WIP 18650 Sterling Silver Mod

[gravewolf]

This is my current project I've been working on. I've made some improvements on this new mod that I will incorporate in succeeding mods. It took me a while to design a body that will be light yet a bit more durable than my previous silver mod. It will take me more than a week to finish this since I can only do this at night after work hours.

I start making the body by melting some silver and pouring it in a mold, after which I lengthen and expand through a laminating press machine until I get the desired thickness, length and width

 

[gravewolf]

I cut the strips big enough to make small rings that I shape with a hammer and a mandrel. Then I stack them and weld them all together to form the body

 

[gravewolf]

After soldering I had to dip it into an acid solution to clean up the gunk and flux and this is the body I will use in my 18650 mod

 

[Dougiestyle]

Your profession is so awesome! I wish I had your acquired skill. I'm working on a bottomfed steampunk w/ VW. The curved ends are my speedbump. I'm considering making a disposable form from wood to hammer the curves.

Nice work you have going there! Can't wait to see the finished product.

According to current market value, what's the value of the silver you're building with, if you don't mind me asking?

 

[gravewolf]

I've really wanted to have threaded caps in my mods but it was impossible to thread a tube this thin without destroying it so I resorted to making a mould from ready made male and female threaded tubes so I can replicate and cast it. I can now just cast threads and solder it to the body of my mods.

 

[gravewolf]

Your profession is so awesome! I wish I had your acquired skill. I'm working on a bottomfed steampunk w/ VW. The curved ends are my speedbump. I'm considering making a disposable form from wood to hammer the curves.

Nice work you have going there! Can't wait to see the finished product.

According to current market value, what's the value of the silver you're building with, if you don't mind me asking?

I estimate that this mod will use up more than $40 dollars worth of silver since I'm trying to keep it light. Just pound the wood with the rounded end of a hammer to make a deep indentation on it. I don't know if pounding on that would work but it's worth a try. I'm just lucky we have lots of tools here in the workshop to help me experiment with.

 

[asdaq]

I really ought to turn to you for some parts. Seriously. $40 in silver likely beats the price for machined SS.

 

[gravewolf]

I really ought to turn to you for some parts. Seriously. $40 in silver likely beats the price for machined SS.

Yeah but making these things manually ruins my pedicure! Even if the silver is cheap you can't turn it into something else without investing in proper tools. I have been doing some upgrades on some mods here by replacing the terminals with silver contacts.

 

[Tourlounette]

Very nice work!
I am looking forward to see it finished.
But no doubt it will be an awesome unique piece of work

 

[gravewolf]

Thank you sirs, I've been doing other stuff over the years but making mods has been pretty enjoyable for me. Here's some of the old stuff I've made from brass.

 

[gravewolf]

Almost finished! I made changes to the gg style firing button and discarded the locking ring. Instead of a locking ring the button itself screws into a locking position that disables it from being pressed.

Locked position


Unlocked position


There's only the bottom cylinder spring left to do, some tests and then polish. I actually had to add some extra height cause I miscalculated the battery space and I couldn't screw the cap on. It came out a little taller than what I had anticipated but it feels really solid with no wiggles or lose parts.

 

[gravewolf]

It's finally done! I've had to take care of some personal stuff but I managed to finish this today.

This is my personal improvement to the bottom side firing mod. Instead of using a spring to relay the current to the body I designed a tube type cylinder which gives a better electrical conduction than a spring for the negative terminal. This cylinder provides better electrical conduction due to the increased surface area than a spring could provide. The springs only purpose now with this improvement is to provide tension for the battery.


After polishing this is the finished mod. It only weighs 10 grams heavier with my 18350 sterling silver mod but with the new body it is a bit sturdier. I also made the bottom and top caps with brass to add durability to the body, and plated it with gold to add tarnish protection.



I forgot to mention that there are 2 ventholes in the bottom in case the battery decides to suddenly self destruct when I use a non protected battery.

 

[bapgood]

Awesome!!!

One can only expect great things when a jewelry maker gets started PV modding.

Can't wait to see future creations

 

[gravewolf]

Awesome!!!

One can only expect great things when a jewelry maker gets started PV modding.

Can't wait to see future creations

\

Thanks bapgood, it's finished but I left it as a clean template for whatever design I wanted to add to this. I'm still thinking if I should decorate this with precious stones or make it look steampunkish. I still have a lot of backlog of projects to do and I hope to finish them all. It kinda sucks that I still have a lot of mechanical mod designs that I wanna do with little time to spare. I also want to make more atomizers but I guess I'll just leave it to my mood. I'm gonna take a couple of days off from modding and recharge myself cause I've been overworked from work and modding. It's hard to do everything manually but I'm happy with the end result. Though I have been wondering if someone has already made a mod from sterling silver. I've just finished testing this unit and it has managed to burn my cotton wick even though it was really wet and the wick was at just 1.8 ohms resistance

 

[bapgood]

Regardless of if its been done before....it's original to you and you should be proud.

Artisans like yourself make me green with envy. I'm all about technology because its my best chance of creating something halfway close.

IMHO the guys who have the skill and experience of doing things old school and manual, will always have a greater understanding and respect for their trade.

Definitely take some time off and reap the fruits of your labor, and recharge your creative batteries.

 

[gravewolf]

@bapgood

It works both ways, there are things I can only dream about doing with good machinery. There are limits to doing things by hand, like achieving the speed, precision and consistency of something machine made. Doing things with machines also takes a lot of skills and technical knowhow. I'm also envious of people like you who know how to design and work with modern technology. There's actually no easy way of making a scratch built anything without any sort of acquired skill and knowledge. I maybe an old school guy but I do recognize the merits of using modern technology. I'm just happy I can create things with my prehistoric methods lol

 

[asdaq]

Old school/ new school aside this is a real beauty! The fractured reflections in that shine are very elegant. I'm curious what you might do with the gems, but I really would like to know if you do any engraving as that would look grand as well. And, how do you get it all shiny in your goldsmith's shop, gravewolf?

 

[gravewolf]

Old school/ new school aside this is a real beauty! The fractured reflections in that shine are very elegant. I'm curious what you might do with the gems, but I really would like to know if you do any engraving as that would look grand as well. And, how do you get it all shiny in your goldsmith's shop, gravewolf?

Thanks asdaq, still deciding what to add but I have to finish a couple of mods first. I can do engravings but I'm a bit lazy on that department since I don't have an electric engraver and it is a pain in the ... to engrave it manually lol. I first use different grades of sandpapers to remove scratches, then I use a buffing motor to semi-polish it. I dip it in cyanide to remove any tarnish then wash it thoroughly and finally I wipe it firmly with a cotton rag (or a leather hide) and a polishing wax to make it shiny since using too much of the buffing motor can actually damage the surface of silver. The best way to make silver shiny is polishing it by hand if it doesn't have any deep scratches.

 

[bapgood]

I also think engraving would be very nice....and something I couldn't do in a million years.....so I understand the pita factor.

 

[asdaq]

I don't think I'd be very good at it either, but like the manual engraving knives method. A wooden ball in your palm and you rock it back and forth to cut, looks easy when done by pros, but likely takes drawing skills.