Nos Creare Draco

Absolute-Wood · Aug 27, 2017

Don't you just love watching the wheels go round and round?

This was the polishing of the Dragon body - time to start assembling the faceplate components and testing with power!

Here are a couple quick cell pics of the polished body with some of the polished brass pieces:

The polished tube is reflecting the chandelier above the table - left of the tube you can see two of the lights and their arms in reflection on the body. It's shiny!

Rick

Absolute-Wood · Sep 17, 2017

Hey everyone -

I hope you're well and doing alright. Prayers and thoughts to all our vape family in Texas, Florida and beyond that were impacted by Harvey & Irma.

I have some pics of early assembly processes with the Dragon - was hoping to show a little video of a power up after I got the faceplate pieces put together. Alas - a defective part reared it's ugly head - the display for the DNA75 was dead - nada - no good - phooey - you get it... The board powers up through the USB and I get a green light - all looks good. All my displays are in faceplate assemblies for other mods right now. A couple replacement displays are ordered, and I'll RMA the dead screen.

Well, I hoped to debut these in the power up video, but I made some custom screens for the Mod (still editing), here are the two opening screens (shown in black text):

Assembly of the faceplate first needed cleaning of the tiny (1mm or less) gaps around the flexible areas for the control button pushers - barely as wide as the xacto blade. The plate actually has the buttons, pushers and the mounting posts for the DNA board in a single 3D printed piece.

A little clean up around the "Punisher" fire button.

Because of 3D printing limitations, the screw holes for the DNA board mounting had to be printed undersize then carefully enlarged.

Here, you can see the backing plate attached to the faceplate with brass shaving enforced epoxy. I used a fine file to produce tiny spiraled and barbed shavings, and added them to 2500 psi epoxy resin. The bosses on the faceplate that the backing plate sit on are also drilled to accept the modified adhesive. The "pock" marks are from all the supports that are needed during the 3D printing process.

Here are a couple images of the initial soldering of the battery leads for the polished brass battery tube - first the top insulator with the positive connection:

The connection to the solid brass tube itself. A SMD rework gun was used to heat the tube from the inside while a traditional iron was used simultaneously to apply the solder - a third hand would have been handy - LOL. Great adhesion with this method. Pic shot before cleaning.

I'll solder the leads onto the board and get the 510 connections soldered up. Then, when I have a display in hand, we can power up and check copasetic juju Dragon togetherness...

Vape On!

Rick

Absolute-Wood · Sep 22, 2017

Hey again,

While waiting for the new display to come in, I completed a basic custom DNA theme for the Dragon. I dug around online and found a great font used in another theme and lots of graphics. I combined, edited and re-created several items to make the theme:

Dragon Screens by Rick Hageman, on Flickr

I've also gotten the connections soldered for the connector -

When the screen arrives, I will apply a gold gel to tint & protect the display & finish the faceplate assembly. I'll still run some video when I power up after uploading the theme to the chipset.

Talk to you guys soon,

Rick

Absolute-Wood · Sep 27, 2017

Hey Guys-

The replacement display came in. I assembled most of the Mod (with the display!) to check fitment & figure out what the wire lengths were going to be. Plugged it in...

I might need to machine a little height from the bottom cap, the polished piece added some thickness to it. The brass will need a little touch up of the polish here and there. It's lookin' good!

Be good to each other -

Rick

Absolute-Wood · Oct 10, 2017

Hey hey -

Well, attack of the killer gut... Emergency Room, Morphine, comedy show (I'm told), next morning being driven home not really remembering much of the prior 24 hours, or the next day.

Started feeling pretty ill for a few days before, and the above was last Thursday night - things are better now - finally.

And with that, this is what I've been doing today:

The soldered assembly of the battery tube, DNA board and the connector. Actually, the soldered parts of the connector are the tabbed washer (-), and the center pin assembly (+). The nut that tightens the base (pad) just slips over the positive lead before being placed in the Mod. The connector was put together so I could put a battery in it and assure everything was working - Roger that... A-OK.

Here's a close up of the 510 connector leads on the board. Notice the brass nut over the red wire for tightening the base (510 pad). All these connections get a dab of silicone to protect and isolate them.

The battery leads coming from the brass tube.

There's just one task left - assembly! (well, shipping will make two)

The pictured assembly will slide in from the bottom and the 510 connector will be screwed together. Then everything gets put to it's exact position, and held in place with strategically placed glue joints. This allows the Mod to be taken apart later if repair or upgrade is ever needed. The battery tube is permanently glued in, and becomes a structural part of the device.

I hope to make a post by next weekend as I'll shoot some good pics of the Mod with proper lighting & expensive optics!

