my new handmade Walnut 100% mech dual 18650 box mod.

[Cloudman46]

I made the Walnut enclosure by hand, and the internals are all made of solid copper plate, and 1 short length of square 14 gauge copper wire about 3/4" long. The connections are pretty beefy. should handle pretty much anything I would do with it. The cover is held on by 4 bamboo tension pins, and the atty connector is a fatdaddy. There is not standard type switch, instead there is a Cocobolo mechanical finger switch that completes the circuit when pulled down. Its actually quite a bit more tactile than I envisioned. The cover stays on nice tight and solid and doesn't wobble. there is a small groove up at the top of the cover that can be used to easily pry the cover off. I plan on making several more, and the design is still being worked, and needs some minor refinements so this is not the best that could be done.... battery connection springs could be made and added for the - connections, etc..

Now I just need to grab a couple sony vtc4's or similar to drop in it, and I will be all set, maybe a new rda... I'm thinkin one of those Cigreen Poseidon v3's would look pretty nice sittin on top. right now I am just running a 2500 mah li-ion efest battery and dual coil set-up clocking in at about .65 ohms, and am pretty satisfied with the results but the increased battery life and amp limit would be nice.

Let me know what you guys and/or gals think. Any questions, suggestions, or opinions are welcome. I am working on another one right now that is going to be made out of cocobolo instead of walnut. There are a few pictures of it at the bottom. those pics will show better the parts used to make this mod, they are almost identical.

Thanks for looking,
JA

 

[JohnnyDill]

Love the "no wires allowed" approach here! I have done two boxes with the same "Reo" style mechanical switch. What I found with mine was that the bare copper contact points were improved by soldering a small piece of brass to those two places where the current goes through. This, with a dab of Noalox has made my mech boxes reliable, consistent and strong vapers. There are other metals that work even better for contact. Ask Quigsworth.

IMO, this kind of switch is 1000X better than amperage through a momentary button switch.

 

[Cloudman46]

Agreed. I like the mechanical switch, because it is low profile, simple, and free.. don't have to order and install a large button that will eventually fail under costant sub-ohm builds. Its not clicky and doesn't look as clean, but neither does a wood box mod lol.. So it matches. I know that obviously silver and gold are better than copper, but what other metals are a better option? is brass better? I have access to brass plates that I could use too, but i thought that copper was better for this. I have a somewhat minimal knowledge of electronics and am kinda new to it. I'd like to make a chipped and momentary switch'd version someday. but this is working pretty good for now. do you have a link, or a thread about any of your mods? I'd like to see if so.
Thanks,
JA

 

[JohnnyDill]

Bare aluminum and pure copper have a tendency to oxidize and subsequently hurt your current flow eventually. Try it as is for a while; it may be fine.

Here are my two builds with the home-made mech switches like yours:

My 1st Altoids box: http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/battery-mods/585052-diy-altoids-bottom-feeder.html

My second, aluminum mech box: http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/battery-mods/602170-aluminum-mech-box-mod.html

Also, there are other pics posted on my profile in various photo albums. Feel free to browse or PM me with any questions. Always glad to help a vaper!

 

[rhelton]

Nice! Very good job on that.

 

[CoilMeister]

Looks good, how does it feel in the hand?

Kurt

 

[WharfRat1976]

Cloudman, great build, thanks for sharing. I love your Fred Flinstone switch and I bet this is the first time these words have ever been combined on ECF: "Cocobolo mechanical finger switch"

I got a good chuckle when I read that. I just ordered 2 Coco blanks off actual images from a local exotic dealer. I can't wait to chop them up into a mod.

Quick question: What wood sealer, finisher, did you use to seal your wood? Anything special? The walnut looks really well done.

 

[Cloudman46]

WharfRat1976
haha, thanks, I guess that term does sound kind of redundant... I wasn't sure how else to explain it to someone who doesn't really know what they're looking at. I make gun grips and stocks as a business, so I have lots of scrap exotic wood, that I can use to make mods from. I don't really need more than a couple I guess, but i'm always looking to make more as a hobby I guess. To seal the wood, I just decided to use "Goddards Butcher block oil". Its a food grade wood finish for cutting boards and butchers blocks of course. It gives a nice finish similar to tung or teak oil, but at the same time, has no strong chemical like odor, its actually completely odorless. It works well. I ordered a pair of 18650 Sony VTC4's for it, as well as a couple MNKE 26650's as well, I may make a dual 26650 Cocobolo box mod next


CoilMeister
It feels pretty good in the hand. I am in the process of re-shaping a couple areas to make it a bit more comfortable, and a bit nicer looking externally, otherwise its working great.

 

[Quigsworth]

That's what I'm talking about! ... well done!

Raw copper for switch leafs isn't the best option...sure it conducts well (3rd best) but it does corrode and will need to be maintained, but most importantly is if you want to expand on your switch triggering options you need something with some spring to it...I scavenge the contact leafs out of heavy duty contactors/relays...they're typically made of beryllium copper (springy) and have contact points already installed (silver plated if it's a good contactor. You can then work a top button or side button into your design. .. everything else is perfect...I also love the "look ma, no wires" design... also ditch the Nolox... It's messy... Pick up a tube of deoxit gold, it's not cheap but it works very good (just get the 2ml tube, it'll last you forever)

If you really want to be a rockstar build a bf mod next... you won't go back to dripping once you get used to it.

