of stabilized red maple burl.....


ETA: It's this one...

I think I'll leave the two I'm building now, raw aluminum. I need to turn that burl into a mod though.

 

[TheBikeGuy]

Thanks Turbo.

It's startin' to look like a mod now...

Once again, for scale...

Looking good. I kinda like the machined "gear" look. I must admit, after the way you shoved all that stuff into that DNA-40 Grand. I was expecting it to be just taller than the battery.

 

[custom-classic]

It could be a little shorter, for sure. I wanted to give myself plenty of room for error, since this is my first attempt, and all. I still might shorten the body a bit... Right now, it's 3-3/8" tall. The same height as a Grand without the catch cup.