Made in USA Box MODs coming to Absolute-Wood

[inspects]

Hey Vape peeps-

I have a few pics of Oba to share that I received from it's owner after he completed assembly - it looks nice:

The next Mod design is nearly final. It's a Squonker! It will be called Vein due to the pattern of the stabilized Siberian Elm Burl it will be made of.

Here are a few early design variation renders of the 3D model during development:

This is the divider / bottle cradle that is installed inside the body. It also has the posts to attach the cover.

Installed like this! This is without the cover on it.

Doh! Uh Oh... one of the great things about 3D Modeling - being able to cut your Mod in half to look and see a problem you must fix! Notice how thin the wood is just to the right of the little Measure Distance box. It required a redesign of the Faceplate for another reason other than to make room...

An early version of the raised Faceplate, with fastener holes. Now a glue in part. In the 3D model, features such as holes can be turned on and off. This allows one file to actually hold all variations of the part.

Back to the drawing board, er... screen

Rick

Now your talking.....can't wait until squonks are available...!

 

[MarkS]

Vein is going to be a DNA 250 2,200 mAh beast. Rick is an awesome designer, great to work with (he puts up with me), and does first class work!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Absolute-Wood]

Vein is going to be a DNA 250 2,200 mAh beast. Rick is an awesome designer, great to work with (he puts up with me), and does first class work!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks Mark.

Beast is right - Remember it has the same theft deterrent system as this cell phone...

 

[MarkS]

With Oba I have an alternate internal cover too.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Absolute-Wood]

Hey everyone-

Hope you're having a killer weekend. I've been cleaning up the backyard getting ready for warm weather.

After quite a bit of design tweaking - including changes made for the 3D printing service, we have the design of Vein complete...

I thought a nice exploded view would be cool - fun to make too

The 3D Printed bottle cradle/divider is one of seven printed parts, and can accommodate the 18 x 41 bottle on a platform, leaving an additional 11mm of height for a possible taller bottle in the future. I believe the existing bottle holds 7ml. Two different covers are used with or without the platform.

The Mod also features our exclusive 3D Printed button pusher plate that also secures the display and chipset. This highly engineered item nearly eliminates the tendency to prematurely wear the micro buttons on the chipset by pushing the buttons on the edges. No matter where you push, the pusher plate always pushes the micro buttons in the center in a near piston like action. This can significantly improve the life of the micro buttons.

I'm just about ready to "feed" the stabilized Siberian Elm block to the machines in the shop that are hungry to devour some fresh stock! I first need to create a few drawing pages to guide the operations and give me numbers to dial in on the machines.

I'll post soon with a closer look at the pusher plate, and all the intricate details that had to be engineered into it.

Light 'em Up! (your LEDs, that is)

Rick

 

[inspects]

Need a front Squonk...pls.

 

[Absolute-Wood]

Need a front Squonk...pls.

There's a few possibilities - I would need to do a quick layout, but I think if I were to reverse the battery and squonk cradle positions on the current design in production (Vein), and mirror and rotate the cradle 90 degrees, it could have the squonk hole on the end opposite the Faceplate. It probably wouldn't take much to make the changes.

Second, I've just had the initial contact with a prospective customer that wants a stabwood Mod made similar to the Boxer DNA250C Squonker-

For those not familiar, this Boxer Mod is an elliptical shaped dual 20700 that looks to be 3D printed. The prospective customer wants a dual 18650 stabwood version. I don't have CNC, so I can't easily machine a block of stabwood to an elliptical shape.

The best I could do is to machine a block into an eight sided polygon that closely hugs the elliptical shape of the Boxer, then radius the edges to make it look a little bit smoother:

This will represent some serious design time to completely develop a Mod from the ground up - I'm guessing at least 40 hours. In these instances, the requesting customer will share in the design cost with 10 hours design charged as part of the Mod.

The other choice is our Model III / IV Side by Side that is partially designed. It's either a single battery (18, 20 or 26xxx) or could use a LiPo pack. The squonk hole is below the well for the atty on the front - facing away from us in this sketch:

Here is a sketch looking through the top (26650 size tube):

I made a quick Oak block to see how it felt - fits the hand nicely -

In this pic, my two middle fingers are showing, and the squonk hole would be at my two smallest fingers. The fire button would be where my thumb is, at the top of the Faceplate. The hole where the atty goes in would be set to a depth so the top of a short atty would be near flush with the top of the Mod, or as the customer requests. This is a planned model, so there are no design charges.

