Turbocad's finally selling mods :)

[turbocad6]

Hey guys, I'm finally going to be building mods to sell. my mods will primarily be made from exotic woods supplied me, or you'll also have the option of choosing your own wood to send in for me to make your custom mod. primarily hard wood mods, and stabilized wood and wood/resin blocks.

my first design I'm releasing now is a bit unique, it's a dual 18650 dna200, but I have designed it in a way to maximize space and create a mod that is pocket friendly and relatively compact, considering it's capacity. it's unlike any other bottom feeder design out there really and I have ben developing and testing it for many months now. I call it an "over and under" design, because the bottle sits horizontally, underneath the dual 18650's.

this design really makes for a nice compact bottom feeder and is the best way I've found to build a dual 18650 dna200 without making it just way too wide. it squonks every bit as good as a conventional bottom feeder, the actual juice travel path is really not much longer than a conventional setup because this design feeds from the top of the bottle rather than the bottom as all other feeders do. it feeds and drains just as well as a conventional setup. it actually feeds even better than most because it uses a very large stainless steel 2.4mm juice feed.

the battery connections are all spring loaded with solid silver contacts for very low maintenance and rock solid power delivery. the 510 is custom made by me and uses a 2.4mm stainless steel feed shaft, it's self adjusting "spring" loaded design so every atty sits flush with no adjusting, it's designed to give a solid leak proof connection and is also easily end user sevicable to give many years of trouble free use. the dna200 chip is remotely located on the opposite side of the mod to avoid ever having any juice damage to the chip

I've been using the first prototype for several months now, here are some pictures of the first prototype along side a few other mods to give you an idea of it's size. this one is made from african blackwood with matching african blackwood door and a brass faceplate. among the faceplate options are brass, brushed aluminum and wood, also with several options for the buttons. the door can of course be either matching or contrasting from a different wood. this is just the prototype and will differ slightly from the actual production design as a few slight changes and improvements to the design have been made since this prototype.





first here is a picture next to one of the tiniest mechanical bottom feeders ever. considering it has twice the amount of battery and a dna200 chip in there, it's really not that huge compared to it

and here are a few pictures next to a dna40 woodvil, again for size comparison

and a few solo shots

I'll add more to this post tomorrow I just really wanted to get this thread started.


PLEASE NOTE that I do already have a few friends from here that have already expressed interest in this mod and a few have been promised one of the first spots on the list for these mods already, so please be aware that even if you are one of the first here to say you want one, there are already a few people ahead of you. I will add the list of people who are already on the list in a few days when I am able to confirm that list

introductory price is $549 plus the actual wood block, this means that if you send in your own wood the price will be $549, if you buy a mod built from my own wood then the price will vary depending on how expensive the wood it's built from may be. some may be $549 including the wood if it's a relatively inexpensive wood, while other more exotic woods will obviously be more, depending on the wood

 

[turbocad6]

ok I did finish a few dna60's

here is my favorite one, it's a hybrid mod, meaning the atty is part of the mod in that there is no 510, the atty connects straight to the bottle and has direct electrical connections. this gives the smallest size possible and eliminates all of the problems of a 510 and a flex tube connection. there are no leaking points and there are no connection issues that a 510 could normally have, the positive connection is straight to the center pin and the ground connection is straight to the atty body, the drawback is you can't just swap atties, the atty is built into, and part of the mod. this one has a narda built into it but many atties will work for a setup like this and of course the atty is included with the mod or I could build one with your own atty.

now of course a different atty could be installed after the fact, but it would require tools, and the atty needs to be modified for to accept this setup, so this is more for someone who wants the smallest mod possible and will stick with one atty for the mod for the most part.

this is a full size 8.5ml bottle and a 750mah lipo, the battery life is only good for a few hours but this is the mod that will use docking ports to charge as I have mentioned previously here, I'm going to give it a workout the next few days and see what's what with it but so far it's hitting hard and vaping great and it's pretty damn small

and the line up, left to right, dna200, dna75, dna60

I also finished 2 other types but my camera died, one is very similar to this but has a regular 510 and accepts any atty, but of course with an atty on top of it instead of recessed it winds up being a little taller overall, and the other is a slim model similar to this, all have been completed before the deadline and bob has agreed to buy them all for $1 as you have all witnessed so there all "on the market" before the 8/8 deadline

 

[turbocad6]