Cheers

 

[WharfRat1976]

Cloudman, can you provide the length, width, depth and thickness of this box? Just curious. I want to compare it to a woody I am doing out of Zebra wood.

What did you use as a "coating" on the inside length of your grounding "down tube?" It looks like some kind of sheet good. Was the purpose of that to just rid that length of metal from the inside of your box?

Also, did you solder your short length of positive wire to your positive connection plate?

Thank you.

 

[Cloudman46]

Cloudman, can you provide the length, width, depth and thickness of this box? Just curious. I want to compare it to a woody I am doing out of Zebra wood.

What did you use as a "coating" on the inside length of your grounding "down tube?" It looks like some kind of sheet good. Was the purpose of that to just rid that length of metal from the inside of your box?

Also, did you solder your short length of positive wire to your positive connection plate?

Thank you.

Wharfrat,
The outer dimensions of my box are approx. 1-5/16 inch depth, 3-5/8ths inches height, and 2-1/4 inches width, and that could actually be trimmed down some, but I wanted the wood to be thick enough to make sure it has some strength. The last one I made I dropped it and it broke like a glass vase. It was made of much thinner wood and was a great deal smaller. The coating on my grounding plate is just heat shrink tubing like what is used to insulate wiring. I just put it there to protect it from shorting out on my positive battery connection plate which is right up against it. It didn't really need to cover the whole plate, just the top portion. Its just an extra bit of insulation I guess. not completely necessary though. About the positive connection plate, the end of the wire coming from my center pin was hammered flat sanded smooth and shaped in such a way that it presses tightly and flush against the positive plate. I was going to try to solder it but it is flush and tight and makes a secure connection so I just left it. As an atty is screwed down into the fatdaddy 510 connector, its spring loaded center pin is pushed down which also further tightens that connection, so i'm not worried about it. if I ever have any problems with it I will alter the design slightly I guess.

 

[Cloudman46]

That's what I'm talking about! ... well done!

Raw copper for switch leafs isn't the best option...sure it conducts well (3rd best) but it does corrode and will need to be maintained, but most importantly is if you want to expand on your switch triggering options you need something with some spring to it...I scavenge the contact leafs out of heavy duty contactors/relays...they're typically made of beryllium copper (springy) and have contact points already installed (silver plated if it's a good contactor. You can then work a top button or side button into your design. .. everything else is perfect...I also love the "look ma, no wires" design... also ditch the Nolox... It's messy... Pick up a tube of deoxit gold, it's not cheap but it works very good (just get the 2ml tube, it'll last you forever)

If you really want to be a rockstar build a bf mod next... you won't go back to dripping once you get used to it.
Cheers

Thanks for your comments and input,
The mod isn't perfect by far, and I am looking for ways to build a better one. I'd like to have more springy switch leafs for sure, springs at my negative battery connector plate, and something that is better than copper. I have access to silver wire, and scrap silver plate as a few people in my family make jewelry, so I plan to possibly integrate some of that into my design in the near future when I have the design squared away. The copper switch leafs are springy enough that they work and don't cause me any problems yet, but harder and springier ones would be better. I will have to check out my local scrap yard to see what I can find. What did you mean by "Nolox... It's messy... Pick up a tube of deoxit gold" is this referring to types of solder? sorry if this is a dumb question.. lol as far as a bottom feeder goes, I was discussing them with JohnnyDill, and looking into how they work. Looks interesting. I'll probably build one, one of these days.
Thanks,

 

[englcl111]

I was wondering what gauge copper plate did you use? I really like your design, and this is exactly the kind of example that I was looking for. I'm planning on building my 1st mod soon. I want to make one like this and then branch out to some sort of VV. Congrats!!!!

 

[rolf]

hi cloudman !
sure looks nice ..I used finger joints on my wood box ..overkill so ..also used glass and epoxy to line the inside ..the you can sand and shape the wood thinner and ceep the strenghs . have fun

 

[Cloudman46]

Thanks guys for the reply, I have made a couple more mods with a similar design, and added a few upgrades that were suggested by a few of you guys.

 

[Cloudman46]

So this is a new mech mod I made out of cocobolo, same type of switch, it comes out the end on this one, finger grooves on one side only, and sterling silver contact points on both battery contacts and the switch leafs. I am still tinkering with this one though as it is not completely configured, so the inside is kinda dusty, and I have been trying to integrate a spring in the switch somehow, As seen in the photos but it is not configured properly just yet. The spring works where it is, but it is touching the (-) switch leaf. I want to keep it from touching the circuit, so I am going to figure that out still. I am still using my walnut mod, with a mutation x rda, with a set of vtc4's and it is working great, but I am going to get a black 26650 rda for this cocobolo mod next. I am currently working on a dual parallel 26650 mod made of cocobolo also, and making it for a set of efest green 50a batteries. I will post some group pics when I get my rda's and finish the two mods. In the meantime check out this new dual 18650 cocobolo mech mod. I cant wait to finish it, and try it out.