The term "time I stalk the UPS guy" comes to mind... :vapemail:

Rick

Absolute-Wood · Oct 23, 2017

Hey Everyone -

So much for assembly going smoothly enough to have made this post by "next weekend". The Model V is designed so it can be taken apart - albeit difficult - for repair or RMA of parts. Thirteen days later, it's finally in the mail.

I reduced the size of this Mod slightly to make it more friendly to smaller hands. The space was so tight that the rubbery cement used to attach the Faceplate would allow it to push away from it's recess because of increased tension from the wiring because of the reduced space behind the Faceplate. So it had to come apart to try and get a little stronger adhesion by adding some epoxy at the corners of the Faceplate. It worked, but the body might be damaged if we ever have to take it apart again. Oh well, do what you have to - a new body might have to go with any removal of the Faceplate.

But that wasn't the end of it - after reassembly, I put a battery in to test it again, and when turned on, the watt setting immediately began to drop as if the down control button was being pushed. The Faceplate button looked fine, but would not "click" when pushed and I couldn't stop the behavior. Great, it needs to be opened up again... I wrapped a screwdriver with a little piece of leather to protect the polished brass and took the bottom plate off (rubbery attachment still works there). It was the positive wire from the battery pushing up just the corner of the DNA board and depressing the down button on the board. I moved the wire as much as possible and placed a small epoxy "bridge" between the body and board to hold it in place. After putting it back together, everything worked as designed when tested again. Finally!

Without further adieu -

And, a few images made with "the good stuff", Canon DSLR, L series lens, Strobes & Umbrellas - enjoy

And, there you have it! I'm quite proud of it - awesome materials make an awesome looking Mod. For those wondering - The Mod V is $259 base price - DNA75. The stabwood block was $74, and the cast polished brass option is $179. The standard is an Oak or Walnut body, and black plastic parts instead of brass. Other materials like stainless are available at a lesser cost than brass.

I'll close this thread at some point - but I'll add more Mod news occasionally as I work on the next five that are on the production schedule - well, four plus another customer trying to decide what options to get! I'll keep posting to this thread.

A couple interesting notes:

I might have a Mod coming up that will have Damascus Steel - at least a Faceplate!

I will be designing a DNA Mod to look similar to the Augvape Gragas - that should be kewl -

Give someone a thumbs up and a smile today, it'll improve their face value, and yours -

Rick

forza · Oct 26, 2017

Absolute-Wood said:
Hey Everyone -

So much for assembly going smoothly enough to have made this post by "next weekend". The Model V is designed so it can be taken apart - albeit difficult - for repair or RMA of parts. Thirteen days later, it's finally in the mail.

I reduced the size of this Mod slightly to make it more friendly to smaller hands. The space was so tight that the rubbery cement used to attach the Faceplate would allow it to push away from it's recess because of increased tension from the wiring because of the reduced space behind the Faceplate. So it had to come apart to try and get a little stronger adhesion by adding some epoxy at the corners of the Faceplate. It worked, but the body might be damaged if we ever have to take it apart again. Oh well, do what you have to - a new body might have to go with any removal of the Faceplate.

But that wasn't the end of it - after reassembly, I put a battery in to test it again, and when turned on, the watt setting immediately began to drop as if the down control button was being pushed. The Faceplate button looked fine, but would not "click" when pushed and I couldn't stop the behavior. Great, it needs to be opened up again... I wrapped a screwdriver with a little piece of leather to protect the polished brass and took the bottom plate off (rubbery attachment still works there). It was the positive wire from the battery pushing up just the corner of the DNA board and depressing the down button on the board. I moved the wire as much as possible and placed a small epoxy "bridge" between the body and board to hold it in place. After putting it back together, everything worked as designed when tested again. Finally!

Without further adieu -

And, a few images made with "the good stuff", Canon DSLR, L series lens, Strobes & Umbrellas - enjoy

And, there you have it! I'm quite proud of it - awesome materials make an awesome looking Mod. For those wondering - The Mod V is $259 base price - DNA75. The stabwood block was $74, and the cast polished brass option is $179. The standard is an Oak or Walnut body, and black plastic parts instead of brass. Other materials like stainless are available at a lesser cost than brass.

I'll close this thread at some point - but I'll add more Mod news occasionally as I work on the next five that are on the production schedule - well, four plus another customer trying to decide what options to get! I'll keep posting to this thread.

A couple interesting notes:

I might have a Mod coming up that will have Damascus Steel - at least a Faceplate!

I will be designing a DNA Mod to look similar to the Augvape Gragas - that should be kewl -

Give someone a thumbs up and a smile today, it'll improve their face value, and yours -

Rick

Woooow. That is truly a work of art. I am so excited!!!!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk

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