My nemesis aka the 510 connector

[steffijade]

Great first go... it looks very tidy compared to Bodgefest. Will there be a MKII?

Thanks luv. My main aim with this was just to be able to get a working mod so that I could prove to myself that I could do it, if you know what I mean. Now I've done that I can take a bit more time and care with subsequent builds. My overall aim is to make myself as independant as I can (being able to make my own devices, use rebuildables, mix my own juice) so that I can try to circumvent likely regulation as much as possible and keep myself and my mum from being forced to use only 'approved' brands/pay any punitive tax.

As for looking tidy, it'd probably look at lot less tidy with adequate internal support.

I might have a go at another of these tins, but I need to work out a decent method for strengthening the body as the actual material is a bit thin and flimsy. (Actually, it might make more sense to find a decent plastic box as they're easier to drill and less chance of shorts on the 'bodywork')

I've got a few other tins that are a little less flimsy and I think I'll have a go at one of those next. Hopefully, I won't make as many silly cock ups and the tin might turn out a little less battered.

 

[Bryan123456]

Bodgefest was my 2nd device - my first was made out of 22mm copper pipe and worked until all the shinyness went and with it the conductivity.

My 2nd attempt I half built and then decided it wasn't what I wanted, at all and ditched the tin

My third attempt was dandy, except, the 2 part glue didn't come out of the tube properly (I now monitor this carefully) and was covered in a non setting yukky mess. This has been scraped off and it will be made into something.

Bodgefest was No 4. It's untidy... but it vapes like a dream and has proven, at work to be very robust, except the exterior paint which chips. I had already worked out that problem. I had some carbon fibre wrap and tried to wrap attempt 3 in it - the wrap was too thick and my skill at things like that (and present wrapping) are dire. I have some Blue Peter like sticky backed plastic on the way and if that doesn't work - will look at some car stone chip paint.

I am waiting for some parts to build a different mod and will end up with 2 versions of the 'final' tin a bottom feeder and a straight forwards one - if I can cram a Vivi Nova mini into the tin.

I think you have done brilliantly.

 

[Warlordxxx]

If it helps - when you use carbon wrap heat with a hairdryer (helps to have two people or four hands lol) and apply evenly using a piece of plastic - credit card tesco clubcard etc - to smooth out any bubbles or ripples - and if it does't look right pull it back up while the sticky side is still warm makes it much more pliable

 

[steffijade]

All righty then.

Feeling a little bouyed up by my (eventual) success with my first bash at a vv box mod, I decided to have another go.

I'm still waiting on some 18650 batt boxes to turn up, but I found a 14500 batt box left over from my first go at a 'Garry Dibley' special. I'd also got a couple of altoid tins, 2 small vv boards, 2 led voltmeter displays and a good few switches to play with.

I did an initial component placement in the tin and decided I might just be able to fit the vv board and a display in there.

That done, I soldered up the bits outside of the tin to check they all worked and they all did, so happy days.

Next on the agenda ... drilling holes for the switch, atty connector and the 'master' switch for the batt box. I've found a cone shaped stone grinding attachment that fits nicely in my cordless drill and using this to enlarge my initial drill hole, I ended up with two lovely neat round holes for the switch and atty connector. The master switch hole didn't look quite as neat but it was nicely positioned and worked ok.

Quite chuffed and proud at myself for the nice neat holes, I went on to install the switch and atty connector and glue them into place along with the battery box. I then soldered everything up, put hot glue in place, fitted in the vv board and went to do the same with the led display.

This is where it all started to go wrong. (sigh)

When 'sizing up' to fit the components into the tin, I'd failed to take into account that the generous layer of hot glue would in effect raise the position of the led display and make it a very tight and awkward fit. After much fiddling, fretting and cursing I eventually got it in place.

Time to pop the batts in and fire it up ... and yep, you guessed it a BFFA again.

Time to slump shoulders and break out the multimeter again. Got power from the batts to the switch ok .. got a reading from the in and out channels of the vv board , though the potentiometer didn't seem to be working ... getting the same voltage reading regardless of how much I adjusted it.