I knew this ultem was some pretty tough stuff the first time I tried to machine it, go at it too hard and I actually broke a carbide bit thinking it would machine like a normal plastic but this stuff machines more like a tough aluminum than any kind of plastic really, then I overtightened a stainless steel screw for the chip cover in one and instead of stripping the ultem, the stainless steel screw actually broke, so I figured lets see how tough it really is. this gives a whole new meaning to what I'd call a beater mod I was inspired by russ's video's of his torture testing his aluminum reo... truth is there is really so little damage after all this, no cracks or significant chips or gouges, just some little marks that could seriously be able to just sand and polish out... the brass drip tip did get a little messed up though, deeper gouges on the drip tip than anywhere on the mod itself





then I was thinking since it ha so little damage, what would happen if I ran it over with my 5,300 pound truck?




still nothing, no significant damage at all really, nothing cracked even though some of the wall thicknesses on this mod are less than .07" thick and the chip stood up to all of this fine, after changing the drip tip I'm vaping it right now as I post this, so that's how durable this ultem mod really is

 

[super_X_drifter]

Just got this bad boy this afternoon. It's dam impressive. Unlike any other mod I've ever had. It feels like it's built to take abuse. It's light and precise. This one is not even a heat treated example of perfection but I really like what see. Thanks @turbocad6. Hell yeah.

 

[Gigdujour]

I got me some sweet, sweet vapemail today [emoji3]

I must say that the pictures don't do it justice. The fit and finish on this is incredible. Initial reports indicate that it seems to be idiot-proof as well. I managed to get it up and vaping with only one extra peek at the instructions [emoji3][emoji3]


Master of Bassets...and not much else

 

[turbocad6]

finally finished these 2 stabilized 200's I did some custom matching stabilized buttons too

 

[turbocad6]

shiny

 

[turbocad6]

got my shipment from evolv, here is a side by side size comparison

and with the add on usb module

 

[turbocad6]

here is the default squonk holes for the dna75's. the 2 tone one may be sold but the other one is up for grabs here, I will make 2 more 75's in the next few days to sell here to raise some funds and then go back to finishing up the dna200's once and for all.

this is really a sweet little mod, I didn't think I'd like them nearly as much as I do, I've wished for a squonker just like this for a few years now, more than enough power really at 75 watts, full temp control with any wire and very compact. it's only a single 18650 though. I've been rolling with dual 18650's for a while now, so I really got used to having way more than enough battery life for a whole day plus, but then again I'm really liking this little thing too, may have to build one for myself

as I've said, I'm not much of a fan of CA finishes but some woods just beg for a CA finish and this is one of them, it really pops with a well done CA finish. many or most woods I prefer a natural oil rubbed finish but certain woods like this I guess I don't mind the CA finish so much, only problem is I get carried away with trying to make the finish flawless and it winds up taking me a really long time to do a finish like this, adds several hours to the build

the materials for the 200's should be here Tuesday, I hope to have a finalized 200 design locked in by the end of the week. aside from the 510 upgrade there is just one more tweak that I'd also like to do, more on that when I get back to working the dn200's

 

[turbocad6]

well I guess I can see that the ultem is turning out to be a pretty popular option I'm ordering some more ultem and also some delrin to play around with, to try and make a delrin mod for a bit less than even the base wood mods.

these ultem mods start out as a solid billet block of ultem 1000 and is all machined, very similar to a wood mod. starting with a solid block of ultem instead of injection molded or 3d printing winds up giving the strongest results possible, and delrin will be done the same way, starting from a solid block, so even though these are plastic you really can't compare these to a plastic 3d printed mod which is much weaker, but of course much cheaper to make too.

these ultem mods wind up taking quite a bit more work than wood because the material is harder to machine than the hardest woods, and harder to polish, and also needs to be high polished inside and out, and the material is also pretty costly, so ultem winds up costing $50 more than a base wood mod, but again this ultem is a super durable material and nearly bulletproof and will last through huge torture for many years to come

delrin will be cheaper than the wood mods, hard to say exactly how much till I machine a few to see exactly how much it takes, but delrin will be easier to machine and easier to finish and the material itself is cheaper too so delrin will be the cheapest of these mods. they are still not going to be anywhere near the cheap price of a 3d printed mod though because they still require all of the machine work and polishing that goes along with starting from a solid block of material

here is a few shots of 3 more ultem mods being born, starting from a solid block then machined and roughed into shape, as you can see they still need a whole lot of work inside and out before they even start to look anything like the finished ultem mod

 