I just haven't had time to finish the development, make drawings and make prototype parts yet. I got very busy! If someone ordered one, the first step would be to finish up the design & prototype.

Rick

 

[Absolute-Wood]

Hey Vapers-

Hope you had a good weekend.

I'm back with a look at the Button Pusher Plate in the Faceplate assembly...

Here's a drawing of the FP (Faceplate) assembly, and a look at both sides of the Pusher Plate.

This piece performs many functions.

• Holds the user buttons in place thru the Faceplate
• Pushes the tiny buttons on the DNA board
• Holds the display
• Positions, supports & holds the DNA board

The domed surface of the button pushers touch the tiny switches when you push the button. The pusher "paddles" restrict the travel of the buttons which reduces the chance they could get stuck in the ON position.

Notice the slight indentation for the display to sit in, and the four small display retainers that keep the display in place. There is built in room to reposition the display if needed.

There are three posts to connect the DNA board to the pusher plate. Their diameter has been increased where possible to add strength. You can see that there is a fourth post - this supports the DNA board where there was not support. It is passive - not connected to the board.

Also, the four places that the button plate connects to the back of the FP fit over the two different sized raised circular parts of the FP (follow the dotted lines). It cannot be installed incorrectly because of this feature, and it holds the plate firmly in place.

There is an extended rim around the display opening called the Blackout Extension. A colored gel can be placed between the FP and this extension to change the color of the display. The extension helps to hold the gel in place.

The DNA Color boards have a similarly designed plate for them as well. It is the high quality and resolution of the latest generation of 3D printing technologies that make these parts robust, inexpensive & good looking.

In my earliest experiences with 3D printing (late '90s), these little parts would be $500-$1000 each to have printed! Now, they are usually around $20 or less - with higher quality.


Speaking of 3D printed parts - these parts just came in - lets have a look...

Here are a few images of the Faceplate, Button Pusher Plate, Divider/Bottle Cradle & Cover, and the platform and tiny leg used with the shorter squonk bottle. The parts look a little grainy in these pics because they are enlarged and have been sharpened in Photoshop. They look good in the hand - they'll look great in the Mod.


Here we have all the parts. These represent three different plastics and printing technologies.


This is the Divider / Bottle Cradle. The little Platform and it's tiny leg (in the first pic) fit inside the cradle for the shorter of the bottles.


A close up of the Evolv logo that's engraved into the Divider Cover. This logo is smaller than a penny. Also, the cover(s) have the model of the Mod, DNA board used, and the serial number engraved as well.


Here we have the Button Pusher Plate I discussed at the top of the post.


Finally, this is the back or inside of the FP. You can see the four raised "cylinders" that position the Pusher Plate. All the little "dots" everywhere are where the supports were connected to the object while it was being printed. These can be easily sanded off where needed.

That's it for now - I'm making the first cuts on the block & should be ready to start the milling of the body soon.

Talk to you guys later,

Rick

 

[Absolute-Wood]

Hey Everybody,

I know it's been awhile - busy working on the current Mod. I do have a little something tho - a very occasional newsletter I put out. The last one was before the Mods, so nothing that new -

https://mailchi.mp/914fa7bd06b4/its-been-awhile-new-products-at-absolute-wood

Oh yea - near the bottom of the newsletter you can read about the current sale that's going on at the website right now!

I'll get a couple pics of the current proceedings in the shop and get another post going soon -

Later-

Rick

 

[Absolute-Wood]

Well, hey again -

I'm back with a few pics of the milling of the block for the latest Model II - Vein, made from Siberian Elm Burl.

This is just after cutting the groove for the sliding door, and making a single pass around the perimeter to cut the body cavity into the block.

It takes three times around to mill to the proper depth. Just the perimeter is milled so we can save the "chunk" that remains in the middle. Earplugs laying on the part.

This is after three times around - the cut is now at full depth. One more operation before unclamping...

Drill the magnet holes!

