The Poldiac Fan Club

[Vaslovik]

I wouldn't worry about the black lines on the pins. I don't think they affect anything.
Just use baking soda. The rhodium is fragile. For that matter so is silver plate, which is the layer underneath the rhodium. I know, because my brass now is starting to peek thru in spots, because i got too overzealous w cleaning. Fat Daddy Vapes carries rice pins. Because other mods, like your Roller, and the Nemy use them.
I would maybe not use chloroform to clean your contacts. Fumes are toxic.

Hey, ya know what? After endlessly cleaning the snot out of my Poldiac switch, and still having problems I finally got it, and I feel like a total idiot now. When I'd set it down the battery would bounce on the spring in the bottom. It shouldn't do that. It was hitting weak again today, and with a freshly charged battery in it. So I screwed my voltage checker into it, and got flashing 8's. A bit of thought on this and I arrived at the conclusion that it wasn't the switch, which I'd cleaned obsessively, but it had to be the spring in the bottom of the mech going weak. I'd noticed the battery bouncing inside a couple times, so that had to be it.

I pulled out my little plastic bag of springs from MMV, put a new one in there, and wonder of wonders, it suddenly hit like brand new! That spring is out of sight and out of mind most of the time and I never gave it much thought until now, but over time they do go weak on you, and that's going to hurt your contact current making your mech hit weak. I'd prolly have picked up on this earlier if I weren't so crispy around the edges from 18-22 hour shifts all the time.

 

[Annie56]

Yeah, shouldn't be any battery rattle in it.
Aname Sleeks. 0146 and 0329 (pictured here with my El Cheapo 'i-atty' from FT--one of my favourite 'around-the-house' attys)
They've been attacked with an electric toothbrush, Brasso, and silver cream for the contacts. My contacts still look 'silver' but you can see some brass showing through. They still hit, tho. And they are still the prettiest mods that i have. Gonna use the Temons on them, after i get some parts

 

[Annie56]

Marilyn, at the age of twelve...

My other Poldi, with the Line. Drip tip is ugly, but it's a longer delrin. Line gets warm

 

[Vaslovik]

My other Poldi, with the Line. Drip tip is ugly, but it's a longer delrin. Line gets warm

I have that same Poldi, it's my very favorite
What's that atty on it?

 

[Annie56]

The Line LE by Van's Vapehouse. Line was one of the first gennys made available, but was hard to get, and the posts were silver wire.

They ended up revising the Line, and made improvements--inc post attachments using flathead screws. I think it's only 14mm in width. Warm vape lots of flavour. Thats with a 1.1Ω coil. Most of my single setups use that resistance.

 

[Vaslovik]

Okay, I really hate to post this, but I'm still having problems with my Aname Sleek. I put the new spring in it, and it worked great, for a while, then it started misfiring again, hitting weak, or not at all. This morning I took the switch apart and cleaned it once again, and it was the same thing. It hit great for a little while, then right back to misfiring, hitting weak, and not firing at all. I swapped out button parts with my other Poldis, and it was the same thing all over again. It would hit good and hard for a few vapes, then nothing. It suddenly wouldn't fire at all. I'm totally stumped here.

I put in a new button, new contact pin, new end contacts, all perfectly clean, and the problem persists. I have no idea why and it's very frustrating.

 

[Vaslovik]

Just stripped the switch down to the last separable part, diligently cleaned everything again, only this time, on close inspection, I noticed in the delrin switch body inside that there were some bits of delrin sticking out from the bottom threads into the interior of the switch body apparently from the thread cutting done on it. Aha!

I used an X-acto knife to very delicately remove those bits sticking out from the bottom threads, put it all back together, and it's hitting like a total champ again, and harder than ever. I think that was the problem, at least I really hope it was. Time will tell.

 

[oplholik]

I hope that does it for you. Credit you for your patience, and not throwing it thru a window or something.

 

[Vaslovik]

I hope that does it for you. Credit you for your patience, and not throwing it thru a window or something.

It does seem to have solved the problem, and it makes perfect sense that this was the issue. Some tiny little thing in the dark inside of a black plastic part you'd never see unless you used a strong light and magnifying glasses that gets in the way of the switch working right after it was just hitting good and strong. That's just the kind of thing I expected it to be.