[turbocad6]

yeah man, I think I'm finally back in action here, this turned into a whole month of agony. never had any kind of flare up like this ever last a whole month before, can't begin to tell you how frustrating it is when you want to do stuff but physically just can't, it's a very sucky feeling, for a while there I almost felt like I wanted to just die, feeling helpless and always in pain is not a good feeling at all

over the past month I've had a few days here and there of working in the shop off and on, but every time I'd put a few hours in it would cause even more pain and then put me back in bed for a few days again, but I think I'm finally past that. I still have some pain and my right arm still gets numb and tingly a bit, but nothing like it was and I'm def able to work again as long as I don't push it too much. was supposed to go for an mri today but I'm going to put it off till Wednesday I think, I really need to get caught up with work

the past week I finished building and testing my ultem polishing equipment which works awesome by the way, I can now get the ultem as clear as glass inside and out, which was my last hurdle with the ultem being truly ready for prime time. if you thought the ultem looked good before wait till you see it now it actually works so good now that I can even get the black ultem up to a high gloss, glass like finish too, so much so that I think I now need to build a media blaster just to cut the gloss level a bit, the black ultem is just too damn glossy now

I also winded up finishing rewiring my whole basement shop yesterday too. before I only had 2 circuits in the basement shop including lighting so I was limited to how much equipment I could use at the same time when the vacuum is running, and the more equipment and lighting I added the worse it got, I started blowing breakers here and there and the ultem polishing equipment was like the last straw, so I got my buddy electrician to come out this weekend and add a bunch of circuits, even added a 220 circuit so I can add a big compressor down there eventually too. last night I was able to turn every single thing on at the same time with no circuit breaker popping, I would never need to have everything on at the same time ever really, but at least now I don't have to worry about overloads anymore

that's one problem with being laid up is it gives you a lot of time to think, and when my mind wanders I start to devise plans for improving the shop and building new tools so what ever little work I've been getting done past few weeks have been more towards shop improvements with only a little mod work getting thrown in here and there. now that the equipment is mostly done and the shop is completely rewired, today finally I'm going back at finishing up the wood mods I have that have been waiting for me all month, and trying to finish up a batch of ultems too. I desperately need to get some mods done now or I'm going to wind up having to sell my car at this point and I def don't want to have to do that

 

[turbocad6]

thanks for the kind words mike, glad you're happy with it the other one that was built along side yours was sold last week and the new owner should receive it Wednesday, hopefully he's as happy with it as you are

Bob yours is moving along, fabrication is finished and first coat of oil finish applied, needs to dry then rubbed and coated another few times, then I can install the electronics and button her up, so another few days...

Bob's is the African Blackwood here, the other 2 in this batch are a Bolivian Rosewood. these are both very hard dense woods and are a great choice for an oil rubbed finish, so this weeks batch are all an oil rubbed natural finish. one Bolivian Rosewood is a traditional brass chip cover and the other one has a lot of nice black streaks in it so I used an African Blackwood chip cover with brass trim. the black chip cover will use brass buttons to match the brass trim, the ones with full brass covers will use ultem buttons like last weeks pair unless someone requests something different.

both of these Bolivian Rosewood mods are available here and will be finished in the next few days and up for grabs. the one with the African Blackwood chip cover is a left hand cut mod and the other is a right hand cut mod. either of these mods can of course be used with the opposite hand too, but the door will be facing your palm when used in the opposite hand.

 

[havok333]

Well wishes for a speedy recovery from the deep south, Turbo!

Think I'm gonna go mix a blender of something frozen to help beat the heat. And to assist breaking this bad boy in:

[emoji1]

Sent from my XT1049 using Tapatalk

 

[turbocad6]

and the last one. this last one is another "extra" that I built for no one in particular and it is available for sale here right now. it is a sister mod to the cocobolo dual 18650 I just posted as it was cut from the same block. this is a natural oil rubbed wax finish cocobolo with a black ultem faceplate with brass trim. it will have amber ultem buttons... it has a down sliding door in right handed configuration with a centered atty. the brass trim and ultem faceplate are both upgrades but I'm offering this mod here without any upcharge for these upgrades to the first person that claims it here.

these wood mods should all be assembled and finished in the next few days then I'll move on to finishing up a batch of ultem mods and start contacting those next in line with the next wood mods

 

[turbocad6]

I also made a slight improvement in this batch, going to do this going foward on all of my mods I think. I decided to machine an o-ring recess at the 510. I don't always use an o-ring under my atty and sometimes they do seep slightly and wet the mod around the atty base. this ring groove will allow the atty to still sit 100% flush yet still seal well no matter which atty is on there. this ring is machined to accept an 11mm X 1.5mm or 11mm X 1.78mm o-ring. I didn't have any correct o-rings in stock so this pic shows it with a smaller o-ring that I had to cut to fit just to show how it fits, but the correct o-rings are on there way to me. this could off course still be used without the o-ring but since the groove is there anyway and it's so unobtrusive in use I don't see much reason not to use an o-ring here now...