I concluded that I'd screwed something up when fiddling about trying to fit the led display in ... so, I fiddled about again and managed to get the display out of the tin, totally knackering it in the process. I then went to desolder the wires from my out channels and OMFG .... NOOOOOOOooooooo! etc.

Hard as it might be to believe, I'd done it again and got the in/out channels messed up. This time I'd got the in channels the right way round but got the + & - the wrong way round on the out channels. Bimbo club strikes again.

At this point, I felt quite hacked off and ready to give up ... so I did.

After a night's sleep, I looked at it again this morning to see if I could salvage anything. The vv board didn't want to work properly ... and who could blame it after being so cruelly abused, but the switch, batt box and atty connector were all still in place and serviceable, so I figured I'd try prising out the vv board and fit the other one in (this time without the led display).

I managed to get the board out without damaging/deforming the tin, soldered up the other board (CORRECTLY THIS TIME YOU FECKIN DIZZY COW!) and lo and behold ... success! (Yay!)

It all seemed to be working ok and so with a sigh of relief, I put a shedload of hot glue into the 'gaps' to try and ensure everything held in place and a little extra 'structural integrity' can never be a bad thing, right?

I sat and had a nice cup of coffee and a vape whilst the glue cooled and hardened. I went back to it and checked again ... all ok.

What a result ... i'd managed to snatch a victory from the jaws of my own incompetence.

I decided to add a finishing touch and put a shorty 510 extender in the atty connector ( I tend to use these quite a lot, cos they protect the actual threads from wear and tear).

Okie dokie then ... day off from work today, nothing that urgent to be doing ... time for a 'burn in' test of my lovely little altoids mod whilst sat in front of me computer. In fact, lets push the boat out and celebrate with a viv nova full of green cow ... just unscrew this other vivi and pop in the green cow one. Hmmm... don't you just hate it when you unscrew the atty/carto/clearo and the 510 extender unscrews with it?

I know, I'll dab a little superglue on the extender threads .. that should hold it in place nicely (ominous music in the background). I mean, when I sent my throathit VV walkie talkie back to Rob for a service, he sent 'my precious' back with a glued in extender that's really stood up to the hammer it gets very well (voices shouting in the distance 'don't do it... DON'T do it ... for the love of god, DON'T DO IT!!!').

Did I hear something then? Meh ... let's get this done.

Dab of superglue on the threads and let's screw the extender in. What's this? It appears to be stuck part way in ...erm this could be tricky ('No shit Sherlock').

I wonder if it's screwed in far enough to fire? Nope, hmmmm... I'm gonna have to try and get this out before the glue sets. (Sounds of foreheads being slapped in the background).

Crikey, it's well stuck in there ('Of course it is you stupid bimbo, it's superglue ... SUPERGLUE! FFS, I may as well be talking to myself ... I'm outta here!').

Is that the sound of receding footsteps I can hear? <shrug> Oh well ... perhaps if I use this pair of pliers I can free it up?

Oh... I think it's working ... it's coming loose. Ah... I appear to have pulled the atty connector out of the tin with it.... the tin that's now jam packed full of dried glue so I can't get to any of the components with out knackering them.... Outstanding.

Yep, I've managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory right at the last second.

I've now finished my hissy fit and the tin is in the bin.

I'm trying to be philosophical and take some learning points from this little debacle, so ... notes to self:

Don't try to fit too much into too small a space ... it complicates things and it's awkward to work in confined spaces.
Don't get overconfident and develop delusions of competence just because you can make a few pretty holes.
Always, and I do mean ALWAYS check you have the + & - the right way round (you feckin stupid bimbo).
Don't fill up the inside of your box/tin with glue/epoxy unless or until you're certain you don't need to tweak anything.
And NEVER, EVER use superglue (the clue's in the name, idiot) to try and fix an extender into your atty connector.

So, on the whole ... a pretty crap outcome.

But on a brighter note, the tin I first built, that I predicted wouldn't stand up to a week's worth of normal usage, has done. In fact it's in use right now. So I'll try to learn from this and do a better job next time ... hopefully.

 

[Bryan123456]

"What a result ... i'd managed to snatch a victory from the jaws of my own incompetence."

