Precise ELA Telescoping Mod by Super-T!

[Magic Dragon Puff]

I want to make sure I understand satin versus polished finish. Polished is a mirror like finish right?
mzsazri shows a pic above of the two versions together with the caption my polish and my friend satin. But if you look at the pic, the order from left to right is satin and then polished, at least to my eye. I hope that's right, I ordered polished thinking mirror like finish.

 

[hitokiri]

Don't get me wrong, it is still a very nice finish, just that I'm more inclined to the catalog polished looks up at SuperT's website.

Like Blix's picture above... THAT IS SEXXEEEEYYYYY!!

 

[raqball]

I want to make sure I understand satin versus polished finish. Polished is a mirror like finish right?
mzsazri shows a pic above of the two versions together with the caption my polish and my friend satin. But if you look at the pic, the order from left to right is satin and then polished, at least to my eye. I hope that's right, I ordered polished thinking mirror like finish.

You are correct. When looking at the photo the Satin is on the left and the polished is on the right..

 

[anavidfan]

its a very very fine, polished/brushed finish. It would not take much to shine it up even more to a mirror finish. I use mirror finish Odysseus and its not a big difference. I actually like the Super-T polished better than mirror, I have dropped it a few times and no scratches show.

 

[hitokiri]

I want to make sure I understand satin versus polished finish. Polished is a mirror like finish right?
mzsazri shows a pic above of the two versions together with the caption my polish and my friend satin. But if you look at the pic, the order from left to right is satin and then polished, at least to my eye. I hope that's right, I ordered polished thinking mirror like finish.

I also thought that polished is the mirror like finish and satin is like the brushed looks but not the sand-blasted finishing...
I confused myself... me think..

 

[Tanrichguy]

Wow. Missed a lot while I was at work.
Just so happens that I scored a kayfun Lite today myself. Should be here sometime next week. It's a shame that its gonna sit in a drawer until October or November when I finally get my ELA...

...but I'm sure the wait will be worth it. Woot!

 

[pAth77]

I posted this pic a while back. The Ithaka used to be the usual GG mirror-like finish. In order to get it to match my other SuperT mods (including the ELA, which came after I refinished the Ithaka), I sanded down the entire thing and worked my way up to 600 grit. It's now an almost exact match to the ELA polished finish. It's got a nice sheen to it, but its nowhere near a mirror-like finish.

 

[anavidfan]

Here is yet another shot of the finishes, Odysseus atomizer is mirror finish and ELA is in the Super-T Polished finish.

another shot of the contrast between finishes, Ody (atomizer) mirror, ELA Polished and you can see the satin accents.

 

[HauntedMyst]

Then I saw the opposite, people with LEicas, Hasselblads etc that took awful mediocre shots. THey would come in with under/over exposed shots and would complain to us that we did something wrong in the printing or film processing because they shot them bad. We would get statements like : theres no way they could be badly shot, I use a Hasselblad and the most expensive film?!!!!

The best equipment in the wrong hands will still give you the same result as a cheap set up. And a cheap equipment in the right hands will give you the same result as expensive ones.

LOL I was a Mac specialist 20 years ago when Pagemaker came out. All Pagemaker did for the average job was make their crappy publications look better printed. Expensive equipment doesn't replace experience and knowledge.

 

[Magic Dragon Puff]

You are correct. When looking at the photo the Satin is on the left and the polished is on the right..

raqball,
Thanks, I kind of thought so - maybe a tad worried there for a minute! By the way, and I'm sure those that have spent any time polishing stainless steel know this, but the absolute best stainless steel polish is semichrome. I've tried them all and semichrome is it period. I've polished stainless using flitz and compared the finish to semichrome. To the naked eye they both look awesome, a true mirror finish. But under magnification flitz shows micro scratches where semichrome doesn't. If you want to turn a sand-blasted SS finish into an ultra-fine polished work of art, then this is what you do -

1. Get some scotch-brite and sand away until you have a satin like finish.
2. Get about 6-8 oz of semichrome and polish with a lint-free cloth until your arms want to fall off, then quit.
3. When recovered, go back and do it again ... wax on, wax off, wax on, wax off, wax on, wax off ...

It'll take a lot of elbow grease but in the end you'll have a finish better than triple plated chrome. If you can get your mitts on a low RPM buffing wheel, you've got it made! I've been there and done that many times with semichrome, the finish always blows me away!

 

[raqball]

At 1st I thought I wanted Satin because my T1 and Super Six were that way and I liked it but now I am thinking the Polished ELA looks pretty darn sweet..