 

[distortoblotto]

With all of the issues the turbo man had with the block that I sent him I'm surprised this baby came out as beautiful as it did. Thanks John, great job. Loving life brother.

 

[Gigdujour]

And then there were two...

And it was good...

REALLY, REALLY good [emoji3]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[turbocad6]

ok the mods are all completely done with all machine work, all shaped and sanded and are in the oven right now for the next 24 hours a final heat treating to anneal them, all that's left after the final heat treat annealing cycle is final finish sanding and polishing, then on to electronics install

I made a lot of little refinements in this batch, I also tweaked the door seems again even more in this batch, you really can hardly even see the seems on the black ones now they were pretty good before but they're even just a little bit better this round

heat treating oven:

and a few of the woods I've been wanting to start the CA finish on them for a bunch of weeks now but I will def start the CA finish this week they aren't much to look at in this stage but they're really gonna pop once they start to get the CA finish...

 

[turbocad6]

3 weeks ago I started this thread, and since then I've been fine tuning the steps and procedures to perfecting and building my mod as efficiently and precisely as I can and I'm just about there, but man it is still a lot of hours to build each one of these even with all the specialized tooling and equipment I've bought and made to do this. this has got to be one of the most elaborate and labor intensive mod designs I've ever seen, but it was necessary to achieve all the goals I had for this mod

from the beginning one of the biggest problems with the dna200 combined with bottom feeding has been size, and from the beginning I've been working on design after design to try and make a dna200 bottom feeder that's not too big. at first I played around with smaller batteries and I did build a few pretty compact dna200 feeders but the battery life was always a problem, tiny batteries meant tiny run times.

I bought and played with many different lipo's and the best size VS power capacity for me winded up being in and around the 1,000mah range, but when I considered that a 1,000mah 3s lipo winds up being about the same exact size as a pair of 18650's, to me it just made sense to go with the dual 18650's as they wind up having just about double the capacity in the same space. a 1,000mah 3 cell lipo winds up giving a total of 11.1 watt hours of energy capacity, while a good pair of 3,000 mah 18650's winds up giving you literally double that capacity in the same exact amount of space, providing 22.2 watt hours of energy.

of course there are trade-offs, if you were looking to run at 150-200 watts then a 3s lipo would be a much better choice, but for the average user who's never really going to go much over 60-70 watts, if even that, then the dual 18650's can be a more logical choice. the dna200 is limited to "only" 133 watts in this dual cell configuration that my mod uses, so if you're looking to vape over 133 watts then this mod is not for you. even if you're looking to vape regularly in the 100-125+ watt range then a lipo may just make more for sense for you too, but if you are like me and vape under 80 watts on a regular basis then this mod will give you extreme battery life and easily provide way more than enough power for you.

even if you vape at only 20-35 watts the dna200 is an awesome chip. I've had a lot of people tell me that the dna200 just seems to be too much for there vaping needs, but this is simply not true. the dna200 is an awesome chip and gives awesome power regulation and temperature control on all different types of wires and builds, wether you vape at 18 watts or 22 watts or 30 watts or 60-80 watts, the dna200 chip is simply one of the best temp regulated chips money can buy, and with dual 18650's on board most will be able to go well over a full day and maybe even 2 days or even more without having to worry about batteries. personally I get almost 2 days out of a pair of dual 18650's, I can easily and safely say at least a day and a half, so what this means for me is that bottom line, it always has way more than enough power to get me through a whole day with energy to spare, and to me that's one big criteria of what I'd consider "the perfect mod". before when I used to run single 18650 mods I'd always wind up carrying 2 mods with me because an 18650 wouldn't last me a full day, 2/3rds maybe, but towards the end of the day when the battery starts to get weak you just need another mod on standby, but not with this thing.


