Tiny DIY 18650 DNA40

[VapingBad]

Tiny DIY 18650 DNA40

Here is my home made DNA40 box mod. My main priorities are compactness and quick battery swap without using tools and I have not been able to find an of the shelf box that suits so have made one from aluminium box-section as I had done in Jan 2014 for a DNA30 build. Since there is not enough room inside the box-section I had to remove a lot of metal from the side where the battery sits which took most of the time as I just have a Dremel and hand files. Also to fit the DNA40 board in I had to remove the fire switch and bridge it's negative PCB pads (it appeared to function with out this, but it formed part of the circuit). The battery is negative side up as it is connected to a piece of circuit board that the 510 bolts through and I don't like the vents pointing at my face. I do not make mods for other people because of my primitive tools I could not charge enough to make it worth my time.

Finished size (not inc 510): 75 mm x 38 mm x 22 mm



In front of an IPV2 and beside a Hana V3







Boring bit, build details:

The build order was to cut, drill and whittle the box section, which took 4 days as I have to cut larger (21 mm) and then file to size (19.6 mm). Then epoxy the oversized back to the box section and after that has cured reinforce with L profile strips Heineken can along the long edges as there is not much surface area for the epoxy. At the same time I fit the guide strips inside the oversized battery cover. Once this is all cured I sand down with 60, 80 & 120 grit emery cloth on a flat bit of marble and finish with 600 grit wet & dry to get it all square and the right size.

Then it's the easy part, I soldered the wires to the switches and epoxied them in position. The 510 just bolts through a piece of circuit board the runs across the whole width at the top to which I later solder the hot-spring and negative power wire (I did not wire the ground/negative out separately as it is the same on this board). I soldered the power and 510 positive wires to the board before fitting. Then it's just fixing the screen and soldering the other ends of the wires, the positive to the 510 needs to have a bend in it to allow the spring loaded centre pin to work properly. Finally I used Sugru to secure the screen & board and built up blocks top and bottom to hold the door magnets and be a buffer against the battery. I may put a metal plate between these Sugru blocks to protect the board in case of venting, it does have a small vent hole in the bottom and the magnetic door would not allow any large pressure build up.


Materials
3" X 1.5", 1/8" thick rectangular aluminium box section
1.2 mm aluminium plate (sides)
Varitube spring 510 connector from ModMaker.co.uk
3 x C&K KSJ tactile switches from ModMaker.co.uk
18AWG Super flexible high temperature Silicon Wire for the battery & 510 connections eBay item 121407760680
Single core hook-up wire for the switches
A Silver Bullet Hot Spring from ivapour-elixir.co.uk
Single Sided FR4 Fibre Glass Copper Clad PCB Circuit Board 0.8mm for 510 -ve & battery connections
2 x 5 g of black Sugru for holding the board, screen & magnets
Epoxy for bonding the aluminium () & mounting the switches
SuperGlue to stick the magnets to the door

[Pepperty]

WOW! gorgeous! you are so very neat VP, loving it so appealing to see such a tidy layout inside

[Deleted]

That's inspirational VapingBad especially considering the tools you used.

[Marcus]

So nice and love how neat everything is

[igual]

Done a stunning job there bud, your soldering puts mine to shame lol.
I gave up with the soldering iron and went old school blowlamp soldering on the one im building lol.

[Marcus]

I've been wanting to make a mechanical box for a while.
Is cutting with a dremel easy enough?

What's put me off is I don't own any tools so would have to buy whatever is needed.

How long did it take you start - finishing?

[VapingBad]

Oct 24, 2014 21:34:05 GMT Marcus said:

I've been wanting to make a mechanical box for a while.
Is cutting with a dremel easy enough?

What's put me off is I don't own any tools so would have to buy whatever is needed.

How long did it take you start - finishing?

I don't find it easy cutting long straight cuts with a dremel, I cut the main bits with a £10 B&Q Mitre saw like this:


Then fine tune them by sanding on a very flat surface (a granite table mat from the super market)

It took about 4 days to do the box as removing the metal from inside so the battery clears the 510 took half of that time, at one point I was shaving bits off with a high carbon steel sheath knife that I has a Scandinavian grind on (pure V profile cutting edge).  The wiring and other bits didn't take too long, but have to wait over night a couple of times for the epoxy to cure.

[robby]

As usual, very nice work VapingBad

[Marcus]

Cheers for the info.

I'm gonna start with a hammond box so only cutting will be for 510 and fire button

Cheers for the inspiration to have a go...

[markm]

Making me wish I was a bit faster off the mark buying a chipset, I have
One of pipers boxes waiting.
excellent work there.

[VapingBad]

Oct 24, 2014 22:45:23 GMT Marcus said:

Cheers for the info.

I'm gonna start with a hammond box so only cutting will be for 510 and fire button

Cheers for the inspiration to have a go...

Dremel will be great for that, Super-Shiny has a couple of great threads with those and would be a great person to ask about them & now I've tagged him maybe he could post or PM the links to those threads.

[Phoenixflame (Julie)]

Great work John.

[Mev]

Excellent work mate, especially using basic tools.

I do find there's more satisfaction when the job is a labour though.

[Super-Shiny]

Oct 24, 2014 22:49:32 GMT VapingBad said:

Oct 24, 2014 22:45:23 GMT Marcus said:

Cheers for the info.

I'm gonna start with a hammond box so only cutting will be for 510 and fire button

Cheers for the inspiration to have a go...

Dremel will be great for that, Super-Shiny has a couple of great threads with those and would be a great person to ask about them & now I've tagged him maybe he could post or PM the links to those threads.

Marcus i will give you some links later for some very cheap tools that is needed for the hammond box.

[macmagoo]

In a word....impressed.