 

[Magic Dragon Puff]

anavidfan, with semichrome those minor (micro) scratches you see will all but disappear. But as you so aptly pointed out, you drop your mod, or even lay it on a rough surface you will see those micro scratches come back. Then of course ...
... wax on, wax off, wax on, wax off ...
There is an up side to that (and I speak from experience), there is not a jar in the house that you can't unscrew with your bare hands when the time comes

 

[anavidfan]

LOL, sometimes I can hardly take my tanks apart, its either not burst a vien or light oozing of liquid from the seams. I like well cared for shine, but Im not obsessive about it. It doesn't have to blind me. I love a well loved shine on all things metal. Like a good old S&W revolver or well restored car grill. I do not like an obvious scratch that draws my eye to it like a Hooters waitress's cleavage.

Thats why I love the ELAs polished finish its almost mirror, but not quite. Its not brushed but close. Im going to have an Ody refinished to match polished ELA, then Im sending another Ody to be satinized. I will leave some parts in the Ody OEM finish to use as accents. Im never going to sell these things off so I can do these customizations to my liking as I dont have to worry about losing resale value.

Heck I guess I could have flowers or my little ponies done, ( shudderssssss, ugh ) but I could if I lost my mind.

 

[icucme2]

I posted this pic a while back. The Ithaka used to be the usual GG mirror-like finish. In order to get it to match my other SuperT mods (including the ELA, which came after I refinished the Ithaka), I sanded down the entire thing and worked my way up to 600 grit. It's now an almost exact match to the ELA polished finish. It's got a nice sheen to it, but its nowhere near a mirror-like finish.

Dang, i love the color ur brass accent rings have now!! Did it patina naturally that way or did u use something... Love the deepness to it

 

[pAth77]

Dang, i love the color ur brass accent rings have now!! Did it patina naturally that way or did u use something... Love the deepness to it

Chemical patination. Those pics were taken less than 24 hours after I received my ELA.

 

[Covert]

In this game basically everything mechanical serves the same purpose. Can I get the same vape out of a $25 mod that I can outta a $200 mod ? The answer from me anyway would be a yes, but that is where the similarities stop and we start getting into the brass tacks of build quality, materials, etc. Just as you pointed out anavidfan our vapes are only as good as the coil that WE build, and the battery that powers it. Much like photo equipment is only as good as the photographer/developer the same can be said about a vast majority of vape gear.....

I like your analogy, throw away camera vs camera and high end camera. I think of it like this, after working 20 years in the photo finishing industry, Ive seen people with throw aways take amazing photos in the way that the composition and lighting and subject matter was amazing but the film quality and ability to enlarge was limited.

Then I saw the opposite, people with LEicas, Hasselblads etc that took awful mediocre shots. THey would come in with under/over exposed shots and would complain to us that we did something wrong in the printing or film processing because they shot them bad. We would get statements like : theres no way they could be badly shot, I use a Hasselblad and the most expensive film?!!!!

The best equipment in the wrong hands will still give you the same result as a cheap set up. And a cheap equipment in the right hands will give you the same result as expensive ones.

 

[Blix]

I posted this pic a while back. The Ithaka used to be the usual GG mirror-like finish. In order to get it to match my other SuperT mods (including the ELA, which came after I refinished the Ithaka), I sanded down the entire thing and worked my way up to 600 grit. It's now an almost exact match to the ELA polished finish. It's got a nice sheen to it, but its nowhere near a mirror-like finish.

Love it, and it had me on Google looking at Chemical patination for a while, cool stuff!

Where did you get that nice clear tank for the Ithaka? I want one!

 

[anavidfan]

Here is a better, I hope, example of the finishes : 1st from left to right: GG mirror finish, ELA polished, ELA satin, then what is on right end is the center tube that slides.

 

[pAth77]

Love it, and it had me on Google looking at Chemical patination for a while, cool stuff!

Where did you get that nice clear tank for the Ithaka? I want one!

Google "patination of brass" and you will find a link that has a bunch of recipes for different colored patinas. It's only on the surface so I can always get it back to the original brass if I want to. I'll probably do that eventually because I really want to try a few of the other recipes. I'm not sure how readily available some of the chemicals are (I run a lab so I already had them at my disposal), but there are solutions that you can buy at art supply stores that should give a similar patina.

The clear Ithaka tank is from Rampage. I've also tried the Kir Fanis clears and the ones that silicawicks used to sell, but the rampage ones fit and looked the best.

 

[HauntedMyst]

Chemical patination. Those pics were taken less than 24 hours after I received my ELA.

You should put the brass outside so it gets that cool green patina