Holy head (finished)

Well done, PP. I’m always amazed at your creativity and excellent execution.

Thanks gchart. I’ve stalled for a bit trying to work out the tail. I have a design in mind but not sure how it will all fit together.

I have a little more to show but it’s not overly interesting at the moment. I’ve gotten past racking my brain on how to make this work and have started making it. I’ve come to the conclusion that I do not need the battery to be recessed in the tube so I’ve manipulated the head to screw a little further into the tube. I sometimes cut the driver and tail springs so they are only half as long but I won’t be doing that this time.

These two pics are the previous intended battery position and the new position (without depressing the driver spring)

I really wanted to use this button that I had leftover from another vape conversion. I did a little prototyping just to see exactly how much clearance I had to work with. It turned out to be too tight to have the contents inserted from the battery tube end of the tail cap so I’ve had to accept inserting everything from the back and having a retaining ring visible from the outside.


Prep’d the tube ready for the tail

Got the big lump of brass in the chuck again

That’s as far as I’ve gotten but at least I’ve gotten past my mental block I’ve got a plan so can hopefully soldier on from here.

Lots of holes in the end to match the head?

Yes, but it’ll only be one ring of holes

:+1:

Man, you made me want a lathe :person_facepalming:

According to Wiki pp stands for really creative machinist. I’m sure I read that somewhere.

…and I’m perfectly at ease with that :innocent: :innocent: The sooner you get a lathe the better :smiling_imp:

I might nearly be as creative as you are at bullshitting :laughing:

:smiley:

What, for once I was serious and this happens. Its true you are creative with words as well. :beer:

Got a little done today. Threaded for the retaining ring and drilled all the feature holes. I went with a 3mm drill bit this time. I am thinking maybe I should have stuck with 2mm to keep the overall diameter smaller but you know, hind sight is a wonderful thing. However there is a reason I used the larger drill bit which i’ll explain later.

Orsm work on the indexing. The holes must be real close to the inside edge. Fine thread going there?
Edit. This really is one dumb old slow Moose. Just got the Holy head bit. :person_facepalming: :blush:

lol

The “holy” head is such an awesome design pinkpanda3310! I’ve never seen anything like it. Looks really cool!

Fine thread is already there, 0.7mm. Lol, we’ve all got a mate we make concessions for :wink: :laughing:

Thanks NuetralFan.

Before flipping the part in the chuck I did an undercut ( I think that’s the right term?).

Unfortunately it didn’t leave a clean cut into each hole but a deformed lump. Should be easy enough to clean out later, it’ll just be tedious. You might be wondering why I am having these holes :question: The previous pics show a Led4power rgb lighted switch. I could not figure a way to light the rear end with the brass button I plan to use so I went to the sides for the light to escape. This is the reason I chose 3mm holes for the tail. I still haven’t worked out how i’ll be sealing the holes, it’ll be epoxy but I haven’t worked out how to do it as yet.

So I flipped the part in the chuck and turned it down threaded it and cut off to length. Then bored out the ID to suit the battery.

In this next pic you can just make out the deformed bumps that I need to clean out once I’ve shaped the tail and opened up these holes a bit. The tail looks pretty bulky and ugly at the moment but hopefully it’ll be the bomb once it’s shaped.

Next up is making the retaining ring for the tail.

Self supporting battery. Now that is a new idea. I like it. :+1:

Today I machined up the retaining ring. I’ll have to make it again though, I actually ran out of brass so made it with aluminium for the time being. The feel of the switch is a little gritty if not pressed reasonably centre. I hope I can fix that somehow but i’m not worrying too much about that until I get the majority of the tail done.

Well done.

I’ll be following along…

From the title, I thought the thread was somehow about Holyhead/Caergybi, a local town and important ferry port.

This arvo I mounted the tail for shaping. Cut the end with a forming tool same as the bezel, reduced the diameter a little and cut the side chamfer, then cleaned up all the burrs a little. I then fitted the switch and button and tested the lighted tail.