Hi-Liter

[Vapor Fiend]

Ok so.. first off, I've never made a mod before. Just wanted to lay that out there.

So I found some OLD "mini cig" ENI's that I had from 2009 and decided I wanted to make a mod. I was thinking what I should make and I was looking at this old HI-LITER™ I had sitting on my desk here. BAM! Hi-liter e-cig. "Awesome idea!" I thought to myself. So I quickly disassembled the hi-lighter, washed it vigorously and then started looking at how to cut it so the atomizer connection would fit.

**The battery for the old mini-cig is an automatic. I was told not to use it, but I didn't listen. I got the atomizer connection off by screwing on the atomizer and doing what someone told me was called "the pencil break trick". Worked like a charm. **

Anyways, all I have at this point in the atomizer connection snugly fit into the hi-lighter, as I don't have a battery or any cable to solder. I'm posting this here in hopes that some of you could give me some tips as to how I should set up the battery, wires and switch.

Here's some pics!

The cap fits with JUST the atomizer connection inside the tip. Sadly it DOES NOT fit with the atomizer connected.. I know..

As you can see, it fits pretty well. I might need to put some epoxy or something (after I solder of course) to make sure it's nice and in there.

Atomizer connected.

the cap NOT fitting with the atomizer connected. Such a bummer... I suppose I could do one of two things: Stuff the atomizer deeper inside, or cut a hole in the top of the cap. Neither of which I want to do. The cap barely snaps on with the atomizer fitted inside the tip as it is.

This is what the inside looks like. I posted this so you guys could have an idea of what I'm working with.

So I'm looking for some ideas on what I should do. I have no measurements to give you of the inside diameter of the tube, but I'm fairly sure it's a standard hi-lighter and google could probably find this information out.

Thanks for looking and thanks for any help in advance.

***ALSO*** The atomizer connection has solder points connected already. I think I might be able to get away with just connection wires to them and soldering the connections. If not, I'm a little worried that re-soldering to the outer rim of the atomizer connection might make it not fit back in the tip of the hi-lighter. Just some extra info***

 

[Vapor Fiend]

SADLY, when wiring this all up and putting the batteries in, a wire got stuck in between a washer and the whole Hi-Lighter snapped. So... now I gotta figure out something else to use as a case... I'm totally bummed..

 

[GitMoe]

Thats such a good idea. I wanna see this work out. Keep at it...

 

[xLowEndx]

Don't be bummed, the hi-lighter idea got you thinking. Now look harder around your desk and find something cooler to mod and do it. I can help if ya want. I've been trying to design a mod that has a retractable atty so it's smaller when transporting. I've been running into some design flaws but I'm getting there.

 

[Animeguy]

mod a leather man tool somehow so when you squeeze it it turns on the atty. Only problem would be where can you put the batteries..... That would look sic lol see a guy sucking on some pliers and suddenly vapor comes out

 

[classwife]

Keep at it.....you'll get there !

 

[susden]

That's a great idea! The first thing that came into my mind when I saw that, was someone trying to get high on highlighter fumes!!! Don't ask me why!

There are tons of great threads here. Take a look at the stickies, as well as do a search. I am in the middle of my first try at this! Don't give up!

 

[Vapor Fiend]

Yeah it was unfortunate that the hi-lighter snapped. That would have been great to walk around the mall with and vape on. Too bad so sad though. I went to RadioShack and picked up two project boxes. It took a bit of thinking to figure out how to position everything, and with a little help from Sarge in the chat room I'm now vaping from it. I think the atomizer I'm using is too old or something though. Can't wait to figure out something new and try it. Thanks for the support everyone

 

[amrnation]

I was the process of making a similar mod except it was a push button highlighter.... I wanted to use the button in the highlighter as the mod's button....

Got all the way to the end and it would never activate everytime. . . maybe once every 8 or 9 clicks then when it did fire it wouldnt turn off after being clicked again it would just keep fireing

However your hghlighter looks really good and you just gave me ideas thanks!!!!

 

[BorisTheSpider]

That's awesome. I grabbed a similar marker a while back and threw it into my box o' mod parts for the same purpose. Glad I'm not the only guy to think of it.

Don't be too discouraged either. I'm sure you can grab a pack of similar markers from the dollar store so you can keep trying until it works.

 

[VaporTrailz]

I tried to make a "Sharpie Hi-Liter" mod like this using the electronics from a 5V USB passthrough that had broken. I'd tried to repair the passthrough before but basically had to Dremel cut into the passthrough casing to get at the wires going from the circuit board to the connector, so I decided to transplant the guts into a fat Sharpie Hi-Liter.

Everything went perfectly until I had to put the rubber button in. I think I didn't leave enough space for the rubber button and ended up breaking the switch off the circuit board.

I'll try again soon as I have another 5V passthrough that is starting to have problems and is in need of repair / transplant.

 

[Vapor Fiend]

The main problem with this type of mod is finding a positive and negative for the battery. And then on top of that, it's almost impossible to wire it. Almost though...

Just going to take some clever thinking.

 

[Dalton63841]

The main problem with this type of mod is finding a positive and negative for the battery. And then on top of that, it's almost impossible to wire it. Almost though...

Just going to take some clever thinking.

I JUST now made one. I opened the hole where the tip of the highlighter is, then cut a hole about 3/4s of an inch from that end for the switch. Then I soldered ~1 foot of wire onto both legs of the switch. I fed one of the wires through the highlighter from the back end and out the tip and CAREFULLY pulled the switch through. It took some fiddling to get the switch to poke up out of the hole, but it did.

Then I snipped of the wire still poking out the back end ~1/2 inch past the end of the highlighter. I took the excess and ran it through the highlighter, so that now there are 2 wires sticking out of each end. Obviously the 2 wires at the tip are for the connector, which is easy enough to do. The battery was the tricky part.

For the positive connection I took the wire sticking only 1/2 inch out and stuck it through a peice of dense foam that was ~.25" thick and wide enough to fit snugly inside. With the wire sticking through, I soldered the end of the wire to a flat peice of copper and then pressed it into the foam. Then I used a battery to shove the now finished positive connector inside the highlighter.

For the negative connector I put a tiny hole in the plug to the back end of the highlighter and attached a spring from a battery box. Then I took the remaining wire and snipped it about 1" past the back of the highlighter and soldered the wire to the spring.

Now its all together and to change the battery you just pop off the plug.

 

[TomCatt]

PICTURES DALTON! Dang, don't leave us hangin' LOL

 

[Dalton63841]

Give me a few minutes and I'll edit this post with pics.

Obviously I am waiting on my 14500 batteries and atty connector to come in the mail, and this thing also needs a paint job, but its all wired up. I sized the section for the battery against a AA, since its the same size as a 14500.

 

[TomCatt]

Too cool!

 

[Dalton63841]

Too cool!

LOL Thanks! Getting that switch to pop up through the hole enough to pull through and put the nut on was a PITA. It actually took about 20 minutes of fiddling to get it in place.

Next up is a pistol bottom feeder... As you can tell I have been bitten by the mod bug. Right now I have 2 different copper tube mods, a VV box mod, this hi-liter, and a pistol mod...ALL partially finished waiting on parts, and I just started modding 3 days ago!

 

[TomCatt]

Dang, better slow down or that bug is gonna burn up! LOL