I did a thing! Single 18650 wood squonker

[minimalsaint]

Nice work, minimalsaint.
I would never have guessed food coloring would work, but that finish is what attracted me to this mod.

Thank you!
I've used food coloring to varying degrees of success in the past with wood projects, most recently a bird house for my little girl, but lots of small craft projects here and there.
On white pine or lighter woods you can dilute it down quite a bit in boiling hot water and either dip or brush until you visibly get the color depth you want, but I found pretty quickly that mahogany just looks dark once it's wet and all bets were off. It got to the point where each of my kids was holding a red or blue food coloring dropper and we hosed it lol. I figured at worst I would sand it down and see what happened; worst case it would be a distressed black finish.
Once it was sanded, cleaned and fully dried it looked pretty nice, but the first coat of sealer made the colors jump out.
A clear poly would have made the color much more pronounced I'm sure, but I really like the subtle tones under the satin finish.

 

[KentA]

...A clear poly would have made the color much more pronounced I'm sure, but I really like the subtle tones under the satin finish.

I'm sure the satin finish reinforces the distressed finish. I associate new & glossy.
Again-- well done.

 

[73neb]

Very nice looking mod. Sounds like you had a good time building it.

 

[minimalsaint]

Very nice looking mod. Sounds like you had a good time building it.

Is it that easy to tell? LOL
My job has gotten less and less hands-on over the years and I was recently telling my wife how much I miss using my hands for creative things... I suppose this is doubling as my outlet for now. At any rate, you are correct! Thank you!

 

[thetrucker]

Nice job on the do it yourself mod......................keep up the good work...............

 

[Mostly_Harmless]

Very nice looking mod. You mentioned you turned your own firing button, do you have a lathe or something similiar?

 

[minimalsaint]

Very nice looking mod. You mentioned you turned your own firing button, do you have a lathe or something similiar?

Thank you!
I used a cordless drill set to high speed, I have a little system that attaches my cordless to the bench top and the piece I'm turning is situated between the jaws on my bench vise, allowing for a guide. As long as the piece I'm turning is short and stout enough not to flex it works quite well!
For tools I just have a couple of scrap pieces of flat steel I've ground to a chisel point.
Nothing fancy by any means, but over the years I've learned to make due without the majority of super-helpful shop tools.

 

[minimalsaint]

Sneak peek
This is Lucy, about 13 coats in. She's special, can't wait until I can show her off!

 

[b.m.]

Sneak peek
This is Lucy, about 13 coats in. She's special, can't wait until I can show her off!

After seeing the first one you did,i started thinking about how to do one in green,so what did you use on this one to make it green,food coloring again or something else?This looks awesome.Pair it with a green button,and it will be over the top.

 

[minimalsaint]

After seeing the first one you did,i started thinking about how to do one in green,so what did you use on this one to make it green,food coloring again or something else?This looks awesome.Pair it with a green button,and it will be over the top.

Thank you!
Yes, green food coloring! Actually it's probably 60% yellow 40% green, I had to lighten it up quite a bit to get the more emerald tone over the forest green that plain green coloring would've given.
One of the things that sets this color off is the distressed area where I took it back to bare wood. The clear coat gives the natural wood a caramel tone that compliments the green perfectly, and the extra coats of clear give it a depth that I can't describe.
Second and possibly the most nerve-wracking for me, the 9th coat has a metal flake added with a blue / green /silver shimmer. I think if I try the metal flake again I would add it on the 12th coat with at least 8 more on top. For Lucy I think I'll stop around 17 with a good sanding and 18 for a final.
As much as I love Ollie's finish (the original) in satin, I'm loving the wet look of the clear poly on Lucy.
Good suggestion for the green button, I've been looking around at different materials and I think I've found some options that will look quite nice.
I'm really enjoying this journey and appreciate the support from the community here!

 

[minimalsaint]

Finally caved on the finish for the green lady and said enough was enough, knocked it back and gave her a polish.

Its pretty hard to get a good shot of the flake without a glaring light in the pic, but you can see some here:

The door is pretty much the same story

And now I can finally proceed lol.
I recessed the 510 on this one, but I'm not sure I will continue on that path. I've never been a fan of atty rash on the tops of my devices but I'll see how this one holds up.
Still need to sort out the button and build out the guts, but here she is with big brother! Did I mention that Lucy is a Lefty?

* tiny t-rex, the work desk protector / kitteh toy

Cheers all! Finished pics soon!

 

[minimalsaint]

Oooo!
This could be fun!