You write beautifully, fabulous alliteration and a wonderful painful but amusing read.

In sympathy, my soldering is fine, but, remember that tin where the 2 part glue didn't dispense properly and there was a sticky mess? This was going to be my Vivi Nova mini tin. I spent the best part of an hour getting the gunk out of the inside using meths and rubbing hard with a ball of Plenty. There was glue all over the outside too and it was looking really grubby so I rubbed harder and, the paint came off and the gunk got spread around and embedded into the now softened paint along with little shreds of Plenty..

Never mind, I thought, I have some sticky backed plastic. Why I thought I could fix things with this, I don't know; my kids take the piss out of my Christmas Present wrapping skills, which are awful. The result was, like my Christmas presents, but worse, in a nice chrome plastic. I then realised I'd spent about 2 hours trying to rescue a £1 tin about 50ps worth of sticky backed stuff and a good quids worth of meths and Plenty. I lobbed it in the bin.

Onwards and upwards. Keep at it Missy, you are making progress.

 

[steffijade]

Lol Bryan... making backwards progress maybe.

If I didn't make such stupid mistakes I wouldn't feel like such a bimbo, but hey ho as you say, onwards and upwards (or backwards).

I feel your pain with the tin too. I tried spray painting a tin up in a rather fetching metallic purple, complete with a layer or 2 of laquer ... only to have it scratch and mark as soon as I put it on a hard surface. I reckon my spray painting skills are about on a par with my modding skills.

 

[Bryan123456]

Lol Bryan... making backwards progress maybe.

If I didn't make such stupid mistakes I wouldn't feel like such a bimbo, but hey ho as you say, onwards and upwards (or backwards).

I feel your pain with the tin too. I tried spray painting a tin up in a rather fetching metallic purple, complete with a layer or 2 of laquer ... only to have it scratch and mark as soon as I put it on a hard surface. I reckon my spray painting skills are about on a par with my modding skills.

I don't know where you are in Lincs - but there are several businesses in the Peterborough area that do powder coating and anodising - dunno how much they charge but some of them do small fiddly things for motorbikes etc. I quite fancy a powder coated tin in Ferrari red.

 

[Stig41]

Steffi a bit of a tip for ya use Epoxy Putty to fix in the Atty connector after properly testing as its not affected by heat and Hot glue Melts
hence the name

you can also use to strengthen the Flimsy tin and give it a bit of weight

not that I'm a Expert but it is what i have picked up from Various sources I'e Garry Dibley ,MG Jones amongst others

 

[steffijade]

Nurse, nurse ... she's managed to get the straitjacket off again.

The battery holders that I've been waiting on turned up today and I couldn't resist having a bit of a play.

Whilst in Grimsby last week, I popped into Maplins to pick up some wire and have a butchers at their project boxes. I didn't find a box that took my fancy but whilst braving Adsa, I came across some plastic food containers that looked about the same size as a 2oz baccy tin, so on a whim I blew a quid on one of them.

So .... I present for your delight & delectation/disgust & derision, the Tuppervape mk1 :

View attachment 2012 View attachment 2013

Looks shabby as hell but on the plus side, it works.

No major dramas to report this time ... I actually remembered to check properly for + & - . The only thing that didn't go as well as planned was the length of the wires. I'd decided to measure up and solder up outside of the box (to save having to fiddle with the soldering iron inside the box). Unfortunately, the wire stripping didn't go exactly to plan and I ended up with one wire a fair bit shorter than I'd wanted (can anyone recommend a particular type/brand of wire stripper please?).

Another shabby end result overall, but it's all practice and it's a nice little bonus if it actually works.

I've got a couple more altoid tins and a few bits from Stealthvape on order and will have another attempt at an altoids tin in the next few weeks.

 

[Bryan123456]

Tee Hee! I like it. It makes a change from "I knocked this up from a broken: torch / nasal hair trimmer / electric toothbrush / Rampant Rabbit". when the Tate Modern does its display of eclectic vaping devices, make sure it's in there . Plenty of scope for lunch box jokes too. Are they the Sistema boxes that ASDA sell? if so they are great quality.