Monkey King staff

Amazing workmanship!!! . :+1: . Thanks for sharing… :slight_smile:

Just beautiful!

Thanks for sharing your journey with this project.

Sweet. :beer:
When I get a thread to start a thread or two I will take a couple of thou off the side of the thread which generally gets the threads nice and tight when screwed together.

Holy crap! I normally prefer plain jane work horse lights but this is amazing.

WOW

I could read your threads and CRX’s all day, Panda. This is art. For real, I’m already betting it’ll be even prettier than the Ti-Mo.

Really nice work, love it! :beer:

So you give it a nudge on the compound slide for the last pass? I’ll give it a go next time.

I did a little more threading tonight (not with the moose method though) and the results weren’t quite what I was hoping for.

I got the titanium out again for the bezel. Bored out to smallest ID of the bezel

Secondary boring for the threaded section

Threading

Parts together

I couldn’t work out if it was the smaller thread (0.7mm) or because both parts were titanium or some other factor but the final thread came out a little loose and quite gritty. It made me wonder if the indexed bit I used was suitable (or too large) for 0.7mm threads. So I got out the thread gauge and put it against the cutting bit. It was only then that I could just make out the bit was chipped :frowning:

Now that I know I was working with a chipped bit I’ve got half a mind to make it again :confounded: There is nothing drastically wrong with the one I made, it works, I just think I can do better.

Bugger. :weary:

I wasn’t expecting it but I got time today to do some catch up.

I started afresh with the bezel and made it again. The threads are still not as tight as the head/tube connection but it’s better than before.

Cut-off

Mount it the other way and cut a bevel inside

A little sanding and polishing :heart_eyes:

Test fit. I think I have enough room to fit a glass lens in front of the optic but haven’t seriously measured it yet.

In retrospect I should’ve done a little polishing on the fins before fitting the gold ring but nevermind, I’ll just deal with working around the ring. Not sure if I’ll make the driver retaining ring or the tail next.

After seeing CRX’s E-tail switch I thought that would be perfect for this since I don’t currently have a clicky driver but it would need some head scratching and possibly redesigning the driver space. I don’t want to scrap this head if it doesn’t work out so I think I’ll try it on another light first. Keep this one as a clicky.

Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880) said “Le bon Dieu est dans le detail.” Meaning that things seem simple at first but are more complex or require more time and effort than expected. The idea is that details are important; whatever one does should be done thoroughly.”

Been busy lately so haven’t had much time to work on this. I came across an issue with the tail. The thread is 0.75mm. My lathe is geared for 0.6 and 0.7 but not 0.75 :cry: I measured it and figured there is enough room to fit a sleeve inside the existing tail cap threads.

Removed the original spring and packed it with spacers to hold the threaded section rigid

Mounted in the lathe

Difficult to see but I bored out a section as close to the thread as I dared.

I then cut a piece of titanium to the ID of the tail threads and press fit the two parts together

I then bored out the rest of the threaded section. Luckily the press fit was strong enough to hold it. I was very tentative when getting the ti to size.

Then pressed it the rest of the way

Bored out the ti to fit 18650 cells. Not much space left as you’ll see in the following pics

Protected Panasonic - sticks straight out

30Q - also sticks straight out

I didn’t measure it properly but I reckon the ti is about 0.5mm thick

That was as far as I got this weekend. I think I need to sit down and make a plan for the tail to make sure it can all fit the way I want it to.

That’s gonna be tight, panda. In all senses of the word. :wink:

Good save :+1:

Nice recovery. :+1:

Thanks :beer: I was pretty worried I was going to screw it up. Firstly when it was only half pressed on it could’ve slipped while boring. Secondly when I pressed it all the way it could’ve over stretched the outside ring and snapped it. I’m pleased with the result otherwise I would be scratching my head thinking of plan C.

Plan C is 601 Loctite. :slight_smile:

Got some more work done on the tail section.

Bored out and threaded inside the ti

Cut-off

To flip it the other way I had to make up a threaded section to mount it

Cut it to the length I need

I want to use this part from the original vaper since… well just because :stuck_out_tongue:

I didn’t want to take the existing work piece from the lathe so I cut it by hand and made a bit of a mess of it. I’m kinda regretting that now :cry: After cutting I press fit the parts together

Bored out the end some more

Cut in some threads

Fitted one of these

I had to screw around a bit to unscrew the tail from the mandrel.

After taking that bit of video I did a test fit with the switch (it didn’t fit :person_facepalming: ) and realized I missed a step and need to go back and machine it some more. Not today :weary: I’m sure it would have been easier to make a complete new tail but the 0.75mm thread kinda threw off that path :neutral_face:

I love those S2+ switch button assemblies. I’ve used them in a couple of builds now with e switches.

Yeh, they’re a nice setup. The button sticks out a little, have you had accidental turn on?