We discussed, had a bit of an argument, exchanged banter, opinions, information and at times even took the mickey out of the exchanges, the other day when we were talking about the Dreaded Mech Mods … which actually got me thinking about why I actually like the things as much as I do.
I suppose for me anyway, in part it comes from all the years of smoking pipes which you had to work with to get a good smoke, keep them in trim and looking good. Many’s the time of a Saturday morning when I had all of mine out for cleaning, reaming, polishing etc, my wife would say to me - “You know, I really don’t know what you’d find do with yourself if you ever stopped smoking the amount of time you spend spend fiddling and working with those things!”
Mech mods especially if used with dripping atomisers certainly do keep me busy a bit, the same way. The things do need checking over, cleaning and yes, polishing and the atomisers need their screws checked, posts cleaned, and refitted with new coils and wicks. Coils need to be made, checked, burned tuned etc.
As with a pipe where you had to be aware of how the tobacco in it was burning, how much of it was left, did the load need its packing in the bowl loosened or tamping down, with a mech you develop a sense of how much charge is left in the battery or whether it needs charging or if it’s coming to the end of its useful life, and of course with a Dripper you have to become aware of whether or not it needs topping up to avoid the evil dry hits or at the other extreme is it in danger of flooding. Of course Squonkers keep you also similarly occupied. In a way you almost develop a relationship with the things.
So summarising so far, the things keep both with my hands and my head occupied and present a challenge to get the best out of them.
Moving on, for me there is a tactile pleasure to the feel of a solid well made device and a pleasure in contemplating the thing - again as pipe smokers enjoy handling and admiring the grain and mountings of a high end pipe.
I do also collect watches, and I like the look and feel of a good mechanical one and its heft on the wrist as as others do on watch collecting forums and we also value them as things of beauty to be enjoyed for that as well as for their practical properties ( and we know that a £5.00 Casio Quartz will keep better time than any mechanical, incuding a Rolex) - looking at high end mech mods, to my mind there are some beautiful high end mods about - and they aren’t as expensive as high end watches!
Being just about 69, as my wife reminds me, “We can’t take it with us, so it does no harm now to spend a little on things we really want” … and as ever she is right there. I’ve been looking at some high end mods of late and have decided to splash out and buy one good one a year.
The Old Reprobate has rambled on enough!
Attached are some pix from the web of what I think are beauties for you to love or hate, depending on your viewpoint.
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