I've gotten the size of this mod down to just a little larger than an average single 18650 bottom feeder, considering there are 2 18650's in there and a full 8.5ml juice capacity, believe me that was no easy thing to do. the tolerances are extremely tight and there is zero wasted space anywhere because I want it to be as compact as possible, yet also be as trouble free and as easy to use as possible too. this requires a lot of precision and engineering but I'm happy to say that I am extremely pleased with the final product. the batteries are spring loaded using a special high compression wave design spring but the spring itself does not carry any of the current, all battery contacts are silver and battery contact is awesome in this mod. all power circuits are as short run as possible with a beefy brass buss bar as the main battery bridge. the dna200 boasts a 92% efficiency rating and this mods electrical circuits are designed to take full advantage of that with no additional losses. the 510 is a self adjusting floating center pin design so most atties should be able to sit completely flush yet you could also use an o-ring under the atty if you desire.

I know one of the biggest question marks on this particular mod is the unconventional squonk setup and I'm going to try to make a video tomorrow to demonstrate how well it actually works. it squonks just as well as the best squonkers out there. this mod uses the italian bottles exclusively but the stainless steel cap is bored oversize to use a much more robust soft silicone tubing to eliminate any leaking at the tube to cap seal. I go over each and every thread in these bottles to eliminate the occasional extra flashing or imperfections in the threads that have caused leaks for some with these bottles. this, combined with my compression sealed 510 design means a completely leak free and totally dry mod. if you do happen to over squonk and get juice all over the place the chip is well protected with it's as remote as possible from the juice path location.

belive me, I am super picky and my own worse critic, I've hesitated for a long time to sell mods because I never wanted to just build another me-too mod just for the sake of building a mod, for me to build a mod to sell it has to be something that I am confident in and it has to be beyond just good, it has to be great, and here I am proud and happy to say that I really think I have finally come up with a really bad azz mod that I am extremely happy with, just a few minor tweaks and fine tuning left and its ready and I'll start building them

here are few pics of the first one off the assembly line. this one still has several imperfections and a few things that are below the final specs but in developing a mod like this there are bound to be the first few off the line that are less than ideal and need a little tweaking... since it was a blem anyway I decided to thin the atty corner a little more than a 22mm atty would require since I'll leave a chalice on it always but the production ones will be a little less rounded at the atty corner. this one is not good enough to sell so I am keeping it as a beater, I beat all of my mods anyway by the time I start selling these they will be perfected to the standard that I require, and a standard that is sure to please the end user who hopefully may just be you

a few pics along side a woodvil for size reference

 

[turbocad6]

ok this ultem is a really incredible material. it's like a super plastic composite resin. it's used in aircraft, automotive and medical fields. here is an excerpt from an article from GE engineering, the makers of this product:

ULTEM® resin in the automotive industry provides manufacturers with a high performance, cost- effective alternative to metal: strong enough to replace steel in some applications and light enough to replace aluminum in others.

For applications like transmission components, throttle bodies, ignition components, sensors and thermostat housings, ULTEM® resin can offer:

·Heat resistance up to 200°C, RTI of 170°C ·Chemical resistance against most automotive

fuels, fluids and oils
·Excellent dimensional stability (low creep

sensitivity and low, uniform coefficient of ·thermal expansion)

Superior torque strength and torque retention ·Excellent processibility with very tight ·molding tolerances

quoted from here:
http://www.hycompinc.com/PDFs/ULTEMProductBrochure.pdf


it really is an incredibly strong, durable material and it's also very scratch resistant. it's very resistant to cracking and handles extremely high temperatures, its impervious to all kinds of chemicals. it's not that easy to machine, it actually feels like a cross between the hardest of woods and aluminum in machining, it's as strong as aluminum and seems to be even more scratch resistant

here is a full mod made 100% from ultem:

now really I don't know that I'm completely in love with the whole transparency thing. I mean in one way it is kind of cool as a novelty, but on the other hand I also think that it would look more rich and classy if the whole interior of it was blacked out too.

this thing is a lot of work to build and the material itself is not cheap, it's more work than wood because it's as hard or even harder to machine than most hard woods and it also requires sanding and polishing inside and out which is a real pain, especially the whole inside. if the inside is not sanded and polished then you would see all of the machining marks in there as the outside is polished. feel in the hand is kind of cool, it def doesn't feel like cheap plastic, it's got a real quality feel to it and man is it strong. it's not soft at all like delrin or most other plastics, it's very hard but it's not brittle at all, I don't think you can break this thing even if it's really abused. it's kind of hard to really describe how durable this material is, there's not much else like it really.

I've been searching to see if I can find any other mod made completely from ultem but I can't find anything. yeah I'm finding tons of atty caps and tanks and drip tips, but no complete mods. has anyone ever seen any other mod made from this stuff?