 

[minimalsaint]

Even a hot minute since I've updated the thread! Lucy is finished, turned out nicely and I'm fairly happy with the results. I'm thinking this will be my last recessed connector as it was more trouble than it's worth IMO. Maybe later down the road but we will see.
Lucy, all gussied up!

I ended up using a cheap battery sled in this enclosure to test out a bigger bottle, so I wanted to secure the cell as much as possible.

The bottle is a random 15ml I had around, so I lobbed off the top and used the rubber tip from a syringe plunger with a hole punched for the feed tube. The plug worked flawlessly and there was no leaking whatsoever.

So Lucy was fun, but the one that's on my bench now has me very excited....
More to come soon!

 

[b.m.]

Even a hot minute since I've updated the thread! Lucy is finished, turned out nicely and I'm fairly happy with the results. I'm thinking this will be my last recessed connector as it was more trouble than it's worth IMO. Maybe later down the road but we will see.
Lucy, all gussied up!

I ended up using a cheap battery sled in this enclosure to test out a bigger bottle, so I wanted to secure the cell as much as possible.

The bottle is a random 15ml I had around, so I lobbed off the top and used the rubber tip from a syringe plunger with a hole punched for the feed tube. The plug worked flawlessly and there was no leaking whatsoever.

So Lucy was fun, but the one that's on my bench now has me very excited....
More to come soon!

Looks good.I think you made a good choice leaving the inside edges uncoated too.I dyed and coated those edges with poly on mine,and fought with it for quite a while to get the box and lid to mate together flat again.
Also,how are you liking those super soft bottles?I bought 3 and hate them,even when squeezed completely i cant get the stupid things to push liquid through the tube.

 

[minimalsaint]

Looks good.I think you made a good choice leaving the inside edges uncoated too.I dyed and coated those edges with poly on mine,and fought with it for quite a while to get the box and lid to mate together flat again.
Also,how are you liking those super soft bottles?I bought 3 and hate them,even when squeezed completely i cant get the stupid things to push liquid through the tube.

Thanks!
I did end up putting a single thin coat on the inside edges, but I sanded door and body to match before doing so. No fitment issues that I could tell.
I love the super soft bottles, but it does take the right combination of feed tube to get the full benefit, IMO.

 

[b.m.]

I love the super soft bottles, but it does take the right combination of feed tube to get the full benefit, IMO.

Yeah,mine came with tubes and i also tried a tube from a bottle for my Halcyon,and it still wouldn't work for me.I did get juice to come out of the tube,but it wouldn't push it up into the rda no matter how hard i squeezed,i had the bottle flat and still wouldn't push it up haha.I do like how soft they are,so maybe i'll try some different tubing.

 

[minimalsaint]

Yeah,mine came with tubes and i also tried a tube from a bottle for my Halcyon,and it still wouldn't work for me.I did get juice to come out of the tube,but it wouldn't push it up into the rda no matter how hard i squeezed,i had the bottle flat and still wouldn't push it up haha.I do like how soft they are,so maybe i'll try some different tubing.

That sounds odd, how frustrating!
It sounds like you may not have a good enough seal someplace in the connector or feed tube, ever try an o-ring to seal up the connector, or is it only a problem with the Italian bottles?

 

[b.m.]

That sounds odd, how frustrating!
It sounds like you may not have a good enough seal someplace in the connector or feed tube, ever try an o-ring to seal up the connector, or is it only a problem with the Italian bottles?

Just with the Italian bottles,the other bottles i have all work fine.I noticed last night,with the bottle out of the mod,if i plug off the tube with my finger while squeezing,there is air escaping between the bottle and cap,so i may try an o-ring in the cap and see if that works.
Now,since i got your thread sidetracked,i'll try and bring it back haha.What did you use to polish the poly on your mod?I have a small buffing wheel for my Dremel,but when i tried it,i had little gouges all through the finish,so i had to sand and start over,now,i can't get a smooth finish at all,i should of left well enough alone haha.

 

[KentA]

Just with the Italian bottles,the other bottles i have all work fine.I noticed last night,with the bottle out of the mod,if i plug off the tube with my finger while squeezing,there is air escaping between the bottle and cap,so i may try an o-ring in the cap and see if that works.

With those Italian bottles, we've been told to pinch the hose & squeeze the bottle to seal the threads. They almost all do during 1st use.

 

[muzichead]

There's a video out there that shows how to set up the FIB's to get them to seal properly. I used mine for almost a year successfully until I swapped out for the BFX bottles...