Something possibly wrong with the 28.5mm Stillare clone

[Chew Magna]

I'm trying to get some information on this but I'm coming up dry. I was hoping somebody here might have some input. This will require someone with actual know how, not just "oh I think this so that has to be that."

So here's the deal. I finally got my 28.5mm Stillare clone from FT about a week ago and I've noticed something that might be an issue with it. I'll just post a pic.

This is my TOBH and the Stillare deck. Same build in both, same cotton, same juice. Notice anything different? Any juice that touches the posts or screws on the Stillare eventually becomes red. Even straight VG turns red. I'd say it takes about 10 minute for it to happen. According to FT the posts are gold plated bronze. I know there are other gold plated devices out there but I've never heard of this happening.

I'm trying to find out if this is safe or not.

Edit: Forgot to mention that this happens even if it is never fired, so it isn't the juice caramelizing or anything.

 

[williebb123]

i would replace the screws and maybe have some new washers on standby just incase , common sense should tell you juice turning red is a red flag......pun intended

 

[Chew Magna]

Yeah I hear you. I couldn't even tell you if it's been doing this the entire time as I only noticed it a day or two ago.

I have no idea where I'd get screws to fit this thing, the ones that came with it are very finely threaded. In fact I don't think they fit the threads in the posts very well either.

It's weird though. I don't see any sort of wear on the plating on the posts, and there is no oxidation of any kind to be seen.

It could possibly be the washers, I didn't even think about that. I'm only using them to trap the wires on the positive because I haven't nutted up and drilled the posts yet. I'll try a different build without them and see what happens.

 

[Chew Magna]

I'm man enough to eat my words. Just cleaned it up and took a closer look.





The "gold" plating is definitely coming off.

So I have two options: Toss it or find a way to completely remove the plating.

 

[Chew Magna]

Ok I think I might have missed something extremely obvious with this. I'm still doing some testing, we'll see how she goes.

 

[Bunnykiller]

hmmm and I almost bought the 28mm from fasttech.... glad I decided not to...

 

[roosterado]

I have 1 in the mail from I don't know where its a Tobeco gold plated posts I see some of these clones are more exspensive then others hope Tobeco fixed this issue. If not how would one remove the plating

 

[Chew Magna]

I found out what the problem is. I thought it might have been the washers I was using to trap on the center post, instead it's the screws. Any juice that gets trapped on them turns red, but the rest is fine. I just have to be careful about how I drip. I rebuilt it last night and have been using it all night and day with zero issues.

 

[williebb123]

thats a big problem for me buying a clone from china , you dont know what material the metal is from if they say its gold they may mean gold in color not real gold plate and if they use brass it may contain lead unless its naval brass just my main draw back in buying clones