The block is reclamped so the Faceplate side is up. We cut the through part of the Faceplate machining. This lets us do something else -

The first cut removes the center of the Faceplate hole.

If we continue to cut back and forth, deeper and deeper along the long side where the cutter was seen above - we can free the "chunk" that was filling up the body cavity.

If you look at the pic above, you can see a thin band where the "chunk" is still connected. This is easily machined away in the next operation.

The part was re-clamped to release the chunk and finish smoothing the inside bottom of the cavity after the large chunk was removed. This piece can be used for Drip Tips and/or battery spacers.

After final machining of the inside. Next on the roster is making the connector hole.

Talk soon everyone -

Rick

 

[CrazyChef v2.0]

I know I've said this before, but I LOVE seeing your in-progress pics of your work!

 

[KingPin!]

Yeah it’s amazing! Keep it coming Rick

 

[Absolute-Wood]

Hey Everyone -

Whoo Hoo! Weekend time, hope you guys have a good one.

I have only one pic of Vein, the machining of the Faceplate thru hole and the inset - the connector on the top has been machined as well -

It's been a crazy couple of months around here - my daughter just had her graduation and party - she's a nursing assistant. Wants to continue to full nursing status sometime in the future.

My younger son just finished classes at Cal Poly Pomona and will graduate this weekend with a Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering - his party is next weekend. Think I'll finally be able to relax a bit in a week or so!

On the Mod, I've had a little setback with moving on to the next step, which is machining the door. Because the block was not trimmed down (we used all of the block), the slab that was cut off for the door is just a few millimeters larger than it's finished size. There is no extra material to traditionally clamp it down for machining.

Hmmm... two choices. I can actually glue it to another piece of wood that is larger, and machine it, then attempt to get it separated from the other piece of wood (a piece of brown paper bag is glued between the two pieces of wood) - or, get a vacuum pump, make a vacuum clamp table for the mill that the door slab would just "magically stick" to the table as if held by powerful magnets.

A vacuum pump is showing up on Saturday! This also means that sometime in the future I can begin to experiment with making my own stabwood as well...

Non Mod related, but - if you check my sig, you'll see that my 9th anniversary of quitting is coming the 18th of this month - I have other good news that coincides as well...

I make my own juice normally, but my daughters boyfriend (he's a vaper - awesome) bought me a bottle of juice to celebrate - If you take a look at the bottom of the bottle, it's zero nic! Finally! Way back when, I started at 30mg! Been at zero now for a few weeks.

My sig says I've not spent around $50,000 on cigs - wonder where it all is... Probably with our flying cars we were promised to have by now - LOL

Talk soon,

Rick

 

[Absolute-Wood]

Hey everybody!

Well, I finally found my way back from falling into the abyss... Apologies, I haven't had the best luck the last couple months, health wise. In and out of the hospital again... My doctors said my condition will progress, we just didn't expect an increase in symptoms this soon. Hopefully, just an anomaly.

I got to feeling a bit better the last couple weeks - but, as you may have heard, we're back in the frying pan here in SoCal. Temps have been over 100 for about two weeks solid. It hit 115 yesterday, about 110 today. Too hot to work out in the shop. Unfortunately, this usually happens this time of year around here.

For the moment, we're safe from the fires burning all around us. Several miles to the nearest one. Fingers crossed.

After the kids graduating and both getting jobs - (yes!), the morning shuffle has turned into morning rush hour in the hallway... then in the kitchen - LOL. Including my wife, all three are now trying to prep for work at the same time! Glad I only need to walk down the hall and through the shop door!

I'm a proud Dad, so please endure a pic of Justin and Taylor at graduation:

I hope to get back to things in the shop as soon as the weather permits.

I've gotten the door fitted on the Vein Mod, but haven't shot any pics - pretty routine actually. Next operation will be to route the radii on the edges of the Mod before starting the sanding process.

Just to let everyone know - Because of my health, I'm planning on slowing down after I finish the existing jobs that are on the schedule. It's just too time consuming when your time is limited.

My wife and I are taking a trip to Japan for a couple weeks starting in late October; our other son (Taylor's twin) is in the Navy and stationed there. We haven't seen him in a few years now.

I'll try and get back with an update soon, barring the unexpected...

Take care of each other,

Rick