I never did think of throwing it out the window, but for a brief moment I did consider that it might be haunted.

 

[MikeE3]

Just stripped the switch down to the last separable part, diligently cleaned everything again, only this time, on close inspection, I noticed in the delrin switch body inside that there were some bits of delrin sticking out from the bottom threads into the interior of the switch body apparently from the thread cutting done on it. Aha!

I used an X-acto knife to very delicately remove those bits sticking out from the bottom threads, put it all back together, and it's hitting like a total champ again, and harder than ever. I think that was the problem, at least I really hope it was. Time will tell.

Well done ... your perseverance has paid off ...

 

[Vaslovik]

Well done ... your perseverance has paid off ...

Thank you sir! <curtsy>

 

[Vaslovik]

After this little episode I did full maint on all 4 Poldis. All threads cleaned thoroughly, all switch parts too, and there are new bottom springs in all of them. I checked the plastic switch bodies for the same problem I found in the Aname Sleek and it was slightly present in the Freddy Classic. I fixed that pronto. All four Poldis are now hitting real good and hard, 2 topped with DID's, 2 with Krakens. Polished up the brass on the Uma Classic too

The fix on the Aname Sleek is holding strong, and no more problems

They are all ready for work tomorrow, which looks like a 23 hour shift. I carry backups as recommended by the United States Department of Redundancy Department, North America, US Division, Redundancy USA/America.

 

[Vaslovik]

Okay, the problems with the Aname Sleek are back. Hitting weak again. Cleaned every part of the switch again this morning, rebuilt the DID that's on it. That DID vapes like a champ on the other Poldis, not on the Aname Sleek. Went through the switch in microscopic detail, found nothing. At this point I'm seriously thinking it's just plain haunted, and I have a vaporgiest here..

 

[MikeE3]

Okay, the problems with the Aname Sleek are back. Hitting weak again. Cleaned every part of the switch again this morning, rebuilt the DID that's on it. That DID vapes like a champ on the other Poldis, not on the Aname Sleek. Went through the switch in microscopic detail, found nothing. At this point I'm seriously thinking it's just plain haunted, and I have a vaporgiest here..

Not nice ... not nice at all. Good luck if you have the patience left to keep plugging away at it.

 

[Vaslovik]

Well, in the morning I'm going to do a transplant on it, swapping out the plastic switch body, end contacts, and contact pin, again in steps. There has to be a reason for this. I've just not found it yet. I need to test each part and isolate the issue. Not giving up, there has to be a reason for this.

 

[KentA]

Can I assume you have been swapping the atomizers?

 

[Vaslovik]

Can I assume you have been swapping the atomizers?

Of course. First thing I did was put the DID from that Poldi on another Poldi, then another, and another. Then I put a second DID that worked great on the Aname Sleek, and it was the same thing. So it's not the atty, it's the mech, and there's a problem in it somewhere. I just need to isolate it. The DID's are built right, of that I'm sure, they work fine on the other 3 Poldis. Rebuilt them this morning:

 

[Annie56]

Did you try backing out the contact screws a little bit? It doesn't seem to make sense, but i think that somewhere in the earlier parts of this thread--someone suggested that the plastic housing gets 'broken in'. It contacts better, when the mod is newer, if screws are backed out just a little bit--and not screwed down tight. That helped me a lot with mine

 

[Vaslovik]

Did you try backing out the contact screws a little bit? It doesn't seem to make sense, but i think that somewhere in the earlier parts of this thread--someone suggested that the plastic housing gets 'broken in'. It contacts better, when the mod is newer, if screws are backed out just a little bit--and not screwed down tight. That helped me a lot with mine

Ah, that's a thing to try, I just don't want them loose in there. They aren't screwed in all that tight, but that's a thing to try. One thing I do wish, that I could get more parts for Poldi switches, but the only way to do that now is buy another Poldiac, and I'm looking....

 

[oplholik]

I was trying to remember where I saw something about that. I install mine just barely finger tight. I may have seen something about it on MM's forum, but can't seem to bring it up now.